WTI is hovering near $89 after a sharp September unwind from above $100. Brent is still the more stubborn benchmark, recently trading in the mid-to-high $90s after spending stretches of the month above $100. The market is no longer pricing a clean “Hormuz victory.” It is pricing a split world: more crude is moving again, […]
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Brent settled above $101 on Wednesday, September 9, and WTI followed through the $100 level on Thursday morning in a sharp rally. Physical benchmarks had already been there. Dated Brent has held above $100 since September 3. Murban, DME Oman, the OPEC basket, and the Indian basket were already trading over that threshold. Futures are […]
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Physical tightness, high product cracks, and China’s selective rebound in buying are supporting prices, but inventories, China’s still-subdued import volumes, and the existing backwardation already price in a good deal of risk. What the OilPrice article and related reporting show The Sept. 7 OilPrice piece (and the overlapping Bloomberg coverage it draws on) reports that […]
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Oil prices climbed more than 2% in Monday trading after the United States and Iran exchanged strikes for the first time in weeks and Iran reported a supertanker striking sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The developments ended a period of relative calm in the six-month conflict and immediately revived supply-risk fears for a […]
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Jeff Currie, founder and CEO of Real Macro and a veteran commodities strategist formerly of Goldman Sachs and Carlyle, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box on August 26, 2026, and cut through the usual noise. The segment title said it plainly: “The Strait of Hormuz is just one of many choke points being squeezed right now.” […]
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Diesel refining margins—known as crack spreads—have exploded to extreme levels across the three major refining hubs, signaling a tightening global middle distillate market that is only in its early stages. As of late August 2026, the US Gulf Coast ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) crack versus WTI stood near $93–94 per barrel (after briefly topping a […]
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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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The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a surprise and historically large build in commercial crude oil inventories for the week ending August 7, 2026. Commercial stocks (excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) rose by 17.4 million barrels to 424.4 million barrels—the largest weekly increase since January 2023 and well above analyst expectations of a draw […]
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U.S. oil and gas drillers added a single active rig in the latest weekly tallies, signaling continued capital discipline and steady rather than accelerating activity heading into late summer 2026. According to the WellDatabase US Rig Report dated July 31, 2026 (published in partnership with Energy News Beat), the national active rig count reached 576, […]
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In this explosive episode of the Energy News Beat Daily Standup, host Stu Turley breaks down ten major stories that expose a widening chasm between what financial markets are signaling and what’s actually happening on the ground in global energy infrastructure. From a $40-50 disconnect between paper oil prices and physical barrel delivery costs, to […]
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