Just ahead of the production increase beginning in April, the OPEC+ group boosted its oil production to an eight-month high in March, according to the Platts OPEC+ Survey from S&P Global Commodity Insights. The total oil production from the alliance rose to 41.04 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, up by 30,000 bpd from February. The producers in OPEC+ who have quotas busted their overall output ceiling by a massive 319,000 bpd, according to the Platts survey. Kazakhstan remained the producer, exceeding its quota the most. The OPEC+ producer,…

European Union member states on Friday agreed to give more flexibility to the natural gas storage goals by expanding the period in which countries should have 90% full storage ahead of the winter and could deviate by up to 10% from the filling target. The EU supported the European Commission’s proposal to extend the gas storage regulation by two years. But EU member states also want more flexibility in reaching the filling target to avoid price spikes if market conditions are tight. Today, the representatives of the EU member states approved…

The April market rout, which crashed oil prices into the low $60s per barrel, is creating additional fiscal challenges to petrostates and oil-producing countries heavily dependent on oil revenues, on top of any tariff-related hardships. As Brent Crude prices sank to $63 per barrel, major producers in the Gulf region, as well as Brazil and Nigeria, are looking to contain the fallout from the price plunge. Russia’s central bank has already signaled that the oil price decline could hit its economy hard. Oil at $60 is about $20 to $30 per barrel…

BP expects to post a weak natural gas trading result for the first quarter, as well as lower gas output, as the UK-based supermajor is resetting its strategy back to core oil and gas operations. Reported upstream production in the first quarter is expected to be lower compared to the prior quarter, with oil production slightly higher and gas and low-carbon energy output lower, including announced divestments in Egypt and Trinidad completed towards the end of prior quarter, BP said in a Q1 trading statement on Friday. The oil trading result is expected…

BP expects to post a weak natural gas trading result for the first quarter, as well as lower gas output, as the UK-based supermajor is resetting its strategy back to core oil and gas operations. Reported upstream production in the first quarter is expected to be lower compared to the prior quarter, with oil production slightly higher and gas and low-carbon energy output lower, including announced divestments in Egypt and Trinidad completed towards the end of prior quarter, BP said in a Q1 trading statement on Friday. The oil trading result is expected…

China hit back at the U.S. tariffs by raising on Friday the Chinese tariff on U.S. goods to 125% from 84% earlier, escalating the U.S.-China standoff. “The U.S. imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international and economic trade rules, basic economic laws and common sense and is completely unilateral bullying and coercion,” China’s Finance Ministry said in a statement. Oil prices, which had been climbing before China's announcement, dropped in response to the news. At the time of writing, both WTI…

Crude oil exports from Saudi Arabia to China are expected to increase substantially next month, thanks to the sizable price cut by the Saudis, Reuters reported today, citing unnamed sources. Volume allocations to Chinese refiners reveal that Saudi exports in May will rise to 48 million barrels from the 35.5 million barrels scheduled for delivery this month. Saudi Arabia cut the official selling prices for its oil sharply ahead of a production boost set for next month. The sharpest cut was made for the price of oil sold in Asia, with flagship Arab…

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has welcomed U.S. investors to his country and reiterated that his country is not pursuing nuclear weapons, a day after the Trump administration sanctioned five entities and one individual for supporting key entities managing and overseeing Iran's nuclear program. “I meet the supreme leader [Ali Al Khamenei] several times each week. He has no objection to American investors in the country,” Mr Pezeshkian said at a ceremony marking National Nuclear Technology Day. “Let them come and invest –…

The nuclear power industry will need additional uranium supply in the medium and long term to ensure adequate supply for the new era of nuclear energy. Therefore, efforts must begin immediately to secure the supply of the key nuclear fuel, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in their Red Book report prepared jointly every two years. Nuclear energy has been booming since 2022 as many countries seek to add reliable but zero-carbon electricity generation capacity to meet growing power demand,…

