In just nine months, Russia has doubled the number of opaque-owned vessels that it uses to ship liquefied natural gas from its sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 export project, a Bloomberg analysis of vessel-tracking data showed on Tuesday. As of December 2025, Russia was estimated to have 11 LNG carriers in its dark fleet. Now the number has jumped to at least 20, including the second ice-class vessel that is capable of moving through Arctic waters throughout the whole year, according to Bloomberg’s analysis. Since Arctic LNG 2 was sanctioned by the…

Solar power has just become the single largest electricity capacity source in China, toppling coal in a landmark achievement of the Chinese renewable energy rollout. Solar power capacity in China stood at 1,286 gigawatts (GW) at the end of July, Chinese media cited the country’s National Energy Administration as saying on Tuesday. Thus, solar capacity accounted for 31.5% of total installed power generation in China as of July 31. [GooglePreferredSource] In July, Chinese authorities said that China would have more installed solar power capacity…

Two oil supertankers have been hit by unknown projectiles while transiting the Strait of Hormuz outbound from the Persian Gulf, maritime risk management firm Marisks said on Tuesday, as tensions in the Middle East flared up again this week and put the tentative oil flow recovery at risk. The Sidr very large crude carrier (VLCC), operated by Saudi Arabia’s state shipping giant Bahri, was hit by unknown projectiles northeast of Khasab, Oman, Marisks said, as carried by Bloomberg. The other supertanker that was hit was the Senegal Prosperity,…

A massive Ukrainian drone attack at Russia’s Ust-Luga oil export terminal in the Baltic Sea has sparked a fire at the site as Ukraine continues to target Russian refineries and energy export infrastructure. Following a drone attack overnight, the Ust-Luga port sustained damage, and a fire broke out, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region where the port is located, said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. Later, he added that the fire had been extinguished and that there were no casualties. Russia shot down 52 drones during…

India’s imports of spot crude cargoes from producers such as the United States and Venezuela are being driven by the prevailing cargo and oil prices, the top executive of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has said.   “Imports are decided by the price, except for term crudes. Now term crudes are gradually going down. Spot crudes are mostly decided cargo-to-cargo based on price,” ONGC chairman and CEO, Arun Kumar Singh, told Indian media after the company’s annual general meeting. “So,…

New wind power capacity in Europe reached 8.8 GW in the first half of the year, up about 30% from a year earlier, according to WindEurope data cited by Reuters. The annual increase was driven by Germany as well as strong growth in offshore wind installations, the industry body said. New wind capacity additions in Germany accounted for 39% of Europe’s total for the first half of the year, or 3.4 GW. This meant that at the end of June, there was 311 GW in installed wind power generation capacity on the continent. The first-half 2026 figure…

A U.S. oil company controlled by a Venezuelan business tycoon will replace Chinese and Russian operators of several Venezuelan oil fields, Reuters has reported, citing two unnamed U.S. officials. North American Blue Energy Partners, which is backed by the U.S. government, has been granted 14 oil deals by the Venezuelan government. The U.S. government will have rights to a 35% stake in the company plus access to 20% of NABEP’s production at cost. The federal government will also have the right of first refusal for the purchase of the other…

Crude oil prices extended their earlier climb after President Trump issued his latest threat to Iran, following the first exchange of fire in weeks. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $91.48 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $86.97 per barrel, both up by over $1 per barrel from Monday. Speaking at the Oval Office on Monday evening, Trump was very clear that the U.S. was ready to "smack" Iran if necessary. Shipping data shows tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains at a fraction of pre-war levels, with Reuters citing…

Plastics remanufacturing is the industry everyone wishes they’d gotten into earlier, with McKinsey seeing as much as $75 billion in economic opportunity by 2035 for technologies capable of putting the world’s plastic waste back to work. And Denovia has just taken its biggest step toward capturing a piece of that market, signing a strategic framework with a major international polyester producer that could eventually take its technology into billions of pounds of annual processing capacity. The agreement starts with a planned commercial…

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and its heavy crude is particularly well suited to the sophisticated refineries lining the U.S. Gulf Coast. More Venezuelan oil should help U.S. refiners, but that doesn’t translate directly into lower prices at the pump. Trump announced Friday that the U.S. had secured majority control over Venezuelan fields containing more than 65 billion barrels of oil, saying the agreement would greatly increase U.S. supply and substantially lower gasoline prices “long into the future.”…