Russian refiners have raised diesel output for October after Moscow issued export quotas under the Kremlin’s supply agreement with the United States, two industry sources told Reuters on Monday. Daily production fell to about 160,000 metric tons in the first half of the month, from 175,000 tons in September. It began climbing toward 180,000 tons a day once the quotas arrived in mid-October. Russia’s domestic diesel consumption typically drops to about 140,000 tons a day in October, after the grain harvest and the summer driving season…

It seems that everywhere you look in the financial media these days, there is persistent hype about artificial intelligence (AI) and the companies developing it. Right alongside this great investment boom is doom and gloom about the future value of bonds. Oil, too, is frequently covered for two reasons: the inability of oil futures prices—which seem suspiciously low—to reflect the long-term effects of what is happening in the Persian Gulf, and the high prices of refined products such as gasoline and diesel, where the real squeeze seems…

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), one of the biggest Indian state-owned refiners, will reduce its purchases of crude oil from Russia in November as high freight costs and premiums for Russia’s crude undermine the attractiveness of Moscow’s oil compared to Middle Eastern offers.  BPCL will buy lower volumes of Russian crude in November as the Middle East grades are more commercially attractive for the company now, BPCL’s head of finance, Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta, said on Monday, discussing the refiner’s quarterly…

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), one of the biggest Indian state-owned refiners, will reduce its purchases of crude oil from Russia in November as high freight costs and premiums for Russia’s crude undermine the attractiveness of Moscow’s oil compared to Middle Eastern offers.  BPCL will buy lower volumes of Russian crude in November as the Middle East grades are more commercially attractive for the company now, BPCL’s head of finance, Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta, said on Monday, discussing the refiner’s quarterly…

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), one of the biggest Indian state-owned refiners, will reduce its purchases of crude oil from Russia in November as high freight costs and premiums for Russia’s crude undermine the attractiveness of Moscow’s oil compared to Middle Eastern offers.  BPCL will buy lower volumes of Russian crude in November as the Middle East grades are more commercially attractive for the company now, BPCL’s head of finance, Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta, said on Monday, discussing the refiner’s quarterly…

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), one of the biggest Indian state-owned refiners, will reduce its purchases of crude oil from Russia in November as high freight costs and premiums for Russia’s crude undermine the attractiveness of Moscow’s oil compared to Middle Eastern offers.  BPCL will buy lower volumes of Russian crude in November as the Middle East grades are more commercially attractive for the company now, BPCL’s head of finance, Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta, said on Monday, discussing the refiner’s quarterly…

We extensively covered the unusually strong El Niño, its weather impacts by region, and the risks this adverse weather poses to crop production and global food inflation.  UBS's energy team hosted a call Tuesday with meteorologist James Block to assess El Niño impacts for weather markets. The discussion comes amid a global refining crisis and continued disruptions to Strait of Hormuz energy flows, with European natural gas futures approaching 90 euros per megawatt-hour this week. Block offered some relief to energy consumers…

The Middle East conflict has tightened energy markets so much that crude oil, fuel, and natural gas prices are unlikely to return to pre-war levels in 2027, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said on Monday.  “I am afraid I don't see any credible pathway that the markets will go next year, where we were before this war has started,” Birol said at the Singapore International Energy Week conference, as carried by Reuters.  In a speech at the event, Birol cautioned that energy markets are…

The Middle East conflict has tightened energy markets so much that crude oil, fuel, and natural gas prices are unlikely to return to pre-war levels in 2027, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said on Monday.  “I am afraid I don't see any credible pathway that the markets will go next year, where we were before this war has started,” Birol said at the Singapore International Energy Week conference, as carried by Reuters.  In a speech at the event, Birol cautioned that energy markets are…

A group of sanctioned Russian tankers dropped anchor some 1,300 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle in July after getting stuck and hunkered down for a long wait in the frozen waters at the top of the world. Help from two nuclear-powered icebreakers was several days' voyage away. The ships were stuck near the Vilkitsky Strait, a 55-kilometer-wide choke point between the coast of northern Siberia and Bolshevik Island, on Russia's Northern Sea Route (NSR) to China. The Kremlin has heavily invested in the promise that retreating Arctic sea ice opens…

