ExxonMobil reported $15.4 billion in third-quarter profit Friday, more than double its earnings a year earlier, with its Gulf Coast refineries running at full capacity and diesel prices doing the rest. The company earned $3.72 per share, or $4.23 on an adjusted basis, beating Wall Street's $4.08 estimate. Adjusted net income reached $17.5 billion, making it one of Exxon's most profitable quarters ever. Exxon's energy products business earned $9.05 billion in adjusted profit, up from $4.1 billion in the second quarter. Its U.S. Gulf Coast refinery…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States remained unchanged again this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US staying at 603, up 57 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 2, to 462 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 48 above this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 to 130, which is 5 more than this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 11. The latest EIA…

Fears of renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities are intensifying, with rising Hormuz attacks, reported explosions at Iran's Jask port and military repositioning overshadowing diplomatic efforts. Friday, October 30, 2026 With only several days left until the US midterm elections, oil prices are set for a hefty 13-14% month-on-month increase as ICE Brent trends around $118 per barrel. Qatari and Pakistani mediation notwithstanding, everything is pointing towards a resumption in US-Iran hostilities in the upcoming weeks – rising numbers of Hormuz attacks,…

A decade ago, the United States was only beginning to emerge from an energy outlook that had once assumed steadily rising dependence on imported natural gas. For years, the prevailing concern was that domestic production would struggle to keep pace with demand, leaving the country increasingly reliant on liquefied natural gas brought in from overseas. That expectation proved badly wrong. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing unlocked enormous shale gas resources, domestic production surged, and facilities originally designed to receive imported…

Japan is expected to overtake China as the world’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) this year, for the first time since 2022, as high LNG prices and sufficient storage in China limit purchases, analysts at ICIS and Kpler say.  Japan’s LNG demand will exceed, albeit slightly, demand in China, according to estimates by the consultancies compiled by Reuters. Imports into Japan are estimated at 62 million metric tons, while Chinese imports are expected at 61 million tons this year, according to ICIS. Kpler also sees…

Japan is expected to overtake China as the world’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) this year, for the first time since 2022, as high LNG prices and sufficient storage in China limit purchases, analysts at ICIS and Kpler say.  Japan’s LNG demand will exceed, albeit slightly, demand in China, according to estimates by the consultancies compiled by Reuters. Imports into Japan are estimated at 62 million metric tons, while Chinese imports are expected at 61 million tons this year, according to ICIS. Kpler also sees…

Japan is expected to overtake China as the world’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) this year, for the first time since 2022, as high LNG prices and sufficient storage in China limit purchases, analysts at ICIS and Kpler say.  Japan’s LNG demand will exceed, albeit slightly, demand in China, according to estimates by the consultancies compiled by Reuters. Imports into Japan are estimated at 62 million metric tons, while Chinese imports are expected at 61 million tons this year, according to ICIS. Kpler also sees…

Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices have topped 101 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) for the first time since the 2022 crisis as winter looms amid historically low European gas storage levels.  The front-month price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, surged by 4% as of 9 a.m. in Amsterdam on Friday. The TTF price was on track for an 8% weekly gain amid mounting concerns that the escalation in the Middle East would continue to choke off Qatari and Emirati LNG flows through the Strait…

Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices have topped 101 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) for the first time since the 2022 crisis as winter looms amid historically low European gas storage levels.  The front-month price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, surged by 4% as of 9 a.m. in Amsterdam on Friday. The TTF price was on track for an 8% weekly gain amid mounting concerns that the escalation in the Middle East would continue to choke off Qatari and Emirati LNG flows through the Strait…

Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices have topped 101 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) for the first time since the 2022 crisis as winter looms amid historically low European gas storage levels.  The front-month price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, surged by 4% as of 9 a.m. in Amsterdam on Friday. The TTF price was on track for an 8% weekly gain amid mounting concerns that the escalation in the Middle East would continue to choke off Qatari and Emirati LNG flows through the Strait…

