Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict A car bomb killed the chief navigator of Russia’s St. Petersburg-based 6th Guards Air and Air Defence Forces Army on Thursday morning, a day after Ukrainian drones set an oil terminal at Ust-Luga on fire and forced flight restrictions at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport. The colonel’s car exploded about 300 meters from his apartment in Shushary, the same suburb where a car bomb killed a helicopter regiment officer in August. Investigators believe a 31-year-old local planted the device overnight…

Don’t look to falling oil prices to stave off inflation now. Brent is down from above $100 to the low $90s; Saudi Arabia pumped 10.56 million barrels a day in October, back at pre-war levels and above its quota, and gasoline just posted its steepest one-day drop in 18 years. Consumer prices still rose an estimated 4% from a year earlier in October, with pump prices slightly lower, up from 3.7% in September, and core prices rose 0.3% in a single month. Expect the Fed to hike in December, but markets have already priced this in. October’s…

December WTI crude oil futures are lower for the week, but the market has recovered a good portion of its early loss. The contract opened at $90.83, broke to $83.88, then rallied back to $88.20. At that price, WTI is down $2.63 for the week, or 2.90%. Traders took war premium out of crude after President Trump played down the possibility of new U.S. strikes on Iran. Higher Saudi production and a large build in U.S. inventories gave sellers more to work with. But attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure and continued threats to shipping brought buyers…

Asia’s refiners are back to buying Middle Eastern oil as flows through the Strait of Hormuz rise, freight rates ease from record highs, and Gulf producers are offering their crude at discounts to regional benchmarks. Chinese, Japanese, and Thai oil refiners are increasingly preferring cargoes from the Middle East in recent weeks, even those that need to transit the Strait of Hormuz, traders with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Friday.   Refiners in the world’s top crude oil-importing region are buying greater volumes…

Asia’s refiners are back to buying Middle Eastern oil as flows through the Strait of Hormuz rise, freight rates ease from record highs, and Gulf producers are offering their crude at discounts to regional benchmarks. Chinese, Japanese, and Thai oil refiners are increasingly preferring cargoes from the Middle East in recent weeks, even those that need to transit the Strait of Hormuz, traders with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Friday.   Refiners in the world’s top crude oil-importing region are buying greater volumes…

India is looking for private investors to build and operate the nation’s largest strategic petroleum reserve site, which will boost India’s SPR capacity by 80% and cost an estimated $910 million, local media reported on Friday, citing tender documents.   The proposed SPR site will be located at Chandikhol in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on the Bay of Bengal, and will be capable of holding up to 4 million tons of crude oil. The Indian government is offering a grant of $546 million (51.4 billion Indian rupees) to support private…

On November 3, retired four-star General Jack Keane, the Army's former Vice Chief of Staff, put a warning on the record: China "has made clear it is prepared to use [America’s] dependence as leverage." The dependence he's talking about is America's reliance on Chinese rare earths. And he didn't say it from a cable news set. He said it as a director of REalloys [NASDAQ: ALOY], the company the Army recently selected for exclusive negotiations to build a plant to process dysprosium and terbium on one of its own military bases. And the timing…

Oil prices have crashed about 20% from the late-October peak of $118 per barrel, weighed down by hopes of sustainable de-escalation in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war. For months, traders and hedge funds have often bet on a resolution of the conflicts, only to reactivate buying when talks fall apart. As U.S.-mediated talks between Ukraine and Russia are underway, there are no signs of a breakthrough in either the conflict in Europe or the U.S.-Iran standoff, despite messaging via Qatar. Oil prices have slipped as crude oil flows from…

Venezuela is opening up its electricity sector to private capital for the first time since Hugo Chávez nationalized it in 2007, in a reform passed this week primarily to benefit oil producers and large businesses that can afford euro-pegged tariffs, while the state keeps the hydroelectric dams and main transmission lines that supply most households living with daily blackouts. The law, which the National Assembly passed unanimously on Tuesday, lets oil producers build power plants for their own fields without state authorization, as long…