Crude oil prices began trading with a dip this week but remain significantly elevated as hostilities between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia, as well as Iranian attacks on tankers in the Persian Gulf, continue. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $114.42 per barrel, down from over $116 per barrel last week but up from around $60 per barrel at the end of 2025. West Texas Intermediate remained above $100 per barrel, despite the dip from Friday’s close, trading at $100.97 per barrel at the time of writing, down from a 2026…

Crude oil prices began trading with a dip this week but remain significantly elevated as hostilities between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia, as well as Iranian attacks on tankers in the Persian Gulf, continue. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $114.42 per barrel, down from over $116 per barrel last week but up from around $60 per barrel at the end of 2025. West Texas Intermediate remained above $100 per barrel, despite the dip from Friday’s close, trading at $100.97 per barrel at the time of writing, down from a 2026…

For years, the rare earth industry has been talking about January 1, 2027 as the date that changes everything. That date is now less than 75 days away. On January 1, new Pentagon procurement rules take effect that will restrict the use of Chinese-origin rare earth materials in American weapons systems. The restrictions cover the full supply chain, from mining and refining through separation, melting, and production. Every defense contractor currently sourcing rare earth magnets or magnet materials from China will need a compliant domestic alternative.…

The global energy transition is increasingly becoming an Asian story, and Asia is unlikely to follow the path envisioned in Washington or Brussels. The region’s governments will have enormous influence over the future of coal, oil, natural gas, renewables and energy storage. What happens next in Asia will determine whether the transition actually reduces global fossil fuel consumption or simply adds vast amounts of renewable power to an energy system that keeps getting bigger. Asia requires $1 trillion annually in energy investments over…

Reports about recovering oil flows in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea have dominated headlines over the past couple of weeks. Yet oil prices have only moved higher, suggesting barrel numbers alone are not enough to convince the world everything’s back to normal. It isn’t. According to the latest Kpler numbers, October oil exports out of the Middle East in total are in fact higher than they were before the U.S. and Israel launched their first strikes on Iran at the end of February. Flows out of the Strait of Hormuz alone have averaged…

The United Kingdom has invested heavily in expanding its renewable energy capacity in recent years to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and support a green transition. However, one major problem stands in the way of it achieving this goal – its unprepared transmission infrastructure. Despite several new wind and solar projects coming online, the U.K. still relies heavily on natural gas due to grid inefficiencies that are delaying the shift to green energy. The U.K. is spending up to £50 million a day to balance its power grid, as…

The United Nations says that it is now an inevitability that the world will fail to meet the legally binding goals set forth by the Paris climate accord as a result of “decades of insufficient climate action”. The Paris Agreement, ratified in 2015, targeted limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages, with a fallback target of 2?, with the understanding that this looser allowance would lead to far more devastating consequences for global ecosystems, human health, the economy, and future generations.…

The host of the United Nations’ COP31 climate summit, Turkey, is encouraging wealthy countries participating in the conference to spend more on climate support than on defence. This follows Turkey’s announcement in September that it plans to invest heavily in developing its renewable energy capacity in the coming years. However, Turkey also intends to expand its oil and gas production, which could be at odds with its climate aims. COP31 will be held in the southern Turkish province of Antalya from 9th – 20th November with a first-of-its-kind…

The Iran war has made oil tanker voyages so inefficient that vessel availability has crumbled and freight costs have soared to record-highs, all but erasing the incentive for shipping crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Asia. The cost of shipping crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to China soared to as high as $80 million earlier this month. That’s ten times the average tanker rates that had held for years before the Iran war. Freight rates have eased from the record highs seen in early October, but they were still about $60 million for…

Singapore’s shipping-fuel market is adding another layer of cost to Asian trade. Disrupted supplies from the Middle East and Russia, resilient bunker demand and prohibitive freight rates have pushed high-sulphur fuel oil above the price of the crude used to produce it. Seasonal relief from Gulf producers and additional Chinese export allowances could ease the squeeze towards year-end, particularly for very-low-sulphur fuel oil. But with replacement cargoes expensive to transport and Russian supplies vulnerable to further disruption, a return…