News

U.S. energy firms this week cut the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating for a second week in a row for the first time since mid-January, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday. The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by nine to 543 in the week to March 27, the lowest since the week of January 16. Baker Hughes said this week's decline puts the total rig count down 49 rigs, or 8.3% below this time last year. Baker Hughes said oil rigs fell [Read more]

There are reasons to believe that there could be an escalation in the conflict in the Middle East in the coming days, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday. "I have reasons to believe, also based on information we've received from our allies, that stabilisation is unlikely in the coming days. On the contrary, a new escalation may occur," Tusk told reporters. (Reporting by Alana Charlish, Paweł Florkiewicz, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk;) [Read more]

Japan's industry ministry has asked domestic wholesalers to switch to Brent crude oil pricing from the Dubai benchmark when setting gasoline prices, in an attempt to contain price increases, according to a document seen by Reuters on Friday. The measure adds to the tools that Japan, which is dependent on the Middle East for more than 90% of its oil, has deployed to contend with the disruptions from the Iran war. These have ranged from the partial release of oil reserves to considering an [Read more]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U.S. has been seeking control over the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, which were damaged by mysterious blast in September 2022. Explosions that destroyed the pipelines more than three years ago largely severed Russian gas transit to Europe, squeezing energy supplies on the continent although Russia had already largely stopped deliveries. Russia and Western countries have both said the incident was an act of sabotage. Investigators [Read more]

The U.S. technology industry is being pushed to shrink its power use in times of high demand, amid growing public concern that Big Tech's massive electricity needs for its expansion of data centers are maxing out the country's grid. The power industry and its regulators are increasingly urging tech companies to make what was once an unthinkable concession - scaling back energy consumption at the giant server farms known as data centers when called upon by utilities and grid [Read more]