Stronger appetite for Middle Eastern crude grades from China and India has added upward pressure on prices for these grades, pushing the Dubai futures close to $100 per barrel, Bloomberg reported today, citing unnamed traders. Demand for Middle Eastern oil is especially strong from refining majors such as Indian Oil Corp. and PetroChina, as well as refiners in South Korea and Japan, the report said. This is despite the latest escalation between the United States and Iran, with Saudi Arabia’s oil exports dropping to the lowest since 2017,…

U.S. uranium production is climbing from a base so depleted that a threefold increase still leaves America dependent on imports for most of its reactor fuel. Output rose to 2.1 million pounds in 2025, its highest level since 2017, before reaching 2.13 million pounds in the first half of 2026, according to the EIA. Second-quarter production increased 4.7% to 1.09 million pounds. U.S. nuclear-plant operators purchased 46.9 million pounds of uranium in 2025, more than 22 times the amount produced domestically. Uranium of U.S. origin accounted for…

Crude oil prices are on their way up again, driven by the latest flare-up of hostilities in the Persian Gulf—but they are also up because U.S. crude inventories are down again, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is moving closer to critical levels. The importance of oil inventories came to the fore soon after the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran at the end of February. It was thanks to these inventories that the world avoided a sharp and painful spike in oil prices. The OECD agreed a controlled release of 400 million…

Scientists and start-ups believe naturally occurring hydrogen could be the next major geological breakthrough, unleashing huge amounts of hydrogen to power the clean energy transition. Researchers in the United States, Canada, and Australia are mapping and discovering potential sources of so-called geologic hydrogen, or white hydrogen, which would be mined instead of produced from electrolysis using renewable energy, the way the so-called green hydrogen is currently obtained. Several major discoveries in recent months have raised hopes that mined…

As the artificial intelligence boom drives major energy demand growth and catalyzes an all-of-the-above approach to energy development, enhanced geothermal energy is catching a windfall of investment dollars and renewed policy interest. A new wave of next-gen geothermal energy projects and startups may have the backing it takes to bring the cutting-edge, round-the-clock clean energy technology out of the lab and into commercial markets across the United States. Geothermal energy is not a new technology, but its applications are severely limited…

Three LNG carriers loaded from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf have transferred their cargoes onto other vessels outside the Strait of Hormuz in the past month, a move that’s highly unusual for LNG cargoes but one that could raise the crippled LNG shipments from the region. LNG traffic at the Strait of Hormuz nevertheless remains at a standstill, even though oil flows are estimated to have rebounded in recent weeks. However, unlike crude oil, it’s much more difficult to shuttle-ship LNG through Hormuz and…

The re-escalation in the Middle East and the Russian ban on diesel exports amid incessant Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries have pushed middle distillate cracks to record highs this week. The renewed exchange of strikes in and around the Strait of Hormuz has erased hopes of a swift recovery of oil product flows from the Middle East, leaving the diesel markets tight, ING’s commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note early on Wednesday. The market tightness is most evident in the diesel market, where the ICE…

Pakistan may have to extend rolling blackouts after it refused to pay three times the pre-war price for an LNG cargo, which was the only offer its latest emergency tender drew. The single cargo, offered by BP, was priced at $27 per million British thermal units, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed trading sources. “The international LNG price is around $23.18 per MMBtu, whereas the bid received was $26.969 per MMBtu. The price was considered too high, so a fresh tender has been issued,” a senior Pakistan LNG Limited executive said, as…