The first tanker shipping diesel out of Russia to the U.S. departed from the Russian Baltic Sea port of Primorsk early on Friday local time and is en route to New York where it is expected to arrive on November 7, shipping data show. The medium-sized oil tanker Agioi Fanendes, flying the flag of Malta, loaded about 40,000 metric tons, or about 300,000 barrels, of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month announced a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The deal was one of President Trump’s…

The privately held company that’s partnering with the U.S. Administration to boost oil production in Venezuela has raised output by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) since August and plans to soon add more rigs to further hike production. North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), announced by the White House in August as one of the U.S. Administration’s partners in “the biggest oil deal in world history”, will soon activate three rigs in the fields it now operates, doubling the number of active rigs in its projects,…

The privately held company that’s partnering with the U.S. Administration to boost oil production in Venezuela has raised output by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) since August and plans to soon add more rigs to further hike production. North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), announced by the White House in August as one of the U.S. Administration’s partners in “the biggest oil deal in world history”, will soon activate three rigs in the fields it now operates, doubling the number of active rigs in its projects,…

December WTI crude oil is nearly unchanged for the week, but the flat result hides a rough ride. The contract opened at $99.04, rallied to $101.37, then broke to $95.25 before recovering back to its opening level. At 00:19 GMT, December WTI crude oil is trading at $99.29, up $0.25 or +0.25% for the week. The high matched the June contract high. The low came on peace-talk headlines. Neither side won the week. Buyers could not hold the breakout, but sellers could not keep the market under pressure after the break. The Peace-Talk Trade Did Not Stick…

It is often said that a very high percentage of individuals who trade in their own investment or brokerage accounts go broke within the first year. There have been several studies affirming that, so I don’t doubt that it is true, but to me the more interesting question than whether it is true is why it might be so. If you are attempting to take on the pros and trade intraday moves, then I get it. You are at a huge disadvantage in terms of order visibility, trade execution time, trade size, and a whole host of other things. But if you are…

Saudi Arabia was already the most exposed country in the US-Iran war, and Iran has now explicitly listed Saudi refineries, data centers, and undersea communications cables as the next targets should Washington strike again.   That day may be nearly upon us, with the New York Times reporting on Thursday that Washington and Israel have drawn up a short, intensive bombing campaign for post-November 3 (and post-October 27 elections for Israel), with exercises already running, more U.S. forces moving into the region, and a target list covering…

Record renewable power generation and a surge in grid-scale battery capacity pushed Australia’s gas-powered generation to its lowest for any third quarter since 2000, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said in its Quarterly Energy Dynamics (QED) report on Friday.   Despite lower heating requirements, Australia’s electricity demand rose by 1.3% in the July-September winter quarter, amid ongoing electrification, higher industrial demand, and increasing data center consumption, AEMO said.  “Electricity use…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict On October 13, Ukrainian drones began falling out of the sky after SpaceX imposed new restrictions on the satellite connections that control them. Some lost contact with their operators when they reached 90 km/hour; others had to fly slowly enough to remain connected, making them easier targets for Russian air defenses. Ukraine also lost the ability to use some of its interceptor drones against Russian attacks. CBS News and the Wall Street Journal claim Musk personally ordered the restrictions, while Reuters…

The benchmark European natural gas price jumped by 3% at opening in Amsterdam on Friday as the Middle East escalation continues to restrict Qatari LNG flows and some EU countries started tapping gas in storage as temperatures drop. The front-month price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, jumped by 3% at 7 a.m. Amsterdam time on Friday, as oil prices also rose, and Brent hit a five-month high of $114 per barrel as concerns grow that Houthi attacks could hit Saudi Arabian energy facilities. At…

Italian energy group Eni is boosting its payout to investors with an extraordinary dividend and increased share buybacks after more than doubling its third-quarter earnings on higher oil and gas production and soaring refining margins. Eni’s adjusted net profit more than doubled from a year earlier to $3.14 billion (2.8 billion euros) for the third quarter, driven by higher oil and gas production and realizations and more than doubled refining margins across its operations, the Italian company said on Friday. The profit topped consensus estimates…

