Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Iran has warned Gulf states that any support for U.S. military operations will make them participants in the war, as the UAE cuts economic ties with Tehran. Iran says it’s tracking U.S. aircraft operating from regional bases. Abu Dhabi suspended all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran on Tuesday after accusing Tehran of firing two ballistic missiles toward vessels off the Emirati coast, which Iran has denied. Trump has now threatened “tremendous” economic consequences…

Israel is trying to establish a veto over where Turkey can deploy forces in Syria, and on Tuesday it bombed a Syrian airbase to enforce that. Eight strikes hit Abu al-Duhur because Israel determined that Damascus was gearing up to allow Turkish troops onto the base, despite repeated Israeli warnings against that. Turkey was not notified before the attack. The Turkish military saw Israeli aircraft flying north toward the Turkish border without knowing their target, creating what Washington viewed as a real risk of Turkish fighters being scrambled…

Nigeria’s Dangote Group has offered a 30% stake in a planned refinery in Kenya to East African nations, a senior economic adviser to Kenya’s President William Ruto said.  Dangote Group, the corporation of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, plans to build a refinery in Kenya with a processing capacity of as much as 700,000 barrels per day of crude, which is estimated to cost about $17 billion. The refinery on Kenya’s Lamu Island would process crude for Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and the democratic…

The new Nigerian incentives for offshore oil and gas projects have the potential to attract $50 billion in new investment in Nigeria’s offshore energy sector, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said. Nigeria, however, needs upskilled and additional numbers of skilled workers and employees, including in the digital industries, to take advantage of the new offshore opportunities, the regulator’s chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said at a human resources conference this week. Nigeria, which aims to boost…

Iranian crude oil cargoes readily available to Chinese buyers have nearly dried up following the reinstated U.S. blockade on Iran’s oil exports, suggesting that independent Chinese refiners, the biggest buyers of Iranian crude, may have to turn to alternative supply as soon as next month. Total Iranian crude volume outside the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman is currently about 83 million barrels, down from over 100 million barrels before the U.S. reinstated the blockade in the middle of July, when the U.S.-Iran talks to make a deal collapsed,…

Crude oil imports into China are set to rise by about 1.2 million barrels per day in the final quarter of the year from the current one, although they will likely remain lower than pre-war levels, Bloomberg has reported, citing energy consultancies. Oil purchases by Chinese refiners are climbing back towards 10 million barrels daily but may not hit that number until the end of the year, according to analysts from Rystad Energy, Energy Aspects, and FGE NexantECA. Fourth-quarter import rates could reach 9.9 million barrels daily, which would be much…

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hailed a new offshore oil discovery by Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) near the mouth of the Amazon River as a "passport to the country's future", continuing his support for controversial oil and gas drilling in Amazon's ecologically sensitive regions. Last week, the state-run Oil & Gas giant announced it has found oil at the Morpho-1 well (Block FZA-M-59) in the mouth of the Amazon roughly 180 kilometres (112 miles) off the coast of Amapa state, “All of our studies indicate substantial potential.…

The Yemeni Houthis are planning to seize land along the Yemeni coast in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, tightening their control of the chokepoint. The information comes from the minister of information in the government that the Houthis are fighting in Yemen and suggests further disruption to marine traffic on one of the world’s busiest trade routes. “The Houthi militia... is working to create the conditions for seizing control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait by expanding its presence along the western coast and attempting to control strategic…

Global electric vehicle sales have surged this year following the oil supply disruption in the Middle East and the second oil price shock in four years. The accelerating EV adoption that began with the spike in oil and fuel prices earlier this year is set to remain a trend in the global markets and could push the share of EVs in the passenger fleet above earlier expectations, analysts at Wood Mackenzie say. Challenges to accelerated adoption still remain, including the need for billions of U.S. dollars in investments in critical battery minerals…

Washington is tightening the screws on Iran and loosening the rules on gasoline at the same time as Americans are paying more than $4 a gallon. The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday authorized an early switch to cheaper winter-grade gasoline, allowing sales of gasoline blended with 10% ethanol beginning September 1 rather than waiting for the normal mid-September seasonal transition. The administration says ending summer-blend requirements early could add hundreds of thousands of barrels per day to domestic gasoline supply and provide…

