Oil prices continued to climb in early Asian trade on Thursday, with traders pricing in a prolonged disruption to Middle East supply flows as inventories continue to shrink. Brent crude for July delivery climbed to $113.09, up 2.65%, while West Texas Intermediate rose 2.28% to trade at $109.30. Notably, the expiring front-month Brent contract was trading at over $121, highlighting just how tight prompt supply has become in the region. The latest rally has come on the back of failed diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and a continuing…

Failed peace talks and the ongoing disruption at the Strait of Hormuz reminded the world what a chokepoint looks like. Oil spiked. The Dow dropped. Investors scrambled for safe havens. Then, just as quickly, the tension eased again. This kind of week forces a question: what other chokepoints are hiding in plain sight? There's one that could make Hormuz look manageable in one sense. Oil has dozens of global suppliers. When one source gets disrupted, others fill the gap. Prices spike, then stabilize. The system bends but doesn't break. Domestic rare…

California is one of the places where fuel prices have long traded above global averages, but the current crisis is pushing that premium into uncharted territory. A steadily shrinking refining base and declining domestic oil production had already tightened the system. However, the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is now amplifying those pressures into something far more serious. Gasoline prices are soaring and have already approached all-time highs of almost $6/USG, while in-state production continues to fall at even higher pace this month,…

Oil prices extended their rally on Wednesday after reports emerged that the U.S. will tighten its blockade on Iranian ports, prolonging fears of reduced oil supply from the region, and as the UAE hit markets with its OPEC-exit announcement. Brent crude for June delivery jumped 6.45% to trade at $118.40 per barrel at 2.47 pm ET, while the corresponding WTI crude contract was up 7.20% to change hands at $107.10/bbl. Gasoline prices also continue to edge higher, with AAA reporting the average national price at $4.229 per barrel. The stalemate in the…

The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz is causing a much larger problem than just a global energy crisis. While oil and gas are critical to energy security for nearly every country on Earth, petroleum is also at the heart of global food systems. A crude oil shortage is also a fertilizer shortage, with potentially disastrous consequences for farmers and consumers, especially in the world’s poorest countries. As the war in Iran stretches on, half the world’s calories are at risk. Roughly half of all fertilizer feedstock exports in the world…

Oil tanker traffic through the Panama Canal has jumped in recent weeks as Asia scrambles to buy U.S. crude amid choked supply from the Middle East. The Panama Canal, the fastest route for American energy exports to Asia on smaller vessels, is at its busiest for U.S. crude exports in four years as the closed Strait of Hormuz has forced Asian buyers to source oil from regions other than the Middle East. The price of booking a last-minute slot to have a tanker pass through the Panama Canal has nearly tripled to almost $400,000 since the Iran war began,…

The current average price for gasoline in the US is $4.17 per gallon, according to AAA’s April 28 data. That’s 15 cents higher than a week ago and $1.02 more than the year-ago average, or a 32% increase. President Trump recently said he expects higher gas prices to last until at least the November mid-term elections. Prices are based on the price of crude oil, which accounts for 40-70% of the cost at the pump. The Brent crude international price of oil is currently about $110 per barrel. It was $70.75 the day before the US and Israel…

They may have agreed on a provisional peace agreement last August, but Armenia and Azerbaijan nevertheless each had some of the highest military spending as a share of GDP in the world in 2025, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.  Azerbaijan ranked 6th (6.5 percent) and Armenia 7th (6.1 percent) in SIPRI’s Top Ten countries in terms of highest military spending last year. The country with the highest spending on defense was, not surprisingly, Ukraine at 40 percent. Russia (7.5 percent)…