Four days after Russia launched its all-out effort to subjugate Ukraine, the US government and other Western allies fired a broadside of financial sanctions aimed at punishing the Kremlin’s wallet for the assault. The Russian Central Bank was prominent. So was a multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund that the Kremlin calls the Russian Direct Investment Fund, or RDIF. The U.S. Treasury called it “a slush fund for President Vladimir Putin [that] is emblematic of Russia’s broader kleptocracy.” After months of dormancy,…

Japan’s government on Friday decided to tap $7 billion from its contingency reserves to keep subsidies for gasoline and other fuels, even as it plans to gradually scale back the support from December. The Japanese government decided today to allocate about $7 billion (1.1 trillion Japanese yen) from the reserve funds to continue capping retail gasoline prices amid soaring oil and fuel import costs, Japanese media reported. Introduced in March, soon after the war in the Middle East began, the subsidy program has kept the average national gasoline…

Tensions in the Middle East are escalating again as a tanker was reported on fire after explosive devices were attached to its hull while the vessel was attempting to transit outbound in the Strait of Hormuz. The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which is affiliated with the Royal Navy, said in a warning notice that it had received a third report on Thursday that a tanker transiting outbound was on fire 25 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman, in the Strait of Hormuz. In a subsequent update, UKMTO said it had received “a verified…

Crude oil gave back ground on Thursday as traders weighed emergency supply against tentative efforts to reopen talks with Iran. Neither side has taken control. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is delivering barrels, but the reserve is near its lowest level since 1982. Peace efforts have resurfaced, but no agreement has been reached, and the threat to regional shipping and Saudi energy infrastructure remains. On Friday, at 00:05 GMT, December WTI crude oil futures are trading at $102.77, down $0.67 or -0.65% for the week. The contract reached…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Bolsonaro has been secretly flown to Miami on a private jet, three days after losing Brazil’s presidential runoff to Lula and a day after defying a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports in a money-laundering case. The State Department is issuing visas to him and his family. Prior to the election, U.S. diplomats in Brazil were told the policy was to return the Bolsonaros to power, making them a direct target. On October 27, Justice Flávio Dino ordered federal police to investigate foreign…

Netanyahu’s bloc fell eight seats short of a Knesset majority on October 27, winning 53 of 120 seats to 48 for Gadi Eisenkot’s camp. The Arab parties took a record 19 on turnout of about 80% in Arab communities, up from 54% in 2022. Netanyahu will stay on as caretaker PM until a new government is sworn in. As leader of the largest party (Likud with 27 seats), he is also the most likely recipient of President Herzog’s first mandate to form a government, which runs 28 days and can be extended by 14. Netanyahu and Likud have spent…

BP easily beat analyst expectations of third-quarter earnings, posting its highest quarterly profit, which nearly quadrupled from a year earlier amid strong refining margins and oil and gas trading. BP’s underlying replacement cost profit, the metric is uses for net profit, soared to $8.6 billion for the third quarter, nearly quadrupling from the same period of 2025, the supermajor said on Friday. Earnings also rose by $2.7 billion compared to the second quarter, and smashed analyst estimates of $7.3 billion. “Compared with the second…

Brent Crude oil prices are set to end the year at about $105 per barrel, bank ANZ said on Friday as it hiked its projection by $10 a barrel on the assumption that Middle East oil exports, shipping availability, and fuel supplies will remain constrained through December. “The forecast does not require another geopolitical shock,” ANZ’s strategists wrote in a note carried by Bloomberg.   “Rather, it assumes that the constraints already confronting Middle Eastern exports, shipping and refined-product markets persist through…

The World Bank now ranks off-grid solar as the cheapest way to bring electricity to at least 398 million people who still live without it. A joint report released this week by the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the off-grid solar industry association GOGLA treats the technology as permanent infrastructure. Systems once sold as a stopgap until the grid arrived now power households, businesses and factories, and 95% of surveyed customers still had working solar home systems four or more years after buying…

The Iran war and the lack of LNG supply from the Middle East have upended forecasts of near-term natural gas demand and import costs. So far this year, economies in Europe and Asia have relied more on renewables and coal for power generation to offset reduced gas supplies procured at very high prices. This year’s crisis has prompted governments to rethink energy policies with energy security the top priority, again, after the 2022-2023 energy crisis. After the decline in global gas demand this year, due to prices at four-year highs, the obvious…