The U.S. is increasing pressure on Hungary to cut off its reliance on Russian oil imports and vows to work with Hungarian authorities and neighboring countries to help Budapest wean off Russian supply, a senior U.S. diplomat says.   Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, rejected in a Fox News interview suggestions from Hungarian politicians that the U.S. is giving Hungary a pass to continue importing Russian oil.   “Hungary, unlike many of their neighbors, has not made any plans or made any active steps,”…

The U.S. is increasing pressure on Hungary to cut off its reliance on Russian oil imports and vows to work with Hungarian authorities and neighboring countries to help Budapest wean off Russian supply, a senior U.S. diplomat says.   Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, rejected in a Fox News interview suggestions from Hungarian politicians that the U.S. is giving Hungary a pass to continue importing Russian oil.   “Hungary, unlike many of their neighbors, has not made any plans or made any active steps,”…

After years of restructuring and cost-cutting efforts, UK-listed oilfield services group Petrofac on Monday filed for administration, following the termination of its biggest contract.   Petrofac’s directors have applied to the High Court of England and Wales to appoint administrators to Petrofac, said the company, which provides infrastructure and engineering services to the oil and gas, renewables, and power supply industries.  When appointed, administrators will work alongside Executive Management to preserve value, operational…

After years of restructuring and cost-cutting efforts, UK-listed oilfield services group Petrofac on Monday filed for administration, following the termination of its biggest contract.   Petrofac’s directors have applied to the High Court of England and Wales to appoint administrators to Petrofac, said the company, which provides infrastructure and engineering services to the oil and gas, renewables, and power supply industries.  When appointed, administrators will work alongside Executive Management to preserve value, operational…

Oil prices gave up earlier gains to turn 1% lower on Monday amid profit-taking following last week’s rally.  As of 7:13 a.m. ET, the U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, traded 0.81% lower at $60.98. The international benchmark, Brent Crude, was down by 0.83% on the day at $65.41.   Oil rallied by nearly 8% last week after the Trump Administration imposed sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil producers and refiners, Rosneft and Lukoil, “as a result of Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the…

Iraq is in discussions with OPEC to review its oil production quota as output capacity rises, Hayan Abdul Ghani, the Oil Minister of OPEC’s second largest producer, said on Monday.   Iraq is in talks with OPEC to reassess its production quota within the country’s available production capacity of 5.5 million barrels per day (bpd), Reuters quoted Abdul Ghani as saying at an oil conference today. Iraq has a current quota of 4.4 million bpd and is committed to sticking to it despite its larger production capacity, the minister said.…

U.S. oil and gas producers seek efficiencies and cost reductions amid lower oil prices this year compared to 2024 levels. Fresh off multi-billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions in the 2023-2024 period, many major producers in the U.S. shale patch are restructuring businesses and operations. The result so far has been a series of announcements and reports of workforce reductions across geographies and basins. The latest such report came this week, by Reuters, which reported a memo it had seen regarding layoffs at the Canadian business of U.S. oil…

The U.S. federal government this week declared sanctions on two of the largest Russian crude oil exporters, Rosneft and Lukoil, which together account for about half of the country’s total outflows. Oil prices jumped, traders got excited—then prices fell. But the supply security of some major importers just got problematic. Russia exports around 4 million barrels of crude oil daily. Some of the major producers have already been sanctioned earlier – Gazprom Neft, for example, and Surgutneftegaz. Rosneft and Lukoil are also the…

In recent years, California has pursued an accelerated shift to green by encouraging consumers to make the switch from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles. The government of California hopes to eventually decarbonise its medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles to improve the state’s air quality and help tackle the effects of climate change. However, following significant opposition from the truck industry and the federal government, achieving this aim now appears increasingly unlikely.  California’s medium-…

With sales continuing to thrive in many countries, the global market for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) surpassed the 10 million annual sales mark for the first time in 2024, with sales up nearly 10 percent compared to 2023. More recently, in May 2025, China also reached a major milestone, with over one million electric cars sold in a single month, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). While China unsurprisingly dominates the global market in terms of sales volume, some European countries still lead the way in…

