Refineries are switching to biofuels or shutting down due to hostile regulations—but demand for oil products is growing. This could result in either a market imbalance that will make these products more expensive or a geographical imbalance, which those who care about supply security wouldn’t like. A total of 101 out of 410 refineries around the world are at risk of getting shut down over the next decade, Wood Mackenzie analysts estimated recently, noting that this number represented 21% of global refining capacity. The reasons for…

Oil prices slipped on Wednesday afternoon after initially climbing more than $1 as markets digested a sweeping new round of global tariffs announced by an aggrieved U.S. President Donald Trump from the Rose Garden.  The announcement rattled equity markets and fueled uncertainty across commodities, despite initial gains. Both Brent and WTI crude futures lost ground on Wednesday afternoon, reversing gains made after Trump revealed that a minimum 10% tariff would be imposed on all countries exporting goods to the United States. Additionally,…

Iran is targeting a dramatic increase in oil production from the fields it shares with neighbouring Iraq, according to the chief executive officer of its Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), Nasrollah Zarei. These include its enormous Azadegan oil field (split into North and South sites) that sits on the same reservoir as Iraq’s huge Majnoon site, and the massive Yadavaran oil field which occupies the same reservoir as Iraq’s Sinbad site. Other notable major shared fields – among many others -- are Azar (on the…

Mexico’s energy sector is undergoing a dramatic transformation, which was announced on the 87th anniversary of the original oil expropriation by Lazaro Cardenas. These new ‘leyes secundarias’ will substantially alter the path set by the 2013 energy reforms that opened the industry to private and foreign investment. Former President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government promised that inviting private companies into oil, gas and electricity production would modernize infrastructure, reduce costs and boost efficiency. However,…

About 20 years ago, I was interviewing a candidate for a position at a major oil and gas company. On paper, they had impressive credentials, including extensive experience with hydrogen. Naturally, I asked what I thought was a straightforward follow-up: “What are the primary sources of commercial hydrogen?” The answer I received stopped me cold: “You drill a hydrogen well.” That was a disqualifying response, and for good reason. Commercial hydrogen is not produced from hydrogen wells. The overwhelming majority comes from…

Oil prices were largely holding steady Wednesday afternoon, waiting for the other shoe to drop on the prospect of a failed nuclear deal with Iran that could lead to military conflict, and as the Trump administration gears up to make a big market-rattling tariff announcement in the afternoon. At 2:47 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading up 0.66%, at $74.98, while the U.S. crude benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), was trading up 0.80% at $71.77. Most market attention at the moment remains focused on Trump’s plan to announce sweeping…

Via Metal Miner   At a time when analysts expect the global demand for aluminum to rise, a new development in China may significantly impact both aluminum market demand and the country’s internal consumption. That said, market watchers know that any announcement around metals coming out of Beijing these days also has to be looked at through the lens of the ongoing tariff war with the United States. It’s a pivotal moment for China’s aluminum industry, even as the nation’s production capacity nears its government-imposed…

Oil prices were largely holding steady Wednesday afternoon, waiting for the other shoe to drop on the prospect of a failed nuclear deal with Iran that could lead to military conflict, and as the Trump administration gears up to make a big market-rattling tariff announcement in the afternoon. At 2:47 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading up 0.66%, at $74.98, while the U.S. crude benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), was trading up 0.80% at $71.77. Most market attention at the moment remains focused on Trump’s plan to announce sweeping…

Nature abhors a vacuum, or so they, or potentially Aristotle, once said. During weeks like this, it feels more accurate to say it’s the news which is doing the abhorring. Speculation has been, understandably, rampant as to the nature, variety, and impact of the tariffs the US President Donald Trump is expected to introduce on Wednesday, and just how they might affect everything from Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ fiscal headroom and the price of your supermarket shopping, to Tesla stocks and fears of a global recession. Trump has already…

For decades, the idea that Germany’s gold reserves - some of the largest in the world - might not be safe in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve would have seemed like the stuff of conspiracy theories. But as the political landscape shifts in Washington - and questions have been raised as to what's actually in US vaults, some German lawmakers are beginning to wonder aloud: Is their gold still secure? Germany holds the second-largest hoard of gold on the planet, surpassed only by the United States itself. Roughly 37 percent of that…

