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Americans spend close to half a trillion dollars per year on electricity. The electric industry spends over a quarter trillion dollars a year on a capital program to replace old plants and add new ones to enable it to serve new demand. The industry and its customers have conflicting feelings about big capital spending. On the one hand, the spending should assure better service (good for consumers) and increase the rate base (good for utility investors). On the other hand, the spending will surely raise prices because the new plant and equipment…
The surge in electricity demand in the world’s AI hotspots has prompted a comparable surge in the demand for reliable supply. That surge was not expected. There are not enough gas turbines to secure that supply. This means the AI revolution would either have to slow down, or the grid would have to increase its reliance on coal. Natural gas has in recent years been marketed as a so-called bridge fuel between coal and oil, on the one hand, and wind and solar, on the other. When it became clear that “bridge” is in fact its own country…
A rethink of the European Union’s (EU) Arctic policy could keep Norway’s Barents Sea gas in play in the 2030s, offering Europe a nearby, low-emission supply option as its reliance on the global liquefied natural gas market grows, according to new Rystad Energy research and analysis. The European Commission is reviewing its 2021 Arctic policy and has opened a public consultation through 16 March 2026. With Barents projects typically needing five to 10 years to move from discovery to steady output, the signal the EU sends now will determine…
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage has long been described as essential for decarbonising heavy industry, yet progress has remained uneven across regions. While North America and parts of Europe have dominated early deployment, the next major growth market is increasingly clear. India is now positioning itself to become one of the most important arenas for CCUS globally, not because it is following others, but because its industrial reality leaves few viable alternatives. Why India Cannot Decarbonise Without CCUS India is already the world’s…
Last July, Ukraine started importing natural gas from Azerbaijan for the first time in history, just months after it officially stopped the transit of Russian natural gas through its pipeline network in January 2025. Ukraine’s Naftogaz signed a supply agreement with Azerbaijan’s SOCAR Energy Ukraine that saw the former Soviet nation export its natural gas through the Trans-Balkan Corridor, with Ukraine looking to diversify its energy supply, enhance energy security, and offset significant domestic production losses caused by a constant…
Strife-torn Colombia is facing an energy crisis of gargantuan proportions. Decades of mismanagement and insecurity, coupled with radical changes to energy policy by Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, are wreaking havoc with the country’s natural gas reserves and production. This is making the Andean country increasingly reliant upon costly natural gas imports while threatening the stability of Colombia’s energy grid and risking critical energy shortages. There are no signs of an easy solution for a country…
A geothermal revolution is unfolding around the United States in ways both flashy and quiet. As Big Tech becomes increasingly involved in developing alternative energy sources to meet skyrocketing energy demand driven by the AI boom, innovative and advanced geothermal technologies have been taking off – but so too have more simple and surface-level solutions like heat pumps. Together, these approaches could reshape the domestic energy industry by providing baseload clean energy solutions and shoring up energy security in urban and rural populations…
Japan has made the first commitments under a $550-billion investment program that made part of its trade deal with President Trump. Those first commitments are worth $36 billion and include what Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has called “the largest natural gas generation facility in history.” The U.S. and Japan sealed a trade deal last summer, featuring a reduction in proposed tariffs—from 25% to 15%—on Japanese imports and a $550-billion Japanese investment pledge for the U.S. economy. Japan also pledged under the deal…
The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 609,000 barrels in the week ending February 13, after increasing by 13.4 million barrels in the week prior. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) keep climbing week after week. The Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories rose by 200,000 barrels to 415.4 million barrels in the week ending February 13. This is 310.1 million barrels shy of maximum capacity. US production stopped its fifth week in a row losing…
Shares of BHP Group, the world's largest miner, jumped to a record high in Australia after it posted earnings at the top end of Wall Street expectations. The miner's pivot into copper, aided by a surging rally in industrial metals, offset softer conditions in its iron ore unit. BHP chief executive Mike Henry reaffirmed to investors earlier on a call that the miner is pivoting toward "future-facing" metals. In other words, he explained that the world's largest miner's shift away from operations focused on serving China's steel mills has paid off,…
The history of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), their danger to the ozone layer, and the drive to replace them reminds me of an observation from former CBS news correspondent and commentator Eric Sevareid: "[T]he real cause of problems is solutions." When chemists F. Sherwood Roland and Mario Molina asked where chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) go after leaking from refrigerators and air conditioners or being intentionally released from aerosol cans, they did not know that the answer would lead to the world-shaking discovery that these chemicals were threatening…
Abu Dhabi’s national oil company, ADNOC, keeps making headlines again, not only when looking at upstream but also in its LNG strategic operations. At present, the oil and gas giant’s quiet acceleration in LNG shipping is often treated as merely a capacity add. Mainstream media is focusing on factors such as increased hulls, greater flexibility, and improved service for export projects. This focus is, however, too narrow, as the UAE’s national champion is not simply expanding its fleet. ADNOC is clearly establishing the physical…
