Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith has rejected the idea of slapping export taxes on crude oil exports to the United States in retaliation for the Trump administration’s tariff salvo against Ottawa, saying they would be damaging to Canada. “Although I understand the need to respond strongly to these tariffs, I cannot think of a more disastrous policy decision than cutting off or taxing Alberta’s oil to the United States,” Smith said as quoted by Global News, adding that the move would trigger a disproportionate tariff…

Crude oil prices extended their decline for the fourth day today on news that Qatar’s Prime Minister will visit Tehran today to discuss the possibility of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $87.46 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $81.83 per barrel, despite a new report about a strike on a tanker in Hormuz. No details about the visit by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani to Tehran were made public besides a statement from Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei…

Yet another tanker has been struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said today, as quoted by DPA. The report follows earlier attacks that continue despite efforts on the part of Pakistan and other interested parties in the region to bring Iran and the United States to the negotiating table and end the shipping disruption in the chokepoint. So far, there is little evidence these efforts are producing any results, yet oil traders appear to be unshakeably optimistic, despite the reports about tanker strikes…

Almost half of the world’s oil supply is produced in regions currently engaged in hot conflicts, Reuters reported this week. The situation raises questions about long-term oil supply security and the limits to diversification. The Middle East, of course, is the most obvious and most disruptive example. While oil prices on speculative markets have remained capped by trader optimism, the physical supply of the vital energy commodity has been severely compromised, leading to rationing and emergency releases from storage across the world. Meanwhile,…

Ammonia production consumes as much as 2% of the world's energy and generates roughly 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, largely because the industry still relies on a century-old process powered by fossil fuels. Roughly 80% of the 200 million metric tons of ammonia produced globally every year goes into nitrogen fertilizers, with the rest used in plastics, textiles, explosives and other industrial chemicals. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now developed a new method that uses AI and quantum-mechanical…

Alongside boosting exploration and production offshore its home market Norway, Equinor is pursuing an international growth strategy, aiming to significantly increase its overseas oil and gas output by focusing on fewer but more lucrative regions such as the U.S., Brazil, and Angola. In recent years, Equinor has streamlined and high-graded its portfolio outside Norway, selling assets and positions in Azerbaijan and Nigeria, to name a few. But Equinor has kept and grown its U.S., Brazilian, and Angolan businesses, and plans to keep these growing…

Octopus boss Greg Jackson has called on Andy Burnham to deliver “urgent reform” to the energy market to protect households from “volatile” gas prices. Jackson, founder of the UK’s biggest household electricity supplier, said: “The government’s decision to take VAT off electricity and remove some of the levies from bills has helped soften the blow this winter, but bills are still too high. “Britain remains far too exposed to volatile global gas prices. The wars in Ukraine and Iran have created an unprecedented…

Six months since the Iran war crippled Qatar’s LNG exports via the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s second-largest liquefied natural gas exporter has lost $24 billion in sales as exports tumbled by as much as 96%, Reuters calculations showed on Wednesday. The number of LNG cargoes that Qatar has managed to export crashed to just 18, down from 509 cargoes shipped from Qatar in the same period of last year, per data from data intelligence firm ICIS cited by Reuters. Qatar’s LNG exports are arguably the biggest energy commodity casualty…