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Paris Hosts Critical Talks on Russia-Ukraine War
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High-level officials from key European countries, the United States, and Ukraine are gathering in Paris, days after the latest direct talks between Washington and Moscow that are aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, Europe's biggest conflict since the end of World War II. The talks are a first chance for face-to-face meetings between senior European and Ukrainian leaders and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff since his latest meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. Moscow has failed to sign on to a broad cease-fire agreement…
South Korea to Leverage LNG and Shipbuilding in U.S. Tariff Talks
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South Korea will leverage shipbuilding capabilities and the potential to buy more U.S. LNG in upcoming talks on the tariffs next week, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said on Thursday. The tariff on South Korea, which U.S. President Donald Trump announced on the so-called “liberation day” on April 2, was at 25%, lower than for some other Asian countries but much higher than a baseline 10% tariff. The so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ were suspended last week for 90 days, during which countries plan to plead…
Could Shell or Chevron Make a Move on BP?
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For years, BP has been tipped as a potential target of the next mega-merger deal in the oil industry. Speculation about a blockbuster acquisition involving BP resurfaced again this year after activist hedge fund Elliott bought nearly 5% in the UK-based supermajor and demanded changes, big and fast. BP’s shares have underperformed the stocks of the other four of the Big Oil group – Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, and Chevron – ever since 2020. Neither former BP CEO Bernard Looney, with the push toward renewables, nor his successor…
Mining Stocks Rise as Gold Reaches Record High
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The price of gold has climbed to another record high, as anxiety around Donald Trump’s tariff plan and a falling dollar push investors into the traditional safe haven asset. The price of bullion rose 1.5 per cent to break $3,200 (£2,451) per troy ounce for the first time on Friday as equities across Asia fell amid the continued fallout from Donald Trump’s tariff delay. The yellow metal had been caught up in the aggressive sell-off at the height tariff-induced market rout despite its traditional role as a safe haven asset for investors.…
Oil Rig Count Slides Amid Oil Price Turbulence
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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, following a 2 rig dip in the prior week. The total rig count in the US fell by 7 to 583 rigs, according to Baker Hughes, down 34 from this same time last year. The number of oil rigs fell by 9 to 480—down by 26 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs rose by 1 this week to 97 for a loss of 12 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs were rose by 1 to…
LNG Gains Ground as Emissions Fall, Study Finds
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Has there been a more underrated hero in the climate conversation than natural gas? Once hailed as the darling "bridge fuel" of the Obama era, it’s now regularly flogged by environmental purists who claim that our choice is either solar panels or planetary doom. But a new study from Miami University Ohio just lobbed a pretty compelling truth grenade: switching from coal to gas is cutting carbon emissions. A lot. According to peer-reviewed research, greenhouse gas emissions dropped 7.5% annually as companies swapped coal for natural gas via…
Could Japan’s Nippon Steel Acquire U.S. Steel Under Trump?
