China has waived a short-lived 125% tariff on U.S. ethane imports, but American shipments to China could be hindered by a U.S. requirement of export licenses. Ethane, a natural gas liquid primarily extracted from raw natural gas during processing, is mainly used as a feedstock for ethylene production, one of the most important building blocks in the petrochemical industry. China has waived a 125% tariff on U.S. ethane imports it had levied in early April. The tariff removal led EIA to expect strong growth in U.S. ethane production and exports.…

India is exporting more diesel on the east of Suez route into Southeast Asia in May, with shipments to the region on track for a four-year high, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting vessel-tracking data and trade sources. India is estimated to have shipped 600,000 metric tons, or 4.47 million barrels in total, to Southeast Asia in May, according to data from tanker-tracking services Vortexa, LSEG, and Kpler. This is the highest such volume since 2021, as higher margins and lower shipping costs support more volumes heading east of India instead of…

Libyan authorities have arrested three suspects accused of breaking into the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), the Attorney General's Office said shortly after the eastern government warned it could declare force majeure on oilfields and oil export terminals. Representatives of a militia broke earlier this week into the NOC headquarters in Tripoli, and demanded that they be given jobs protecting the building. In response to the incident, the Benghazi-based eastern government of Libya said it might declare force majeure on oil…

Tankers carrying Iranian crude to China are turning off their trackers, Kpler has reported, as cited by Bloomberg, as the threat of new U.S. sanctions looms large despite ongoing nuclear deal negotiations. “Ship-to-ship transfers have been used to mask the origin of those cargoes,” a Kpler analyst told the publication. “Now they’re switching signals off for longer, so that it’s now even harder to trace those flows back to the source, which is Iran,” Muyu Xu also said. The U.S. State Department earlier this month…

Crude oil and natural gas investments in Colombia could rise to $4.68 billion this year, from $4.33 billion in 2024, the country’s oil and gas industry association said, adding that this will not lead to higher production. “Today more investment is required to produce the same amount of oil, due to the natural depletion of the fields and the complexity of the operating environment,” the president of the Colombian Oil and Gas Association said, as quoted by Reuters. Of this total, the bulk, or $3.94 billion, would be spent on production,…

Crude oil and natural gas investments in Colombia could rise to $4.68 billion this year, from $4.33 billion in 2024, the country’s oil and gas industry association said, adding that this will not lead to higher production. “Today more investment is required to produce the same amount of oil, due to the natural depletion of the fields and the complexity of the operating environment,” the president of the Colombian Oil and Gas Association said, as quoted by Reuters. Of this total, the bulk, or $3.94 billion, would be spent on production,…

Crude oil prices are set for another weekly decline following news that OPEC+ was planning to boost production by another 411,000 barrels daily in July. Meanwhile, a court ruling that blocked Trump’s tariffs has been paused after the White House appealed the decision. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $63.84 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $60.67 per barrel, both slightly down on Thursday but higher than the start of the week. Earlier this week, a trade court ruled that President Trump had exceeded his authority…

The eight OPEC+ nations that contributed to voluntary production cuts are set to meet on Friday to discuss production strategy for July. Commodity strategists at Standard Chartered have predicted that we are likely to see more of the same, with the group adding another 411 thousand barrels per day to July targets and cumulative unwinding now clocking in at 1.4 mb/d.  Interestingly, the analysts have reported that the increase in targets has not translated into the expected large increases in OPEC+ output, partly because the increase simply…

India is overtaking China as the world’s biggest oil demand growth driver in a momentous shift in the oil market where China dominated growth in the past two and a half decades. While India’s growth rate is ahead of China’s, Indian volumes aren’t anywhere near the Chinese boom in consumption that began in the early 2000s. And they never will be. With the pace of Chinese growth decelerating and India’s accelerating, market bulls are correct to expect that India will lead demand growth numbers. But they could be disappointed…

South Africa has proposed to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States over a 10-year period as the country looks to secure a trade deal with the Trump administration, a ministerial statement by the South African government has revealed. South Africa plans to import 75 to 100 million cubic metres of LNG per year from the U.S., the world’s top LNG exporter. According to Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South Africa’s Minister in the Presidency, the deal would “unlock approximately $900 million to $1.2 billion in trade per annum…