Ford and General Motors (GM) have both announced plans to venture into the world of energy storage, following in the footsteps of the electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla. The two U.S. automakers have big plans for business expansion, which could drive down EV manufacturing costs, reduce reliance on imports, and expand their portfolios. The U.S. EV market is growing at a slower pace than anticipated as the Trump administration waters down aims set by the previous government to restrict the sale of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and incentivise…
A right-wing group pushing the province of Alberta to secede from Canada has ramped up a petition campaign aimed at achieving independence after meeting with officials from the Trump administration. The group has already held three meetings with officials from the State Department, where they’ve discussed the logistics of a potential secession from Canada, including border security, switching over to U.S. currency and how their radical plan can benefit the United States. Volunteer canvassers have set a target to collect approximately 177,000…
Artificial intelligence is often viewed as a catalyst for electrification and subsequently decarbonization. Yet one of its most immediate effects may be the opposite of what many assume. The rapid buildout of AI infrastructure is increasing demand for reliable power, and that reality could strengthen the role of natural gas and other dispatchable energy sources for many years. Investors focused on semiconductors and software valuations may be overlooking a key constraint. AI runs on electricity, and those electricity systems operate within physical…
Tesla’s energy business could become $20 billion to $50 billion more valuable if Elon Musk’s plan to build 100 gigawatts of yearly solar cell manufacturing capacity in the United States pans out, analysts at Morgan Stanley say. “The solar opportunity is underestimated,” Musk told analysts on Tesla’s Q4 earnings call last month. “We think the best way to add significant capability to the grid is solar and batteries on Earth and solar in space,” he added. As Musk sees opportunities in the solar manufacturing…
To help navigate the uncertainty, we have framed five possible scenarios, detailed below, that outline plausible pathways, from diplomatic normalization to severe destabilization, and assess their consequences for geopolitics and global oil markets. Only a week ago, the balance of risks appeared tilted towards military action. More recently, intensified diplomatic engagement and signalling from both Washington and Tehran have shifted expectations toward a less confrontational path. That said, developments can unfold quickly, and the probability…
The average margin on a US Gulf coast (USGC) cargo destined to Europe, including regasification costs, was $4.56 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) between 2023 and 2025, or $17.5 million per one LNG vessel, compared to negative margins prior and during the pandemic in 2019 and 2020. These attractive profits have spurred national oil companies and majors, sovereign wealth funds, private equity, Asian utilities and other energy buyers to flock to the USGC with their checkbooks to get in on the action. As a result, a flurry of LNG final investment…
The United States has cemented its position as the world's leading exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) over the past couple of years, thanks to surging natural gas demand in Europe and Asia. U.S. LNG exports hit a record 111 million tons in 2025, surpassing 100 million metric tons for the first time, driven by high utilization and new capacity additions from projects like Plaquemines LNG. But this could be just the beginning of the U.S. LNG boom: the EIA has predicted that U.S. LNG export capacity will more than double by 2029, with an estimated…
Several automakers are investing heavily in robots in a bid to further automate operations in the future. It does not seem to matter that the current generation of humanoid robots works at a slower pace than humans, as automakers still view these machines as more cost-efficient for their factories. While Elon Musk invests heavily in Tesla’s Optimus Robots, Hyundai has big plans for incorporating robots in its United States operations in the coming years. A recent estimate by Barclays suggests that the current humanoid robot market has a value…
The oil and gas sector is continuing to consolidate after years of ‘merger-mania’, with ramifications for the entire energy sector and wider economy. But a recent report reveals that the spate of mergers and acquisitions that has characterized the fossil fuels industry over the last decade is not as widespread as it may seem, but rather concentrated among a few key players. A newly released report from the consulting firm Bain & Co found that, within the oil and gas sector, “fewer companies are doing more of the deals…
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy says it has seized two vessels near Farsi Island allegedly carrying large quantities of smuggled fuel, the country's Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported Thursday - at a moment the nation's military has its "finger on the trigger" amid threats from the Trump White House and Israel. More than one million liters of diesel were discovered aboard the ships, according to the IRGC Navy's public relations office, and the seized 15 foreign crew members have been handed over…
The push into electric vehicles was always bullshit, sold by the left as the move that would future-proof America’s and Europe’s legacy automakers and save the planet - and anyone not buying it was subject to a guilt trip from smug, private-jet-owning elitists. Instead, EVs are now looking like one of the costliest strategic blunders in modern automotive history. Major U.S. and European brands - including Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen - have collectively burned through nearly…
Washington is preparing to take another step deeper into Venezuela’s oil sector, with plans to issue a broad license that would allow companies to pump crude in the country for the first time in years. According to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg, the U.S. Treasury could issue the general license as soon as this week. If it happens, it would follow last week’s authorization allowing companies to buy, sell, ship, and refine Venezuelan crude—provided the activity runs through established U.S.-linked entities.…
