The eastern government of Libya may declare force majeure on oil export terminals and oilfields due to “repeated assaults on the National Oil Corporation (NOC),” said the government based in Benghazi. Although the Libyan government in the east is not internationally recognized, many of Libya’s oilfields are in the east and under control of eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftar of the Libyan National Army (LNA). Rumors have been circulating that the headquarters of Libya’s NOC, based in Tripoli, had been stormed. The eastern…

The eastern government of Libya may declare force majeure on oil export terminals and oilfields due to “repeated assaults on the National Oil Corporation (NOC),” said the government based in Benghazi. Although the Libyan government in the east is not internationally recognized, many of Libya’s oilfields are in the east and under control of eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftar of the Libyan National Army (LNA). Rumors have been circulating that the headquarters of Libya’s NOC, based in Tripoli, had been stormed. The eastern…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for increased international pressure on Russia after a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin where the leaders announced plans for Ukraine and Germany to jointly produce long-range weapons boosting Ukraine's ability to fight. "There is not enough pressure," Zelenskyy told German broadcaster RTL on May 28, criticizing what he sees as insufficient commitment from global powers. "The United States is involved, but not 100 percent. Other countries, like China and those from the Global…

Saudi Arabia will review its spending priorities after the oil price decline, and will consider whether to delay or accelerate some projects, the Kingdom’s Finance Minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Thursday. Saudi Arabia needs oil prices at about $90 per barrel to balance its budget. The world’s top crude oil exporter is already running a higher-than-planned deficit, which is set to swell with the oil price dip in the second quarter. With oil prices having crashed into the $60 a barrel…

Kyushu Electric Power will sign a 20-year supply agreement to receive LNG from Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles export facility if its development proceeds as planned. The supply deal will be Kyushu Electric Power’s first-ever agreement for LNG deliveries from the United States, which will help diversify the utility’s energy sourcing, the company said in a statement on Thursday carried by Reuters. A spokesperson for Kyushu Electric Power told the newswire that the company had not been asked by the Japanese authorities to buy U.S.…

The Trump administration has canceled a loan guarantee of $2.92 billion granted by the previous administration to solar major Sunnova. Per a Bloomberg report, the cancelation followed Sunnova’s telling the federal government it had changed its mind about the loan and no longer wanted to use it. The company had only made use of some $371 million from the facility, the report noted. The Biden admin had celebrated the loan guarantee as the largest subsidy package ever granted for solar power. For Sunnova, however, the package was the worst option…

A U.S. trade court on Thursday blocked the tariffs that President Trump has imposed on U.S. trade partners, saying the president overstepped his authority. The news pushed oil prices higher earlier today even as the market awaits bearish news from OPEC+. “The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President's use of tariffs as leverage,” the Court of International Trade’s three-member panel wrote in its ruling that imposes a permanent injunction on all the tariffs that Trump has announced since taking…

Saudi Arabia’s oil revenues have been suffering from the oil price slump during the second quarter. But there’s a silver lining in falling crude prices – profits from refining the crude rise with cheaper feedstock. While Saudi Arabia has been restricting crude oil production and exports as part of the OPEC+ deal, it has been running refineries at near-record levels this year and exporting record-high volumes of refined petroleum products. Stronger refining margins and higher exports of petroleum products have generated more income…

Demand for liquefied natural gas from the biggest importing region—Asia—has remained strong this year, although it has experienced a certain softening compared to last year. Prices are to blame for the softening—and they’re about to slide lower and reverse the demand trend. Asian LNG importers bought 112.45 million tons of LNG over the first five months of the year, Reuters’ Clyde Russell wrote this week, citing data from Kpler. This was down 6.2% on the first five months of 2024. and most of the decline came from…

Suppose you wanted to get into the LNG business in the U.S. to take advantage of the global low-cost of supply advantage held by America. So the desire and the rationale are there, but you’d like to avoid some of the headaches associated with building a liquefaction facility. Site selection, permitting, financing, and associated infrastructure to support moving field gas to your site; essentially 7-10 years’ worth of work and trouble before you ever make a dime. In the meantime, maybe your stock tanks from upfront capex and interest…