China has been steadily increasing its energy investing, and therefore its influence, in emerging economies for years now. Through its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure program, Beijing has poured over a trillion dollars into developing its trade relations around the planet since its inception in 2000. In Africa, China is the primary trading partner, and therefore a critical strategic ally in developing the continent’s energy sector. So far, the vast majority of Chinese investment has gone to the development of fossil fuels, but that…

The U.S. Supreme Court has given the green light to Utah’s Uinta Basin Railway project, backing a narrower interpretation of environmental review laws and potentially clearing the path for a major expansion in oil transport capacity. In a unanimous decision Thursday, the justices reversed a lower court ruling, slamming it for what they described as an overly expansive and intrusive interpretation of environmental law. The line would link the Uinta Basin’s oil fields—tucked deep in northeastern Utah’s sagebrush terrain—to…

The race to build Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant appears to be tightening. The Russian nuclear entity Rosatom has long appeared to have the inside track on the construction contract, but the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) is coming up on the outside, hoping to win it at the wire. The head of China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration Dong Baotong made a push to secure the deal for CNNC during talks in Astana with the head of the Kazakh Atomic Energy Agency (KAEA) Almasadam Satkaliev, the Kursiv news outlet reported…

As the fifth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States wrapped up in Rome earlier this month, the public saw little sign of breakthrough. But there have been reports about proposals to break the deadlock as Washington is insisting Iran give up uranium enrichment and Tehran rejecting the demand altogether. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who leads Tehran's negotiating team in the talks, told state media that Iran is reviewing proposals by Omani mediators but did not disclose any details. Oman's Pitches Araqchi briefed the…

It has been a volatile and unpredictable year in global oil markets, with price signals clouded by a growing list of competing drivers. From geopolitical tensions to macroeconomic shifts, both bullish and bearish forces are at play, making it increasingly difficult for analysts and investors to form a clear outlook. Amid this complexity, one structural factor stands out: U.S. oil production. As we look toward the second half of 2025 and 2026, the trajectory of U.S. shale output could prove decisive in shaping the global supply-demand balance. The…

China’s top oil refiners are turning to overseas markets to offset weak domestic demand, pushing ahead with refined product exports despite planned maintenance and uneven profitability, according to new market data.  Planned exports for May are set at 304,700 tons, a slight 2.4% decrease from April, driven by lower gasoline and aviation kerosene volumes. Diesel exports, however, are set to rebound, supported by improving margins and a shift toward clean fuel output, Quantum Commodity Intelligence reported on Thursday. Behind this pivot…

First-quarter earnings highlighted the overall trend of producers maintaining spending and production guidance for the year. Based on a peer group of 20 Canadian shale E&Ps, full year spending dropped a mere 0.4%, with output guidance remaining intact. Oil sands operators mirrored a similar story, with the only notable change coming from Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL) as it trimmed its spending plans 1.6% with no impact to full-year volumes. The biggest highlight of earnings came from Waterous Energy Fund’s Strathcona Resources, which…

Kazakhstan cannot reduce its oil production as it has no right to impose output reductions on international firms that are operating more than 70% of Kazakhstan’s oilfields, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said on Thursday. “The republic has no right to enforce production cuts” on the three large international consortiums, Bloomberg quoted Akkenzhenov as saying. Earlier this month, Chevron’s chief executive, Mike Wirth, told analysts at the supermajor’s Q1 earnings call that “On OPEC plus in Kazakhstan,…

Crude oil inventories in the United States dipped by 2.8 million barrels during the week ending May 23, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday. Crude oil prices were trading up prior to the crude data release by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a drop in US crude oil inventories of 4.236 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories with a draw in gasoline stocks as well. At 10:40 am in New York, the Brent benchmark was trading…

Portugal-based energy company Galp expects its oil production in Brazil to jump by 40% in the coming years as a new major field is set to begin production later in 2025, Nuno Bastos, EVP Upstream, has said. Currently, Galp holds stakes in various oilfields in the deep waters of the Santos basin in the prolific pre-salt layer offshore Brazil. The Portuguese firm’s production in Brazil is about 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) at present. The expected start-up of the Bacalhau field, operated by Norway’s Equinor, is set…