Germany has missed its gas storage target for the start of winter. Now, the EU’s largest economy faces a difficult heating season as the European gas benchmark topped 100 euros per MWh last week and has stayed there since. Higher prices may turn out to be the smaller problem. A supply crunch would be worse. Every European Union member state has an obligation to secure enough natural gas ahead of winter to fill 80% of storage capacity. Germany has failed to do that, only filling its storage to about 61%. This is problematic because Germany…

Africa now has a bank built to finance the oil and gas projects Western banks and development lenders have dropped under their climate commitments. Afreximbank and the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) formally established the Africa Energy Bank (AEB) at its inaugural general meeting in Abuja on October 31. That was more than four years after the two institutions began work on it and some 20 months behind schedule.  Abuja beat bids from six countries, including Ghana, Algeria, South Africa and Benin, to host the bank.…

Polls open Tuesday with prediction markets already leaning one way, as Polymarket traders were pricing a Democratic sweep of both chambers at about 71 percent, a Democratic House with a Republican Senate at 24 percent and a Republican sweep at 5 percent. It is a long way from February, when Republicans had about a 60 percent chance of keeping the Senate on both major markets, and the slide since the Iran war began on Feb. 28 has followed rising gas prices and a sinking approval rating for President Donald Trump more closely than any campaign event.…

U.S. President Donald Trump’s core vision of the future of global oil and gas is to have as much of that supply as possible coming from his self-proclaimed ‘Americas’ region, which is directly in the U.S.’s sphere of influence. Venezuela is one of the key countries from which this increased production is designated to flow, which is why Washington is focusing so much of its efforts on encouraging heavy investment from American oil and gas giants into the country. It is in this context that very recent changes to Venezuela’s…

A sanctioned Iranian tanker carrying about 500,000 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas slipped past the U.S. naval blockade and delivered its cargo to China, according to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which says it filmed the ship at a Malaysian anchorage along the way. Tanker laden with Iranian LPG transiting the Gulf of Oman (Credit: ESA Copernicus & Marine Traffic) (ESA Copernicus & Marine Traffic) The vessel, the SOGL (IMO 9208227), loaded Iranian LPG at Assaluyeh Port in late August and got past the blockade on Sept. 1, UANI told…

In June 1973, during a hearing on the Watergate scandal erupting around President Richard Nixon, Sen. Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee, uttered the most famous words of his entire career: "What did the president know and when did he know it?" It turned out that Nixon knew a lot early on, and that led to his resignation from the presidency a little more than a year later. Since then, a form of that question has become central in investigations of many high-profile scandals, including public health calamities such as those related to leaded…

Sunday saw another vessel attacked in Persian Gulf regional waters. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) reported that a ship was struck by two projectiles some 83 miles east of Ras al-Khafji, which is the Saudi town on the Kuwaiti border in the northern Persian Gulf. Significantly and unusually, this particular attack occurred hundreds of miles from the Strait of Hormuz itself. Also, in this instance, the vessel targeted was not a large tanker, but instead was a tugboat. "On Sunday evening, an Emirati-owned offshore tug was hit by a…

A year after forecasting that oil demand would keep rising until 2040, TotalEnergies has moved its peak forward to between 2035 and 2040, and says the Iran war could accelerate the energy transition. The company’s annual energy outlook, released on Monday, projects demand for petroleum products plateauing through the 2030s before a slow decline. Chief sustainability officer Aurélien Hamelle told reporters that demand could fall faster if EV sales keep growing. In November 2025, TotalEnergies forecast oil demand rising nearly 5% to…

A year after forecasting that oil demand would keep rising until 2040, TotalEnergies has moved its peak forward to between 2035 and 2040, and says the Iran war could accelerate the energy transition. The company’s annual energy outlook, released on Monday, projects demand for petroleum products plateauing through the 2030s before a slow decline. Chief sustainability officer Aurélien Hamelle told reporters that demand could fall faster if EV sales keep growing. In November 2025, TotalEnergies forecast oil demand rising nearly 5% to…

Concern is rising in Central Asia about the region’s ability to generate sufficient heat and electricity during the upcoming winter season. Worries are perhaps greatest at present in Kyrgyzstan, where demand has surged in recent weeks due to the early onset of cold weather. An October 29 report published by the 24.kg news agency highlighted that Central Asia’s power grid is fragile, at risk of breaking down in winter. It cited a Eurasian Development Bank study of the grid’s performance in 2024 that showed it was frequently overloaded,…

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance, wiping out part of the war premium that lifted crude through October. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92.  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the Supreme Leader has granted the government “certain authorities” over peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.  Foreign Minister Abbas…

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance, wiping out part of the war premium that lifted crude through October. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92.  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the Supreme Leader has granted the government “certain authorities” over peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.  Foreign Minister Abbas…

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance, wiping out part of the war premium that lifted crude through October. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92.  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the Supreme Leader has granted the government “certain authorities” over peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.  Foreign Minister Abbas…

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance, wiping out part of the war premium that lifted crude through October. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92.  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the Supreme Leader has granted the government “certain authorities” over peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.  Foreign Minister Abbas…

The attacks last week in Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery, Ras Tanura (again), by the Iran-backed Houthis (again), which pushed oil prices up (again), once more underlined the powerlessness of the region to properly defend itself from Iran and its network of proxies and the redundancy of the billions of dollars’ worth of defence equipment the region’s countries bought from the U.S. to do precisely this. Aside from reminding Washington and its allies that Tehran can strike wherever and whenever it chooses to in the region, the…

A major oil hub in Russia’s Volga region appears to have caught fire after an attack, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing satellite images from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System. An image taken on Monday showed a relatively fresh heat anomaly, which could mean fires at the Samara crude oil pumping station, according to the imagery Bloomberg has analyzed. The potential attack, reports of which emerged in Ukrainian media today, could be another hit at an oil asset in Russia after Ukraine resumed late last week attacks…

A major oil hub in Russia’s Volga region appears to have caught fire after an attack, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing satellite images from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System. An image taken on Monday showed a relatively fresh heat anomaly, which could mean fires at the Samara crude oil pumping station, according to the imagery Bloomberg has analyzed. The potential attack, reports of which emerged in Ukrainian media today, could be another hit at an oil asset in Russia after Ukraine resumed late last week attacks…

With the election settled, the presidency continuing for four more years and a newly elected Congress taking office in February, Brazil’s data center policy now hinges on execution, requiring tight coordination between parliament and the executive branch. Most clean tech policies can advance through decrees and agency rules, but data centers are an exception: Unlocking hyperscale investment requires Congress and the executive branch to align statutory tax incentive deadlines with regulatory definitions that are still to be written. At the…

Oil prices extended losses from Asian trade into early Monday morning U.S. time as a draft proposal on a potential end to the U.S.-Iran war is now being circulated after Iranian negotiators left Qatar, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters on Monday.  Oil prices slumped by 3% in Asian trade on Monday amid renewed optimism about a possible peace deal between the United States and Iran, following reports about mediation talks between Iran and Qatar over the weekend. Iranian negotiators left Qatar on Sunday and a draft proposal is now…

Oil prices extended losses from Asian trade into early Monday morning U.S. time as a draft proposal on a potential end to the U.S.-Iran war is now being circulated after Iranian negotiators left Qatar, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters on Monday.  Oil prices slumped by 3% in Asian trade on Monday amid renewed optimism about a possible peace deal between the United States and Iran, following reports about mediation talks between Iran and Qatar over the weekend. Iranian negotiators left Qatar on Sunday and a draft proposal is now…