The U.S.-Iran agreement — the first signed by an American and an Iranian president since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution — is being hailed by its backers as the deal of the century. But for Tehran's adversaries across the Middle East — from Israel to Gulf states and factions in Lebanon — it looks more like the curse of the century: an accord that could leave Iran more secure, more legitimate and ultimately more influential. U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian [Read more]

The top U.S. energy regulator ordered the country's electric grid operators on Thursday to reconsider rules for connecting very large energy users such as data centers, as demand from server warehouses strains power grids. Data centers are pushing U.S. electricity use to record highs and requiring more electricity in large swaths of the country than grids can supply, sending regulators scrambling to manage the demand. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission draft "show cause" orders [Read more]

Bank of America said that a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz could see Brent crude prices average $82 a barrel this year, compared with its previous forecast of $93 a barrel. The note dated Wednesday added that Brent would likely trade in the $70 to $80 range for most of the second half of this year. * On Thursday, oil prices fell to their lowest since the first trading day of the Iran war, as a U.S.-Iran interim deal to end the conflict, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ease [Read more]

The blast was so powerful that the huge disc-shaped lid of an oil storage tank was launched into the sky over Moscow like a frisbee. Evading Russian air defences, Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in southeast Moscow on Thursday for the second time in three days, igniting a fierce blaze that spewed out clouds of black smoke. The attacks are part of a wider Ukrainian campaign to cripple the oil industry whose revenues finance Russia's war effort. But by striking with apparent [Read more]

Three Saudi-flagged supertankers with six million barrels of crude onboard sailed through the Strait of Hormuz hours after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a deal with Iran over an end to their war, ship tracking data showed on Thursday. Other tankers showed their positions sailing through the strait on public ship tracking on Thursday after weeks of ships concealing their voyages when crossing through the waterway. The sailings from Saudi ports were the biggest departures through the [Read more]

Oil prices fell in early trading on Thursday after the U.S. and Iran signed an interim agreement that would end the Iran war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and waive U.S. sanctions on Tehran's oil, resolving the largest energy supply disruption in history. Brent crude futures were down 89 cents, or 1.12%, at $78.66 a barrel as of 0005 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell 98 cents, or 1.28%, to $75.81 a barrel. The benchmarks resumed their decline, reversing gains made on Wednesday [Read more]

Activist investor TOMS Capital Investment Management has acquired a sizable stake in Devon Energy and is pressing the U.S. shale operator to sell assets or put itself up for sale, five people familiar with the matter said. Fresh from a $58 billion merger with Coterra Energy, which it completed in May, Devon is in the midst of laying out its strategy for the combined company, with a presence in a half-dozen shale basins led by its position in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico. Devon said [Read more]

Both Iran and the U.S. can walk away from the memorandum of understanding they are set to sign on Friday, and upcoming talks are likely to focus on the precise sequencing of the steps previewed in the preliminary accord, a senior U.S. official told reporters on Wednesday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official read out the 14-point memorandum that is due to be formally signed in Switzerland. They said upcoming meetings there will be "critical" for ensuring that the memorandum of [Read more]