In an inflammatory social media post, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Colombia’s first-ever leftwing President Gustavo Petro of colluding with drug traffickers, calling him “an illegal drug leader”. Trump, in an increasingly hardline stance, called for the cessation of U.S. aid and imposition of further steep tariffs on Colombia. He even went as far as threatening military strikes if narcotics trafficking does not end. This is testing the historically close alliance between the United States and Colombia, which is Latin America’s…

The United States has long used hydropower, which is now the country’s largest source of renewable energy, for electricity production. Hydropower contributed 27 percent of total U.S. utility-scale renewable electricity generation and 5.86 percent of total utility-scale electricity production in 2024. The U.S. first started developing its hydropower fleet in the late 1800s, long before other renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.  Hydropower plants produce electricity using the elevation difference created by a dam or…

The technology behind sodium-ion batteries just got a whole lot more advanced thanks to one small tweak in their design. Scientists at the University of Surrey discovered that by charging traditional approaches to using nanostructured sodium vanadate hydrate (NVOH), a pre-existing sodium-based material, batteries not only perform better, they can also desalinate water, presenting a surprising and useful dual functionality.  Typically, scientists remove the water content that naturally occurs in NVOH, in keeping with standard practice. But…

With climate change reshaping some of the world’s most trafficked shipping routes, we may need to establish alternative transport links and shipping hubs to prepare for the future of global trade. Other challenges are also affecting certain shipping routes, showing the need to develop alternatives. The maritime sector manages between 80 and 90 percent of the world’s trade, meaning that any disruption can significantly affect global supply chains and lead to major delays for a wide range of sectors.  In recent years, some of the…

With the renewable energy sector growing rapidly on a global scale, as many governments pursue a green transition, the need to recycle more components has become evident. Finding innovative ways to recycle renewable energy equipment could help significantly cut costs and reduce waste, further supporting the sector’s green ambitions. There is great potential for a range of components to be reused and recycled, from solar panels to wind turbines and electric vehicle (EV) batteries. However, greater research and investment must be contributed…

The global energy demand increase being driven by widespread AI integration is creating a complex problem for power grids worldwide. The gap between current energy production capacity and projected need from data centers is so vast that experts are now saying that the issue won’t be solved within our lifetime, and is therefore an issue that will fall on future generations to untangle.  “The gap between what AI is demanding and what we have everywhere in the world on the grid in terms of generation and transmission is huge and will…

Tony Blair’s think tank has called for the government to ditch its 2030 clean power target as it urged the Labour government to focus on making electricity cheaper in order to persuade Brits to use it over gas.  In a report published by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), researchers called for the government to “solve” problems including the decline of North Sea oil production, which had made the UK less secure.  It is the latest indication that Blair has split from Keir Starmer’s government on key issues after the…

The United Arab Emirates has broken ground on a combined solar power and battery storage facility designed to deliver one gigawatt (GW) of continuous, round-the-clock baseload renewable energy. The project, described by developers as the largest and most technologically advanced of its kind, represents a capital investment exceeding $6 billion. The facility is being developed by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC – Masdar and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC). Once operational in 2027, the system aims to overcome the intermittency…

Russia-owned Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) has halted crude processing as U.S. sanctions choke oil flows to Serbia, triggering fears of a fuel shortage ahead of winter. A shipment of roughly one million barrels of Kazakh KEBCO crude that arrived at Croatia’s Omisalj terminal on 9 October remains blocked after deliveries through the JANAF pipeline were suspended on 8 October, according to multiple industry sources cited by Reuters on Friday.  The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control allowed a sanctions waiver on NIS…

Russia-owned Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) has halted crude processing as U.S. sanctions choke oil flows to Serbia, triggering fears of a fuel shortage ahead of winter. A shipment of roughly one million barrels of Kazakh KEBCO crude that arrived at Croatia’s Omisalj terminal on 9 October remains blocked after deliveries through the JANAF pipeline were suspended on 8 October, according to multiple industry sources cited by Reuters on Friday.  The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control allowed a sanctions waiver on NIS…