The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is halting all trade, financial, and commercial ties with Iran until further notice, after saying Tehran had fired ballistic missiles targeting its territory. Late on Tuesday, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said that “assessments revealed the two ballistic missiles detected, originating from Iran, were targeting maritime navigation and fell into the sea.” A few hours earlier, the ministry had announced that the UAE’s air defense systems detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran towards…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is halting all trade, financial, and commercial ties with Iran until further notice, after saying Tehran had fired ballistic missiles targeting its territory. Late on Tuesday, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said that “assessments revealed the two ballistic missiles detected, originating from Iran, were targeting maritime navigation and fell into the sea.” A few hours earlier, the ministry had announced that the UAE’s air defense systems detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran towards…

Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a massive increase of 4.4 million barrels during the week ending August 14, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 428.8 million barrels, according to government data, which is now right about at the five-year average for this time of year. The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories had fallen by 328,000 barrels…

Ukraine hit a refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region overnight in a drone attack that sparked a fire, as Kyiv continues to pound Russian energy infrastructure to reduce Russian fuel supply. One of the refineries in Ufa, in the Bashkortostan republic, caught fire as a result of the attack, the region’s governor Radiy Khabirov said on Wednesday. Ufa and the area around it host three refineries, all owned and operated by Bashneft, a unit of Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft. The Ukrainian attack overnight caused “a small…

Ukraine hit a refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region overnight in a drone attack that sparked a fire, as Kyiv continues to pound Russian energy infrastructure to reduce Russian fuel supply. One of the refineries in Ufa, in the Bashkortostan republic, caught fire as a result of the attack, the region’s governor Radiy Khabirov said on Wednesday. Ufa and the area around it host three refineries, all owned and operated by Bashneft, a unit of Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft. The Ukrainian attack overnight caused “a small…

Ukraine hit a refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region overnight in a drone attack that sparked a fire, as Kyiv continues to pound Russian energy infrastructure to reduce Russian fuel supply. One of the refineries in Ufa, in the Bashkortostan republic, caught fire as a result of the attack, the region’s governor Radiy Khabirov said on Wednesday. Ufa and the area around it host three refineries, all owned and operated by Bashneft, a unit of Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft. The Ukrainian attack overnight caused “a small…

A popular former defense minister whose dismissal last month sparked protests has delivered a videotaped address to Ukrainians in which he assailed wartime corruption, warned of a systemic crisis of governance, and said the country must find a way to hold elections despite the continuing Russian invasion. Mykhaylo Fedorov's remarks late on August 18 came hours after lawmakers said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who abruptly pushed him out in mid-July, has asked parliament to confirm acting Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara in the role. A vote is expected…

UK household energy bills are set to further rise from October by 4% to their highest level since the summer of 2023, as the Iran war has tightened global gas supply and made gas restocking in Europe more difficult and expensive, Cornwall Insight said on Wednesday. The energy consultancy expects Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem to raise the price cap that energy providers can charge by 4% from October, with household bills rising to their highest level since July 2023 on a unit-for-unit basis. The UK has a so-called Energy Price Cap in place,…

The Iran war has created an extraordinary earnings season for U.S. refiners. Brent crude has fallen to around $90 per barrel from a wartime peak of $126, but the shortage of refined fuels has only deepened. According to Reuters, Global refinery throughput in July was nearly 5 million barrels per day below year-earlier levels as Middle Eastern refineries remained constrained and Ukrainian attacks pushed Russian processing close to a 20-year low. U.S. refiners have stepped into the gap, running at or near record utilization rates and exporting more…

There have been perhaps a handful of events since the end of the Second World War that have fundamentally reshaped the world’s oil markets and consequently its geopolitics while remaining largely unnoticed at the time. The quiet agreement between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Saudi King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud struck on 14 February 1945 that would define the energy, economic, political and military relationship between the two countries until the rise of American shale in the early 2010s is one, as analysed in my latest…

