The world’s biggest coal exporter, Indonesia, is looking to diversify in more Asian markets as it faces declining import demand from the top regional – and global – buyers, China and India.   Indonesian coal exporters want to grow their sales on the markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as south Asian importers Bangladesh and Pakistan which struggle to keep up with rising power demand, Fathul Nugroho, vice chair of the Association of Indonesian Energy, Mineral, and Coal Suppliers (Aspebindo),…

President Donald Trump has nominated economist EJ Antoni, a prominent figure at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to serve as commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The move comes just ten days after Trump abruptly dismissed former commissioner Erika McEntarfer, accusing her of manipulating employment data for political purposes. Announcing the pick on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE. I know E.J. Antoni will do an incredible…

“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits,” U.S. President Donald Trump posted last week on Truth Social. “They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA.” These words directly implicate buyers of Russian oil as accomplices in the murder of tens of thousands of Ukrainian people in the…

The South American country of Guyana has recently emerged as a world-recognized oil-producing nation. This occurred due to ExxonMobil’s string of world-class discoveries in offshore Guyana, starting with the 2015 Liza-1 wildcat well, drilled 118 miles northeast of the capital, Georgetown, in the 6.6 million-acre Stabroek Block. Big Oil is pouring billions of dollars into Guyana, an impoverished country of less than one million, now among the world’s top offshore drilling locations. Ongoing exploration and development will further boost…

Global refining is at a crossroads, as shifting regional demand, mounting sustainability pressures and heightened energy security concerns reshape the industry. Rystad Energy’s research shows that even though there are fewer refineries today, overall refining capacity has grown to keep up with the rising volume of oil that needs processing. In the last two decades, global primary refining capacity has increased by about 13.5 million barrels per day (bpd), or roughly 15%. In contrast, the absolute number of refineries peaked in 2011 and has…

In one of his more controversial decisions last week, President Trump said the U.S. would impose an additional 25% on many Indian imports—because of India’s imports of Russian crude oil. The news lifted oil prices, and Indian refiners suspended their Russian oil orders. But the bigger picture shows India at a crossroads not dissimilar to that of the EU: a choice between cheap and expensive energy with all that either option entails. On the face of it, the choice is pretty simple, as laid out by the Economic Times in an article that…

For years, the talk in boardrooms and investor presentations has been about “discipline” and “capital efficiency.” These are the code words for a strategy that keeps production largely flat, trims high-risk exploration budgets, and returns more cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks. The era of endlessly chasing production growth at any cost is over, replaced by an approach that seeks to manage fossil fuel portfolios like mature, declining assets. The optics are powerful. European majors like BP and Shell…

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’, rolling back many clean energy credits enacted by former President Joe Biden under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. As widely expected, OBBBA is far from beautiful for various industries within the solar and wind energy sectors. However, the solar sector has continued to defy bearish expectations one month after OBBBA was passed, thanks in large part to robust U.S. and global solar demand as well as specific provisions within the OBBBA that…

Syria’s caretaker government is moving to restore the Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline with Iraq, a strategic corridor that had the capacity to move up to 300,000 barrels per day to Syria’s Mediterranean coast before war and sanctions shut it down in the early 2000s. Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir will travel to Baghdad in the coming days to discuss rehabilitation plans, according to Iraqinews.com. For Damascus, reconnecting to Iraq’s oil network could provide critical transit revenues, reduce reliance on costly maritime…

Syria’s caretaker government is moving to restore the Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline with Iraq, a strategic corridor that had the capacity to move up to 300,000 barrels per day to Syria’s Mediterranean coast before war and sanctions shut it down in the early 2000s. Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir will travel to Baghdad in the coming days to discuss rehabilitation plans, according to Iraqinews.com. For Damascus, reconnecting to Iraq’s oil network could provide critical transit revenues, reduce reliance on costly maritime…

Syria’s caretaker government is moving to restore the Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline with Iraq, a strategic corridor that had the capacity to move up to 300,000 barrels per day to Syria’s Mediterranean coast before war and sanctions shut it down in the early 2000s. Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir will travel to Baghdad in the coming days to discuss rehabilitation plans, according to Iraqinews.com. For Damascus, reconnecting to Iraq’s oil network could provide critical transit revenues, reduce reliance on costly maritime…

Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petrobras sneezed at the end of last week, and the domestic stock market caught a cold. Despite returning to a profit for the second quarter of the year, Petrobras dashed hopes of an extraordinary dividend for this year amid lower oil prices and higher investments into production expansion. Following the earnings call, Petrobras shares plunged by 7% on Brazil’s stock market on Friday, dragging the main Ibovespa Brasil Sao Paulo Stock Exchange Index down 0.45% for the day, due to the considerable weight…

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) has formally objected to a plan by Pilot Water Solutions LLC to drill three new saltwater disposal wells in the Permian Basin, warning the project could contaminate state-owned crude reserves in North America’s top oil field, according to the Dallas Morning News. Founded in 1836, the GLO manages 13 million acres of state land and generates billions of dollars for Texas public schools through oil and gas leasing. It argues the proposed disposal sites in Loving County near the New Mexico border pose “significant…

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) has formally objected to a plan by Pilot Water Solutions LLC to drill three new saltwater disposal wells in the Permian Basin, warning the project could contaminate state-owned crude reserves in North America’s top oil field, according to the Dallas Morning News. Founded in 1836, the GLO manages 13 million acres of state land and generates billions of dollars for Texas public schools through oil and gas leasing. It argues the proposed disposal sites in Loving County near the New Mexico border pose “significant…

Via Metal Miner The Copper Monthly Metals Index (MMI) moved sideways, rising 1.18% from July to August. This puts the price of copper today just slightly above its April lows.   Comex Copper Prices Plummet After Tariff Surprise July proved the most volatile month yet for Comex copper prices. As market surprises often do, the White House’s decision to water down copper tariffs to affect copper products saw the index’s prices plummet in the final days of the month. Markets first began to price in potential tariffs…

A Sunday drone attack on the Saratov refinery, owned by Russia’s oil giant Rosneft, prompted the facility to halt the intake of crude oil, a source with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Monday.  The Saratov Refinery in the Volga region has the capacity to process 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, but it has now been forced offline due to Ukrainian drone strikes.    The Saratov refinery, which has been part of Rosneft since 2013, typically processes Russia’s flagship Urals crude oil and Saratovskoye…

A Sunday drone attack on the Saratov refinery, owned by Russia’s oil giant Rosneft, prompted the facility to halt the intake of crude oil, a source with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Monday.  The Saratov Refinery in the Volga region has the capacity to process 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, but it has now been forced offline due to Ukrainian drone strikes.    The Saratov refinery, which has been part of Rosneft since 2013, typically processes Russia’s flagship Urals crude oil and Saratovskoye…

Norway has started to plan its 26th oil and gas licensing round in little explored frontier areas as it looks to boost exploration and resources to stem an expected decline in production from the early 2030s.  Norway’s Energy Ministry has launched work on announcing the new licensing round for the unexplored areas soon, Energy Minister Terje Aasland has said. “Norway wants to be a long-term supplier of oil and gas to Europe, while the Norwegian continental shelf will continue to create value and jobs for our country,” Aasland…

India could see spikes in power prices in the coming weeks as supply will be constrained and procurement costs will rise with the shutdown of a unit at the country’s largest nuclear power plant for maintenance.  India has now shut the 1-GW Unit 1 at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Reuters quoted a notice by the Central Electricity Authority.  The maintenance is expected to last just over two months, potentially tightening the supply of electricity in southern India and leading to higher supply…

Washington appeared to be preparing Kyiv and Moscow for major compromises to end the long, bloody war ahead of a face-to-face meeting of the US and Russian presidents, with US Vice President JD Vance warning that any peace deal will likely leave both sides "unhappy." "It's not going to make anybody super happy. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians, probably, at the end of the day, are going to be unhappy with it," Vance said in a Fox News interview broadcast on August 10. The remarks came ahead of a scheduled August 15 meeting in Alaska between…