Finance and markets: business, quotes, gold, energy and releases.
Found 2646 articles
Benchmark gas prices at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility climbed 3% on Friday, hitting 92.30 euros per megawatt-hour. This surge reflects growing anxiety over the diversion of Qatari LNG shipments and the mounting instability in the Middle East, which threatens to tighten energy supplies as the European heating season approaches.
A dramatic spike in refining margins, coupled with a 4% increase in oil and gas production, has propelled Eni to a $3.14 billion third-quarter profit. The Italian energy giant’s earnings more than doubled year-over-year, handily beating analyst expectations and triggering a significant expansion of investor payouts.
The National Energy System Operator expects a 5.5 GW electricity surplus this winter, effectively ruling out supply shortages through March. However, households face a harsh financial reality as energy costs remain volatile, with front-month gas and electricity prices climbing 180% and 120% respectively since February.
Tokyo is preparing to reduce gasoline price subsidies starting in December, struggling to sustain monthly expenditures that reach into the billions. Officials are weighing the fiscal burden against the need to shield households, considering a potential shift in strategy as the nation faces persistent energy import dependencies.
Brent crude climbed to $114 per barrel as escalating hostilities in the Middle East disrupt energy markets. Traders are reacting to Houthi attacks reaching deep into Saudi territory, while simultaneous production outages in Libya and heightened U.S.-Iran military tensions force a rapid reassessment of global supply stability.
French historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz argues that energy sources accumulate rather than replace one another, pointing to rising fossil fuel consumption despite trillions in clean energy investment. Yet, this aggregate view ignores how technology competition actually works: displacement happens in sales and markets long before it appears in global data.
As the Pentagon accelerates a transition away from Chinese-origin components, North American industry is scrambling to close a critical manufacturing gap. REalloys is leading this push, assembling a vertically integrated supply chain that spans from raw feedstock in Greenland to high-purity metallization on U.S. military bases.
After months of aggressive stock depletion to cushion the impact of soaring global prices, China is shifting its import strategy. As oil markets fluctuate near the $100 per barrel mark, the world’s largest crude importer is leveraging a tactical rebound in buying to preserve its remaining 1.2 billion-barrel stockpile.
The European Union has doubled down on its refusal to source oil and gas from Arctic fields, demanding these resources remain in the ground. This policy, formalized in the bloc’s latest Arctic strategy, persists even as member states grapple with volatile fuel markets and the looming pressures of winter heating demand.
The global energy grid is buckling under the weight of AI-driven demand, with infrastructure failing to keep pace with rapid electrification. While Silicon Valley chases speculative breakthroughs like fusion, major industrial players are betting that the solution to the current power crunch already exists in underutilized assets.
Amid escalating tensions with Washington, Tehran is aggressively courting Central Asian partners to bypass trade isolation. Over the past week, Iranian officials held high-level summits with counterparts from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, aiming to cement new logistical corridors that bypass traditional Western-dominated financial networks and routes.
A proposed European Commission mechanism could fundamentally alter maritime fuel economics by subsidizing the price gap between fossil fuels and sustainable alternatives. By reserving 110 million carbon allowances through 2040, the Sustainable Maritime Alternative Propulsion (SMAP) plan positions bioLNG and e-fuels to potentially undercut traditional heavy fuel oil on intra-EU routes.
To keep pace with surging electricity demand and mitigate the risks of global supply shocks, Asia must secure $1 trillion in annual energy investment through 2040. A new McKinsey report warns that the region, which accounts for 70% of global demand growth, faces a daunting $15 trillion total bill.
A federal law stands between Strathcona Resources and a new 250,000-barrel-per-day oil export route to Asia. The Calgary-based producer plans to lobby the government to bypass a 2019 tanker moratorium, betting that a rail-to-terminal model at Prince Rupert offers a faster alternative to long-delayed pipeline infrastructure.
Fifty years after Norway began transforming its North Sea petroleum windfall into a global financial colossus, the United Kingdom has finally launched its own £2 billion Energy Wealth Fund. The initiative aims to funnel remaining hydrocarbon tax receipts into renewable infrastructure, though the window for building a sovereign fortune has largely closed.
