China and its crude oil buying behavior in the spring and summer have stabilized global oil markets as Beijing, not OPEC, is calling the shots now, according to Igor Sechin, chief executive of Russia’s biggest oil producer Rosneft. China has strengthened its position of the ultimate swing buyer on the global market and has taken the initiative from OPEC, said the executive, who is considered to be a close ally of Vladimir Putin and who has been a long-time critic of OPEC. “China has successfully turned from a major consumer and importer…

Diesel prices and refining cracks surge as tightening middle distillate supplies push Brent toward $95. Friday, September 04, 2026 Refined products have been the main driver of rising oil prices, particularly diesel as the outlook for global middle distillate supply continues to deteriorate into late 2026. With US diesel prices soaring to an all-time high, middle distillate cracks alone are now higher than outright crude prices. ICE Brent is poised to end the week with a 6% weekly gain, trending around $95 per barrel, with no real short-term downside…

UN data shows that Turkmenistan is making repairs to its energy infrastructure to seal major methane leaks, according to a report published by the Guardian. The improvements appear linked to efforts by Ashgabat to emerge from a self-imposed isolationist shell.  The UN’s Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) has identified natural gas-rich Turkmenistan as one of the world’s leading sources of methane leaks. According to MARS, Turkmenistan had three of the six worst leaks detected over the past six months, and nine of the top…

India’s authorities plan to introduce, from July 1, 2027 a regulation requiring developers of solar and wind energy projects to have battery storage installed at the sites in a bid to better manage the renewable energy output and reduce curtailments. For solar and wind projects commissioned after July 1, 2027, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of India proposes that developers to be mandated to have co-located energy storage equal to at least 10% of the renewable project’s installed capacity, with a minimum duration of two hours.…

The impending decision by the UK government over whether to approve the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields will mark a pivotal moment in the history and future of the North Sea. Almost £11bn of private investment waits in the wings, and the outcome of this decision will be a marker of whether Britain can regain its reputation as a serious place to invest in energy. Approval would send a positive signal, but the issue is far bigger than two projects. Years of policy instability under consecutive governments, restrictions on new drilling and the Energy…

Iran pursues various tactics to bypass the U.S. blockade, which President Trump reimposed in the middle of July after the deal to make a deal collapsed, according to Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad. “The oil industry has not sat idle and has not stopped,” Iranian media quoted the minister as saying. “We are pursuing various solutions and different measures so that we can reach a day when we are able to completely bypass this blockade,” Paknejad added. Iran managed to move a lot of oil out of the Persian Gulf during…

European benchmark natural gas prices on Friday headed for their fourth consecutive weekly gain as the re-escalation in the Middle East dampened hopes that LNG flows from the Strait of Hormuz could normalize soon. The front-month price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the benchmark for Europe's gas trading, was basically flat in early morning trade in Amsterdam on Friday, but it was on track for a 7% jump this week alone. This week, the re-escalation of hostilities between the United States and Iran intensified concerns about LNG supply…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict The U.S. restarted major strikes on Iran this week, hitting missile, radar, and other military installations along the southern coast and on Larak Island. Iran retaliated against U.S. positions across the Gulf and Jordan, and also continued attacking commercial shipping, with two supertankers carrying Saudi crude struck near Hormuz and two sailors killed aboard a Saudi-owned vessel. The civilian toll from the renewed U.S. campaign is drawing scrutiny after a strike hit a wedding in southern Iran, killing five…

Trump says the U.S. has effectively reopened the Strait of Hormuz, with 18 million barrels of oil reportedly crossing under American protection on Tuesday, close to the roughly 20 million bpd that moved through before the war. The problem is that nobody outside the U.S. government can yet verify Tuesday’s number, and the shipping data we normally rely on has become unusually difficult to read. Kpler recorded 11 visible commodity-vessel crossings Tuesday, while Lloyd’s List Intelligence recorded roughly 12 transits a day from August…

October WTI crude oil futures are trading at $91.80 Thursday night, up $8.36 or 10.02% for the week so far. The contract traded as low as $84.11 early in the week before reaching $93.14, its strongest level since late July. The market began the week testing whether more cargoes moving through the Strait of Hormuz would take the war premium out of crude. That selloff did not hold. The United States and Iran exchanged their heaviest fire since July. Iran tightened shipping restrictions. Kuwait came under missile and drone fire. Israel renewed threats…