Washington is tightening the screws on Iran and loosening the rules on gasoline at the same time as Americans are paying more than $4 a gallon. The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday authorized an early switch to cheaper winter-grade gasoline, allowing sales of gasoline blended with 10% ethanol beginning September 1 rather than waiting for the normal mid-September seasonal transition. The administration says ending summer-blend requirements early could add hundreds of thousands of barrels per day to domestic gasoline supply and provide…

Solar power is far and away the world’s fastest-growing form of energy production, beating out every other form of energy on Earth in 2025. Despite a recent political pivot away from renewable energies in the world’s largest economy, solar power additions continue to shatter its own records year over year as the sector has long since outgrown any need for subsidies. Solar power has simply become too cheap to fail. “We have a plentiful and cheap source of electricity that can be built quickly, almost anywhere in the world,”…

Europe has discovered something unusual during the latest energy crisis: its emergency system actually works. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz removed or disrupted one of the largest flows of oil and gas in the world. Prices rose, shipping routes changed, insurance costs increased, and concerns emerged over the availability of refined products, particularly aviation fuel. Yet Europe did not run out of oil, diesel, or jet fuel. That outcome should not be dismissed. It resulted from decades of mandatory stockholding, coordinated emergency planning,…

China is buying more Russian oil to replace missing Iranian barrels. The problem for India is that some of those Russian barrels used to be its barrels. China’s seaborne imports of Russian crude are estimated at 1.25 million barrels per day in August, according to Kpler data, cited by Reuters. That is down from 1.423 million bpd in July, but July and August are still China’s strongest months for Russian seaborne crude since April. The shift comes as Chinese imports of Iranian oil remain crushed by the Middle East war and U.S. blockade.…

China is buying more Russian oil to replace missing Iranian barrels. The problem for India is that some of those Russian barrels used to be its barrels. China’s seaborne imports of Russian crude are estimated at 1.25 million barrels per day in August, according to Kpler data, cited by Reuters. That is down from 1.423 million bpd in July, but July and August are still China’s strongest months for Russian seaborne crude since April. The shift comes as Chinese imports of Iranian oil remain crushed by the Middle East war and U.S. blockade.…

Kazakhstan and, to a lesser extent, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states are finding themselves caught in the middle of a deepening struggle between the United States and China for dominance of AI architecture and design. The brewing dilemma created by the AI rivalry has the potential to upend US relations with Central Asian states. The US State Department has drafted what amounts to an ultimatum and is reportedly preparing to deliver it to 35 states that have signed an AI cooperation pact with Washington, the Reuters news agency first reported.…

Norway’s crude oil production averaged 1.776 million barrels per day in July, according to preliminary figures from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate. The country also produced 183,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids and 17,000 barrels per day of condensate, bringing total liquids production to 1.976 million barrels per day. The year-over-year comparison is striking. Norway produced 1.971 million barrels per day of crude in July 2025, according to the Directorate’s latest revised figures. Crude output was therefore down by approximately…

The Caspian Sea is emerging as a potentially important logistics corridor in the expanding military relationship between Russia and Iran as they look to move goods beyond the reach of Western naval power. The corridor opens a route that could allow Moscow and Tehran to exchange large quantities of cargo through an inland sea that Western navies cannot directly enter. NBC News reported this week that it had obtained a document, which it confirmed with a Western official, that shows Moscow is already using the Caspian Sea to send military-related…

Central Asian nation Tajikistan has requested from Iran to import Iranian oil and petroleum products as the fuel crisis in Russia has choked supply from Tajikistan’s largest fuel supplier, the Transport Ministry of Tajikistan said this week. At a meeting with senior Iranian government officials in Tehran earlier this week, Tajikistan signed more than a dozen cooperation agreements with the Islamic Republic, the ministry said in a press release. The Central Asian country has also asked Iran to import from Iran 2.55 million tons of oil and…

China has become the world’s largest renewable energy producer by accelerating the rollout of solar, wind, and battery storage projects, while in recent years it has also increased its oil and gas output. Efforts to expand its fossil fuel industry are expected to boost China’s energy self-sufficiency over the coming decade, helping to reduce its dependence on other countries for oil and gas imports. The diversification of its energy sources will help ensure China’s energy security at a time when so many other countries are failing…