Exports of crude oil and liquefied natural gas from U.S. Gulf Coast ports tumbled to zero on Sunday before rebounding on Monday, after a massive winter storm swept across the country, ship-tracking service Vortexa said. An Arctic blast has pummeled the United States in recent days, straining energy infrastructure and power grids. Up to 2 million barrels per day of oil production went offline over the weekend due to the frigid weather, according to some analyst estimates. Port closures, [Read more]
US Northeast spot natgas and power prices hit record highs as Arctic blast boosts heating demand, freezes gas wells
U.S. spot natural gas and power prices soared to record highs in the northeastern part of the country as homes and businesses cranked up their heaters to escape an Arctic chill that cut gas output to a two-year low by freezing oil and gas wells and pipes earlier this week. Cash gas prices for Tuesday soared 242% at the Algonquin Hub in New England to a record $173 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), while next-day prices at the Eastern Gas hub in Pennsylvania jumped 47% to a record [Read more]
China soaks up the crude oil glut, but only if the price is right: Russell
Where exactly is the expected supply glut in the global crude market? The best answer is China, which saw storage flows surge in December, resulting in a surplus of more than 1 million barrels per day for 2025. China's surplus of crude oil jumped to 2.67 million bpd in December, up from 1.88 million bpd in November and the most since the 2.27 million bpd seen in June 2020, when the world's largest crude buyer was gorging on cheap oil at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For 2025 the [Read more]
Power plant outages leave largest US regional grid with thin operating margin
The largest U.S. regional electric grid on Tuesday reported nearly 18 gigawatts of power plant outages, leaving a region of 67 million people with a thin buffer of power supplies against frigid weather and a forecast for record-breaking winter demand. The PJM Interconnection reported that most of the generation outages are due to power plants being forced offline amid freezing weather and constricted supplies of natural gas for the region. PJM, which serves 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and [Read more]
Germany needs new partners as global order changes, economy minister says
Germany must seek new partners in light of a changing global order, the country's economy minister said on Tuesday, referring to deteriorated relations with the United States that have resulted in painful import tariffs. "The world has become more uncertain, and alliances that we have trusted and relied on are beginning to crumble," Katherina Reiche said at the Handelsblatt energy summit. "That does not mean abandoning them, but rather continuing to work together, however challenging that [Read more]
PetroChina holds off from buying Venezuelan oil marketed under US control, sources say
State-owned PetroChina has told its traders not to buy or trade Venezuelan crude since Washington took control of the OPEC producer's oil exports this month, two trading executives familiar with the situation said. The listed unit of Chinese major CNPC was the largest single offtaker of Venezuelan oil until early 2019, when it halted imports after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Venezuela's oil sales during his first presidential term. PetroChina's decision to refrain from [Read more]
Canada is looking to boost energy trade with India, energy minister says
Canada is looking at boosting energy exports to India in a bid to diversify its customer base and cut dependence on supply to the United States, its Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said on Tuesday. Hodgson told the Indian Energy Week conference that exporting 98% of its energy to the United States was a "strategic blunder", and saw an opportunity to work with India. "The fastest growing demand for energy in the world will be in India," Hodgson said, adding Canada could supply crude oil, [Read more]
World’s ‘middle powers’ de-risking from America: Mike Dolan
Donald Trump's Greenland tariff threat and U-turn last week may have been a watershed for the world's "middle powers." For them, rebooting globalization - with or without Washington - now looks far more realistic than it did during last year's trade shock. This year, the U.S. president has shifted from using tariffs mainly to air long-standing trade grievances to wielding them as tools of territorial and military leverage. And for the first time, that strategy has met firm resistance and [Read more]
US summer gas prices to keep above $3.50/mmBtu, Goldman Sachs says
Goldman Sachs expects U.S. gas prices to be above $3.50 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in the summer, it said in a note late Monday, to incentivise producers to ramp up production and meet storage targets. U.S. natural gas futures soared by a record 119% over five days to a three-year high on Monday after an Arctic blast over the weekend boosted heating demand. Production slumped to a two-year low after the extreme cold froze oil and gas wells and pipes, while gas flows to liquefied [Read more]
America Inc’s productivity boom may be going global: McGeever
The rumblings of a productivity boom are reverberating through the U.S. economy – and they may be going global. Technological leaps have long been the hallmark of U.S. economic efficiency, flexibility and dynamism – trends that artificial intelligence is expected to accelerate – but there are nascent signs that the benefits of AI may be spreading. Purchasing managers' index (PMI) figures on Friday showed that British business activity has started this year on a strong footing, with robust [Read more]