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 Light set to be $2.30 per barrel cheaper in May, at a premium of $1.20 per barrel over the Dubai/Oman benchmark. This is the sharpest price cut in over two years, Reuters reported. The move comes amid an oil price rout that followed President Trump’s announcement of a flurry of tariffs on all trade partners, notably China, which is the world’s…

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 Light set to be $2.30 per barrel cheaper in May, at a premium of $1.20 per barrel over the Dubai/Oman benchmark. This is the sharpest price cut in over two years, Reuters reported. The move comes amid an oil price rout that followed President Trump’s announcement of a flurry of tariffs on all trade partners, notably China, which is the world’s…

The reciprocal tariffs that the world has been holding its breath about are here, stock markets are reeling, and crude oil took a dive. The question now is whether tariffs will hurt oil demand for longer or whether the effect will be transitory, with prices rebounding before long. For now, a majority of observers appear to agree that the tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump imposed on all of the country’s trade partners would hurt oil demand quite seriously and continue hurting it for their duration. The International Monetary Fund came…

It is 3 April, so any country buying Venezuelan oil must face a 25% tariff on all its trade with the United States. That is according to President Donald Trump’s executive order signed on 24 March. The White House has also ordered companies with sanctions waivers to quit Venezuela by 27 May, including Chevron, Repsol, and Maurel et Prom. But it looks like some traders are undaunted by the U.S. government’s threats. Tankers are still sailing to Venezuela, contradicting Trump’s statement on 30 March: “Every ship just got out…

The U.S. stock market tanked for a second day running on Friday, with the S&P 500 falling -4.5% a day after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled reciprocal tariffs,  including a baseline 10% tariff applied on imports from all countries. The energy sector was one of the hardest hit by the tariffs, with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLE) falling -7.4% on the day thanks to the ongoing oil price crash. Brent crude for June delivery fell -7.1% to trade at $65.47 per barrel at 11.50 am ET while WTI crude for May delivery declined…

The Rare Earths MMI (Monthly Metals Index) moved sideways, edging up by a slight 1.82%. The global rare earth market has taken a significant hit lately, thanks to a combination of natural disasters and big geopolitical moves. A strong earthquake in Myanmar and the recent wave of U.S. tariffs have thrown this somewhat delicate industry into even more uncertainty. Myanmar’s Quake: A Jolt to the Supply Chain? On March 28, a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked the country of Myanmar. While the tremors didn’t directly damage rare earth…

Many countries worldwide rely heavily on China for the supply of their solar panels, as the world’s biggest producer of the equipment, contributing 77.8 percent of global production. Recently, there have been rising concerns over potential slavery in the supply chain due to the poor conditions faced by many Chinese workers in the industry. These concerns have been raised in the past, but they seem to have been largely overlooked, with governments prioritising an accelerated green transition over greater transparency and accountability in…

Taiwan may have thought that it had bought its way out of hefty U.S. tariffs with last month’s announcement of a $100-billion investment in chip factories in the United States. Oh, was Taiwan wrong. As President Donald Trump’s tariff plan dropped on Wednesday, Taiwan – and the world and markets – realized the actual tariffs are higher than feared. Taiwan was slapped with a 32% tariff, which the government described as “highly unreasonable”, “unfair”, and “deeply regrettable.” Taiwan had…

The first quarter of 2025 ended on a challenging note for the financial markets, as the S&P 500 posted a 4.6% decline—its first quarterly loss since Q3 2023. The Dow and Nasdaq also declined in Q1. Macroeconomic and geopolitical factors weighed heavily on investor sentiment, leading to widespread equity sell-offs and significant sector rotations.  While many sectors faced headwinds, energy stocks emerged as a rare bright spot, delivering resilient performance and reinforcing their reputation as a defensive play during market volatility.…