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After over a year in the making, the takeover of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel was thwarted by former President Joe Biden in January due to security concerns. Now, President Donald Trump is considering whether to revitalise the deal, even as he introduces tariffs on Japanese imports. In December 2023, Nippon Steel announced it planned to acquire U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion as part of its plan to expand its U.S. assets. It was expected to make Nippon the third-largest global steel producer, contributing around 86 million tons…
Uncertainty Is Overshadowing Fundamentals in Oil Markets
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Oil market fundamentals appear to have entirely given way to sentiment recently, with Trump's tariff war with China driving prices down.Friday, April 11th, 2025 This week, one may not have noticed that oil markets are still backwardated and that refiners are still buying oil because the general sentiment in oil markets soured to its lowest level in years. Seemingly ceaseless salvos of incremental import tariffs between the US and China frightened the oil markets to such an extent that even Trump’s 90-day delay on implementation…
Oil Nations Scramble to Avert Economic Crisis After Prices Crash
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The April market rout, which crashed oil prices into the low $60s per barrel, is creating additional fiscal challenges to petrostates and oil-producing countries heavily dependent on oil revenues, on top of any tariff-related hardships. As Brent Crude prices sank to $63 per barrel, major producers in the Gulf region, as well as Brazil and Nigeria, are looking to contain the fallout from the price plunge. Russia’s central bank has already signaled that the oil price decline could hit its economy hard. Oil at $60 is about $20 to $30 per barrel…
Trump Admin Boosts Gulf Oil and Gas Reserves Estimate
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The U.S. Department of the Interior has revised upwards the oil and gas reserves contained in the U.S. section of the Gulf of Mexico, which the Trump administration renamed the Gulf of America. According to an analysis done by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf contains an extra 1.30 billion barrels of oil equivalent, compared to previous estimates done in 2021. This means the total of oil and gas reserves in the area stand at over 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. This is a 22.6% increase in recoverable…
Iran Offers Investment Fig Leaf as Trump Threatens Action over Nuclear Deal
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has welcomed U.S. investors to his country and reiterated that his country is not pursuing nuclear weapons, a day after the Trump administration sanctioned five entities and one individual for supporting key entities managing and overseeing Iran's nuclear program. “I meet the supreme leader [Ali Al Khamenei] several times each week. He has no objection to American investors in the country,” Mr Pezeshkian said at a ceremony marking National Nuclear Technology Day. “Let them come and invest –…
Nuclear’s Back—but Uranium Supply Isn’t
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The nuclear power industry will need additional uranium supply in the medium and long term to ensure adequate supply for the new era of nuclear energy. Therefore, efforts must begin immediately to secure the supply of the key nuclear fuel, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in their Red Book report prepared jointly every two years. Nuclear energy has been booming since 2022 as many countries seek to add reliable but zero-carbon electricity generation capacity to meet growing power demand,…
Iraq’s 7 Million bpd Oil Production Goal Draws Swift Response from Chinese Firms
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The recent reiteration by Iraq Oil Ministry of a 7 million barrels per day (bpd) oil production target within the next five years has spurred activity among Chinese firms that continue to dominate the country’s oil and gas sector. As it stands, more than a third of all Iraq’s proven oil and gas reserves and over two-thirds of its current production are managed by Beijing’s companies, according to industry figures. This translates into Chinese companies having a combined direct share in around 24 billion barrels of reserves…
Nuclear Energy Expansion Faces Water Resource Challenges
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A global nuclear energy renaissance is unfolding. Around the world, the public and private sectors are warming to the idea of nuclear energy expansion to meet ballooning energy demand driven by data centers without throwing decarbonization accords out the window. The International Energy Agency projects that the world will produce more nuclear energy in 2025 than ever before. “More than 70 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity is under construction globally, one of the highest levels in the last 30 years, and more than 40 countries around…
European Rearmament Efforts Focus on Air Defense Systems
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Two former senior US military commanders have said Europe's aerial shield is not prepared to meet the scale of the threat from Russia, while the head of the US Navy's air and missile defense task force has told RFE/RL that intercepting incoming fire is "always a cat-and-mouse chase." The comments come as European countries begin a massive rearmament program, agreed last month, with air defenses top of the shopping list. "You see what has happened in big cities in Ukraine. This also would happen in some of the big cities of Europe," Philip Breedlove,…
