First Iranian Oil Moves Past U.S. Blockade Ahead of Deal Signing
by Tsvetana Paraskova
17 Jun 2026 at 11:30am
Iran?s first observed crude oil exports in two months have moved past the U.S. blockade outside the Strait of Hormuz in a sign that Iran is wasting no time to take advantage of the tentative deal with the United States. Following the announcement of the deal this weekend, and ahead of a formal signing ceremony expected in Switzerland on Friday, at least three Iranian crude oil tankers have exited the Strait of Hormuz and departed from the region moving past the U.S. blockade so far this week, tanker-tracking firms have said. TankerTrackers.com?

Global Gas Markets Get Another Boost as Australian LNG Strike Ends
by Tsvetana Paraskova
17 Jun 2026 at 10:30am
A weeks-long strike action at the Ichthys LNG facilities in Australia is coming to an end after trade unions and Japanese energy company Inpex reached an agreement on pay and benefits. More than 430 members of the Offshore Alliance, AWU, and ETU trade unions early on Wednesday endorsed a settlement with Ichthys LNG operator Inpex, ending the dispute that on Tuesday had shut down Train 1 at the facility, Offshore Alliance said. The end of the industrial action, which began on June 3, comes as a relief to the global LNG and gas markets, which have?

Qatar Prepares LNG Comeback Ahead of Hormuz Reopening
by Tsvetana Paraskova
17 Jun 2026 at 9:30am
Qatar has started to return LNG tankers back to the Middle East in anticipation of an imminent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz that would allow the world?s second-biggest LNG exporter to start producing and moving LNG supply again. At least four Qatar-owned tankers have headed in recent days to Ras Laffan, Qatar?s LNG complex in the Persian Gulf, and a fifth is en route to the region, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed on Wednesday. Another four LNG carriers are idling in the Gulf of Oman and could soon move to pass?

China?s Gasoline Car Market Is Crashing as Fuel Prices Surge
by Charles Kennedy
17 Jun 2026 at 8:30am
Gasoline car demand in China is slumping on higher fuel prices resulting from the crisis in the Middle East, with gas guzzlers such as Range Rover, fetching discounts of up to 60%, Bloomberg reported, citing Chinese media. The report also cited data from the Chinese Passenger Car Association showing discounts on gasoline cars had almost doubled over the first five months of the year as oil?and fuel?prices crept up. Chinese passenger car sales dropped by over 22% in May, data released earlier showed, while EV and hybrid vehicle sales?

China Bets on Ultra-Deep Shale Gas to Boost Energy Security
by Irina Slav
17 Jun 2026 at 7:15am
China?s state-owned oil and gas major and top refiner Sinopec is ramping up exploration in the shale formations of the Sichuan basin with a view to increasing the country?s shale gas production by a third over the next ten years. Currently, China?s shale gas total is below government targets, Reuters noted in a report on the news, adding shale gas represents only a tenth of China?s total natural gas production. Beijing has a shale gas output target of 80 to 100 billion cu m by 2030. This has prompted Sinopec and other state-owned?

Oil Tankers Reverse Course on Hopes of Hormuz Reopening
by Irina Slav
17 Jun 2026 at 6:00am
Two tankers that were heading to Africa have changed course and are now moving to the Middle East, Bloomberg reported today, citing ship-tracking data. One of the tankers, a Suezmax, which was originally sailing for Gabon, is now signaling its destination as Fujairah, the UAE port just outside the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg said. The other vessel, a very large crude carrier, was originally en route to South Africa but is now also signaling Fujairah as its destination. News about a peace deal between the United States and Iran in the making sent?

The Smartest Way to Play the AI Boom in 2026
by Tom Kool
17 Jun 2026 at 12:00am
If you've been investing in the AI boom, you probably own most of the same names everyone else does. NVIDIA for the chips. Microsoft, Google and Amazon for the cloud. Maybe Meta for the consumer side. Maybe Palantir or one of the AI software names. Possibly TSMC for exposure to the manufacturing layer. And that playbook has worked well for investors. NVIDIA alone has minted more wealth in two years than most companies create in a century. The hyperscalers have all hit fresh highs. AI software stocks that were speculative bets in 2022 now trade?