For most of the past century, energy producers could count on steady oil demand growth. From industrial development in China to population booms in emerging markets, the global appetite for oil kept expanding like clockwork.  There were occasional exceptions, like the 2008-2009 recession and the demand slump from COVID-19, but global oil demand has increased at an average rate of about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for nearly 60 years. But a recent forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) suggests that the world may…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell this week, by 4.236 million barrels in the week ending May 23 after analysts had estimated a 1-million-barrel build. The API reported a 2.499 million barrel inventory increase in the prior week. So far this year, crude oil inventories are up more than 21 million barrels, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) climbed…

Iran is reportedly prepared to halt its uranium enrichment at 60% purity, which is just below weapons-grade, in what media is viewing as a potential breakthrough in indirect nuclear talks with the United States, according to a Reuters exclusive.  In exchange, Tehran is seeking formal U.S. recognition of its right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the release of billions in Iranian assets currently frozen abroad. This vague signalling comes as diplomatic momentum appears to be shifting. …

The global appetite for critical minerals and rare earths is skyrocketing, according to a report issued by the International Energy Agency. China is the dominant player in terms of mining and refining, but Kazakhstan is the world’s leading producer of uranium, while Uzbekistan is expanding exports of uranium, copper and other rare earths. The IEA’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025 notes that global demand for lithium increased by 30 percent in 2024 over the previous year’s total. Other minerals used in the production of electric…

As many as 4,000 livelihoods are at risk after the owner of Britain’s largest bioethanol plant has warned it could shut within days, citing UK-US tariff policy. ABF, which owns the Vivergo Fuels plant in Yorkshire, has written to farmers warning it planned to suspend purchases of wheat used in the production process unless the government urgently steps in. The plant is capable of producing up to 420 million litres of bioethanol from over 1 million tonnes of feed grade wheat sourced from thousands of farms mostly across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.…

Via Metal Miner Has the countdown to the end of China’s steel dominance in its own and international markets begun? Some steel industry reports seem to indicate that this is exactly the case. Many chalk this up to a variety of factors, including a shift in steel demand dynamics, China’s own poor internal demand, its efforts to turn to producing green steel and tariffs by other nations on cheap steel exports.    Goldman Sachs Predicts Drop in Chinese Steel Exports A new report by Goldman Sachs says the surge in Chinese…

China is considering easing its recently imposed export restrictions on rare earth elements for European semiconductor companies, Chinese media reported on Wednesday, signalling that Beijing may be attempting to stabilize global supply chains amid mounting tech industry panic. In April, China added seven rare earth elements and related products to its export control list, making it mandatory for exporters to obtain licenses regardless of the end customer's nationality. While some licenses have been granted, the complex and lengthy approval process…

China’s Geo-Jade Petroleum has signed a swathe of major contracts that give Beijing control over Iraq’s first fully integrated energy project. This comprises a development project to increase production at the Tuba oil field from 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 100,000 bpd, constructing a 200,000-bpd high-specification refinery, and building a 620,000 tonnes annual capacity petrochemical plant, according to Iraq’s Oil Ministry. It also includes the construction of a 520,000-tonne annual capacity fertilizer plant, developing a…

China is considering easing its recently imposed export restrictions on rare earth elements for European semiconductor companies, Chinese media reported on Wednesday, signalling that Beijing may be attempting to stabilize global supply chains amid mounting tech industry panic. In April, China added seven rare earth elements and related products to its export control list, making it mandatory for exporters to obtain licenses regardless of the end customer's nationality. While some licenses have been granted, the complex and lengthy approval process…

Germany plans to do all it takes to keep the Nord Stream 2 pipeline offline, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday at a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin. “We will do everything in this context to ensure that Nord Stream 2 cannot be put back into operation,” Merz said, as quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP). Germany will continue to increase the pressure on Russia, the chancellor added. Nord Stream 2, an $11-billion project to carry Russian natural gas from Russia to Germany via the…