The United States’ plans to revitalize Venezuela’s oil sector are moving at a snail’s pace. But it seems that plans are finally falling into place, with two different U.S. companies – SLB and Hunt Oil – announcing deals with the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA last week. Reports indicate that deal announcements will continue to accelerate in the coming weeks as international oil companies eagerly seek to get a piece of the planet’s largest proven oil reserves.  “Oilfield service provider SLB will…

As many as 45 coal-fired power plants in India are currently operating with critically low levels of coal stocks, as electricity demand rises amid the strong El Nino but supply is disrupted by monsoon rains, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing government data and industry officials. These 45 coal power plants are operating with inventories below 25% of their required levels or with stocks insufficient for three consecutive days of power generation, per data from the Central Electricity Authority cited by Reuters. The number of plants with low…

Global data-center electricity demand is growing at a remarkable pace, and no country is driving that growth more than the United States. The Energy Institute’s 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy helps put the scale of the change into perspective. For the first time in the Statistical Review’s 75-year history, it reported global data-center electricity consumption, using data from S&P Global Energy Data Center Electricity Demand Has Nearly Doubled in Five Years According to the new data, worldwide data-center electricity demand…

Commodity vessel traffic at the Strait of Hormuz rose slightly over the past 24 hours amid diplomatic efforts to discuss temporary corridors or tentative reopening of the Middle East’s most vital oil and gas chokepoint. Ten commodity vessels made the Strait of Hormuz transit on Wednesday, up from 8 on Tuesday, according to Kpler data as of Thursday morning, cited by Reuters. Despite the slight uptick in visible Hormuz crossings in recent hours, the Wednesday tally still lags the 10-day average of 15 vessels moving through the Strait in either…

Nordic energy company Fortum on Thursday said it had submitted a state aid application to start talks with the Swedish state on the terms and conditions to advance a new nuclear power project in Sweden as the Nordic country bets on nuclear power revival. NuCore Energi, Fortum’s project company established to develop new nuclear power in Sweden, has applied for state aid to help it build a new nuclear power plant in the municipality of Oskarshamn, a coastal city in southern Sweden.   The final scope of the project, currently ranging from…

Nordic energy company Fortum on Thursday said it had submitted a state aid application to start talks with the Swedish state on the terms and conditions to advance a new nuclear power project in Sweden as the Nordic country bets on nuclear power revival. NuCore Energi, Fortum’s project company established to develop new nuclear power in Sweden, has applied for state aid to help it build a new nuclear power plant in the municipality of Oskarshamn, a coastal city in southern Sweden.   The final scope of the project, currently ranging from…

A letter seen by RFE/RL reveals growing concern about Russian aggression in the Baltic States, speaking of a "deteriorating security environment" amid an "increased frequency of airspace violations and drone incursions." The letter was sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and signed by the three Baltic European commissioners, Kaja Kallas, Andrius Kubilius, and Valdis Dombrovskis, as well as the Polish and Finnish commissioners. Dated July 30, the letter was one of a series of alarm bells sounded about Russian aggression over…

Almost half of the world’s oil supply is produced in regions currently engaged in hot conflicts, Reuters reported this week. The situation raises questions about long-term oil supply security and the limits to diversification. The Middle East, of course, is the most obvious and most disruptive example. While oil prices on speculative markets have remained capped by trader optimism, the physical supply of the vital energy commodity has been severely compromised, leading to rationing and emergency releases from storage across the world. Meanwhile,…

Ammonia production consumes as much as 2% of the world's energy and generates roughly 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, largely because the industry still relies on a century-old process powered by fossil fuels. Roughly 80% of the 200 million metric tons of ammonia produced globally every year goes into nitrogen fertilizers, with the rest used in plastics, textiles, explosives and other industrial chemicals. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now developed a new method that uses AI and quantum-mechanical…

Alongside boosting exploration and production offshore its home market Norway, Equinor is pursuing an international growth strategy, aiming to significantly increase its overseas oil and gas output by focusing on fewer but more lucrative regions such as the U.S., Brazil, and Angola. In recent years, Equinor has streamlined and high-graded its portfolio outside Norway, selling assets and positions in Azerbaijan and Nigeria, to name a few. But Equinor has kept and grown its U.S., Brazilian, and Angolan businesses, and plans to keep these growing…

