OPEC has convened an emergency ministerial meeting for Sunday March 1 — only the third emergency meeting in the last decade — as the Iran-US war threatens to remove up to 4 million barrels per day from global oil supply. Iran produces approximately 3.2 million bpd, and additional supply is threatened by Strait of Hormuz disruptions affecting Kuwait, UAE, and Iraqi exports.
Saudi Arabia, the cartel's largest producer, has pledged to use its spare capacity to stabilize markets. However, Saudi spare capacity is estimated at only 2-3 million bpd — insufficient to fully offset Iranian production loss plus potential Hormuz disruptions. The UAE and Kuwait also have limited spare capacity, but their own export infrastructure is compromised by the conflict.
The meeting will also discuss coordination with non-OPEC producers including Russia and the United States. The IEA has indicated member nations are prepared for a coordinated strategic reserve release. The US SPR holds 370 million barrels, and IEA members collectively hold approximately 1.2 billion barrels in emergency stocks.
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At the end of February, the Alberta government released its draft budget for the year, forecasting a deficit resulting from low oil prices, set to extend over the next three years. Now, Canada—and Alberta specifically—are about to become some of the big winners from the oil price rally resulting fr
The once peaceful South American nation of Ecuador is being rocked by cocaine related violence. Since the 2020 pandemic, the tiny country’s murder rate has spiraled higher, hitting an all-time high of nearly 51 murders per 100,000 people during 2025.
Ukraine said it hit a key Russian oil terminal at Primorsk and a refinery in Ufa on Monday.
Shortly before the war with Iran began, I wrote that the seeming complacency among government officials and financial market participants was based on two assumptions which I argued were unlikely to turn out to be true: 1) President Donald Trump would make a last-minute deal with the Iranians and de
The United States is the world’s biggest crude oil producer—it has been for years, and it has been pumping more than 13. 6 million barrels per day of oil for the past few months.
Rerouting and diversification cannot help when a significant chunk of oil and gas have been taken off the market.
Strikes on gas sites in the Iran war are driving up energy costs, pushing up prices for power, food and more worldwide.
Chinese state oil giant Sinopec, Asia’s biggest refiner by capacity, will not buy Iranian oil even after the U. S.
With events in the Middle East once again disrupting global energy markets, we need to revisit one of our favorite energy policy concepts, the energy trilemma, a simple variant of the trolley problem with an added variable. The three variables are 1) affordability, 2) security of energy supply (can
Whilst most people will have seen the virtue of stopping Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons, many may now regard U. S.
Members of the International Energy Agency have agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves.
Donald Trump's Strait of Hormuz deadline for Iran raises concerns about attacks on energy in the Middle East.
President Donald Trump has ordered the US military to postpone strikes against Iranian power plants and energy.
President Donald Trump has spoken to reporters after announcing the US was postponing attacks targeting Iran’s energy.
The oil-driven inflation shock rippling through global markets is now forcing a sharp rethink of U. S.
The Strait of Hormuz, a 33-kilometer-wide chokepoint through which roughly a third of the world's seaborne oil passes, is effectively closed to normal commercial traffic. Iran has not blockaded the strait with a chain or a fleet.
Vessels posing as tankers that were sent for scrap years ago have appeared to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, in another example of how the Middle East war and the heavy signal interference in the region are affecting global shipping and energy flows. The vessel Nabiin, which was
Locals in northern India have a growing concern over costs of essential resources due to the Iran war.
Brent crude is down more than 8% in the minutes following a statement by U. S.
Saudi Arabia is slashing its crude oil exports to Asia in April, for a second month in a row, as the de facto closed Strait of Hormuz is stranding most of the supply from the world’s top crude exporter. Saudi oil giant Aramco has notified customers of term supply in Asia that they would receive in
Brent crude is seen averaging $85 per barrel this year, and West Texas Intermediate could see an average price of $79, Goldman Sachs commodity analysts said in a note released Sunday. They added that the supply loss from the crisis is going to peak at 17 million barrels daily.
The International Energy Agency could release additional volumes of crude from storage should the need arise, the head of the agency, Fatih Birol, said today. “If it is necessary, of course, we will do it.
Indian retail fuel prices are stable despite a surge in the oil basket price to over $155 per barrel, the Hindustan Times reported today, citing energy industry executives. The Indian oil basket settled at $156.
Oil prices opened the week elevated but stable in early Asian trading on Monday, holding near multi-year highs after another weekend of escalating tensions between the United States and Iran. At the time of writing, WTI crude was trading at $98.
Trump faces a simple but difficult choice: Iran’s enriched uranium still needs to be secured, and airstrikes haven’t accomplished that. The only clear way to control it would likely require U.
Trump, who cut off oil supplies to Cuba after abducting Venezuela's Maduro, has threatened to take over the nation.
With US-Ukraine talks set to resume in Florida, Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns Russia is increasing its oil revenues.
Pakistan Super League will be held on schedule from March 26, but without the crowds and only at two venues.