Unconventional Resources Fuel China's Energy Growth
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In a world where geopolitics and energy security are increasingly intertwined, China's national oil companies have emerged as pivotal actors in securing the nation’s energy future while shaping global energy dynamics. Through bold investments, innovative technologies, and a relentless drive to both secure and diversify their energy sources, China’s ‘Big Three’ NOCs — China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)…
U.S. Oil Exports to China Set to Stop Amid Tariff War
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China has been buying lower volumes of U.S. crude oil so far this year, and its purchases are set to stop amid the escalating tariff and trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, analysts say. So far this year, American crude oil has accounted for only about 1% of the imports of China, the world’s top crude importer. But the tariff war that U.S. President Donald Trump launched against China in early February dissuaded the remaining Chinese buyers from buying U.S. crude oil. The latest tariff escalation – a 125% U.S.…
Trade War Could Slow Down the AI Boom
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Growth in the AI data center sector could slow due to a global trade war and heightened macroeconomic uncertainties, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). In a Thursday report on AI and its expected impact on global electricity demand, the agency modeled a so-called Headwinds Case, which forecasts slower AI adoption in case bottlenecks, including macroeconomic headwinds, emerge and persist. The Headwinds Case captures the impact of a downside in the outlook for data center deployment, particularly due to slower than expected AI adoption.…
U.S. Shale Faces Toughest Challenge Since the 2020 Oil Price Plunge
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The U.S. shale industry is being hit by the crash in oil prices, which have slumped since President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement last week. Despite the strong relief rally on Wednesday, following President Trump’s 90-day pause of tariff hikes on most countries except China, the U.S. benchmark oil price is now lower than the breakeven for the shale industry to profitably drill a new well. WTI Crude prices were down nearly 1% at $61.76 per barrel in Asian trading on Thursday. That level is already below the average $65 per…
EU Ready to Buy More U.S. LNG to Make Trump Happy
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The European Union is ready to commit to buying more liquefied natural gas from the United States if that would appease President Trump and make him reconsider tariffs on EU imports, the EU’s energy commissioner has said. “There is potential for us to buy more LNG from the US but of course it needs to be on conditions that are also in line with our [green] transition,” Dan Jørgensen said, as quoted by the Financial Times. The commissioner also boasted that the EU was scheduled to install a record amount of new wind and…
Latest Trade War Shot Sends Oil Prices Lower
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Crude oil prices resumed their downward trajectory today after jumping higher on news that most trading partners would get a 90-day pause on tariffs. President Trump’s decision to double down on his tariff offensive against China, raising the total tariff burden on Chinese goods to 125%, effective immediately, has added to bearish sentiment. The move followed China’s announcement of 84% tariffs on U.S. goods in response to Trump’s initial tariffs. Beijing has said it would “fight to the end”. Amid these developments,…
Is Oil Demand About to Surge?
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Benchmark oil prices hit the lowest level since the pandemic panic on Wednesday. Once again, the slump is caused by panic—this time, market panic as U.S. President Donald Trump keeps turning up the tariff heat. For now, everyone seems to be in the grip of fear about what tariffs would do to oil demand. But there is one thing that low prices will definitely do: stoke up demand. The latest oil price crash came Tuesday after Trump said he would impose an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports following China’s retaliation against the…
Standard Chartered: Time To Dial Down the Oil Panic?
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Oil prices earned an unexpected reprieve on Wednesday afternoon, regaining over 3% immediately following U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise decision to pause reciprocal tariffs for 90 days for all except China. After flirting with prices below $60, Brent crude was trading up 3.41% at 2:56 p.m. ET, while WTI was trading up 3.74%, breaching the $61/barrel mark. This week, Brent crude at one point dipped below $60 per barrel after OPEC+ revealed plans to accelerate its phase-out of production cuts. Brent crude for May delivery sank 6.3% to $58.68…
Oil and Gas Industry Bets on Low-Cost Quick-Pay Exploration
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Oil and gas companies are looking to get the most bang for their buck in exploring for hydrocarbon resources. Those lucky enough to have made an early bet on what are now the huge frontier plays, such as Guyana, are seeing exploration expenditures and efforts pay off with large oil and gas discoveries. All others are looking to make the best out of existing infrastructure and explore and drill in well-developed areas close to producing fields and platforms to take advantage of the lower costs for exploration and development. Since conventional…
