Vessel owners and oil traders are hesitant to enter long-term charter deals for oil tankers amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. The U.S. tariffs on China, the threat of tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, the still uncertain security situation around the Red Sea/Suez Canal route, sanctions on Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, and the talks on peace in Ukraine have increased uncertainties in the oil and the tanker markets. Tanker owners and operators and commodity trading groups have highlighted the greater uncertainty the oil trade flows and markets face with the foreign[...]

Oil prices were under pressure early on Tuesday morning despite the Trump administration announcing fresh sanctions on Iran's oil industry on Monday. •⁠ ⁠President Trump’s recent push for a deal between Russia and Ukraine, his foot-dragging over Canadian and Mexican tariffs, and expectations of OPEC+ supply increases from April onwards have seen interest in crude oil futures plunge to multi-month lows. •⁠ ⁠Open interest in WTI futures is now the lowest in nine months, falling to 2.12 million lots in the week ending February 18 according to CFTC data, with investors switching en masse to gold. •⁠ ⁠The net[...]

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum touted a plan for mapping deposits of oil, gas and critical minerals on US federal lands, casting it as an opportunity to catalyze development of the energy resources, reduce dependence on foreign suppliers and pare the nation’s debt. Burgum highlighted the initiative during a speech Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland as he delivered a sharp critique of Biden-era policies designed to advance emission-free energy and counter climate change. The Interior Department’s US Geological Survey has long analyzed energy resources on federal lands, including assessments of how much oil and gas could[...]

The U.S. Administration will fill up fast the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), President Donald Trump said at an investment conference in Miami. “We’ll fill it up fast, but it’s at the lowest level. When we made the transition, it was at the lowest level in history, ever recorded,” President Trump said. “They put it all out because they thought they could keep gasoline prices down a little bit, just go past the election, and after that, they didn’t care,” the President added, criticizing Joe Biden’s administration for failing to curb the hikes in gasoline prices. “And it didn’t work[...]

Kazakhstan will try new crude deliveries to Hungary through Russia's Druzhba pipeline system in 2025, its energy ministry announced, after receiving Hungary's foreign minister in Astana to discuss cooperation on oil and gas. A meeting between Kazakh energy minister Almasadam Satkaliyev and Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto Feb. 17 focused strongly on developing Kazakhstan's Rozhkovskoye field, which state-owned KazMunaiGaz jointly operates with Hungarian refiner MOL and China's FIOC, according to a statement from the Kazakh energy ministry. With an expected output potential of 2.5 million cu m/d of gas production by 2027, the Rozhkovskoye field achieved first gas in[...]

In January this year, the outgoing Biden administration slapped its last round of sanctions on Russia. They targeted specifically the shipping industry and the oil industry—and helped oil prices start the year with a gain. Now, these sanctions could cause a marked dip in Russian oil production. Yet it is unclear how long the dip would last. Reuters reported this week that it had talked to energy industry executives and traders who said Russia has no choice but to start crimping oil production because it doesn’t have enough sanction-free tankers to carry its crude abroad after the latest sanctions.[...]

Germany is set to extend its trusteeship over Russian oil company Rosneft's local subsidiaries for another six months, marking the fifth time it has done so. Back in 2022, Germany seized the local units of Rosneft and Gazprom, including three oil refineries. Together, the three refineries run by Rosneft Germany provide some 12% of the country’s total refining capacity, and the PCK Schwedt refinery near Berlin is key. This refinery, on the border with Poland, supplies fuel to the restive Berlin-Brandenburg region. Seizing Rosneft’s assets and placing the refinery under state control was initially viewed as a political move[...]

The Middle East will again dominate front-page headlines in the coming days. Newly elected U.S. President Trump, as promised during his election campaign, is putting the already fragile security situation in the Middle East and North Africa at risk, as his statements regarding Gaza, Israel, and Iran are unlikely to support stability. At the same time, the Washington administration is pursuing a full-scale oil and gas confrontation with OPEC+ and Iran. Already, Gaza-based extremist group Hamas has delayed its handover of Israeli hostages, while Iran is openly confronting Trump's tactics, showing no signs of backing down in the foreseeable[...]

President Trump declared a national energy emergency as soon as he took office. The declaration had the goal of facilitating growth in energy supply or, as Trump likes to call it “Drill, baby, drill.” Yet this time, Baby doesn’t feel much like drilling. And it’s saying this loud and clear. The oil and gas industry celebrated Trump’s victory in the November elections. After four years with a not-so-friendly federal government, a pro-oil White House was certainly a welcome change. But then Trump said he wanted more oil and gas to flow along the pipelines. And producers said the same[...]

Tariffs on Canadian oil could lead to reduced refinery runs and higher gas prices in the U.S. Midwest. Analysts predict Mexico may opt to divert exports to Asia and Europe, significantly reducing shipments to the U.S. Despite the 10% levy, Canadian crude flows to the U.S. are unlikely to be disrupted. Click for full story