Since coming into office last January, United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised renewable energy for hindering the country’s energy security and being a “green new scam”. Trump quickly introduced several executive orders aimed at ramping up fossil fuel output and restricting r
Iran warns of 'irreversibly' destroying vital infrastructure across region after Trump threatens to bomb power plants.
Iran responds to Trump's threat by saying all US energy infrastructure in the region will be targeted if it is attacked.
Move follows attack on Red Sea port of Yanbu, Saudi Arabia's main oil export outlet, after Iran blocked Hormuz Strait.
Nuclear energy has been making a comeback recently as one of the low-carbon baseload generation options. This comeback is set to accelerate amid the Middle Eastern crisis and the oil and gas squeeze it is causing.
Meeting the runaway energy demand of the artificial intelligence boom will require energy buildout and innovation at an unprecedented scale. After decades of plateaued energy growth in the United States, the breakneck expansion of energy-hungry data centers across the nation is pushing the public a
As multiple large-scale data centres are developed around the globe, Big Tech is investing heavily in a range of energy projects to power its new facilities, from renewable energy to nuclear power. In addition, several tech companies have announced major investments in climate credits, in a bid to
The Iran war revealed how dependent Israel’s Arab neighbours are on its gas exports.
The dominant narrative over the last two years in global gas markets has been one of impending abundance; everyone was warning of an upcoming LNG tsunami. Market analysts kept pointing to a wave of new LNG supply, mainly driven by expansions in Qatar, the United States, Canada, and parts of Africa.
No leakage of radioactive materials reported in the area in central Iran, Tehran's atomic energy organisation says.
Lin and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif were embroiled in a dispute over biological sex at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Japan sources 90 percent of its crude from Middle East and is heavily dependent on exports transiting the key waterway.
The stock market spent the first week of the Iran war doing something strange: mostly shrugging. Oil spiked.
Oil and gas facilities in the Gulf have been attacked since early in the war on Iran.
QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi says he warned US of 'consequences' of attacking Iranian energy infrastructure.
Arend Kapteyn, the global head of economics and strategy research and chief economist at UBS, told clients that one key reason the current Middle East conflict-driven energy shock "is not like 2011-2014" will be the absence of a comparable response from the shale patch, suggesting consumers are more
Norwegian oil production slipped 0. 2 % in February as output fell slightly by 3,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared to January, averaging 1.
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US to 552 this week, down 41 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 2 to 414 d
Oil prices pulled back Friday, but not because the market suddenly feels safe. This is more of a tactical breather than a trend change.
Amid the Iranian war and oil price crisis, the Department of Energy, alongside the Department of Commerce, has unveiled a public-private partnership with SoftBank and AEP Ohio that centers on one thing the AI boom desperately needs but rarely talks about plainly—power. Not theoretical power.
As the world braces for a potential “Battle of Hormuz” to reopen the world’s most important energy chokepoint, governments and energy markets are scrambling to answer a daunting question: What happens if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed for weeks or even months? The narrow waterway between Iran an
Refiners in Asia are paying huge premiums for crude that could replace some of the supply stuck in the Middle East, with the most suitable grades from Norway and the U. S.
Oil is heading for a fifth straight weekly gain, with Brent near $109, as the Strait of Hormuz remains shut for a third week, keeping supply tight despite policy efforts to ease the market. Friday, March 20, 2026 Oil markets are set to post their fifth consecutive weekly gain (excepting WTI which w
The US says it is considering removing sanctions on Iranian oil stranded on tankers at sea.
The price of Russian Urals has soared in recent weeks. How Russia - and other energy producing nations - could profit.
When Israeli jets struck the South Pars gas complex near Asaluyeh, they hit more than pipes and compressors. They struck the single piece of infrastructure most essential to Iran's ability to function -- a field that provides 75 percent of Iran's domestic gas supply and powers roughly 80
Cuba is set to soon receive two Russian cargoes of crude and diesel amid the U. S.
From Sunday through late Thursday, oil swung sharply as traders moved between two competing forces: escalating war risk in the Middle East and a growing policy response aimed at easing supply shortages. As of late Thursday, nearby WTI crude oil traded at $94.
Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Trump’s “51st state” comment on Venezuela comes as the country’s power structure is being reset in a way that looks controlled, not transformed. Delcy Rodríguez has replaced longtime defense chief Vladimir Padrino López with Gustavo González López, an intelligence f
Everything is about leverage. Hormuz is no longer the only story as the White House loses control of its version of the narrative.
Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery was hit by Iranian drones early on Friday in attacks that caused a fire in several units at the facility, as the war in the Middle East shows no signs of de-escalation despite the most recent U. S.
Qatar’s state firm QatarEnergy expects the damage to the Ras Laffan LNG complex, the world’s single largest LNG-producing facility, to cost it about $20 billion per year in lost revenue and to take up to five years to repair. The Iranian missile attacks on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLIC)
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