Oil prices were trading flat on Thursday afternoon, after OPEC+ delayed its planned output increase by three months to April 2025, and extended the full unwind of production cuts by a year until the end of 2026. Brent crude for February delivery rose a marginal 0.06% to trade at $72.35 per barrel at 14.06 ET, while WTI was trading flat at $68.54. The OPEC+ announcement comes days after commodity experts at Standard Chartered predicted that the oil ministers were likely to delay any unwinding of voluntary cuts to the end of Q1 and perhaps even further…

Oil prices were trading flat on Thursday afternoon, after OPEC+ delayed its planned output increase by three months to April 2025, and extended the full unwind of production cuts by a year until the end of 2026. Brent crude for February delivery rose a marginal 0.06% to trade at $72.35 per barrel at 14.06 ET, while WTI was trading flat at $68.54. The OPEC+ announcement comes days after commodity experts at Standard Chartered predicted that the oil ministers were likely to delay any unwinding of voluntary cuts to the end of Q1 and perhaps even further…

Oil prices were trading flat on Thursday afternoon, after OPEC+ delayed its planned output increase by three months to April 2025, and extended the full unwind of production cuts by a year until the end of 2026. Brent crude for February delivery rose a marginal 0.06% to trade at $72.35 per barrel at 14.06 ET, while WTI was trading flat at $68.54. The OPEC+ announcement comes days after commodity experts at Standard Chartered predicted that the oil ministers were likely to delay any unwinding of voluntary cuts to the end of Q1 and perhaps even further…

The global electricity demand is expected to grow exponentially in the coming decades, largely due to an increased demand from tech companies for new data centers to support the rollout of high-energy-consuming advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI). As governments worldwide introduce new climate policies and pump billions into alternative energy sources and clean tech, these efforts may be quashed by the increased electricity demand from data centers unless greater international regulatory action is taken to ensure that tech…

Crude oil supply from Russia to the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline remained halted on Thursday, a spokesperson for Czech refiner Unipetrol told Reuters. Unipetrol, which is a subsidiary of Poland’s Orlen, is not aware of the reason for the interruption of supply, the spokesperson added. Czech state pipeline operator Mero said on Wednesday that it “is aware of the complications regarding the supply of crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline to the Czech Republic and is monitoring the situation.” Mero said there is no threat…

Crude oil supply from Russia to the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline remained halted on Thursday, a spokesperson for Czech refiner Unipetrol told Reuters. Unipetrol, which is a subsidiary of Poland’s Orlen, is not aware of the reason for the interruption of supply, the spokesperson added. Czech state pipeline operator Mero said on Wednesday that it “is aware of the complications regarding the supply of crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline to the Czech Republic and is monitoring the situation.” Mero said there is no threat…

After toying with its fanatical fan base for much of the past 2 weeks, teasing a breach of the "nice round number" resistance several times only to fade right below it, moments ago bitcoin finally erupted higher with an aggressive buyer taking advantage of the illiquid Asian session and sending the world's first digital token above $100,000 for the first time ever... ...  rising more than 3% to $101,554 since president-elect Trump nominated a pro-crypto head of the SEC.... ...as the sell wall at $100,000 was promptly dismantled leading…

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, in partnership with Colombia’s state-run Ecopetrol, has confirmed the largest natural gas discovery in Colombia’s history. Drilling results from the Sirius-2 well, located in the Guajira Offshore Basin, have revealed over 6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in place—enough to potentially double the country’s existing reserves. Petrobras holds a 44.44% stake in the consortium, while Ecopetrol owns 55.56%. The Sirius-1 and Sirius-2 wells were previously named the Uchuva-1 and Uchuva-2 wells. Brazil’s…

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, in partnership with Colombia’s state-run Ecopetrol, has confirmed the largest natural gas discovery in Colombia’s history. Drilling results from the Sirius-2 well, located in the Guajira Offshore Basin, have revealed over 6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in place—enough to potentially double the country’s existing reserves. Petrobras holds a 44.44% stake in the consortium, while Ecopetrol owns 55.56%. The Sirius-1 and Sirius-2 wells were previously named the Uchuva-1 and Uchuva-2 wells. Brazil’s…

The trade between the Middle East and China is growing faster than the overall trade between the Gulf region and the West and the Gulf-China trade is set to eclipse the Middle East’s trade with the West in 2027, think tank Asia House said in a report on Thursday. “Assuming both trade relationships continue expanding at 2010-2023 rates, Gulf-China trade will overtake Gulf-West trade in 2027,” the authors of the report wrote in their outlook. Trade growth between the Gulf countries and emerging markets in Asia has been exceeding…

