Chinese refiners are paying record premiums for Russian ESPO crude as cheap sanctioned barrels from Iran dry up and Venezuelan oil moves onto the open market.

November-loading ESPO from Kozmino is trading at more than $7 per barrel over Brent, with some offers to independent refiners reaching $10, according to traders cited by Bloomberg and OilPrice.com. That is a sharp reversal from the deep discounts China extracted for years. ESPO loads on Russia’s Pacific coast and reaches Chinese ports in less […]

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Diversified Energy is buying Elliott-backed Birch Permian Holdings for about $1.8 billion, its largest deal in 25 years, and using Carlyle-backed asset-backed securities to scale a PDP platform in the Midland Basin without a large equity raise.

The transaction, announced September 2, 2026, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary conditions and a $50 million break fee. It expands Diversified Energy Company (NYSE/LSE: DEC) from a multi-basin PDP consolidator into a scaled, operated Permian producer with integrated midstream and water infrastructure. Deal structureGross purchase price is […]

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Chevron, Eni, and a broader group of firms signed energy agreements in Caracas on September 2, 2026, with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez present.

The pacts target higher crude output from existing and new acreage under Venezuela’s reformed hydrocarbons law, separate from the larger U.S.-backed North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) arrangement announced days earlier by President Trump. Wright described the package as “tens of billions” in investments and a “transformation for Venezuela.” Rodríguez credited Trump administration efforts for […]

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Russia’s surprise return to a G20 finance meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, this week laid bare a widening rift.

European attendees openly scorned the presence of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who attended at the invitation of the Trump administration—the first in-person Russian participation since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil called the signal “quite troubling” and insisted “you cannot simply return to normality.” European officials refused […]

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