Octopus boss Greg Jackson has called on Andy Burnham to deliver “urgent reform” to the energy market to protect households from “volatile” gas prices. Jackson, founder of the UK’s biggest household electricity supplier, said: “The government’s decision to take VAT off electricity and remove some of the levies from bills has helped soften the blow this winter, but bills are still too high. “Britain remains far too exposed to volatile global gas prices. The wars in Ukraine and Iran have created an unprecedented…

Saudi Arabia is not waiting for the Strait of Hormuz to return to normal to deliver its crude to Asia. It is building a workaround, one tanker handoff at a time. Saudi Aramco is offering more September crude to Asian buyers through ship-to-ship transfers outside Hormuz, according to Reuters, after shipping data showed Saudi barrels moving through the strait aboard tankers with their tracking systems switched off. The model is relatively simple: move Saudi crude through the dangerous part of the journey, then transfer it to another tanker off Fujairah…

China’s push to squeeze more oil and gas from home is paying off just as imported energy becomes more geopolitically complicated. CNOOC posted record first-half profit and production on Wednesday, helped by higher oil prices following the Iran war and continued growth from its offshore fields. Net profit attributable to shareholders jumped 23.4% from a year earlier to 85.8 billion yuan, or about $12.9 billion. Oil and gas sales revenue climbed 20% to 206.1 billion yuan. The biggest boost came from crude prices. CNOOC’s average realized…

China’s push to squeeze more oil and gas from home is paying off just as imported energy becomes more geopolitically complicated. CNOOC posted record first-half profit and production on Wednesday, helped by higher oil prices following the Iran war and continued growth from its offshore fields. Net profit attributable to shareholders jumped 23.4% from a year earlier to 85.8 billion yuan, or about $12.9 billion. Oil and gas sales revenue climbed 20% to 206.1 billion yuan. The biggest boost came from crude prices. CNOOC’s average realized…

Brent crude futures dropped for a third session as Iran and Oman advanced plans for a temporary maritime corridor through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent tumbled to $85 a barrel early Wednesday, down more than 9% for the week, while West Texas Intermediate traded around $80. Crude remains up more than 41% this year following the US-Iran conflict and ongoing disruptions at the Hormuz chokepoint. Earlier, Oman's state news agency reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi discussed an…

Kazakhstan’s parliamentary election on August 23 marked an important step in the country’s political development, completing the formation of an updated system of government under the new constitution that took effect in July. The election also has significant implications for efforts to expand global trade. The new unicameral legislature, the Kurultai, will be dominated by members of a pro-presidential party, Adilet, which received just over 71 percent of the vote. Four other parties will also be represented. Turnout was 74 percent.…

Europe’s energy sector is facing a stress test unlike any it has ever seen before. Not only are the markets being battered by the latest in a long succession of geopolitical supply chain snags thanks to the war in Iran, but the continent is also facing blistering heat waves that are pushing the grid to its absolute limit and increasing the risk of rolling blackouts when temperatures are dangerously high. As the fastest warming continent in the world, Europe needs to adjust to extreme heat as the new normal, and it needs to adapt its…

The Netherlands will miss its target to fill natural gas storage sites ahead of the winter, its gas network operators said on Wednesday, in one of the first evidence-based signs that Europe may be struggling to have sufficient supply for a harsh winter. Gasunie, the Dutch gas network operator, on Wednesday warned that the country will miss its target to have 115 terawatt-hours (TWh) worth of gas supply. In response to recent media reports about the state of the storage filling, Gasunie said that “based on the latest developments, the Netherlands…

The Netherlands will miss its target to fill natural gas storage sites ahead of the winter, its gas network operators said on Wednesday, in one of the first evidence-based signs that Europe may be struggling to have sufficient supply for a harsh winter. Gasunie, the Dutch gas network operator, on Wednesday warned that the country will miss its target to have 115 terawatt-hours (TWh) worth of gas supply. In response to recent media reports about the state of the storage filling, Gasunie said that “based on the latest developments, the Netherlands…

The government’s National Wealth Fund is set to pump £71m into miner Tungsten West in a bid to help reopen the Hemerdon mine in Devon. The funding package combines a £36m share purchase, which will hand the government a 7.4 per cent stake in Tungsten and a seat on the board of directors, and a £25m loan facility. The project is expected to boost the local economy in the South West of England through the creation of 350 direct jobs. In addition to financial backing, the government will gain the option to buy up to half of…