China’s Teapot Refiners Slash Output as Hormuz Crisis Crushes Margins

Independent “teapot” refiners in China — the smaller, privately owned facilities concentrated in Shandong province that account for roughly a quarter of the country’s refining capacity — are slashing production rates as the ongoing paralysis in the Strait of Hormuz drives crude prices higher and crushes refining margins. According to industry sources cited by Reuters […]

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Refinery Fire in New Orleans: Is This a Pattern?

On May 8, 2026, an explosion and fire rocked the Chalmette Refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, just east of New Orleans. Operated by PBF Energy, the facility processes roughly 185,000–190,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and specialty products. The incident occurred around 12:50–1:00 p.m. CDT in an operating 17,500-bpd reformer […]

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Chevron CEO Says Oil Storage Buffers Being Drawn Down

In a candid interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference, Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth delivered a sobering assessment of the global oil market: the industry’s traditional “shock absorbers” — commercial inventories in tanks, oil on tankers (including shadow fleet vessels), and strategic petroleum reserves — have been significantly drawn down in recent months […]

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What Does Mozambique and California Have in Common? Rising Diesel Prices on the Horizon as Both Depend on Imports Tied to the Strait of Hormuz

In a striking parallel amid the ongoing U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, two distant regions—sub-Saharan Africa’s Mozambique and the U.S. West Coast’s California—are facing acute fuel supply pressures. Both heavily rely on petroleum products whose supply chains trace back to the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint through which roughly 20-25% of global seaborne oil and […]

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California’s Self-Inflicted Energy Disaster: Steve Hilton, Chris Wright Slam Dems With The Truth

ENB Pubnote: This article was run on David Blackmon’s Energy Additions Substack, and we highly recommend subscribing. This morning on Mornings with Maria, Secretary Chris Wright hit it out of the park, and we will have that information out later. California is a self-imposed energy island with a crisis brewing, and Secretary Wright is spot […]

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