Stocks of crude oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 6.2 million barrels in the week ending July 3 to 319.5 million barrels, the lowest level since April 1983, according to data from the Department of Energy. The drawdown is part of a U.S. agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility to plug a gap in global inventories since the Iran war and help push down fuel prices. Since the war began at the end of February, overall U.S. inventories, including commercial and [Read more]

Cuba's national electric grid collapsed on Monday at midday, the country's grid operator said, leaving around 10 million people on the Caribbean island without power. Grid operator UNE said it was investigating the cause of the nationwide blackout. Cuba has for months suffered from hours-long, and more recently, days-long power outages linked in part to a decrepit grid and a U.S. imposed oil blockade that has cut off the island's fuel supply. The nationwide outage is more bad news for [Read more]

The world has absorbed with surprising ease the loss of over a billion barrels of oil supply since the Iran war began, but, with long-term peace elusive and buffer reserves now drained, it still faces the looming risk of future price spikes. Tehran's throttling of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the U.S. and Israeli attacks launched on February 28 fed fears of a catastrophic global energy crunch. The ensuing four-month conflict did, indeed, create the biggest energy disruption in history, [Read more]

The funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was more than a national farewell. The sea of mourners in Tehran sent a message to the United States and Israel that their attempt to break the Islamic Republic had failed. Rather than looking weakened by the war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on February 28, Iran presented itself as defiant, unified and determined to shape what comes next. That defiance and ability to survive now underpins Iran's negotiating [Read more]

The decision by OPEC+ to increase crude oil production quotas for a fifth straight month from August raises two questions. Can they actually ship the increased output and if they can, who will buy it? The seven core members of OPEC+, which groups together OPEC and allied producers such as Russia, agreed at a meeting on Sunday to lift quotas by 188,000 barrels per day from August, taking the total increase to almost 800,000 bpd since April. The first question will be answered in the [Read more]

Oil prices inched lower on Monday after OPEC+ agreed to further increase its output targets from August while exports from key producers via the Strait of Hormuz are recovering, potentially adding to global supplies. Brent crude futures fell 34 cents, or 0.47%, to $71.78 a barrel by 0408 GMT after settling 0.45% higher on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $68.49 a barrel, down 20 cents, or 0.29%. There was no settlement for WTI on Friday as U.S. markets were closed ahead of [Read more]

Iran has begun talks with Japanese companies under a U.S. sanctions waiver allowing it to resume oil sales, though prospective buyers are seeking a longer waiver and reassurances about ship safety, three Iranian and Western sources said. The waiver, part of 60-day peace talks between Tehran and Washington, was issued on June 22 and expires August 21. Three Japanese buyers were looking at possible crude oil purchases from Iran, their first since 2019, said two Iranian sources, who declined [Read more]