On the morning of August 21, 2026, Ukrainian drones struck the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez oil refinery in Russia’s Perm Krai, more than 1,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Thick black smoke rose over the facility, one of Russia’s 10 largest refineries with a design capacity of around 13 million metric tons of crude per year (approximately 262,000 […]
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In an August 20, 2026, Bloomberg Opinion column, Javier Blas argued that “choking Iran’s economy is the least bad way to end the war.” Drawing on firsthand observations of sanctions-induced collapse in Iraq, Venezuela, and Cuba—worthless currencies, skyrocketing inflation, and soaring unemployment—Blas noted that pure economic pressure has historically failed to force political change. U.S. […]
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Hat tip to Claire Coutinho (then Energy Secretary, now Shadow Secretary of State for Energy) and the think tank Onward with modeling by Transira Energy. This article was first published on the Energy News Beat Substack. Britain’s electricity prices rank among the highest in the developed world—frequently the highest for industrial users among IEA countries […]
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The oil market is sending mixed signals that traders and energy watchers cannot ignore. Futures prices—the “paper” side of the trade—have been surprisingly restrained even as physical barrels face ongoing constraints from the prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. Diesel cracks are screaming tightness downstream, China has stepped back as the world’s swing buyer, […]
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South Bow Corp. (TSX/NYSE: SOBO) shares rose on August 19, 2026, marking their strongest one-day advance in more than a month, after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly suggested a revival of the long-canceled Keystone XL pipeline project. In a Truth Social post, Trump announced a three-day pause on planned 50% tariffs on Canadian goods, citing […]
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Brent crude hovering near $91 a barrel might look manageable on a trading screen. Jeff Currie, the veteran commodities strategist now at Carlyle Group, argues that focus is dangerously misplaced. “Nobody on the planet Earth consumes crude oil,” Currie told CNBC. “Refineries do. Everyone else consumes gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, and those markets look […]
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Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement claimed on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, that its forces targeted Saudi Aramco’s Jazan (also spelled Jizan) oil refinery on the Red Sea coast in southwest Saudi Arabia with “a number of drones.” A Houthi military source told the group’s Saba news agency the strike was “precise” and conducted in response to […]
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The ambitious plan to build a major new crude oil export route from Iraq through Syria to the Mediterranean—explicitly designed to reduce dependence on the Strait of Hormuz—will require at least four years of construction and an investment of $15 billion or more, according to sources directly involved in the project speaking to Reuters on […]
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As Europe contemplates a post-Russia/Ukraine war landscape, the imperative to re-arm and rebuild credible conventional deterrence has never been clearer. Tanks, artillery systems, armored vehicles, munitions, and supporting infrastructure all demand vast quantities of high-quality steel—often 50–60 tonnes for a main battle tank and up to 100 tonnes for certain self-propelled artillery pieces. Yet the […]
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A wild day on the Energy Realities Podcast with Dr. Tammy Nemeth, David Blackmon and Stu Turley. In this episode of the Energy Realities Podcast, host David Blackmon and panelists Dr. Joseph Fournier, Dr. Tammy Nemeth, and Stu Turley challenge the prevailing Western narrative around energy transition and expose a stark geopolitical reality: while North […]
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