China Reclaims Solar Crown With Record-Breaking Perovskite Panel
by Alex Kimani
16 Jun 2026 at 11:00pm
Last year, South Korea?s Qcells set the world record for large-area silicon solar cell efficiency, a development that promised to dramatically shrink the size of solar projects and slash costs. Qcells, a subsidiary of South Korea?s giant conglomerate Hanwha Corp, set the world record after achieving 28.6% efficiency by combining a top light-absorbing layer of perovskite with a bottom silicon layer to capture a broader spectrum of sunlight. For some context, high-end commercial solar panels typically operate at 21% to 23% efficiency,?

Taiwan?s Energy Crisis Shows the Cost of Import Dependence
by Charles Kennedy
16 Jun 2026 at 10:00pm
The issue of energy dependence and its consequences has, in recent months, become a major topic of discussion. The Hormuz crisis has brought energy security to the political agenda with a vengeance amid fuel price caps, rationing, and warnings of severe shortages.  A lot of countries have been used as examples of either low dependence and therefore insulation against shocks, or high dependence that has resulted in a lot of economic pain. In the latter category, Taiwan stands out as a particularly noteworthy case: the nation depends on imports?

US Crude Oil Inventories Down Again, Losing 52 Million Barrels in 9 Weeks
by Julianne Geiger
16 Jun 2026 at 9:02pm
The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 8.33 million barrels in the week ending June 12. Analysts had expected a 4.5 million draw. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by a rather large 9.119 million barrels. Although inventories have been falling rapidly for the last 2+ months, shedding 52 million barrels over the last nine weeks, US crude inventories are only down 1.4 million barrels so far this year, according to API data. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Egypt Clears $6 Billion in Energy Debt and Opens Door to a New Gas Boom
by Simon Watkins
16 Jun 2026 at 9:00pm
The announcement from Egypt?s petroleum and mineral resources minister Karim Badawi that the country has paid all its outstanding debts to foreign oil firms is as welcome to international oil companies and their governments as it is to the country itself. Egypt has become one of the West?s prime targets in the hunt for replacement gas supplies after the loss of Russian flows following the 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Officially, it holds around 93 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, but unofficially, it?

AI Power Hunger Sparks Push for Energy Efficiency
by Tsvetana Paraskova
16 Jun 2026 at 8:00pm
The surge of AI and the data center boom have started to pose challenges to the global energy system amid soaring power demand, spiking energy bills, and a higher environmental footprint. As much as AI is changing the world and the economy, it could also offer assistance to one of the energy sector?s most pressing needs in times of rising demand, uncertainty in fossil fuel supply, and inflationary and supply-chain pressures in the renewables industry?energy efficiency. AI could be the tool to help unlock additional energy gains and?

Norway Moves to Extend the Life of Europe?s Most Important Oil Field
by OilPrice.com
16 Jun 2026 at 7:00pm
Norway is moving ahead with the next phase of development at Johan Sverdrup, a project designed to help maintain production from the oil field that has become one of Europe's most important sources of crude supply. According to Equinor, new discoveries in the Johan Sverdrup area have laid the foundation for Phase 4 of the giant North Sea field. Preliminary estimates indicate resources of around 20 million barrels of oil and approximately 30 million barrels of oil equivalent, with production expected to begin in 2029. The volumes are modest compared?

Oil Prices Crash as Traders Bet the War Is Over
by Julianne Geiger
16 Jun 2026 at 6:30pm
The oil market just did something remarkable. After spending months pricing in tanker attacks, shut-in production, damaged LNG facilities, and the largest supply disruption in modern oil market history, traders are suddenly betting the crisis is ending. Brent crude futures fell below $79 per barrel on Tuesday, its lowest level since March, after the United States and Iran digitally signed a peace agreement that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the immediate return of Iranian oil sales to global markets. The selloff has been relentless.?

The Bottleneck Holding Back Britain's Energy Industry
by OilPrice.com
16 Jun 2026 at 6:00pm
Alan Chang believes Britain?s energy crisis is largely self-inflicted. The founder of Fuse Energy, the $5bn (£3.72bn) energy supplier and infrastructure developer, argues that the UK already has the ingredients needed to drive investment in the sector. What it lacks, he says, is a planning system capable of turning that potential into projects. ?There is more money chasing infrastructure projects than there are infrastructure projects?, Chang told City AM. ?It?s basically a self-imposed bottleneck for growth.??