The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 8.1 million barrels in the week ending May 1. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 1.79 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 2.8-million-barrel draw. US crude inventories are up 37 million barrels so far this year, according to API data. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) continue to draw down in an attempt to alleviate the pressure on prices. For week ending May 1, 5.2 million barrels left the SPR, bringing…

Venezuela’s oil is moving again. That does not mean Venezuela’s oil industry has been rebuilt. It means something narrower, more technical, and more revealing: part of the machinery required to make Venezuelan barrels tradable has been switched back on. That distinction matters for oil markets. Venezuela’s oil exports rose 14% in April to 1.23 million barrels per day, the country’s highest monthly export level since late 2018, according to Reuters. The increase followed a political reset after Nicolás Maduro’s…

With little fanfare but clear strategic impact, Equinor has brought the long-forgotten Eirin gas field into production, sending fresh gas volumes into Europe’s system at a moment when security of supply still outweighs nearly every other energy priority. The project may not be large by global standards, but its timing, speed, and symbolism speak far louder than its size. Once written off as uneconomic, Eirin is now flowing gas through the Gina Krog platform and onward via the Sleipner A hub, reinforcing Norway’s position as Europe’s…

A group of 14 Senate Democrats is pressing the Trump administration to reinstate sanctions on Russian oil after a temporary waiver tied to the Iran war. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the lawmakers argued that the policy allows additional revenue to flow to Moscow, at a time when oil prices are already elevated. The administration first eased sanctions in mid-March after the Strait of Hormuz disruption tightened global supply and pushed prices sharply higher. The 30-day waiver, initially set to expire April 11, has been extended…

The Asian Development Bank is committing $12.5 billion in assistance to Uzbekistan, aiming to hasten the Central Asian nation’s economic modernization. In addition, the bank has unveiled an initiative apparently intended to loosen China’s grip on supply chains for critical minerals and rare earths. The announcements came as the ADB’s board of governors convened for its annual meeting on May 3 in the Uzbek city of Samarkand. The new Uzbek-ADB Partnership Program will run through 2030. A major focus is the development of a more…

Diamondback Energy, one of the biggest pure-play Permian Basin producers in West Texas, said Monday it is immediately boosting oil output in response to the ongoing price rally driven by the Iran war — making it the first major shale operator to openly break from the capital-discipline playbook that has defined the sector since 2022. In a letter to shareholders on Monday, CEO Kaes Van't Hof announced the company averaged 521,000 barrels of oil per day in the first quarter of 2026 — exceeding even the high end of its guidance range of…

A long-delayed push to move more Canadian crude into the United States is back on the table, and this time it has barrels behind it. Oil companies have committed at least 400,000 barrels per day to the project, or about 72% of its initial 550,000 bpd capacity. South Bow Corp. and Bridger Pipeline are targeting roughly 450,000 bpd in long-term contracts, a level that is typically required before construction proceeds. That demand tells you everything about the current bottleneck. Canada is producing about 5.5 million bpd and heading toward 6.1 million…

BP is reportedly eyeing a potential exit from the North Sea as the tax load on energy companies seems unlikely to be eased with the Iran war.  The UK oil giant is considering either ceasing or partially winding down operations in the North Sea, according to Bloomberg, as part of an effort to strip assets and pay debt.  It said it would look to find around £2bn in full divestment, which could hit its control of basins in the North Sea.  The decision is subject to an internal review of its assets and operations. …

Oil Shockwave: Middle East Crisis Sends 2027 Prices Into Orbit  - The deteriorating oil crisis in the Middle East is gradually pushing up oil price expectations not only for this year but also for 2027 ahead, with market participants worried about the viability of Gulf exports even if the current double blockade ends. - Some 11 million b/d of production is currently shut across the Middle East, with most oil producers reaching tank-tops and unable to store more in their systems; these high inventories would take at least 2-3 months to clear.…

Shell and INEOS Energy have agreed to jointly invest in exploration and development opportunities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the UK-based energy unit of chemicals giant INEOS said on Tuesday. INEOS Energy and Shell Offshore Inc, a subsidiary of the UK-based supermajor, are thus boosting their cooperation and will be exploring for opportunities in areas in tieback distance to the Shell-operated Appomattox production hub in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of the strengthened cooperation, INEOS is buying a 21% working interest in these assets for…

