September WTI crude oil futures are trading at $78.08 early Friday, down $8.72, or 10.05%, for the week. The market opened at $80.10, traded as high as $82.33, and fell to $74.24. With Friday’s session still ahead, the weekly result is not final. But the message from the price action is clear. Traders sold the possibility that diplomacy could restore crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz, then bought back part of the break when it became clear that the shipping problem had not been solved. The early selloff was driven by optimism surrounding…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Eight Arab and Muslim countries have accused Israel of violating the Gaza ceasefire as Israeli strikes continue more than nine months after the U.S.-mediated “truce” took effect. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia jointly condemned Israeli attacks on civilians, healthcare facilities and other infrastructure. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the October ceasefire, according to Gaza health authorities. Israeli forces have…

Iran and Oman appear close to an agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but the remaining issues are substantial. Tehran would control inbound traffic while Oman would oversee outbound shipping, and Iran is seeking sanctions relief in exchange for toll-free passage. Washington opposes giving Iran control over shipping lanes, while the shipping industry has warned that proposed transit fees and existing U.S. sanctions could make the arrangement unworkable. Even if an agreement is announced, it would address shipping through Hormuz rather than…

India’s crude oil production fell for the third consecutive financial year in 2025/2026, the government said as it launches a push to boost offshore oil and gas exploration. India’s crude output fell by 3% in the 2025/2026 fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, Oil and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told Parliament. “The domestic oil production over the last three years has shown a slight decline, primarily owing to natural decline in mature and ageing oil and gas fields,” the government said. State-owned Oil and Natural…

Oil prices fell for a second week running thanks to optimism surrounding renewed U.S.-Iran diplomacy to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that talks between Washington and Tehran would resume l, adding that U.S. allies in the region, including Saudi Arabia, had urged him to suspend attacks. Iran and Oman have managed to reach a preliminary agreement on geographic coordinates for a temporary, partial shipping route through Hormuz, easing immediate supply fears. However, oil prices managed to snap their…

Southeast Asia is falling short of its ambitious projects to boost gas-fired power generation to meet growing electricity demand and replace some of the coal use. Fuel availability, volatile prices, and supply chain bottlenecks threaten to drive up costs and delay projects by years, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie says. Six of the biggest Southeast Asian economies and power markets – Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines – are set to deliver only a third of their combined planned gas-fired power capacity…

Drivers in the United Kingdom have started filling up their tanks without paying for the fuel as driving costs surge on the fuel supply crunch driven by the war in the Middle East. The crimes include people driving off after filling up without paying and people claiming they cannot pay for the fuel they had acquired. According to data from fuel crime prevention platform Forecourt Eye, drivers in the country have been stealing fuel worth the equivalent of almost $270,000 every day since the war between the United States and Israel and Iran began…

Intense summer heat waves are threatening energy security across Europe. The continent is facing a scorching and arid summer, causing electricity demand for air conditioning to skyrocket at the same time that rivers warm up and dry out with devastating consequences for the nuclear energy industry and for hydropower reserves. Last month, France had to reduce output and shut down nuclear reactors at a record pace without sufficient and safe water supplies to cool its reactors. And now, this week, Hungary had to shut down the Paks nuclear power plant…

US distillate exports surged to a record last week as global supplies tightened. Disruptions across the Gulf area and various surrounding maritime chokepoints, as well as Ukrainian one-way attack drone strikes that have paralyzed portions of Russia's energy infrastructure, have been a major boon for US refiners and export terminals along the Gulf of America. To begin the week, Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg TV, "The situation in Russia is really one thing that worries us a lot." Dart warned,…

Glencore will launch a secondary listing in Australia in the latest blow to London’s ailing stock market as miners continue to eye opportunities away from the UK. The mining and trading juggernaut, which is among the largest companies on the FTSE 100 boasting a market cap of £64.4bn, is pursuing the listing following its group’s long-standing complaint that its shares are undervalued and there is too little liquidity in London. Chief executive Gary Nagle said the listing would “broaden our investor base and enhance trading…

Russia increased oil production in July as stronger exports and recovering refinery runs gave producers somewhere to put more barrels. Crude oil and condensate output rose by roughly 100,000 barrels per day from June to more than 9 million bpd, two industry sources told Reuters on Thursday. Oil and fuel sales remain critical to Russia’s budget, giving Moscow every reason to keep production flowing despite sanctions and repeated attacks on its energy infrastructure. OPEC estimates for Russian production came in at 8.928 million bpd in June,…