For years, the West has searched for a technological escape hatch from rare earths. Engineers have developed new motor designs, alternative magnet chemistries, and materials that reduce or even eliminate the need for some critical minerals. Every time China tightens export controls, those efforts receive another burst of attention. They're worth pursuing. But they don't answer the question manufacturers have to solve today. Production capacity has become the number one scarce asset. That realization is driving one of the most ambitious industrial…

Last month, Shell (NYSE:SHEL), alongside Malaysia's PETRONAS, China's PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation and KOGAS, officially approved the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the LNG Canada Phase 2 expansion project, doubling the facility's capacity to 28 million tons per annum (mtpa) and reinforcing the country's potential as a significant long-term supplier to Asian markets. Together with Cedar LNG and Woodfibre, both currently under construction, Canada is expected to export 33 mtpa of LNG by the end of the current decade.  According to…

China has relied on its huge crude oil inventories since the Iran war hiked oil prices to above $100 per barrel. The world’s biggest crude importer has drawn from its 1.3-billion-barrel stash for most of the months after March as it slashed imports amid soaring prices. The stock draws, and the reduced imports in the spring and summer, have even kept benchmark crude oil prices in check despite the major disruption to flows from the Middle East, as China’s crude supply management was one of the key buffers the market has had since the…

The European Union will shun crude oil and natural gas produced from fields in the Arctic, recommending that these “stay in the ground” under its new Arctic strategy released this week. The reiteration of the EU’s stance on Arctic hydrocarbons comes amid a severe fuel crisis and soaring gas prices ahead of winter peak demand season. The update on the Arctic strategy of the bloc that has quite limited geographical exposure to the Arctic comes five years after the last one, as the Arctic draws increasing attention, notably from…

The energy demand boom being driven by the artificial intelligence era is placing unprecedented strain on global energy infrastructure. Not only are the world’s energy production capacities – and especially clean energy production capacities – dwarfed by projected data center energy demand curves in coming years, the physical infrastructure needed to build and sustain never-before-seen rates of electrification and energy consumption growth is woefully underdeveloped. At present, the world’s energy grids and transmission…

Asia will need as much as $1 trillion annually in energy investment over the next 15 years to meet rising demand and reduce its exposure to supply disruptions, according to a McKinsey report released Thursday. That amounts to $15 trillion through 2040, with the Iran war exposing just how vulnerable the region remains to disruptions in oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. McKinsey now expects Asian energy demand to reach 370 million terajoules by 2040, a 15% increase over its forecast from just a year ago. The region is expected to…

Asia will need as much as $1 trillion annually in energy investment over the next 15 years to meet rising demand and reduce its exposure to supply disruptions, according to a McKinsey report released Thursday. That amounts to $15 trillion through 2040, with the Iran war exposing just how vulnerable the region remains to disruptions in oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. McKinsey now expects Asian energy demand to reach 370 million terajoules by 2040, a 15% increase over its forecast from just a year ago. The region is expected to…

French historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz has offered energy-transition skeptics an appealing historical argument. In More and More and More, he argues that humanity has never really moved from one energy source to another. Wood was joined by coal, coal by oil, oil by gas and all of them by renewables. Energy sources accumulate rather than replace one another. Global primary-energy charts make the argument look convincing. Fossil use remains near record levels after trillions in clean-energy investment. Biomass did not disappear when coal arrived,…

Asia will need as much as $1 trillion annually in energy investment over the next 15 years to meet rising demand and reduce its exposure to supply disruptions, according to a McKinsey report released Thursday. That amounts to $15 trillion through 2040, with the Iran war exposing just how vulnerable the region remains to disruptions in oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. McKinsey now expects Asian energy demand to reach 370 million terajoules by 2040, a 15% increase over its forecast from just a year ago. The region is expected to…

Canadian oil producer Strathcona Resources wants to export up to 250,000 barrels per day of crude from British Columbia’s northern coast using rail shipments and a new marine terminal to reach Asian markets. But first, it needs Ottawa to make an exception to its oil tanker ban. Strathcona Chairman Adam Waterous told Bloomberg that the company plans to approach Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government as early as next week with a proposal to move crude by rail to a new export terminal in Prince Rupert. Waterous believes exports could…