Crude oil prices extended their decline today, with Brent crude sliding to $77.51 per barrel at the time of writing, and West Texas Intermediate at $73.62 per barrel, on reports that the United States and Iran were making progress in their peace talks. The latest updates from the negotiations table include a report that the United States will waive sanctions on Iran’s oil industry for the 60-day duration of the cessation of hostilities agreed earlier this month. The two parties also agreed on a mechanism to end fighting between Israel and…

Back in 2017, we did the math to figure out how much oil it takes to mine a single Bitcoin. The answer then was about 20 barrels of oil equivalent per coin. Today it's closer to 500. The Bitcoin network now draws somewhere between 138 and 175 terawatt-hours a year, depending on whose model you trust…  Split across the roughly 164,000 coins minted annually since the last halving, that lands at around 500 barrels of oil equivalent at today’s prices per Bitcoin, and past 600 on the higher estimates.  But Bitcoin is the warm-up…

Oil prices have continued to whipsaw since the U.S. and Iran announced last week signed a deal to make a deal as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is anything but straight and not expected to normalize within days. Contradictory messaging from Iran and the United States on the navigability of the chokepoint have intensified during the weekend amid a difficult start to the (delayed) talks in Switzerland. Shippers and insurers, who were already very cautious about returning to the Persian Gulf and its key trade lane, are wary of an operating environment…

Back in 2020, the electric vehicle sector witnessed a major evolutionary change after leading EV makers started using cobalt-free batteries at scale. Back then, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) officially shifted to Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) for its standard-range vehicles while its leading Chinese rival, BYD Company (OTCPK:BYDDF), introduced its famous "Blade" batteries, triggering mass adoption of LFP batteries for electric vehicles by other automakers. LFP batteries have helped EV manufacturers to lower production costs, eliminate reliance on expensive…

Threats from President Trump to bomb Iran again and Iranian negotiators leaving the talks in Switzerland once again clouded the outlook for one of the world’s busiest oil chokepoints. Talks are progressing, but the degree of uncertainty about global oil supply security remains high—because of the risk environment in the strait, of which most appear to be oblivious. Social media users have started calling Hormuz the Strait of Schrodinger, and with good reason. It is not only about whether the passage of vessels is unobstructed by Iranian…

For the past few years, hydrogen has suffered from a credibility problem. Not because the technology itself stopped making sense, but because expectations ran too far ahead of reality. Governments announced hydrogen strategies worth hundreds of billions of euros. Companies unveiled ambitious projects stretching from Portugal to Poland. Analysts forecast a future hydrogen economy that would decarbonize everything from steel and chemicals to shipping and aviation. Then came the inevitable correction. Costs remained higher than expected. Financing…

As the City of London Corporation marks the fifth instalment of the Net Zero Delivery Summit this week, I reflect on the world we were in back in 2022. Only four years ago businesses and communities were recovering from Covid, war had returned to the European continent with the invasion of Ukraine, and surging fuel and food prices were driving global inflation to historic levels. Since then, global instability has only deepened, with conflict in the Middle East and tariff wars disrupting global trade.  We have to face a difficult truth that…

Billions of dollars in investments are flowing into Greece’s energy sector as the country tries to establish itself as a vital energy transit hub for Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe as the European Union prepares to completely phase out Russian gas imports by 2027. According to To Vima Finance, over €23 billion (~$26.3B) from major international investment funds and high-profile global entities including BlackRock, Capital, Covalis, QIA and K Group has poured into Greece's energy sector over the past one month alone as they…

Billions of dollars in investments are flowing into Greece’s energy sector as the country tries to establish itself as a vital energy transit hub for Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe as the European Union prepares to completely phase out Russian gas imports by 2027. According to To Vima Finance, over €23 billion (~$26.3B) from major international investment funds and high-profile global entities including BlackRock, Capital, Covalis, QIA and K Group has poured into Greece's energy sector over the past one month alone as they…

The outline of conditions and topics for a negotiated settlement of the U.S.-Iran conflict, called a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and signed by both sides last week, in all probability won't prevent the approaching energy cliff. That cliff will be the result of fast-depleting commercial and strategic inventories of oil and oil products around the world that have acted as buffers in the wake of the suspension of almost all tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict - tankers believed to carry about 20 percent of the world's…

Saudi Arabia continues to snap up high volumes of Russia’s fuel oil as the Hormuz crisis has forced shut oil and gas wells and reduced domestic supply for power generation amid rising temperatures. Russia’s vessel shipments of fuel oil and vacuum gasoil (VGO) slumped in May by some 6% from April, due to the continued Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, Reuters reported on Monday, quoting shipment data on LSEG and traders. Despite the overall decline in Russian fuel oil exports, to about 3.2 million metric tons last month,…

After Washington snatched Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, in a daring January 2026 night raid, the country’s long road to recovery began. Under the leadership of Maduro’s former vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, economically crucial oil production and exports are rising. President Trump is pressing Caracas to raise output, all while the U.S. president urges big oil to invest in the near-failed state. While doubts linger over whether production can return to historic highs, Venezuela recently recorded its highest…

U.S. airlines stand to save billions in dollars on jet fuel costs after the US-Iran peace deal sent oil prices sharply lower. Brent crude was trading at $79.22 per barrel at 6.05 am ET on Monday, nearly $20/bbl lower after Washington and Tehran agreed to a ceasefire and committed to 60 days of negotiations, while jet fuel spot prices fell to $2.85 a gallon, down sharply from $4.88.  The dip in fuel costs could slash the U.S. airline industry’s annual fuel bill by more than $40 billion, easing the pressure on carriers who were facing…