The European Union (EU) introduced its first Chips Act in September 2023 to establish a framework for strengthening the semiconductor ecosystem in the region. Member states have increasingly been calling on the EU to strengthen the regulation to advance the region’s semiconductor production. The European Chips Act was established to bolster Europe’s competitiveness and resilience in semiconductor technologies and applications and help achieve both the digital and green transition. Approximately one trillion microchips were manufactured…

The US president holds up a sandwich board in the Rose Garden. On it is a list of countries. Next to each country are two columns: one for “tariffs charged to the USA” and one for “USA Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs”. The leader of the free world is cooking up a storm.  “Our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered,” the most powerful man in the planet tells billions of people in Asia, Africa and Europe. The USA wants to end trade deficits and it wants firms to exclusively employ American workers.…

There is an increasing demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as airlines worldwide strive to decarbonize operations. Aviation is a hard-to-abate industry, meaning that it is difficult to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with aviation activities. However, airlines around the globe are increasingly incorporating SAF into their fuel mixes to reduce emissions, with many planning to significantly increase the use of SAF in the coming decades. To achieve this, governments and private companies must invest heavily in SAF research and…

While lithium has a starring role in the global clean energy transition thanks to its fundamental importance in batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage, the “white gold” may be as much of an environmental threat as it is a savior. Extraction processes for the metal are associated with significant negative environmental externalities and public health risks, and now scientists are questioning whether the world can spare the vast amount of fresh water lithium production consumes.  Lithium production is booming around the…

Chinese state-owned oil giant CNOOC Ltd., which stands for China National Offshore Oil Corporation, has followed through on an earlier announced sale of its Gulf of Mexico assets to Britain’s Ineos Energy. “This is a major step for us into the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which builds on our growing energy business,” said Ineos CEO David Bucknall in announcing the deal in December 2024. Ineos Energy focuses on oil and gas exploration and production, with activities in the North Sea, UK, Denmark and the USA. Its onshore assets…

The Department of the Interior just announced that it’s revving the engine on another offshore lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, which was recently renamed by the Trump Administration to the Gulf of America, slated for 2025. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum made it crystal clear: the era of locking up domestic energy is over. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is dusting off its charts, pointing to an estimated 29.6 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and nearly 55 trillion cubic feet of gas lurking beneath the waves. That’s…

The Department of the Interior just announced that it’s revving the engine on another offshore lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, which was recently renamed by the Trump Administration to the Gulf of America, slated for 2025. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum made it crystal clear: the era of locking up domestic energy is over. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is dusting off its charts, pointing to an estimated 29.6 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and nearly 55 trillion cubic feet of gas lurking beneath the waves. That’s…

On the eve of the first-ever Central Asia-European Union summit, Kazakhstan announced the discovery of vast deposits of rare earths, a big nugget of information clearly designed to attract foreign investment. The two-day summit kicked off on April 3 in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, with the leaders of Central Asian states, along with European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in attendance.  The EU’s primary objective is to deepen its trade & investment relations with the…

Several of Europe's top diplomats called out Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to agree to a US-led peace proposal to end the war in Ukraine amid signs Washington has grown wary of the Kremlin's intentions during several weeks of talks. Several of Europe's top diplomats, commenting during the second day of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on April 4, urged allies to put more pressure on Moscow to come to an agreement. British Foreign Minister David Lammy called out Putin, saying the Russian leader "continues to obfuscate,…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, following a 1 rig dip in the prior week. The total rig count in the US fell by 2 to 590 rigs, according to Baker Hughes, down 30 from this same time last year. The number of oil rigs rose by 5 to 489—down by 19 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 7 this week to 96 for a loss of 14 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs were unchanged at…

Oil continued its dive into Friday—Brent dropped below $66, WTI scraped $62—and if you’re thinking, hey, haven’t seen those levels since 2021, you’re not wrong. Today’s WTI prices are not sustainable for some US producers. A perfect storm began to brew late Wednesday. First came President Trump’s broadside tariff blitz—blanket duties slapped on all U.S. trading partners, sparking fears of a global trade war. Yes, energy was exempt from the tariffs. Still, investors didn’t need much convincing.…