Despite the ongoing stalemate in the U.S.-Iran talks and persistent risks to shipping in the Middle East, oil prices fell in Asian trading on Thursday, weighed down by cuts to 2026 oil demand forecasts from both OPEC and the International Energy Agency. Brent Crude prices dropped by 0.5% to trade below $89 per barrel at $88.56, easing from the Wednesday intraday high of over $89 a barrel, amid demand concerns and a bearish EIA inventory report. The U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, traded 0.60% lower at $82.77 in the Asian session. On Wednesday, both…

Bosnia is next on U.S. President Donald Trump’s disruption agenda, and an opaque energy deal riddled with conflicts of interest is at the heart of yet another of Washington’s transactional gambles based on insufficient knowledge.  Since the second half of 2025, the Trump administration has been dismantling key elements of long-running U.S. policy toward Bosnia and Herzegovina, all because it wants a pipeline from Croatia to supply U.S. LNG, with deals brokered by an unknown company run by Trump loyalists collecting on owed favors. …

Did President Zelensky and the Ukrainian armed forces not listen to US Vice President JD Vance's warnings and request after all? On Wednesday a "massive" Ukrainian drone and missile strike was unleashed on Russia's port city of Novorossiysk, which badly damaged grain export terminals at what also constitutes the last major Russian naval base on the Black Sea. Three were killed, including an eight-year-old child, and also 24 people were injured in the Wednesday nighttime attack. Zelensky acknowledged the rocket and underwater…

The longer-than-expected closure of the Strait of Hormuz means that some part of the oil production in the Middle East will remain shut in through the end of next year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) this week. The renewed tensions in the Middle East that began in late July and have been simmering so far in August will keep traffic at Hormuz severely constrained through this month, which has prompted the EIA to hike its third-quarter oil price forecasts as lower supply would…

For decades, the joke was that nuclear fusion was and would always be 30 years away. But a rapid string of breakthroughs over the last five years, catalyzed by privatization and the pressure as well as the support of the AI boom, has changed the calculus and suddenly brought the technology onto a real and achievable timeline. Nuclear fusion is treated as a ‘holy grail’ of clean energy because, if harnessed in a commercially viable and scalable way, it could provide limitless energy production with zero greenhouse gas emissions and negligible…

Diesel prices surged earlier this week on news about yet another Ukrainian attack on a Russian refinery and a Houthi attack on a Saudi refining facility. Global fuel supply is already out of balance, and the continued refinery disruption will only aggravate the situation, right before peak demand season. Reuters reported Monday that refining margins in Europe had surged by 10%, and that surge was from an already elevated starting point as refiners around the world see their margins rise to all-time highs on the supply tightening caused by the war…

The war between the US and Iran has driven up natural gas prices, particularly in Europe and Asia. Asia accounts for nearly 90% of liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from key Middle East producers like Qatar and the UAE, while Europe imports 7-11% of its LNG from the region. During spring 2026 missile and drone attacks, Iranian strikes hit Ras Laffan LNG Trains 4 & 6, and Pearl GTL Train 2. Ras Laffan owner QatarEnergy estimates repairs to the two units will sideline about 12.8 million tonnes per year of LNG capacity for three to five years.…

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Wednesday to seize European ships in retaliation for EU action against Russia’s shadow oil fleet, opening the possibility of direct Russian interference with commercial shipping as Europe steps up efforts to disrupt Moscow’s crude exports, RFE/RL reported.  President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Moscow would “respond in kind” if European countries begin confiscating Russian ships or selling cargo taken from detained vessels, and warned that Russian retaliation would…