Oil markets roared back to life after Trump’s sanctions on Russia’s top oil producers sent prices surging. Friday, October 24, 2025Trump’s sanctions on Russia’s top oil firms have cut short the past weeks’ downward pricing movement, with stories of record high crude on water, flattening backwardation curves and weakening Chinese SPR purchases now all put on the back burner. With ICE Brent soaring to $66 per barrel, up $5 per barrel in just one day, Thursday’s rally failed to trigger incremental moves upwards…

Germany’s utility giant Uniper expects its adjusted net income for the first nine months of the year to be five times lower compared to last year’s levels, on the back of losses from hedging and lost revenues due to the non-delivery of Russian gas, the state-owned firm said on Friday.   Uniper, which reports full nine-month results on November 6, expects earnings “to remain significantly below the previous year's nine months figures as was already the case in the first quarter and the first half year of 2025,”…

Germany’s utility giant Uniper expects its adjusted net income for the first nine months of the year to be five times lower compared to last year’s levels, on the back of losses from hedging and lost revenues due to the non-delivery of Russian gas, the state-owned firm said on Friday.   Uniper, which reports full nine-month results on November 6, expects earnings “to remain significantly below the previous year's nine months figures as was already the case in the first quarter and the first half year of 2025,”…

The war economy that has fueled Russia’s all-out assault on Ukraine for 45 months has been funded by Moscow’s exports of oil and gas and, critics say, the West's unwillingness -- as well as China and India's disinterest -- to fully turn off the spigot. Now the United States -- along with the European Union and Britain -- has taken aim at some of Russia’s biggest oil and gas companies, and their sprawling networks of subsidiaries and affiliates. The US Treasury Department announced on October 22 that it was sanctioning state-controlled…

Greece on Friday announced it is awarding four offshore oil and gas exploration blocks to a Chevron-led consortium.  Following evaluations and negotiations with Chevron, the joint venture Chevron Greece Holdings – Helleniq Upstream was picked as the selected applicant in the Greek exploration tender launched in April.   The Chevron-led bid was the sole applicant in the tender for the blocks, named South of Peloponnese, A2, South of Crete I, and South of Crete II.  Chevron and Greece now need to finalize the concession…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict In Sudan, drone strikes on Khartoum International Airport in the Sudanese capital hit just before its planned reopening, delaying operations and reinforcing doubts over the Sudanese army’s ability to secure the capital, while simultaneously undermining a new transit agreement with Juba to safeguard South Sudan’s oil exports. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces still hold key sections of the pipeline and surrounding territory, leaving crude flows vulnerable and turning both the airport attack and…

Al-Qaeda’s attack in Al-Mahfad, in southern Yemen, which killed nine Yemeni soldiers, underscores the fragility of the southern front and the extent to which external actors are now managing (not directing) Yemen’s war. AQAP (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) is operating across the gaps between rival forces nominally under the Presidential Leadership Council, but practically loyal to separate sponsors. The STC dominates Aden and much of Lahj and Abyan with Emirati support. Islah-aligned units remain entrenched in Marib and parts of…

The UK Government should avoid accelerating the decline of North Sea oil and gas production through policies, as job losses amid the decline in Scotland’s oil and gas industry currently exceed jobs created by clean energy, the UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee said in a new report on Friday.  The report, which is the first part of the committee’s inquiry into GB Energy and the net zero transition, warns that until clean energy jobs can be created at the scale needed to match current oil and gas job losses, the UK…

The UK Government should avoid accelerating the decline of North Sea oil and gas production through policies, as job losses amid the decline in Scotland’s oil and gas industry currently exceed jobs created by clean energy, the UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee said in a new report on Friday.  The report, which is the first part of the committee’s inquiry into GB Energy and the net zero transition, warns that until clean energy jobs can be created at the scale needed to match current oil and gas job losses, the UK…

Exports of liquefied natural gas globally increased to 34.59 million tons last month, which was the highest on record, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum reported. The increase was driven by a boost in imports, at an annual 3.7%, which in turn was driven by a surge in demand in the European Union. That was up by a sizable 40% in September amid lower pipeline flows and the start of storage refill season ahead of peak demand season in the winter. The biggest rise came from non-members of the organization, whose total hit 19.36 million tons. This was…

