Crude oil imports from Russia accounted for over 50% of India’s total import volumes last month. This was the highest share of Russian oil in India’s import mix, Reuters noted in a report that cited unnamed trade sources. Russia exported crude at a rate of some 2.47 million barrels daily to India last month, which was a 62.4% surge from a year ago and represented a 50.83% share of total oil imports into the world’s third-largest oil buyer. However, July volumes were a decline on June’s average, which stood at 2.6 million…

Crude oil prices were on course to add 4% this week, as the United States and Iran indicated they are no closer to a peace deal than they were at the start of the war. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $87.12 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was trading at $81.36 per barrel. The rise of both benchmarks was driven by low tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which remains at a fraction of pre-war levels, and the United States' threat to keep its naval blockade of Iran in place “indefinitely” and exert…

For years, U.S. President Donald Trump has openly displayed his disdain for the clean energy and electric vehicle sectors. In the early days of his second term, Trump stalled funding for EV charging infrastructure while pushing fossil fuels. In July 2025, the GOP-sponsored One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) rolled back EV incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, terminating the $7,500 new and $4,000 used EV tax credits in September 2025, and cutting back infrastructure and manufacturing subsidies. Yet, this giant push to secure the domestic…

Mexico’s push for fuel self-sufficiency has run into a stubborn problem: Pemex has built and upgraded refining capacity faster than it has learned to operate it reliably. The state oil company is being asked to send more crude into domestic refineries and less onto the export market, a strategy that looks increasingly sensible when refined products’ cracks are strong. But the second quarter of 2026 showed the weakness of that model. Mexican refineries processed only around 1 million b/d (58% of installed capacity), while fuel imports…

U.S. demand for electricity is expected to hit an all-time high both this year and next, driven by the data center buildout of Big Tech. This is the latest in a series of record-demand projections by the Energy Information Administration. There is one problem, though. That problem is the grid. Electricity consumption in the United States has already had two record-breaking years: 2024 and 2025. The trend is seen extending and possibly accelerating because of the IT industry and its artificial intelligence race, hitting 4,268 billion kWh this year…

China has driven the world’s solar energy deployment, adding capacity at such a blistering rate that the nation’s existing and planned wind and solar generation nearly doubles the rest of the world put together. However, China’s deployment of supportive infrastructure for all that new solar has not kept pace, leading to curtailment during peak hours and increased quantities of wasted clean energy. But Beijing is working hard to fix that problem, and a brand new, state-of-the-art thermal solar farm may provide a critical solution.…

In 2007, nearly two decades ago, I wrote an article called “The Future Is Solar.” At the time, my argument was largely based on efficiency. I had been comparing biofuels with direct solar energy and noted how much more effectively solar panels could capture the sun’s energy than crops could convert it into liquid fuel. Solar was still expensive, storage was a major challenge, and the world’s energy infrastructure was built around fossil fuels. But the direction seemed clear. It has been a long time coming, but the numbers…

Washington is putting real money behind advanced nuclear. The US Department of Energy is gearing up to hand X-energy another $1 billion for its planned nuclear project with Dow in Texas, bringing total federal funding available for the project since 2021 to as much as $2.15 billion. That is no longer demonstration-project pocket change. CEO Clay Sell said Thursday that DOE had informed X-energy of the additional funding through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which is intended to move next-generation reactors toward commercial deployment.…

Russia’s diesel and gasoil exports crashed in the first seven days of August to just 80,000 barrels per day (bpd), the lowest in many years, as Moscow extended restrictions on diesel exports amid a fuel crisis triggered by incessant Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries. The multi-year low diesel exports between August 1 and 7, as estimated by data compiled by Bloomberg, are further squeezing the global market of middle distillates, which is much tighter than crude supply. To compare, Russia last year shipped as many as 1 million bpd of…

Oil supply disruptions, high fuel prices and faster battery innovation could give electric vehicle adoption a fresh push, with consequences for oil demand, power grids and metals markets, Wood Mackenzie said Thursday. Wars affecting oil-producing Russia and Iran have exposed governments and consumers to higher fuel prices and supply risks, creating another incentive to invest in EV manufacturing and supply chains, WoodMac said in a new report. Technology is moving quickly, too. China is making progress on five-minute charging as well as sodium-ion…