Palantir chairman and hedge fund owner Peter Thiel bought a 1% stake in one of the biggest companies operating in the Vaca Muerta shale formation in Argentina in the latest evidence of the play’s prospects as the world’s second-largest shale oil and gas deposit amid a global crunch. Thiel bought the stake in Vista in the form of American depositary shares worth $76 million, according to a security filing cited by Reuters. The purchase came four months after a meeting between the venture capitalist and Argentina’s president, Javier…

AI is changing energy systems, but data centers are only a small part of the impact. Much has been written and said about how the data center and AI boom are consuming and will consume increasingly higher shares of global electricity demand, and grids are struggling to meet soaring demand. Fossil Fuel Gains Could Outweigh Emissions Cuts from Renewables Arguably, a fundamental change in the energy system may not come from surging power demand, but from the efficiencies and productivity gains AI will help energy companies achieve, according to a…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 328,000 barrels in the week ending August 14. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories rose by 9.072 million barrels on the back of increased imports, decreased exports, and a sizeable injection from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 49 million barrels over the last eighteen weeks, with US crude inventories up 1.88 million for the year, according to API data, kept…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 328,000 barrels in the week ending August 14. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories rose by 9.072 million barrels on the back of increased imports, decreased exports, and a sizeable injection from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 49 million barrels over the last eighteen weeks, with US crude inventories up 1.88 million for the year, according to API data, kept…

Green hydrogen research and development has found itself in limbo, once again. Enthusiasm for the resource’s potential as a clean energy solution in hard-to-abate sectors like steelmaking, shipping, and transportation has waxed and waned over the last decade as the technology has made incremental progress but largely failed to meet expectations. While the war in Iran breathed some new life into the sector as a potential alternative to oil and gas, that new wave of optimism faces major economic headwinds. Take the state of California. The…

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has predicted that the Strait of Hormuz will become “irrelevant” within two years, and with Gulf oil producers already building their way around it, millions of barrels may prove him right for a short time.  Months into the Iran war, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar are moving more than 4 million barrels per day through a shadow export network of AIS-dark shuttle tankers and ship-to-ship transfers outside the Persian Gulf, keeping millions of barrels flowing through a waterway that has largely…

Saudi Arabia spent weeks finding ways around the Strait of Hormuz. Now it is starting to send tankers straight back through it. Saudi Aramco resumed crude loadings from its Ras Tanura and Juaymah terminals inside the strait last week, ending a three-week gap in activity at the ports, according to Kpler and Vortexa data cited by Reuters. Three VLCCs—Malaysia Prosperity, Algeria Prosperity and Singapore Prosperity—each loaded roughly 2 million barrels between August 12 and August 16. Six more VLCCs could load Saudi crude from inside Hormuz…

Saudi Arabia spent weeks finding ways around the Strait of Hormuz. Now it is starting to send tankers straight back through it. Saudi Aramco resumed crude loadings from its Ras Tanura and Juaymah terminals inside the strait last week, ending a three-week gap in activity at the ports, according to Kpler and Vortexa data cited by Reuters. Three VLCCs—Malaysia Prosperity, Algeria Prosperity and Singapore Prosperity—each loaded roughly 2 million barrels between August 12 and August 16. Six more VLCCs could load Saudi crude from inside Hormuz…

Despite apparent financing difficulties hovering over the construction of nuclear reactors in Uzbekistan, the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom has announced it is developing a training program for Uzbek technicians who will eventually operate the plant. Rosatom specialists need to develop new, specific training modules for what is envisioned as an “integrated nuclear plant” featuring the operation of both large-scale and small modular reactors. “This requires developing training materials tailored to the specifics of small reactors,…

Brent and WTI futures remain below $100 a barrel on Tuesday morning, partly suppressed by governments releasing strategic oil reserves into global markets. But the more serious issue is building downstream, where the Russia-Ukraine war, strikes against energy infrastructure, and continued disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz are fueling the refined-products "perfect storm" we have repeatedly warned about. Oil extended gains this morning, with Brent trading around $91 a barrel after another vessel attack was reported near the Hormuz maritime…