The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US rising to 593, up 54 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 1, reaching 455 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 43 above this same time last year. The number of gas rigs rose by 4 to 128, which is 6 more than this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed at 10. The latest EIA data showed that weekly…

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has blocked Shell-led exploration along the country’s Wild Coast, adding another legal setback to an offshore sector already struggling to keep pace with neighboring Namibia. The country’s highest court on Friday overturned a 2024 Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that had preserved a pathway for Shell and Impact Africa to conduct seismic surveys off South Africa’s east coast under an exploration right granted in 2014. Local communities and environmental groups had challenged the plans partly…

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has blocked Shell-led exploration along the country’s Wild Coast, adding another legal setback to an offshore sector already struggling to keep pace with neighboring Namibia. The country’s highest court on Friday overturned a 2024 Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that had preserved a pathway for Shell and Impact Africa to conduct seismic surveys off South Africa’s east coast under an exploration right granted in 2014. Local communities and environmental groups had challenged the plans partly…

Brent heads toward a 5% weekly gain as stalled US-Iran talks and Hormuz attacks push oil prices toward $100. Friday, August 14, 2026 Crude oil prices are set to post a 5% weekly gain after this week quashed hopes (for the umpteenth time) of a negotiated US-Iran settlement, with Tehran ratcheting up its strikes on ships attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, whilst the White House doubled down on its maritime blockade of Iranian crude. The unusually high, 17-million-barrel build in US crude inventories has offset a little part of the overall…

A cargo of fuel oil from Malaysia is making its way to a refinery on the U.S. West Coast in the first such shipment in three years as global supply of feedstock for refineries has tightened in recent months due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The Solomon Sea tanker, laden with more than 540,000 barrels of low-sulfur and straight-run (LSSR) fuel oil, departed from Malaysia’s PRefChem refinery operated by state oil and gas giant Petronas last week, tanker data on MarineTraffic shows. The cargo is set to arrive in the United States in…

A cargo of fuel oil from Malaysia is making its way to a refinery on the U.S. West Coast in the first such shipment in three years as global supply of feedstock for refineries has tightened in recent months due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The Solomon Sea tanker, laden with more than 540,000 barrels of low-sulfur and straight-run (LSSR) fuel oil, departed from Malaysia’s PRefChem refinery operated by state oil and gas giant Petronas last week, tanker data on MarineTraffic shows. The cargo is set to arrive in the United States in…

A cargo of fuel oil from Malaysia is making its way to a refinery on the U.S. West Coast in the first such shipment in three years as global supply of feedstock for refineries has tightened in recent months due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The Solomon Sea tanker, laden with more than 540,000 barrels of low-sulfur and straight-run (LSSR) fuel oil, departed from Malaysia’s PRefChem refinery operated by state oil and gas giant Petronas last week, tanker data on MarineTraffic shows. The cargo is set to arrive in the United States in…

Kazakhstan has alleged in a confidential arbitration case that some of the biggest international oil firms that have developed the giant Kashagan oilfield awarded $10.7 billion worth of contracts with unjustified cost increases or through bribes, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) team reported on Friday, citing multiple sources. The Kashagan oilfield was developed by the North Caspian Project consortium of international majors and Kazakhstan's state oil firm KazMunayGas. The shareholders in the consortium include…

Kazakhstan has alleged in a confidential arbitration case that some of the biggest international oil firms that have developed the giant Kashagan oilfield awarded $10.7 billion worth of contracts with unjustified cost increases or through bribes, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) team reported on Friday, citing multiple sources. The Kashagan oilfield was developed by the North Caspian Project consortium of international majors and Kazakhstan's state oil firm KazMunayGas. The shareholders in the consortium include…

Kazakhstan has alleged in a confidential arbitration case that some of the biggest international oil firms that have developed the giant Kashagan oilfield awarded $10.7 billion worth of contracts with unjustified cost increases or through bribes, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) team reported on Friday, citing multiple sources. The Kashagan oilfield was developed by the North Caspian Project consortium of international majors and Kazakhstan's state oil firm KazMunayGas. The shareholders in the consortium include…

