China and France, in February 2026, both addressed the impact of growing renewables penetration in their electric power generation sectors. The Chinese announced that they would retrofit formerly base-load coal-fired power plants to run more intermittently. The government-owned French utility, EDF, announced that it would do the same with much of its nuclear fleet, at considerable expense. The reason? To accommodate the growing penetration of lower-cost renewables in their respective electricity markets. (In the US, we would watch California and…

More than half a million homes and businesses across seven states were left without power after a winter storm swept across parts of the U.S. Northeast on Sunday and Monday. Massachusetts-based Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) was the hardest-hit utility after 135,797 of its 3.3 million customers were left in the dark, while Ohio’s FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) saw 81,257 of its 6.2 million U.S. customers affected. A massive historic winter storm is currently lashing the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The storm has triggered blizzard warnings…

The Trump administration may have finally blinked, also knowing that yet another US-led war in the Middle East remains deeply unpopular among the American people. No attacks have come this weekend, as some were predicting last week, as President Trump appears to be exercising some level of patience and restraint, for now at least. "Iran has indicated it is prepared to make concessions on its nuclear program in talks with the U.S. in return for the lifting of sanctions and recognition of its right to enrich uranium, as it seeks to avert a U.S. attack,"…

City darling Rolls-Royce is gearing up plans to dish out bumper returns to investors this week as the firm delivers its annual results. The FTSE 100 giant is set to launch a buyback worth as much as £1.5bn, which will come on top of the company’s final dividend as the aircraft engineer looks to reinforce the size of its cashflow. It follows the spectacular turnaround under boss Tufan Erginbilgic, former BP chief, which has seen the company’s value double to over £112bn. The fresh buyback – as reported by Sky News –…

Ukrainian forces launched targeted attacks on critical nodes of Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline network on Sunday night, sparking a major fire at a key Transneft oil hub. The strikes hit a major oil pumping and dispatch hub in Tatarstan, a central region of Russia, triggering widespread fires at the facility. This attack is part of an intensified Ukrainian campaign to weaken Russia’s energy-export economy and fuel logistics. Similar strikes hit the Unecha station in Bryansk and the Nikolskoye station in Tambov, both critical to the Druzhba…

Last September I produced a brief survey of major conflict across the globe in which I wrote the following about the conflict with Iran and Israel, one which is now referred to as the 12-Day War: "[T]here is every reason to believe that the conflict between Israel and Iran is not over and that the United States may be drawn in again." It appears the next phase of this war is about to begin. In fact, by the time you read this, attacks may already have begun. It puzzles me that the rest of the world has treated the run-up to this second phase of…

The international oil companies operating the giant Kashagan oilfield in Kazakhstan have initiated an arbitration process to challenge a massive $5-billion fine for allegedly exceeding sulfur storage limits at a processing facility at the second biggest oilfield in the OPEC+ producer.  The dispute, one of several against Big Oil that Kazakhstan currently has, is cooling the relations between the international companies and the Kazakh government.   “Despite disputing the allegations, and attempting to resolve these issues through…

The signing of a 20-year agreement for U.S. gas producer Caturus’s Commonwealth liquefied natural gas (LNG) division to supply one million tonnes per ‌annum of LNG to Saudi Arabia’s Aramco is enormously significant both inside and outside the energy market. At a time when LNG has become the world’s most flexible instrument of energy statecraft, the decision by Aramco to lock in U.S. supply for two decades may speak to a deeper geopolitical recalibration underway in Riyadh. For Washington, meanwhile, the agreement offers a…

The clean energy future is within reach, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, said after meeting with renewable energy representatives in India. “I recently met with leaders from across India’s renewable energy ecosystem, listening to different perspectives from industry, finance, policy & civil society,” Guterres posted on X. “The message was clear: The clean energy future is within reach – but we need a system-wide transformation to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels,” added…

The Iranian government, facing pressure at home with a growing opposition and globally with threats of a US military strike, appears ready for a third round of Omani-mediated talks with American negotiators in the upcoming week. Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on February 22 said talks would resume on February 26 in Geneva "with a positive push to go the extra mile toward finalizing the deal" over Iran’s nuclear program. In separate remarks, the Iranian government suggested talks in the Swiss city on that date. US officials did not…

