Turkey’s decision to cancel the 1973 pipeline agreement with Iraq, retroactive to July 2022, signals a deliberate effort to reshape the terms of northern oil exports on its own terms. Far from a procedural adjustment, the move is designed to reset Ankara’s legal exposure following the Paris arbitration ruling that ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion for unauthorized exports of Kurdish oil, while simultaneously forcing Iraq into a new negotiating framework more favorable to Turkish interests. The timing is strategic. The Ceyhan…

In an executive order signed Thursday evening, President Trump formalized a tariff framework that marks the most protectionist U.S. trade posture in decades. The new tariffs target dozens of key U.S. trading partners and cemented the fresh deals made with others. Labeling America’s $1 trillion goods trade deficit an “extraordinary threat” to national security and economic prosperity, the executive order increases duties on a range of imports — from semiconductor components to consumer goods — while offering strategic…

Back in April, we reported that U.S. President Donald Trump signed a key executive order without much fanfare, aiming to boost the country’s deep-sea mining industry as well as enable the stockpiling of deep-sea metals in a bid to counter China's dominance in rare earths and battery minerals supply chains. The order redirected his administration to expedite mining permits under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act and also streamline permit issuance for the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The administration is also required to work with…

While watching summer demand and OPEC+ production policy, the oil market has started to pay attention to President Trump’s threats to hit Russian oil buyers with secondary tariffs. Earlier this week, President Trump threatened “tariffs and stuff” if Russia doesn’t agree to a ceasefire in 10 days, shortening the 50-day deadline he had given Putin on July 14 to discuss peace or face sanctions. Oil markets reacted on Tuesday to the much shorter deadline, with prices rallying to close 3% higher amid increased concerns…

Western Firms Eye Multiple Deals In Major Offensive To Take The Iraq Initiative Back From China And Russia There are two distinct superpower strategies at play to capture the very heartland of the Middle East – Iraq. On the one hand, China and Russia want to end the semi-independent status of Kurdistan in the north, have it rolled into the rest of Iraq as a regular province, and then expel all Western firms from the then-unified country. The objective for Beijing and Moscow in so doing was delineated by a very senior member of the Russian…

The United States on July 30 imposed sanctions on a major shipping network controlled by the son of a top aide to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in what the Treasury Department said was its “largest Iran-related action” since 2018. The Treasury said it was sanctioning more than 50 individuals and entities and “more than 50 vessels that are part of the vast shipping empire controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political adviser” to Khamenei. It said the sanctioned man “leverages…

U.S. crude oil production hit a new monthly record in May 2025, averaging 13.488 million barrels per day (bpd), according to new EIA data released Thursday. That’s a modest 0.2% rise from April’s 13.464 million bpd, but a respectable 2.2% increase year-over-year. The biggest contributor remains Texas, which churned out 5.752 million bpd, up from 5.751 million bpd in April. New Mexico, home to part of the prolific Permian Basin, saw production tick up to 2.199 million bpd, a marginal 0.1% month-on-month rise but a robust 8.9% jump compared…

U.S. crude oil production hit a new monthly record in May 2025, averaging 13.488 million barrels per day (bpd), according to new EIA data released Thursday. That’s a modest 0.2% rise from April’s 13.464 million bpd, but a respectable 2.2% increase year-over-year. The biggest contributor remains Texas, which churned out 5.752 million bpd, up from 5.751 million bpd in April. New Mexico, home to part of the prolific Permian Basin, saw production tick up to 2.199 million bpd, a marginal 0.1% month-on-month rise but a robust 8.9% jump compared…

U.S. crude oil production hit a new monthly record in May 2025, averaging 13.488 million barrels per day (bpd), according to new EIA data released Thursday. That’s a modest 0.2% rise from April’s 13.464 million bpd, but a respectable 2.2% increase year-over-year. The biggest contributor remains Texas, which churned out 5.752 million bpd, up from 5.751 million bpd in April. New Mexico, home to part of the prolific Permian Basin, saw production tick up to 2.199 million bpd, a marginal 0.1% month-on-month rise but a robust 8.9% jump compared…

The Trump administration has taken the decision to reinstate Chevron’s licence to operate in Venezuela, marking a decisive and long-overdue shift in its Venezuela policy. The decision, which will see Chevron resume operations in the world’s largest proven oil reserves after being barred in May 2025, is more than an economic arrangement. It is a significant foreign policy recalibration. For too long, US engagement in Venezuela has been driven by a neoconservative agenda and the false promise of regime change - an approach that has only…