Russia increased oil production in July as stronger exports and recovering refinery runs gave producers somewhere to put more barrels. Crude oil and condensate output rose by roughly 100,000 barrels per day from June to more than 9 million bpd, two industry sources told Reuters on Thursday. Oil and fuel sales remain critical to Russia’s budget, giving Moscow every reason to keep production flowing despite sanctions and repeated attacks on its energy infrastructure. OPEC estimates for Russian production came in at 8.928 million bpd in June,…

Russia increased oil production in July as stronger exports and recovering refinery runs gave producers somewhere to put more barrels. Crude oil and condensate output rose by roughly 100,000 barrels per day from June to more than 9 million bpd, two industry sources told Reuters on Thursday. Oil and fuel sales remain critical to Russia’s budget, giving Moscow every reason to keep production flowing despite sanctions and repeated attacks on its energy infrastructure. OPEC estimates for Russian production came in at 8.928 million bpd in June,…

Mexico has ruled out fracking in a key shale basin, drawing a line through a resource-rich area even as the country looks for ways to cut its dependence on U.S. natural gas. President Claudia Sheinbaum said hydraulic fracturing will not be allowed in the Tampico-Misantla basin beneath Veracruz and Tamaulipas. The government cited the basin’s dense population, indigenous communities and freshwater reserves. Sheinbaum ordered a panel to examine whether unconventional gas could help reduce imports from the United States. Mexico buys more than…

BP’s Bumerangue discovery is more than another giant Brazilian oil find: it could become the project that keeps both BP’s upstream portfolio and Brazil’s production boom alive well into the 2030s. With an estimated 2.5 billion barrels potentially recoverable and peak output that could reach 600,000 b/d, the ultra-deepwater development is large enough to offset declining production from BP’s existing assets and arrive just as Brazil’s current pre-salt giants begin moving off plateau. Yet its promise comes with a formidable…

Saudi Arabia cut the price of its flagship crude for Asian buyers again as hopes of a deal to move more tankers through the Strait of Hormuz pushed oil prices lower. Saudi Aramco will reduce the September official selling price for Arab Light by 50 cents per barrel, putting it at a $2 discount to the regional benchmark. The cut lands as Iran says an agreement with Oman on a shipping route through Hormuz is in its final stages. Brent crude has dropped to around $80 per barrel, down roughly 20% in two weeks, as traders bet that more Persian Gulf…

Saudi Arabia cut the price of its flagship crude for Asian buyers again as hopes of a deal to move more tankers through the Strait of Hormuz pushed oil prices lower. Saudi Aramco will reduce the September official selling price for Arab Light by 50 cents per barrel, putting it at a $2 discount to the regional benchmark. The cut lands as Iran says an agreement with Oman on a shipping route through Hormuz is in its final stages. Brent crude has dropped to around $80 per barrel, down roughly 20% in two weeks, as traders bet that more Persian Gulf…

Saudi Arabia cut the price of its flagship crude for Asian buyers again as hopes of a deal to move more tankers through the Strait of Hormuz pushed oil prices lower. Saudi Aramco will reduce the September official selling price for Arab Light by 50 cents per barrel, putting it at a $2 discount to the regional benchmark. The cut lands as Iran says an agreement with Oman on a shipping route through Hormuz is in its final stages. Brent crude has dropped to around $80 per barrel, down roughly 20% in two weeks, as traders bet that more Persian Gulf…

With the recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, many expected oil prices to spike and stay high. Instead, they have barely budged. The latest spike in prices is a mini spike. If these oil prices were adjusted for inflation, the spikes in the past would appear even higher. Figure 1. Weekly average oil prices for West Texas Intermediate oil in a chart provided by EIA, with Iran conflict price spike circled. This is not a new problem. Looking at energy data going back to 1820, low demand (affordability) has repeatedly produced financial crashes,…

State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) on Thursday announced the start of operations of the world's first 16-megawatt tension-leg platform (TLP) floating wind power platform, which began supplying power to an offshore oilfield. CNOOC, one of the biggest oil producers in China and a specialist in offshore technology, connected the Haiyou Anlan floating wind power platform to the Lufeng Oilfield grid via a 4.3-kilometer-long (2.7 miles) subsea cable, the company said in a statement carried by Chinese media. The TLP-supported…