RIN Prices and Tax Credits Weigh on Biofuel Revenue
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Most US biofuel production numbers are clearly on track to end the first quarter of this year in negative territory either on a quarter-over-quarter or year-over-year basis, Rystad Energy analysis suggests. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the updated statistics for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program on 20 March covering the supply, trade and price dynamics for February 2025. Similar to previous months, we still observe uncertainty around future biofuel policy starts having a tangible impact on the actual supply for…
Geothermal Energy Poised for Significant Growth in the US
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“It’s going to be the decade of geothermal.” That’s according to Cindy Taff, chief executive of geothermal company Sage Geosystems, in an interview in The Hill earlier this year. While Trump is making clean energy cuts left and right, the administration has stayed surprisingly bullish on geothermal, causing bullish outlooks for the burgeoning sector across the United States. While geothermal currently represents only a sliver of renewable energy capacity in the country and lags “10 to 15 years” behind wind and…
China Expands Arms Sales in Central Asia
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China has succeeded in muscling aside Russia as Central Asia’s top trade partner. Now, Beijing appears intent on capturing a share of the regional arms market. Until very recently, China was a non-factor as an arms supplier to Central Asian states. For most of the post-Soviet era, Russia dominated the regional arms market, especially sales to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. But Russia’s arms exports have plummeted since the Russian army became bogged down in Ukraine, opening up opportunities for other nations, including Turkey,…
Aramco and Sinopec to Expand Petrochemicals Plant in Saudi Arabia
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Saudi oil giant Aramco and China’s top refiner, Sinopec, will expand a joint venture petrochemicals complex in Saudi Arabia under an agreement signed on Wednesday. Aramco and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, as Sinopec is known, own the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (Yasref) on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, with Aramco holding 62.5% and Sinopec 37.5% in the venture. The companies signed on Wednesday a so-called Venture Framework Agreement (VFA), which will to pave the way for a major petrochemical expansion at Yasref,…
U.S. Wind Power Growth Will Be 40% Lower Than Expected Due to Trump Policy
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Despite a relatively stable short-term pipeline of U.S. wind power projects under construction, the five-year outlook of America’s wind capacity additions has been significantly limited due to the Trump Administration’s energy policies, Wood Mackenzie said in a new report. The energy consultancy slashed its five-year forecast of new capacity installations to just 45 gigawatts (GW), down by 40% from the previously expected gross additions of 75.8 GW, due to U.S. policy changes and heightened economic uncertainty. Last year saw just 5.2…
Trumps Signs Pro-Coal Executive Orders
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President Donald Trump signed several executive orders on Tuesday that should incentivize the construction of new coal power plants in the latest stark departure from his predecessor. “We're bringing back an industry that was abandoned,” Trump said, as quoted by Reuters. “We're going to put the miners back to work,” the U.S. president added. Coal power plants have declined as share of U.S. generation capacity over the years, especially with the influx of cheap natural gas. Coal plants currently generate a fifth of U.S. electricity,…
China Restricts Rare Earths Exports, Again
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The U.S. stock market bounced back on Tuesday, making the first sizable gains ever since U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a minimum 10% tariff on all imports from 90 countries, roiling financial markets across the globe. However, oil markets have struggled to advance after posting heavy losses to trade at multi-year lows on fears of a full-blown trade war. Brent crude for June delivery slipped 0.4% to trade at $63.94 per barrel at 11.45 am ET on Tuesday, a level they last touched in February 2021, while WTI crude for May delivery was flat on…
Are We on the Cusp of a Natural Hydrogen Boom?
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Some of you may be old enough to remember cold fusion, that wondrous scientific discovery touted by the press back in the last century. Well, we don’t want to leave the impression that we have discovered another cold fusion, just that the decision date for natural (white or gold or whatever color you like) hydrogen may be coming closer. In case you missed the initial findings, geologists believe there are substantial pockets of renewable hydrogen under certain geological formations. Renewable because rainwater seeping through the ground,…
Uncertainty Stalls U.S. Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Boom