U.S. crude oil production hit a new monthly record in May 2025, averaging 13.488 million barrels per day (bpd), according to new EIA data released Thursday. That’s a modest 0.2% rise from April’s 13.464 million bpd, but a respectable 2.2% increase year-over-year. The biggest contributor remains Texas, which churned out 5.752 million bpd, up from 5.751 million bpd in April. New Mexico, home to part of the prolific Permian Basin, saw production tick up to 2.199 million bpd, a marginal 0.1% month-on-month rise but a robust 8.9% jump compared…

Geothermal energy is poised for a breakthrough in the United States. One of the vanishingly few clean energy forms that made it through the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill unscathed, the time is right for the carbon-free energy source to take center stage. With a positive policy environment and rapid advancements in technology, there’s only one critical hurdle in geothermal energy’s way – an exceedingly shallow talent pool. The geothermal revolution will need a whole lot of geologists – but a huge number…

The European Commission is considering pooling demand from European companies to collectively purchase more U.S. liquefied natural gas—part of an effort to meet its $750 billion energy trade deal with Washington. The initiative, announced Thursday, would be modeled after the EU’s 2022 AggregateEU program, which coordinated gas purchases following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Commission spokesperson said a U.S.-focused version of the program could launch as early as September if enough interest emerges. “We are ready to…

The European Commission is considering pooling demand from European companies to collectively purchase more U.S. liquefied natural gas—part of an effort to meet its $750 billion energy trade deal with Washington. The initiative, announced Thursday, would be modeled after the EU’s 2022 AggregateEU program, which coordinated gas purchases following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Commission spokesperson said a U.S.-focused version of the program could launch as early as September if enough interest emerges. “We are ready to…

The European Commission is considering pooling demand from European companies to collectively purchase more U.S. liquefied natural gas—part of an effort to meet its $750 billion energy trade deal with Washington. The initiative, announced Thursday, would be modeled after the EU’s 2022 AggregateEU program, which coordinated gas purchases following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Commission spokesperson said a U.S.-focused version of the program could launch as early as September if enough interest emerges. “We are ready to…

China has certified 147 million barrels of oil reserves in a new shale play operated by state energy giant Sinopec in the southwestern part of the country, as the world’s top crude oil importer look to boost domestic output. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, as it is more commonly known, announced on Thursday that the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources certified 20.1 million metric tons, or 147 million barrels of oil, in the Fuxing shale play, as well as 12.35 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves. The Fuxing…

China has certified 147 million barrels of oil reserves in a new shale play operated by state energy giant Sinopec in the southwestern part of the country, as the world’s top crude oil importer look to boost domestic output. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, as it is more commonly known, announced on Thursday that the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources certified 20.1 million metric tons, or 147 million barrels of oil, in the Fuxing shale play, as well as 12.35 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves. The Fuxing…

The British Columbia government has agreed to invest CAD$200 million in the Cedar liquefied natural gas project — the second Canadian LNG project expected to come online after LNG Canada, the first, shipped its first cargo from its LNG export terminal in Kitimat in early July. Cedar LNG, jointly owned by the Haisla First Nation and Pembina Pipeline Corp, has an in-service date of late 2028. The project consists of a floating natural gas liquefaction plant and marine export terminal located in the Douglas Channel near Kitimaat Village,…

There are signs that western measures and a domestic crackdown on Kyrgyzstan’s traditional banking sector are starting to bite, hindering Russian efforts to evade sanctions. Yet, booming transactions of a Kyrgyzstan-registered, ruble-linked cryptocurrency on a Kyrgyz exchange this spring indicate that sanctions-busters are still very active in the Central Asian nation. Russian entrepreneurs have complained in recent months that their transactions have grown more expensive or slowed after the United States and United Kingdom sanctioned a Kyrgyz…

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of the Interior did something that just a couple of years ago would have been unthinkable. It permitted a coal mine in Tennessee. New coal mines are being approved around the world despite calls for a ban on the commodity. And this might yet intensify. Last year saw the slowest growth in global coal mine capacity since 2014, energy transition advocacy Global Energy Monitor reported earlier this week. Total new capacity that opened last year stood at 105 million tons, which was a 46% decline from the previous…