The Yemeni Houthis have struck Saudi Arabia’s southern province of Najran in the latest flare-up of Middle Eastern hostilities, killing 11 civilians, Reuters has reported, citing a spokesman for the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia that fights the Houthis in Yemen. The news comes on the heels of reports that Iran is considering a ban on U.S., Israeli, and other “hostile” vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and fining ships that violate the ban with a sum equal to 20% of the cargo’s value. From other vessels, Iran plans…

Oil prices fell for a second week running thanks to optimism surrounding renewed U.S.-Iran diplomacy to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that talks between Washington and Tehran would resume l, adding that U.S. allies in the region, including Saudi Arabia, had urged him to suspend attacks. Iran and Oman have managed to reach a preliminary agreement on geographic coordinates for a temporary, partial shipping route through Hormuz, easing immediate supply fears. However, oil prices managed to snap their…

Southeast Asia is falling short of its ambitious projects to boost gas-fired power generation to meet growing electricity demand and replace some of the coal use. Fuel availability, volatile prices, and supply chain bottlenecks threaten to drive up costs and delay projects by years, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie says. Six of the biggest Southeast Asian economies and power markets – Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines – are set to deliver only a third of their combined planned gas-fired power capacity…

Drivers in the United Kingdom have started filling up their tanks without paying for the fuel as driving costs surge on the fuel supply crunch driven by the war in the Middle East. The crimes include people driving off after filling up without paying and people claiming they cannot pay for the fuel they had acquired. According to data from fuel crime prevention platform Forecourt Eye, drivers in the country have been stealing fuel worth the equivalent of almost $270,000 every day since the war between the United States and Israel and Iran began…

Intense summer heat waves are threatening energy security across Europe. The continent is facing a scorching and arid summer, causing electricity demand for air conditioning to skyrocket at the same time that rivers warm up and dry out with devastating consequences for the nuclear energy industry and for hydropower reserves. Last month, France had to reduce output and shut down nuclear reactors at a record pace without sufficient and safe water supplies to cool its reactors. And now, this week, Hungary had to shut down the Paks nuclear power plant…

US distillate exports surged to a record last week as global supplies tightened. Disruptions across the Gulf area and various surrounding maritime chokepoints, as well as Ukrainian one-way attack drone strikes that have paralyzed portions of Russia's energy infrastructure, have been a major boon for US refiners and export terminals along the Gulf of America. To begin the week, Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg TV, "The situation in Russia is really one thing that worries us a lot." Dart warned,…

Glencore will launch a secondary listing in Australia in the latest blow to London’s ailing stock market as miners continue to eye opportunities away from the UK. The mining and trading juggernaut, which is among the largest companies on the FTSE 100 boasting a market cap of £64.4bn, is pursuing the listing following its group’s long-standing complaint that its shares are undervalued and there is too little liquidity in London. Chief executive Gary Nagle said the listing would “broaden our investor base and enhance trading…

Russia increased oil production in July as stronger exports and recovering refinery runs gave producers somewhere to put more barrels. Crude oil and condensate output rose by roughly 100,000 barrels per day from June to more than 9 million bpd, two industry sources told Reuters on Thursday. Oil and fuel sales remain critical to Russia’s budget, giving Moscow every reason to keep production flowing despite sanctions and repeated attacks on its energy infrastructure. OPEC estimates for Russian production came in at 8.928 million bpd in June,…

Mexico has ruled out fracking in a key shale basin, drawing a line through a resource-rich area even as the country looks for ways to cut its dependence on U.S. natural gas. President Claudia Sheinbaum said hydraulic fracturing will not be allowed in the Tampico-Misantla basin beneath Veracruz and Tamaulipas. The government cited the basin’s dense population, indigenous communities and freshwater reserves. Sheinbaum ordered a panel to examine whether unconventional gas could help reduce imports from the United States. Mexico buys more than…

BP’s Bumerangue discovery is more than another giant Brazilian oil find: it could become the project that keeps both BP’s upstream portfolio and Brazil’s production boom alive well into the 2030s. With an estimated 2.5 billion barrels potentially recoverable and peak output that could reach 600,000 b/d, the ultra-deepwater development is large enough to offset declining production from BP’s existing assets and arrive just as Brazil’s current pre-salt giants begin moving off plateau. Yet its promise comes with a formidable…