Oil
Brent Stuck Below $70 as Trump Faces Trade Deadline Turmoil
Oil prices have been capped by non-cessant speculation that the Trump administration might run out of yet another deadline, this time failing to post any notable success stories in bilateral trade talks ahead of the August 1 deadline.
In fact, the fallout between Europe and the United States might deteriorate over the upcoming days as this week has seen top EU officials doubt the probability of a trade deal being concluded. Waiting for the next big move, ICE Brent is currently trading around $69 per barrel.
According to media reports, the probability of the US and the EU finding common ground on tariffs before August 1 is limited, prompting several countries incl. Germany to draft ‘anti-coercion’ measures, stoking fears of a trade war escalation, OilPrice.com reports.
China announced the construction of what would become the world’s largest hydropower dam in the east of the Tibetan Plateau at an estimated cost of $170 billion and capacity of 300 billion KWh/year, boosting Chinese construction stocks.
The United Kingdom has joined the European Union in setting the new price cap on Russian oil at $47.60 per barrel, to be adjusted automatically depending on future price movements, all the while price caps for refined products are kept unchanged.
China’s exports of antimony were down 88% in June compared to January, similarly to germanium that collapsed by 95%, as the resumption of China-US rare earth exports seem to have excluded two key minerals used in weapons production.
The Turkish government announced the end of a decades-old agreement covering the transportation of oil along the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, submitting a draft proposal to Baghdad to renew and expand cooperation in the oil and gas sectors.
One of the stalwarts of coal demand in Asia, the Philippines is set to record its first annual decline in coal-fired electricity output since 2008 as a 5.2% year-over-year increase in LNG consumption, reaching 10.4 TWh in H1 2025, affirmed the gas pivot.
The United Kingdom’s 110,000 b/d Lindsey refinery that fell into insolvency late June following the bankruptcy of its operator Prax will be permanently shut down after no buyers were found for the plant, leaving Britain with only four operational refineries.
California governor Gavin Newsom is reportedly working with state legislators to ‘stabilize’ oil production in the Golden State after output collapsed to just 285,000 b/d in 2024, halving from a decade ago, seeking to expedite the permitting of new oil wells.
US energy firms Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR), Hunt Energy and Argent LNG will jointly develop a masterplan for rebuilding Syria’s embattled energy sector, seeking to counter Qatar’s $7 billion investment to boost Syrian power generation.
Australia’s mining giant BHP (NYSE:BHP) has decided to divest its interest in Tanzania’s $1 billion Kabanga nickel project, according to operator Lifezone Metals (NYSE:LZM), with the decision probably driven by an uncertain nickel market outlook.
Benchmark LME three-month zinc futures rose to their highest since March, surging past $2,840 per metric tonne, as more than half of the 118,225 tonnes held in LME-registered warehouses had been earmarked for delivery, drastically curbing availability.
Chinese authorities expressed their indignation over Canada’s 25% tariff on steel imports from all countries containing steel melted in China, saying the move violates WTO rules and damages the two states’ June agreement to improve trade relations.
Spanish power generators doubled down on gas for electricity generation after a major blackout paralyzed the country on April 28, seeing a 6% year-over-year increase in gas consumption in H1 2025, primarily led by a 40% increase in power demand.
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