The number of tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz remains below the ten-day average, according to ship-trackers, with Kpler reporting only four tanker crossings for Tuesday. That is below a ten-day average of 13 tankers, Reuters reported earlier today. Windward, meanwhile, reported four tankers entering the strait, two of them in dark mode, and three exiting on Tuesday, one of them in dark mode. Earlier this week, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said a total of 17 million barrels of crude had passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday…

Venezuela’s crude oil production rate could double in the next few years thanks to new deals set to be signed with U.S. and other foreign energy companies, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said. “The investment in these deals will massively grow available oil production, which will give downward pressure on oil prices, but the biggest kink right now in gasoline and diesel prices is refining capacity,” Wright said during a one-day visit to Caracas, as quoted by Reuters. Venezuela’s peak oil production rate was about…

Oil prices climbed once again in early Asian trade on Wednesday as the U.S. and Iran traded strikes in a significant escalation after a month of relative calm.  At the time of writing, WTI had climbed to $91.05 per barrel, trading 0.92% higher on the session, and Brent had risen 1.19% to trade at $95.68. Both benchmarks have now climbed by roughly $5 since hostilities between the two countries renewed. U.S. Central Command (Centcom) reported that it had completed a wave of strikes against “air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets…

Saudi Arabia’s power stations, desalination plants, factories and farms consume more than 1 million barrels per day of liquid fuel that the kingdom aims to displace by 2030. Natural gas and renewables will provide most of the replacement energy. Nuclear power could reduce domestic oil consumption further after 2030 as electricity demand continues to grow. On July 22, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed a 30-year civil nuclear cooperation agreement, clearing the way for U.S. companies to potentially supply the kingdom with reactors,…

The port of Corpus Christi has become one of two ports selected for a project aimed at integrating small modular reactors in a bid to expand the use of nuclear power in more industries—and propel SMR technology forward. Small modular reactors are all the rage, at least on paper. They can be installed more quickly than conventional nuclear reactors, and their locations can be more flexible. They are also significantly cheaper to build than conventional reactors and can be constructed incrementally to meet the growing energy demand of a site.…

Solar energy is going gangbusters. The world is adding photovoltaic solar panels at a blistering rate, shattering its own records year after year, buoyed by a flood of ever-cheaper solar panels out of China. “We have a plentiful and cheap source of electricity that can be built quickly, almost anywhere in the world,” NewScientist wrote in an article published late last year. “Is it fanciful to imagine that solar could one day power everything?” But the growth of solar power is uneven around the globe, with some regions seeing…

In recent years, the European Union has replaced one critical energy and security vulnerability with another heavy dependence for its green energy ambitions. As the EU has moved to phase out Russian energy imports and reduce the overall dependence on oil and gas, it has rolled out massive renewable energy capacity. But the clean energy transition has become dependent on another global power, which could undermine Europe’s energy security—China.   China Dependence For its renewable energy buildout, the EU has relied on imports of…