Another month, another distressing Consumer Price Index report. As the war in Iran drags on, inflation in the United States is remaining stubbornly high, driven in large part by sky-high food and energy costs. Overall, prices rose four-tenths of a percent over the last month, and are expected to finish the year at a four percent increase as compared to 2025 – a blistering increase that reflected itself at the polls in last week’s midterm elections, where a blue wave has largely been viewed as a rebuke of Trump, his war in Iran, and…

Asian spot LNG is trading above $30 per million British thermal units and Europe is entering winter with its lowest gas inventory of the 2020s, yet Rystad Energy stops short of predicting a further rally. In its winter LNG outlook, published this week, the consultancy lays out as many ways for prices to fall as to rise and tells buyers to plan for a wide range of outcomes instead of one base case. EU storage sites were 71.6% full in Gas Infrastructure Europe’s Nov. 11 update, with Germany at 58%, and that is well under the five-year average…

A few Nigerian oil and gas companies owe local banks about $7 billion, and the fallout is reaching well beyond those borrowers, according to billionaire Aliko Dangote. Most domestic bank financing for the industry is now on hold, Dangote told the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists conference in Lagos Wednesday. “A few companies, I believe, owe the banks about $7bn,” he said. “As a result, most funding from our domestic banks is on hold.” Dangote offered no names or breakdown of the debt, nor did he say how…

Large Kazakh and Uzbek delegations attending the B20 business summit in Washington delivered a clear message to their American hosts: let’s make more deals. The US Chamber of Commerce-hosted three-day event, which concluded November 11, was framed as “a platform for the private sector to address shared economic challenges, identify opportunities for investment and innovation, and advance solutions that strengthen the global economy.” In a sign that Astana and Tashkent saw the meeting as more than just a networking opportunity,…

The average price of a new vehicle in the US has climbed to a record $51,109, according to a new Cox Automotive report citing Kelley Blue Book data. Combined with new-car loan rates near their highest levels since the mid-2000s, record sticker prices are putting vehicle ownership increasingly out of reach for many working-class folks, even before insurance, fuel and maintenance costs are factored in. Cox said average new-car transaction prices rose 2.1% year over year in October to a record $51,109, a slower increase than the rate of overall consumer…

Argentina could become a bigger lithium producer than Chile, mining 481,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent in 2035 versus 426,000 tons for Chile, GEM Mining Consulting has forecast. The shift at the top will be driven by growing demand for the battery metal. Argentina is currently the world’s fourth-largest lithium producer, after Australia, China, and Chile. It is part of the so-called Lithium Triangle, which, besides Chile, also includes Bolivia and describes a region in the Andes notable for its abundant lithium reserves. Chile has…

Crude oil inventories in the United States saw an increase of 4.7 million barrels during the week ending November 6, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Thursday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 414.4 million barrels, according to government data, which is now 4% below the five-year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 11.4 million barrels during the reporting period. The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released…

President Donald Trump declared Thursday that the United States no longer needs a deal with Iran, just three days after suggesting the eight-month war was nearing its end. Oil prices promptly jumped, adding another round of volatility to a market that has spent November reacting to shifting expectations for peace. "We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed," Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Washington had control of Iran's money and the Strait of Hormuz. The remarks marked a sharp departure from Monday, when Trump…

While it didn’t make the headlines, Chancellor John Healey’s Budget speech signalled a huge shift in positioning from previous governments over net zero.  “Today I’m setting a new course on energy: to get UK energy costs down in line with Europe,” Healey said. “From this point, our government priority is first and foremost cheaper energy, with clean power key to achieving this.” The lines raised eyebrows in Westminster. The test of that new commitment came when the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh,…

The UK will aim to show leadership in global climate issues that have taken a backseat in recent years, as Britain remains committed to reaching net zero by 2050 and working with all its partners to reach their respective climate goals, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya on Thursday. “The message I carry here at my first COP as UK Prime Minister is this. We’re committed to meeting our 2050 net zero target and committed to working with all of our partners to reach theirs,” Burnham said at the…

The UK will aim to show leadership in global climate issues that have taken a backseat in recent years, as Britain remains committed to reaching net zero by 2050 and working with all its partners to reach their respective climate goals, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya on Thursday. “The message I carry here at my first COP as UK Prime Minister is this. We’re committed to meeting our 2050 net zero target and committed to working with all of our partners to reach theirs,” Burnham said at the…