European benchmark natural gas prices on Friday headed for their fourth consecutive weekly gain as the re-escalation in the Middle East dampened hopes that LNG flows from the Strait of Hormuz could normalize soon. The front-month price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the benchmark for Europe's gas trading, was basically flat in early morning trade in Amsterdam on Friday, but it was on track for a 7% jump this week alone. This week, the re-escalation of hostilities between the United States and Iran intensified concerns about LNG supply…

The average U.S. diesel price hit a record high late on Thursday, exceeding the previous record from 2022, as the Middle East crisis tightened global fuel markets and sent prices soaring this summer. As of Thursday afternoon, the live U.S. national average price of diesel set a new record at $5.820 per gallon, according to GasBuddy data.   This average price has now surpassed the previous daily $5.819 per gallon all-time high that occurred June 17, 2022, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said. Record-high diesel prices…

The average U.S. diesel price hit a record high late on Thursday, exceeding the previous record from 2022, as the Middle East crisis tightened global fuel markets and sent prices soaring this summer. As of Thursday afternoon, the live U.S. national average price of diesel set a new record at $5.820 per gallon, according to GasBuddy data.   This average price has now surpassed the previous daily $5.819 per gallon all-time high that occurred June 17, 2022, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said. Record-high diesel prices…

For decades, Venezuela has been one of China’s most important partners in Latin America and the largest recipient of Chinese government funds in Latin America, with Beijing lending Caracas tens of billions of dollars and accepting oil as repayment.  Chinese policy banks provided it with at least $60 billion in oil-backed financing through 2015, while broader estimates of Chinese lending and investment commitments exceed $100 billion. Analysts estimate that Caracas still owes Chinese lenders at least $10 billion. Recovering that money…

U.S. President Donald Trump told oil producers and refiners that he wants lower gasoline prices, immediately, at a meeting at the White House this week. As gasoline prices remain above $4 per gallon on average across the United States and drivers are heading for the most expensive Labor Day weekend gas prices on record, President Trump urged executives from Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, and PBF Energy, among others, to raise refining capacity to increase fuel availability. The problem for the U.S. Administration two months ahead of…

Big Tech is betting trillions of dollars on artificial intelligence, with a lot of that to be spent on building the data centers that would power large language models. Stock markets are reflecting this in Big Tech stocks, but that’s not the only industry riding the artificial intelligence wave. Because that wave runs on electricity and the equipment that brings it from generator to consumer. There have been reports about a chip shortage caused by the AI rush, and higher compute prices overall resulting from AI-related demand growth in electronics.…

The daily benchmark measuring the cost of shipping raw materials across major global maritime routes is breaking out to a nearly three-year high this week, as Bloomberg reports that typhoons are squeezing the supply of Capesize vessels just as mining companies increase iron ore shipments across the Pacific and Atlantic. The Baltic Dry Index, which tracks freight rates for several vessel classes, including Capesize, Panamax and Supramax vessels, jumped 5.5% to 3,331 points in London on Wednesday, its highest level since December 2023. The index…

Heavy trucks were supposed to be the place where batteries stopped working. Electric cars could manage school runs and commuting, critics conceded. But long-distance freight needed range, rapid refueling and maximum payload. Batteries would be too large, too heavy and too slow to charge. Buses might electrify predictable urban routes, but serious trucking would require diesel, hydrogen or renewable liquid fuels. The market is beginning to deliver a different verdict. Global sales of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles rose 86% in 2025,…

It was a relatively subdued Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit for Chinese leader Xi Jinping. He departed the host city Bishkek having made few attention-grabbing headlines.  There were no big announcements or viral moments, unlike at 2025’s SCO summit on Xi’s home turf in the Chinese city of Tianjin. In Bishkek, there were no photos of Xi, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cutting up together sans interpreters, nor Putin and Xi caught on hot mics discussing how to live for 150 years, nor…

China’s oil consumption fell 9% year over year in the second quarter as expensive crude accelerated the use of electric cars, trucks, rail and industrial equipment. The decline helped cut China’s carbon dioxide emissions by 1% during the quarter, according to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. It was the first quarterly emissions decline in China driven primarily by lower oil consumption. Power-sector emissions rose 3% during the same period as coal-fired generation increased. Electric vehicles displaced…