A major fire reportedly broke out on Wednesday at a Russian oil pumping station in the Perm region in the Ural Mountains in a suspected drone attack just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touted the increasing range and accuracy of Ukrainian drones.  Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) targeted a production and dispatch station owned by Transneft more than 1,500 kilometers from Ukraine’s border, with unconfirmed reports indicating that almost all oil storage tanks at the facility were set ablaze.  Perm Governor…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Wednesday that the country’s oil import bill has jumped 167% to $800 million per week amid the war in Iran from around $300 million weekly before the conflict began. Brent crude for June delivery was trading at $114.75 per barrel at 7.00 am ET on Wednesday, a big jump from the low 70s before the war, while the corresponding WTI crude contract was changing hands at $103.33/bbl from mid 60s in late February. According to Prime Minister Sharif, the spike in fuel prices has “dented…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Wednesday that the country’s oil import bill has jumped 167% to $800 million per week amid the war in Iran from around $300 million weekly before the conflict began. Brent crude for June delivery was trading at $114.75 per barrel at 7.00 am ET on Wednesday, a big jump from the low 70s before the war, while the corresponding WTI crude contract was changing hands at $103.33/bbl from mid 60s in late February. According to Prime Minister Sharif, the spike in fuel prices has “dented…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Wednesday that the country’s oil import bill has jumped 167% to $800 million per week amid the war in Iran from around $300 million weekly before the conflict began. Brent crude for June delivery was trading at $114.75 per barrel at 7.00 am ET on Wednesday, a big jump from the low 70s before the war, while the corresponding WTI crude contract was changing hands at $103.33/bbl from mid 60s in late February. According to Prime Minister Sharif, the spike in fuel prices has “dented…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Wednesday that the country’s oil import bill has jumped 167% to $800 million per week amid the war in Iran from around $300 million weekly before the conflict began. Brent crude for June delivery was trading at $114.75 per barrel at 7.00 am ET on Wednesday, a big jump from the low 70s before the war, while the corresponding WTI crude contract was changing hands at $103.33/bbl from mid 60s in late February. According to Prime Minister Sharif, the spike in fuel prices has “dented…

The UK risks finding itself on the brink of recession as a result of the Iran war, a leading economics think tank has warned, as the potential damage to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal headroom and the threat of interest rates hikes has been laid bare in a new report.  In what will come as dire reading for Rachel Reeves’ team in the Treasury, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) has said the UK economy will suffer a hit to growth amounting to at least 0.5 percentage points this year due to the Iran war.  The…

In an earnings season highlighted by a Middle East conflict that has sent oil prices soaring, Texas oil refiner Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) has reported first quarter adjusted earnings of $0.49 per share, easily beating Wall Street's consensus of a loss of $0.39 while net income came in at $207 million thanks to higher refining margins amid the big oil price rally. The giant refiner reported that it has formally increased its Sweeny NGL fractionation capacity by 23% and its Freeport LPG export dock capacity by 15% mainly through debottlenecking projects…

In an earnings season highlighted by a Middle East conflict that has sent oil prices soaring, Texas oil refiner Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) has reported first quarter adjusted earnings of $0.49 per share, easily beating Wall Street's consensus of a loss of $0.39 while net income came in at $207 million thanks to higher refining margins amid the big oil price rally. The giant refiner reported that it has formally increased its Sweeny NGL fractionation capacity by 23% and its Freeport LPG export dock capacity by 15% mainly through debottlenecking projects…

Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 6.2 million barrels during the week ending April 24, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 459.5 million barrels according to government data, which is still 1% above the five-year average for this time of year, despite a flurry of weekly losses. The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories saw a draw…

After quitting OPEC and OPEC+, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to grow its oil production faster when the current Hormuz crisis is over, according to analysts at Barclays. In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, the UAE said it is quitting OPEC and the wider OPEC+ alliance effective May 1, to pursue its national interests. For years, the UAE has been working to boost its crude oil production capacity to 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027, and has frequently clashed with its fellow OPEC and OPEC+ producers over quotas. The UAE has insisted…

After quitting OPEC and OPEC+, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to grow its oil production faster when the current Hormuz crisis is over, according to analysts at Barclays. In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, the UAE said it is quitting OPEC and the wider OPEC+ alliance effective May 1, to pursue its national interests. For years, the UAE has been working to boost its crude oil production capacity to 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027, and has frequently clashed with its fellow OPEC and OPEC+ producers over quotas. The UAE has insisted…

As its cease-fire with Iran falters, the United States is significantly expanding its military capabilities in the Middle East, giving Washington the option of escalating the two-month-long conflict.The US military deployed a third aircraft carrier strike group with thousands of elite troops to the region on April 24, marking the largest buildup since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.In force since April 8, the truce paused a costly war that has rattled international energy markets and upended the global economy. But Washington and Tehran have accused…