Every week, the shopping lists of Iranians become shorter as inflation soars and purchasing power plunges. “As things disappear from the dining table, fruit goes first, then dairy products, then anything considered non-essential,” a woman in the Iranian capital, Tehran, said in an audio message sent to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda. “Ultimately, everything we buy is only essentials, but even then, nothing is affordable,” added the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. She is among the millions of…

India’s coal demand is set to jump to 1.6 billion tons in 2030, from about 1.2 billion tons now, due to higher electricity generation and industrial activity, Indian Coal Secretary Vikram Dev Dutt said on Friday. India, which is the world’s second-biggest coal consumer behind China, plans to create a coal trade exchange and raise in its domestic coal supply to boost market transparency and energy security, respectively. A local coal exchange will create a transparent marketplace for buyers and sellers and could later lead to the establishment…

North Asian refiners have increased buying activity to secure U.S. crude oil supply as an alternative to the Middle Eastern crude that may not make it outbound from the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iran stalemate continues and the chokepoint remains effectively closed. At least four Asia-based refiners have bought U.S. crude volumes this week alone, traders told Reuters on Friday. This week, tanker traffic – and shipping traffic as a whole – at the Strait of Hormuz has slumped further, according to observable transits with AIS positioning…

North Asian refiners have increased buying activity to secure U.S. crude oil supply as an alternative to the Middle Eastern crude that may not make it outbound from the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iran stalemate continues and the chokepoint remains effectively closed. At least four Asia-based refiners have bought U.S. crude volumes this week alone, traders told Reuters on Friday. This week, tanker traffic – and shipping traffic as a whole – at the Strait of Hormuz has slumped further, according to observable transits with AIS positioning…

September WTI crude oil futures are trading at $81.19 late Thursday, up $4.11, or 5.33%, for the week. With Friday’s session still to come, the final weekly result remains unsettled. The message is clear. Traders spent the week rebuilding the Hormuz premium after last week’s deal optimism fell apart, then had to deal with an inventory report and demand forecasts that argued crude had moved too far, too fast. The contract did not rally because of a new supply loss. The supply problem was already there. What changed was the market’s…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Yemen’s Houthis said they targeted Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery with two drones on Thursday, the second claimed attack on the Red Sea facility in less than a week and the third since July 25. Neither Saudi Arabia nor Aramco has confirmed the attack as of the time of writing. Bloomberg cited a person familiar with the incident as saying a storage tank sustained negligible damage. Last month, the Houthis threatened to blockade Saudi oil flows and have also attacked Saudi targets and shipping in the…

Syrian oil is clawing its way back, methodically. Onshore, the immediate issue is returning Syria’s existing oil production to Damascus. Most producing fields are concentrated in Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah in the northeast, territory Damascus lost during the civil war, eventually to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Courtesy of a January military offensive against the SDF, Damascus has recovered the most important Deir ez-Zor assets, including the largest (Omar), the Tanak oil field, and the Conoco gas field. The Syrian Petroleum…

Ust-Luga, the top Russian port for exports of oil and other commodities from the Baltic Sea, caught fire early on Friday following an overnight drone attack from Ukraine. A fire was detected at the port of Ust-Luga as a result of damage from drones, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of Russia’s Leningrad region, said in a post on Telegram on Friday. Firefighters are working to extinguish the fire, with operations ongoing, the official said. In a separate statement later, Drozdenko posted that “All consequences of the attack in the port…

For years, U.S. President Donald Trump has openly displayed his disdain for the clean energy and electric vehicle sectors. In the early days of his second term, Trump stalled funding for EV charging infrastructure while pushing fossil fuels. In July 2025, the GOP-sponsored One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) rolled back EV incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, terminating the $7,500 new and $4,000 used EV tax credits in September 2025, and cutting back infrastructure and manufacturing subsidies. Yet, this giant push to secure the domestic…

Mexico’s push for fuel self-sufficiency has run into a stubborn problem: Pemex has built and upgraded refining capacity faster than it has learned to operate it reliably. The state oil company is being asked to send more crude into domestic refineries and less onto the export market, a strategy that looks increasingly sensible when refined products’ cracks are strong. But the second quarter of 2026 showed the weakness of that model. Mexican refineries processed only around 1 million b/d (58% of installed capacity), while fuel imports…