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Despite a wave of electric vehicle factories popping up across the U.S. in recent years—fueled by tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act and promises of jobs in mostly Republican areas—many of these projects are now being scrapped, according to a new article by the Washington Post. Even before former President Trump’s new tariffs, the clean energy shift was already losing momentum. In just the first quarter of 2025, more EV-related projects were canceled than in the previous two years combined, according to Atlas Public…
Keystone Crude Oil Pipeline Shut After Leak
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Somewhere in the rural quiet of Fort Ransom, North Dakota, the Keystone pipeline made a bit of a splash this morning—literally. A mechanical bang startled an on-site worker enough to shut down the flow of oil within about two minutes. The pipeline remains shut. The crude spill, now confined to a field, hasn’t yet been quantified, but emergency crews are on the scene. The cause and volume are not yet known. Just a few weeks ago, President Trump called—yet again—for the revival of the Keystone XL pipeline, the much-lobbied…
Job Numbers Rise in Alaska’s Arctic Thanks to Oil Projects
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The development of oil projects in Alaska’s North Slope and Arctic is boosting jobs growth in these areas more than the average for the state, according to the latest figures by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Job numbers jumped by 7% in the North Slope and Northwest Arctic regions last year, compared to broadly flat job numbers for the state of Alaska. In Alaska’s north, ConocoPhillips is developing the Willow oil project, which was approved by the Biden Administration in 2023. The $8-billion project is expected…
South Korea Seeks More U.S. LNG Imports to Fix Trade Imbalance
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South Korea has thrown in the towel without a fight after the U.S. slapped tariffs on all of the country’s trade partners. Seoul is looking at more LNG imports to get Washington to drop the new tariffs. Per a Bloomberg report, the South Korean government is working on several packages of measures to be taken to erase the trade surplus it has with the U.S. in a bid to convince President Trump to remove the additional tariffs, with the focus on boosting imports instead of cutting exports. “We need to adjust the US trade balance, which…
LNG and Coal Face Dismal Times With Trump’s Port Levies
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Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a minimum 10% tariff on all imports from 90 countries, roiling financial markets across the globe. U.S. customs agents began collecting the unilateral tariff at customs warehouses, seaports and airports on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners set to start in the current week. As widely expected, China was the hardest hit by the tariffs: China now faces a hefty 64.9% tariff, including an additional 34% duty imposed by former President Trump on top of existing tariffs…
Oil Price Slump, Tariffs Hit Oilfield Services Sector
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Oil prices dropped off a cliff last week after President Trump announced a barrage of tariffs on global trading partners, triggering panic in the trading world. The effect has now rippled across the energy industry, set to discourage production growth—and hurt oilfield service companies. The sector was already worrying about the steel and aluminum tariffs that President Trump introduced last month as part of his radical efforts to revive U.S. industries. The tariffs stand at a hefty 25% and apply to all steel and aluminum imports into the…
U.S. and EU Seek to Counter Russian Nuclear Dominance
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Far removed from the battlefields of Ukraine, the United States, European Union and Russia are facing off on a second front in a struggle over the nuclear energy sector and control of uranium supply chains. While the war in Ukraine may have ground to a stalemate amid a halting search for a ceasefire, Russia is clearly winning the fight over nuclear energy – at least for now. Rosatom, the Russian state-controlled nuclear entity, holds commanding field position in the decarbonized power sector, which allows the Kremlin to punch far above…
India Hikes Excise Duty on Fuels as Oil Prices Plummet
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India is raising the excise duty on gasoline and diesel effective April 8, the government said on Monday, but noted that the increase in the excise duty would not be felt at the pump. The rise in the excise duty will not raise retail gasoline and diesel prices as it would be borne by oil marketing companies and would be adjusted against the price cut that was warranted because of falling international oil prices. India has regularly raised the excise duty on fuels when international oil prices drop significantly. Since the middle of last week,…
Russia’s Urals Oil Crashes Toward $50 in “Extremely Turbulent” Market
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Russia’s flagship Urals crude grade has tumbled alongside all major oil benchmarks in the global market rout and is close to the $50 per barrel threshold for the first time in nearly two years. The Urals price was at around $52 per barrel at the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on Friday, according to data from Argus Media cited by Bloomberg. The price of Urals further dropped on Monday as oil prices continued to fall, with WTI Crude, the U.S. benchmark, down to $60 per barrel, and Brent Crude prices at $64. The market selloff that began on Thursday,…
Trade War Just Crashed Crude. Demand Might Be Next