As more countries worldwide begin to develop innovative nuclear technology and a ‘new nuclear era’ takes hold, an increasing number of governments are supporting small modular reactor (SMR) technology. Companies in regions of the world from North America to Asia, Europe and Africa are deploying SMR technology to support governments in their efforts to decarbonise and undergo a green transition. In addition to investment in new conventional reactors, we can expect to see a plethora of SMR projects worldwide in the coming decades. …

With nearly a month since U.S. President-elect Donald Trump won a second term in the Oval Office, oil markets have been struggling to find direction despite event risk remaining high, particularly in the Middle East. According to commodity analysts at Standard Chartered, the market’s apparent hesitation to trade a view with any conviction has intensified the notion that oil markets seem content to wait for Trump to take office. Volatility has fallen sharply, with the 30-day front-month Brent realized annualized volatility sinking to a1 6-week…

The North Sea crude market, which is typically in a lull in December, saw on Monday the biggest trading activity on record in a single day as trading giants and oil majors snapped up a total of eight cargoes.   Seven of these eight cargoes carry crude grades that help underpin the Dated Brent benchmark, the world’s most important and closely watched benchmark for crude, which is used to price more than three-quarters of the traded oil in the world.    The unusually high trading activity early this week could push…

The OPEC+ producers who are reducing output by 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) have decided to delay the beginning of the gradual easing of the cuts to April 2025, OPEC+ delegates told Argus on Thursday as the ministers were holding their online video conference. The alliance has also decided to extend the collective group cut by one year until the end of 2026, Amena Bakr, Senior Research Analyst at Energy Intelligence, reported while the meeting was ongoing, citing delegates. There are also a lot of discussions about the importance of compliance,…

The exploration and production (E&P) contract for Iraq’s second biggest gas field – Mansuriya – has now been activated by China’s Jereh Group, according to local news sources. In practical energy terms, the Mansuriya field holds an estimated 4.5 trillion standard cubic feet (Tscf) of gas and is expected to produce around 300 million scf per day (Mmscf/d) of gas at its peak, although it will start running at about 100 Mmscf/d within 18 months, a senior energy source who works closely with Iraq’s Oil Ministry told…

An investment opportunity is unfolding that most investors are completely unaware of...We are on the brink of a potential global shortage of a critical resource that powers the world’s most important industries...It is essential to the U.S. military and is vital for manufacturing smartphones, tablets, high-definition TVs, semiconductors, kitchen appliances, solar panels and new cars. The critical mineral that is so essential to multiple industries is antimony – a shiny grey metalloid with a flaky texture.Antimony has been used for decades…

U.S. natural gas futures dropped to $3.08/MMBtu on Tuesday, their lowest in over a week, after surging 20% in November. Gas prices have declined amid forecasts of milder weather in mid-December, following a brief cold spell that had driven earlier gains. Utilities have stopped drawing heavily from storage, despite colder-than-usual weather recently boosting consumption. Meanwhile, U.S. gas production clocked in at a robust 101.5 billion cubic feet per day in November, but below last year’s peak of 105.3 bcfd. In contrast, European natural…

The upstream oil and gas sector stands on the cusp of entering a new investment cycle — one that Rystad Energy has dubbed the ‘deliver in uncertainty’ cycle — where there is set to be an increased focus among players to deliver on sustainability targets while remaining financially robust. The previous cycle, which started amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and is now ending, threw energy markets into turmoil. However, it accelerated the pace of energy transition as oil and gas companies were forced to re-invent themselves,…

In the old ranchlands of South Texas, dormant uranium mines are coming back online. A collection of new ones hope to start production soon, extracting radioactive fuel from the region's shallow aquifers. Many more may follow. These mines are the leading edge of what government and industry leaders in Texas hope will be a nuclear renaissance, as America's latent nuclear sector begins to stir again.   Texas is currently developing a host of high-tech industries that require enormous amounts of electricity, from crypto-currency mines and…

A new survey from law firm Haynes Boone LLC has revealed that banks are gearing up for oil prices to fall below $60 a barrel by the middle of President-elect Donald Trump’s new term, Bloomberg reported on Monday.  The survey of 26 bankers showed that they expect WTI prices to drop to $58.62 a barrel by 2027, more than $10 lower than the intraday price of $69.87 at 11.00 am ET on Wednesday. Trump says he’ll push shale producers to ramp up output, even if it means operators “drill themselves out of business.” However,…