US lawmakers and experts at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing underscored a rare bipartisan consensus -- preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons as a top priority. However, divisions remain over how far Washington should go in applying pressure versus pursuing diplomacy. Republican lawmakers strongly supported the Donald Trump administration’s decision to reinstate the “maximum pressure” campaign that defined his Iran policy during his first term as US president. “The maximum pressure campaign devastated Iran’s…

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is reinstating the so-called Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) to incentivize employees to leave voluntarily before layoffs begin as part of the Trump Administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce and bureaucracy. “This is a difficult but necessary effort to make government more efficient and accountable. In conducting any such exercise, it is important to consider how optimization initiatives could impact DOE personnel,” Secretary Wright wrote in a memo to staff obtained by POLITICO’s…

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is reinstating the so-called Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) to incentivize employees to leave voluntarily before layoffs begin as part of the Trump Administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce and bureaucracy. “This is a difficult but necessary effort to make government more efficient and accountable. In conducting any such exercise, it is important to consider how optimization initiatives could impact DOE personnel,” Secretary Wright wrote in a memo to staff obtained by POLITICO’s…

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is reinstating the so-called Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) to incentivize employees to leave voluntarily before layoffs begin as part of the Trump Administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce and bureaucracy. “This is a difficult but necessary effort to make government more efficient and accountable. In conducting any such exercise, it is important to consider how optimization initiatives could impact DOE personnel,” Secretary Wright wrote in a memo to staff obtained by POLITICO’s…

Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a large increase of 6.2 million barrels during the week ending March 28, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday. Crude oil prices were trading up prior to the crude data release by the U.S. Energy Information Administration after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a build of 6.037 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories amid a small gasoline draw. The Brent benchmark was trading up 0.01% at 10:28 a.m. ET at $74.50—a…

Russia has ordered a 90-day halt to one of several berths at the port of Novorossiysk, its key Black Sea oil export route, a day after it ordered the temporary shutdown of two of three moorings at the key export terminal for Kazakhstan’s oil. Transneft, the Russian pipeline monopoly, announced on Wednesday that the ongoing safety checks from Russia’s transportation authority resulted in an order for a 90-day halt to oil loading at berth 8 at the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP). Russia’s Federal Agency for Transport Supervision…

Russia has ordered a 90-day halt to one of several berths at the port of Novorossiysk, its key Black Sea oil export route, a day after it ordered the temporary shutdown of two of three moorings at the key export terminal for Kazakhstan’s oil. Transneft, the Russian pipeline monopoly, announced on Wednesday that the ongoing safety checks from Russia’s transportation authority resulted in an order for a 90-day halt to oil loading at berth 8 at the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP). Russia’s Federal Agency for Transport Supervision…

Global seaborne crude oil flows rose in March from February, just ahead of the supply increase coming from OPEC+ in April, oil flows tracking data by Bloomberg showed on Wednesday. Global crude exports averaged 39.92 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, up by 119,000 bpd from February levels, according to the observed shipments tracked by Bloomberg. Flows from Brazil, Canada, and Russia jumped last month from a month earlier, while crude flows from the United States and the North Sea saw large decreases. Shipments from the world’s top…

Energy ministers of the OPEC+ producers will discuss in a Thursday call the importance of sticking to the oil production quotas under the deal, delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Wednesday. In every press release for years, the OPEC+ group has been stressing how important sticking to the quotas is. Overproduction has partly negated the bullish effects of the cuts on the oil market. The alliance is beginning the easing of the cuts this month, adding 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to combined production. However, all OPEC+ calculations…

Energy ministers of the OPEC+ producers will discuss in a Thursday call the importance of sticking to the oil production quotas under the deal, delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Wednesday. In every press release for years, the OPEC+ group has been stressing how important sticking to the quotas is. Overproduction has partly negated the bullish effects of the cuts on the oil market. The alliance is beginning the easing of the cuts this month, adding 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to combined production. However, all OPEC+ calculations…