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The reciprocal tariffs that the world has been holding its breath about are here, stock markets are reeling, and crude oil took a dive. The question now is whether tariffs will hurt oil demand for longer or whether the effect will be transitory, with prices rebounding before long. For now, a majority of observers appear to agree that the tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump imposed on all of the country’s trade partners would hurt oil demand quite seriously and continue hurting it for their duration. The International Monetary Fund came…
Despite Trump’s Crackdown, Venezuela Still Has Buyers
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It is 3 April, so any country buying Venezuelan oil must face a 25% tariff on all its trade with the United States. That is according to President Donald Trump’s executive order signed on 24 March. The White House has also ordered companies with sanctions waivers to quit Venezuela by 27 May, including Chevron, Repsol, and Maurel et Prom. But it looks like some traders are undaunted by the U.S. government’s threats. Tankers are still sailing to Venezuela, contradicting Trump’s statement on 30 March: “Every ship just got out…
EV Battery Costs Set For Sharp Rise On Trump’s Tariffs
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The U.S. stock market tanked for a second day running on Friday, with the S&P 500 falling -4.5% a day after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled reciprocal tariffs, including a baseline 10% tariff applied on imports from all countries. The energy sector was one of the hardest hit by the tariffs, with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLE) falling -7.4% on the day thanks to the ongoing oil price crash. Brent crude for June delivery fell -7.1% to trade at $65.47 per barrel at 11.50 am ET while WTI crude for May delivery declined…
Myanmar Earthquake and Tariffs Shake Rare Earths Industry
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The Rare Earths MMI (Monthly Metals Index) moved sideways, edging up by a slight 1.82%. The global rare earth market has taken a significant hit lately, thanks to a combination of natural disasters and big geopolitical moves. A strong earthquake in Myanmar and the recent wave of U.S. tariffs have thrown this somewhat delicate industry into even more uncertainty. Myanmar’s Quake: A Jolt to the Supply Chain? On March 28, a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked the country of Myanmar. While the tremors didn’t directly damage rare earth…
Solar Panel Supply Chains Face Human Rights Concerns
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Many countries worldwide rely heavily on China for the supply of their solar panels, as the world’s biggest producer of the equipment, contributing 77.8 percent of global production. Recently, there have been rising concerns over potential slavery in the supply chain due to the poor conditions faced by many Chinese workers in the industry. These concerns have been raised in the past, but they seem to have been largely overlooked, with governments prioritising an accelerated green transition over greater transparency and accountability in…
Taiwan Invested $165 Billion. Trump Hit Back With Tariffs.
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Taiwan may have thought that it had bought its way out of hefty U.S. tariffs with last month’s announcement of a $100-billion investment in chip factories in the United States. Oh, was Taiwan wrong. As President Donald Trump’s tariff plan dropped on Wednesday, Taiwan – and the world and markets – realized the actual tariffs are higher than feared. Taiwan was slapped with a 32% tariff, which the government described as “highly unreasonable”, “unfair”, and “deeply regrettable.” Taiwan had…
Integrated Supermajors Led Energy Sector Gains in First Quarter
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The first quarter of 2025 ended on a challenging note for the financial markets, as the S&P 500 posted a 4.6% decline—its first quarterly loss since Q3 2023. The Dow and Nasdaq also declined in Q1. Macroeconomic and geopolitical factors weighed heavily on investor sentiment, leading to widespread equity sell-offs and significant sector rotations. While many sectors faced headwinds, energy stocks emerged as a rare bright spot, delivering resilient performance and reinforcing their reputation as a defensive play during market volatility.…
Europe Seeks New Measures to Boost Semiconductor Industry
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The European Union (EU) introduced its first Chips Act in September 2023 to establish a framework for strengthening the semiconductor ecosystem in the region. Member states have increasingly been calling on the EU to strengthen the regulation to advance the region’s semiconductor production. The European Chips Act was established to bolster Europe’s competitiveness and resilience in semiconductor technologies and applications and help achieve both the digital and green transition. Approximately one trillion microchips were manufactured…
Trump Tariffs Threaten UK Economic Stability
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The US president holds up a sandwich board in the Rose Garden. On it is a list of countries. Next to each country are two columns: one for “tariffs charged to the USA” and one for “USA Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs”. The leader of the free world is cooking up a storm. “Our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered,” the most powerful man in the planet tells billions of people in Asia, Africa and Europe. The USA wants to end trade deficits and it wants firms to exclusively employ American workers.…