Once constrained by a religious edict and official denials, the prospect of an Iranian nuclear arsenal has moved from a prohibited topic to an open policy debate. With the country battered by eight months of U.S. strikes and an ongoing naval blockade, lawmakers are now openly calling for a bomb.
Brent crude climbed to $111.70 on Thursday, exposing the widening chasm between Citigroup’s earlier year-end forecasts of $60 and current market realities. While regional export volumes from the Persian Gulf have largely stabilized, the bank now warns that soaring logistics expenses are keeping delivered prices at punishing highs for global buyers.
A $29.69 billion quarterly loss has hit Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, reversing months of gains as rising interest rates and sector-specific volatility dragged down the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. The fund, which manages 1.5% of all listed global companies, reported a negative 0.5% return for the third quarter.
To buffer against potential supply crunches, Britain’s energy regulator has authorized a new agreement to preserve the nation’s gas import capacity from mainland Europe. The move ensures the Great Britain-Belgium interconnector remains a viable lifeline, maintaining essential flexibility for the UK gas grid during periods of peak winter demand.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has granted final approval for the Jackdaw gas field, ending four years of regulatory deadlock. The decision allows Adura, a joint venture between Shell and Equinor, to proceed with extracting 40 million barrels of oil equivalent, citing the need for domestic energy security and job preservation.
European natural gas prices climbed toward 90 euros per megawatt-hour on Thursday, driven by intensifying instability in the Middle East. With regional storage levels trailing historical averages, markets are bracing for a precarious winter as supply concerns ripple outward from the Persian Gulf to the Dutch Title Transfer Facility.
Grid instability and transmission bottlenecks forced India to curtail 118.6 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity in September. This massive waste, documented by JMK Research & Analytics, highlights a widening gap between the country’s aggressive renewable energy expansion and the infrastructure required to manage intermittent power flows effectively.
With gasoline and diesel prices hitting record highs across Europe, consumers are abandoning traditional internal combustion engines at an unprecedented pace. September data reveals a stark divergence in the automotive market, as battery-powered vehicles surge while demand for conventional cars suffers a double-digit collapse across major national markets.
India’s crude imports from the Middle East surged 32% in September, reaching 2.8 million barrels per day. This rebound to February-high levels signals a tactical pivot for Indian refiners, who are moving away from Russian supplies as price gaps narrow and competition from China intensifies for available barrels.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy announced Thursday that seven ships, including oil tankers, were struck by mines or direct fire in the Persian Gulf. This escalation coincides with Houthi drone strikes on Saudi infrastructure, pushing Brent Crude futures above $111 per barrel as regional stability fractures.
Half of the world’s fertilizer feedstock once flowed through the Strait of Hormuz, but military hostilities in Iran have turned this vital artery into a bottleneck for global agriculture. With shipments stalled or precarious, the resulting supply chain collapse now threatens to push 45 million people toward starvation.
India is now surging 2.6 million tons of coal to its power plants daily, an all-time high intended to pull the nation back from the brink of a widespread energy crisis. This emergency ramp-up follows a sharp depletion of reserves that left nearly 100 power stations with less than three days of fuel.
With Iranian oil stocks in floating storage plummeting to just 866,000 barrels by mid-October, the U.S. naval blockade has effectively choked off the country’s primary export lifeline to China. This rapid depletion marks a drastic reversal from the 150 million barrels held in reserve before the initial April restrictions.
LME Week 2026 opened in London with a sharp divergence in commodity outlooks, as supply constraints push copper prices to record highs while aluminium markets retreat. Standard Chartered analysts suggest that while macroeconomic policy remains a primary driver, metal-specific supply disruptions are creating a volatile landscape for industrial base metals.
Brent crude climbed above $111 per barrel today after Houthi militants launched fresh strikes against Saudi oil infrastructure and an international airport. The escalation prompted the U.S. government to order non-emergency personnel to depart the kingdom, deepening concerns over regional stability and the future of global energy flows.