South Korea has thrown in the towel without a fight after the U.S. slapped tariffs on all of the country’s trade partners. Seoul is looking at more LNG imports to get Washington to drop the new tariffs. Per a Bloomberg report, the South Korean government is working on several packages …
Read More »Despite Trump’s Crackdown, Venezuela still has Buyers
It is 3 April, so any country buying Venezuelan oil must face a 25% tariff on all its trade with the United States. That is according to President Donald Trump’s executive order signed on 24 March. The White House has also ordered companies with sanctions waivers to quit Venezuela by …
Read More »Saudi Arabia Slashes Oil Prices ahead of Output Boost
Saudi Arabia cut the official selling prices for its oil sharply ahead of a production boost set for next month. The sharpest cut was made for the price of oil sold in Asia, with flagship Arab Light set to be $2.30 per barrel cheaper in May, at a premium of …
Read More »China’s Independent Refiners Boost Run Rates
Independent refineries in China, often called teapots, raised their run rates in March in a positive sign for oil demand from the world’s largest importer but worry remains about the immediate outlook. The average run rate for the independents last month was 46%, Reuters reported, citing figures from Chinese energy …
Read More »U.S. LNG Export Surge Expected to Impact Prices, Natural Gas Markets
The U.S. is set to see a 19% increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, reaching 14.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) March 2025 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), Trend reports. This growth is primarily fueled by the launch of …
Read More »Solar Panel Supply Chains Face Human Rights Concerns
Many countries worldwide rely heavily on China for the supply of their solar panels, as the world’s biggest producer of the equipment, contributing 77.8 percent of global production. Recently, there have been rising concerns over potential slavery in the supply chain due to the poor conditions faced by many Chinese …
Read More »Japan to Make Vehicle Gas Pedal Safety Devices Mandatory in 2028
The Japanese government will require new models of vehicles to be fitted with devices that prevent pedal misapplication from September 2028, following cases of elderly drivers causing accidents by mistakenly accelerating instead of braking. The move, however, is unlikely to have a major impact on automakers as most vehicles produced …
Read More »OPEC+ Committee Repeats Need for Oil Output Quota Compliance
Key OPEC+ nations reiterated the need for members to stick to oil output quotas after the group’s surprise decision to speed up an output revival battered crude prices. The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee noted that some OPEC+ members failed to fully observe their limits or deliver extra curbs pledged as …
Read More »Iran to Resume Offshore Oil, Gas Exploration in Persian Gulf
Iran will hopefully resume offshore oil and gas exploration activities in the Persian Gulf for the first time in five years, says a senior official at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Mohyeddin Jafari, head of Exploration Directorate at the NIOC, said Saturday that exploration operations at sea had been …
Read More »Kazakhstan Announces Major Rare Earths Discovery ahead of EU Summit
On the eve of the first-ever Central Asia-European Union summit, Kazakhstan announced the discovery of vast deposits of rare earths, a big nugget of information clearly designed to attract foreign investment. The two-day summit kicked off on April 3 in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, with the leaders of Central …
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