The U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing on Monday arguments by ExxonMobil, backed by the Trump Administration, about the scope of a law allowing American companies to claim damages for seized assets in Cuba. U.S. supermajor Exxon is seeking compensation upwards of $1 billion for assets seized by the Cuban government in 1960. At the time of the confiscation of the assets, then belonging to subsidiaries owned by Standard Oil, they were worth $70 million.  However, Exxon wants $1 billion in the current claim because interest has accrued and there…

Chevron has signed a preliminary deal with Iraq’s Basra Oil Company to discuss the potential sale of the giant Iraqi oilfield West Qurna 2, formerly operated by Russia’s Lukoil, to the U.S. supermajor.  The preliminary agreement, signed on Monday, allows exchange of confidential data and could lead to exclusive talks for Chevron to take over West Qurna 2, whose operations were recently transferred to the Iraqi state-owned company.  The preliminary agreements also establish an outline for a period of exclusive negotiations,…

Even if it maintains the view of global oversupply this year, Goldman Sachs has raised its oil price forecast for the fourth quarter by $6 per barrel as inventories in advanced economies remain low. The Wall Street bank lifted its Q4 2026 price estimate by $6 to $60 per barrel Brent Crude and made the same upward revision of its WTI Crude price outlook, to $56 per barrel at year-end, on the back of lower-than-expected stocks in the OECD countries, according to a Sunday note cited by Reuters. Early on Monday in Asian trade, the U.S. benchmark WTI…

Saudi Aramco has sealed deals for several cargos of gas condensates from its $100-billion Jafurah shale gas facility, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed trade sources. The first cargo is set to depart by the end of the month. The deals Aramco has already secured are with U.S. companies and one Indian refiner, the Reuters sources told the publication. The U.S. buyers include Chevron and Exxon, and the Indian client is Indian Oil Corp. The Jafurah gas field has estimated reserves of close to 230 trillion cu ft of natural gas and 75 billion barrels…

Saudi Aramco has sealed deals for several cargos of gas condensates from its $100-billion Jafurah shale gas facility, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed trade sources. The first cargo is set to depart by the end of the month. The deals Aramco has already secured are with U.S. companies and one Indian refiner, the Reuters sources told the publication. The U.S. buyers include Chevron and Exxon, and the Indian client is Indian Oil Corp. The Jafurah gas field has estimated reserves of close to 230 trillion cu ft of natural gas and 75 billion barrels…

Crude oil prices on Thursday settled at the highest in six months, with Brent crude topping $71 per barrel and WTI over $66. However, this may be just the start of a much stronger rally—it all depends on developments between the United States and Iran. The latest round of negotiations between the two on Iran’s nuclear program started well enough, with both sides signaling they wanted to make a deal. Iran’s Foreign Minister signaled there was progress being made, saying the negotiating teams had agreed on “guiding principles.”…

Last July, Ukraine started importing natural gas from Azerbaijan for the first time in history, just months after it officially stopped the transit of Russian natural gas through its pipeline network in January 2025. Ukraine’s Naftogaz signed a supply agreement with Azerbaijan’s SOCAR Energy Ukraine that saw the former Soviet nation export its natural gas through the Trans-Balkan Corridor, with Ukraine looking to diversify its energy supply, enhance energy security, and offset significant domestic production losses caused by a constant…

The United States is doubling down on its plans for expanding nuclear power, as one of the few clean energies that President Trump appears to be supporting. Trump has stated ambitious aims for the rapid expansion of the country’s nuclear power capacity, to be supported by both public and private funding. A wide range of projects, from conventional reactor development to the deployment of small modular reactors (SMR), will support this aim. While it will likely take a decade or more to meaningfully grow the nuclear capacity in the U.S., 2026…

Meta is paying roughly $6.5bn (£4.82bn) in extra financing costs to keep $27bn of AI infrastructure borrowing off its balance sheet, a costly accounting choice that captures the mood in Big Tech’s race to build the pipes of AI without spooking investors. The arrangement, known as special purpose vehicle financing (SPV), allows an external entity to raise debt, construct the data centre, and lease it back to the tech group. On paper, Meta books lease payments rather than traditional borrowing, but really, it has committed to decades…

As the tech sector expands, in line with the growing global demand for advanced technologies, it appears that many companies may be poaching workers from the energy sector. Hiring skilled employees from the energy industry could help tech companies to advance their ambitions for developing giant new data centres to power artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies, without the need for retraining costs. Tech companies worldwide are investing heavily in the development and expansion of the data centres that they require to deploy advanced…