OPEC’s second-largest producer, Iraq, is offering huge discounts of up to $33.40 per barrel off the official selling prices for its crude that has to move through the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq’s oil production and exports have been severely crippled due to the hostilities in the Middle East and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is the only way to move Iraqi Basrah crude grades. Iraq was one of the first Gulf producers to slash upstream production and now exports a small part of its crude via a pipeline to the Turkish…

OPEC’s second-largest producer, Iraq, is offering huge discounts of up to $33.40 per barrel off the official selling prices for its crude that has to move through the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq’s oil production and exports have been severely crippled due to the hostilities in the Middle East and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is the only way to move Iraqi Basrah crude grades. Iraq was one of the first Gulf producers to slash upstream production and now exports a small part of its crude via a pipeline to the Turkish…

OPEC’s second-largest producer, Iraq, is offering huge discounts of up to $33.40 per barrel off the official selling prices for its crude that has to move through the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq’s oil production and exports have been severely crippled due to the hostilities in the Middle East and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is the only way to move Iraqi Basrah crude grades. Iraq was one of the first Gulf producers to slash upstream production and now exports a small part of its crude via a pipeline to the Turkish…

US military forces said they destroyed six Iranian small boats and ‌intercepted Iranian missiles and drones as a new American effort to get commercial shipping traffic flowing through the critical Strait of Hormuz got underway. Iran, meanwhile, launched at least four missiles across the Persian Gulf at the United Arab Emirates on May 4, prompting an angry response and a threat of retaliation from the Gulf nation. The US ally said three of the missiles were shot down. With fears that an already shaky US cease-fire was on the verge of outright…

China’s most effective weapon in the rare earth war wasn’t a missile, a tariff, or a trade embargo. It was a price tag. For more than two decades, Beijing has used a remarkably simple strategy to maintain its stranglehold on the global rare earth supply chain: whenever a Western company would get serious about building an independent processing capability, China would act to crash prices. And the result is generally the same: the investment case falls apart, the funding disappears, and the company folds. China’s monopoly survives…

Pakistan has opened six overland transit routes to move shipments into Iran, aiming to clear more than 3,000 containers stranded at Karachi and Port Qasim as disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to choke maritime flows, according to Pakistan’s Dawn media outlet. The move follows a statutory regulatory order issued last month by Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce, activating a 2008 bilateral road transport agreement with Iran, allowing third-country cargo to transit through Pakistani ports and overland corridors into Iran. The designated…

It is profit season again, and Big Oil is raking it in, both in Europe and in the U.S., as soaring oil and gas prices boost earnings. What they are not boosting, however, is production. Big Oil is signaling it has no plans to rearrange its priorities. Higher oil prices drove the first-quarter adjusted earnings at Exxon above analyst estimates as the jump in prices more than offset lower oil and gas production in the Middle East and Kazakhstan. Chevron also beat analyst expectations with its first-quarter net result, reporting a 4% rise in upstream…

The Abu Dhabi national oil company, ADNOC, is accelerating investment in growth and production after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) left OPEC on May 1. The state oil and gas firm of what was OPEC’s fourth-largest producer before abruptly quitting last week, plans to award as much as $55 billion (200 billion UAE dirhams) on upstream and downstream projects over the next two years. The announcement of accelerated growth and delivery of the strategy came days after the UAE said it would quit OPEC effective May 1 to pursue its national interests.…

The 2026 US-Israeli war against Iran delivered one of the sharpest ironies in modern energy geopolitics: while Iranian infrastructure was taking a pounding, it managed to somewhat absorb the relentless airstrikes to its culture, its way of life, and its main target—the economy. However, the already heavily punished Iranian economy took on fresh sanctions and the might of a US naval blockade. During these sanctions and the blockade, Tehran’s oil revenues rose sharply in the critical early months. The regime that Washington sought to…

Since US President Donald Trump took office last year, Washington and Brussels have clashed over trade, support for Ukraine, and military spending. Now there's a new battleground: the Western Balkans. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of EU and US interests, as well as Russian and Chinese influence, countries in the region have caught the eye of the world's superpowers, kicking off a race to capitalize on their emerging status, vulnerability, and weak economies. Nowhere is that more evident than in recent deals by US investors into energy…