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.…

Oil prices plunged this week as a one-two punch of sweeping U.S. import tariffs and an unexpected OPEC+ supply hike erased $10 per barrel from global benchmarks. Friday, April 04, 2025 The combined effect of Donald Trump’s import tariffs, OPEC+’s inopportune decision to speed up the unwinding of production cuts and China’s retaliatory actions have wiped off $10 per barrel from global oil prices, with ICE Brent falling below $65 per barrel for the first time since August 2021. Seeing backwardation barely change compared to the…

U.S. natural gas prices fell by 6% on Friday morning amid the overall panic market selling, but the benchmark Henry Hub price was declining less than the WTI Crude prices, which sank by more than 8% to hit a low of $61 per barrel. The benchmark price for U.S. natural gas delivered at Henry Hub was plunging by 6.26% to $3.877 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) as of 10:35 a.m. EDT. At the same time, the WTI Crude futures were tumbling by as much as 8.59% to $61.14. This WTI price is now below the average $65 per barrel price U.S. producers…

A district court in Russia has ruled that the moorings of the main export terminal for Kazakhstan’s oil should all remain open, which will likely avert a drop-off in Kazakhstan’s crude oil exports. Early this week, Russia ordered shut two of the three moorings of the main oil export terminal on Russia’s Black Sea coast handling Kazakhstan’s oil exports. The order for the closure of the two moorings was issued following snap safety inspections by Russia’s Federal Agency for Transport Supervision, prompted by the oil…

A district court in Russia has ruled that the moorings of the main export terminal for Kazakhstan’s oil should all remain open, which will likely avert a drop-off in Kazakhstan’s crude oil exports. Early this week, Russia ordered shut two of the three moorings of the main oil export terminal on Russia’s Black Sea coast handling Kazakhstan’s oil exports. The order for the closure of the two moorings was issued following snap safety inspections by Russia’s Federal Agency for Transport Supervision, prompted by the oil…

Spain imported 59% higher volumes of crude oil from Venezuela in January and February compared to the same period of 2024, Spanish statistics data showed, as the Trump Administration’s deadline for the new sanctions on Venezuela approaches. Spain’s crude oil imports from Venezuela jumped to 449,000 tons in January and February 2025, up from 283,000 tons imported in the same months last year, Reuters reported on Friday, citing data by the Spanish energy and environment ministry. Spain’s energy major Repsol was one of several foreign…

Numbers Report – April 04, 2025In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we will take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy and metals sectors. Each week we’ll dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers. Let’s take a look.1. OPEC+ Ambition Catches Oil Markets By Surprise - In the wake of Donald Trump’s import tariff announcements, the meeting of OPEC+ ministers was widely expected to be a roll-over of existing policies, however, under the guidance…