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Traders are betting record amounts of money on China’s metals markets, expecting a continued rally in the prices of base metals and lithium. At the end of 2025 and the start of 2026, speculators held record-high open interest in the base metals copper, zinc, nickel, tin, lead, and aluminum traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, and near-record open interest in battery metal lithium on the Guangzhou Futures Exchange. Concerns about tightening global metal supply, lower interest rates driving investment in metal commodities, and expectations…
Global economies are increasingly splitting into two opposing camps when it comes to energy policy. While many nations are moving toward electrification and installing record-breaking amounts of clean energy capacity, other nations – most notably the United States, the world’s biggest economy – are installing more fossil fuels than ever before. Put simply, the future of the global energy balance now depends on the results of a high-stakes battle between petro-states and electro-states. The emergence of artificial intelligence…
Even as geopolitical developments, such as Venezuela and Iran, are making headlines, another major energy-related issue is currently being unwound. At present, the fire sale of Russian oil and gas giant Lukoil’s empire is ongoing, in the only way this can be done for a sanctioned Russian major. The whole deal or process is clearly under a clock set by Washington, based, and inside a legal maze designed by OFAC. The most critical part of it all is that potential buyers are forced to demonstrate that they are not merely acquiring assets but…
In 2025, the Middle East solidified its role as the primary stabilizing force in a fragmented global energy system. While international markets faced geopolitical dislocation and divergent transition pathways, the leading Middle Eastern national oil companies (NOCs) adopted a consistent strategy of sustaining hydrocarbon primacy while systematically reducing costs and carbon intensity. More than $100 billion in upstream capital deployment enabled the NOCs to expand crude spare capacity and accelerate gas development, while selective international…
Despite the European Union’s public commitment to sever energy ties with Moscow, new data reveals that the bloc’s ports remained the biggest buyer for Russia’s flagship Arctic liquefied natural gas (LNG) project throughout 2025. An analysis of Kpler vessel-tracking data published Thursday by the non-governmental organization Urgewald shows that EU terminals handled 76.1% of all exports from the Yamal LNG facility last year, netting the Kremlin an estimated €7.2 billion ($8.4 billion). The findings emerge as the EU prepares…