Strong demand for LNG-related services drove Baker Hughes' third-quarter financial performance above expectations, with the company reporting a 23% annual increase in orders despite a dip in net profits of 20% on the year. Free cash flow rose as well, from $239 million at the end of June to $699 million at the end of September, and cash flow from operating activities rose from $510 million at the end of June to $929 million at the end of September, although both cash flow figures were down on an annual basis. Natural gas was the driver of the oilfield…

Late on Thursday, President Trump announced the termination of all trade negotiations with Canada, citing a Canadian government advertisement that he alleged misused the remarks of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and criticised U.S. tariffs. In a post on his social-media platform, President Trump wrote: “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.” The advertisement referenced was from the Ontario government and showed Reagan warning about the impact of tariffs on jobs and trade. Ontario’s…

Light crude oil futures surged more than 8% this week, driven by aggressive short-covering and geopolitical risk after the U.S. slapped new sanctions on Russia’s top oil exporters. However, despite the sharp rally, underlying supply and macroeconomic concerns continue to cap the upside, keeping traders cautious about the sustainability of the move. The week began with crude trading near multi-month lows as sentiment remained firmly bearish. Concerns about oversupply, a deteriorating demand outlook, and a structurally bearish contango in the…

Last month, we reported that commodity analysts at Standard Chartered have been bucking the overwhelmingly bearish sentiment pervading Wall Street, maintaining a decidedly bullish outlook even as oil prices continue trending lower. StanChart has acknowledged that U.S. oil output has continued taking out all-time highs in the current year, with June production climbing by 133000 barrels per day to an all-time high of 13.58 million bpd. However, the analysts have been betting that U.S. producers will eventually be forced to curtail production due…

In December 2023, Angola stunned global energy markets by announcing it would leave OPEC after 16 years of membership. The decision followed months of tension over production quotas. Angola had been assigned a daily output cap of 1.1 million barrels of oil – far below what Luanda considered fair. At the time of its withdrawal, however, Angola’s production had already collapsed by almost 40% in 8 years, sliding from 1.7 million b/d to 1.1 million b/d. The decline owed less to OPEC than to geology and high government intake: mature fields…

The United States and Australia this week closed a deal to cooperate in the development of a local critical mineral supply. The deal, worth more than $3 billion, according to the White House, could open up access to resources worth $53 billion or more. Theoretically, but it’s a good start. Critical minerals first came to the fore as a hot issue during the Biden administration, which realized the U.S. was uncomfortably dependent on China for its supply, which was vital for advancing the energy transition agenda. Yet critical minerals are not…

Annual conventional discovered volumes once averaged more than 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per year in the early 2010s, but these have fallen to nearly one-third of that, with analysis by Rystad Energy showing global discoveries have averaged slightly over 8 billion boe annually since 2020 despite several standout frontier finds in Namibia, Suriname, and Guyana. Despairingly, the yearly average declines further to about 5.5 billion boe between 2023 and September this year. The contraction reflects a strategic change where the global…

The Trump administration has moved to reopen the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas drilling, reversing one of President Biden’s signature environmental restrictions and cementing Alaska’s return to the energy map. The Interior Department said Thursday it will restore the full 1.5-million-acre Coastal Plain to leasing, along with reinstating previously canceled leases held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. The decision marks the most aggressive push yet to expand exploration in Alaska’s…

The Trump administration has moved to reopen the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas drilling, reversing one of President Biden’s signature environmental restrictions and cementing Alaska’s return to the energy map. The Interior Department said Thursday it will restore the full 1.5-million-acre Coastal Plain to leasing, along with reinstating previously canceled leases held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. The decision marks the most aggressive push yet to expand exploration in Alaska’s…

Electric bills are up across the country. Residential electricity prices have risen roughly 25% since 2020, outpacing both inflation and wage growth. There are several culprits, but an explosion of power-hungry AI data centers and increasing exports of liquefied natural gas are near the top of the list. But while you can’t control these rate hikes, you can control how much power you use — and when you use it. Below are practical, real-world ways to bring those costs back down, drawn from my own experience in the energy industry and…