The recent reiteration by Iraq Oil Ministry of a 7 million barrels per day (bpd) oil production target within the next five years has spurred activity among Chinese firms that continue to dominate the country’s oil and gas sector. As it stands, more than a third of all Iraq’s proven oil and gas reserves and over two-thirds of its current production are managed by Beijing’s companies, according to industry figures. This translates into Chinese companies having a combined direct share in around 24 billion barrels of reserves…

A global nuclear energy renaissance is unfolding. Around the world, the public and private sectors are warming to the idea of nuclear energy expansion to meet ballooning energy demand driven by data centers without throwing decarbonization accords out the window.  The International Energy Agency projects that the world will produce more nuclear energy in 2025 than ever before. “More than 70 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity is under construction globally, one of the highest levels in the last 30 years, and more than 40 countries around…

Two former senior US military commanders have said Europe's aerial shield is not prepared to meet the scale of the threat from Russia, while the head of the US Navy's air and missile defense task force has told RFE/RL that intercepting incoming fire is "always a cat-and-mouse chase." The comments come as European countries begin a massive rearmament program, agreed last month, with air defenses top of the shopping list. "You see what has happened in big cities in Ukraine. This also would happen in some of the big cities of Europe," Philip Breedlove,…

In a world where geopolitics and energy security are increasingly intertwined, China's national oil companies have emerged as pivotal actors in securing the nation’s energy future while shaping global energy dynamics. Through bold investments, innovative technologies, and a relentless drive to both secure and diversify their energy sources, China’s ‘Big Three’ NOCs — China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)…

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday revised its global oil demand growth projections downward, citing the impact of escalating trade tensions and increased tariffs, as markets resumed their downward trajectory that saw a brief pause on Wednesday following Washington’s announcement of a postponement for everyone except China. The EIA now anticipates a growth of 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the current year, a decrease from the previously forecasted 1.2 million bpd. For 2026, the projection is adjusted to 1.1 million…

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday revised its global oil demand growth projections downward, citing the impact of escalating trade tensions and increased tariffs, as markets resumed their downward trajectory that saw a brief pause on Wednesday following Washington’s announcement of a postponement for everyone except China. The EIA now anticipates a growth of 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the current year, a decrease from the previously forecasted 1.2 million bpd. For 2026, the projection is adjusted to 1.1 million…

??The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday revised its global oil demand growth projections downward, citing the impact of escalating trade tensions and increased tariffs, as markets resumed their downward trajectory that saw a brief pause on Wednesday following Washington’s announcement of a postponement for everyone except China. The EIA now anticipates a growth of 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the current year, a decrease from the previously forecasted 1.2 million bpd. For 2026, the projection is adjusted to 1.1…

Harnessing the power of our oceans could provide all the energy that the world needs three times over, with zero carbon emissions. Ocean waves produce an estimated 50 trillion to 80 trillion watts of power on a global scale. Even if we are able to harness just a fraction of that clean baseload power, it would upend global energy systems as we know them.  The issue is finding an efficient and cost-effective way to harness that energy and bring it to a commercially viable scale. “Many devices have been designed to capture and convert waves’…

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have taken a significant step to line up financing for an ambitious plan to export renewable-energy-produced electricity to Europe, signing a memorandum of understanding with the Asian Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The MOU establishes a “robust institutional and legal framework to facilitate cross-border electricity trade,” according to a statement issued by the ADB.  ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov described the agreement as a “defining…

Google announced on Thursday an agreement with PJM Interconnection, the largest grid operator in North America, to deploy a new set of AI tools and models to manage and optimize interconnecting power generation to the PJM electric grid. Google, Alphabet-incubated moonshot Tapestry, and PJM are collaborating for the intelligent management of connection queues to the PJM electrical grid, which spans the District of Columbia and 13 states across much of the industrial Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. This is Google’s biggest step yet to use AI for…

Our regulatory regime in the US is based on the Supreme Court decisions in the Hope and Bluefield cases. In both cases the courts clearly limit public utility commission ratemaking discretion while establishing four key principles of ratemaking: 1) value the assets fairly (including adjustments for inflation), 2) provide a reasonable return to both creditors and equity holders, 3) admit that the unique expertise of the commissions should be owed some deference, 4) and that rates should reflect a balance between public and private interests. These…