Oil
Oil Prices Dip as Markets Weigh US Tariffs on India
Russia-Ukraine has been dominating oil headlines recently, even if President Trump’s involvement has notably declined over the past week as Kyiv’s European allies discuss security guarantees with their US counterparts. Drone strikes on Russian refineries have had minimal impact on oil prices, with ICE Brent futures correcting back to $68 per barrel, OilPrice.com reports.
Russian and American officials have reportedly discussed the return of US oil majors to Russia as part of a wider post-Ukraine diplomatic arrangement, with Moscow offering ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) to re-enter Sakhalin I and sell equipment to the Arctic LNG 2 plant.
Further escalating of the US-China trade war, Donald Trump stated that China ought to provide the United States magnets as soon as possible, hinting at inadequate rare earth exports lately, absent which the White House will slap a 200% tariff on Beijing.
According to Iran’s national oil company NIOC, the country’s oil production soared to the highest level since May 2018, reaching 3.24 million b/d in July, mostly driven by the West Karun and Arvandan projects in the western province of Khuzestan.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a work-stop order for the $1.5 billion Revolution Wind project offshore Rhode Island, with shares of Danish wind developer Orsted (CPH:ORSTED) plunging by 17% on Monday.
Chinese state oil company Sinochem agreed to divest two bankrupt refineries (Zhenghe and Huaxing) in Shandong province – legacy of its 2021 merger with ChemChina – to regional refiners, alongside a 26-million-barrel quota for the rest of 2025.
Iron ore futures traded at China’s key Dalian exchange jumped to $110 per metric tonne this week after Australian mining giant Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) was forced to suspend all mining activities at its SimFer mine in Guinea, due to a contractor’s death.
The government of Pakistan is seeking to delay delivery of its contracted liquefied natural gas cargoes from Qatar, citing weak domestic demand and rising import costs, having so far imported only 4.6 million tonnes in 2025 to date, down 14% year-on-year.
Seeking to ramp up production capacity to 2 million b/d by 2028, Libya’s state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC) said it would soon host a Libya-US Energy forum to help clinch new exploration deals, just as Tripoli invited ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) back to the country.
The distressed assets of US refiner Citgo Petroleum might be up for grabs for activist investor Elliott Investment Management after a Delaware court officer said its bid was the best on offer, giving three days to competing Gold Reserve to match.
Russia has increased its crude export plan this month by 200,000 b/d, reacting to widespread downstream damage as Ukrainian drones continue to target the country’s refineries, with markets fearing a flooding of markets with September loadings.
Prices of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) soared to their highest since March 2023, up 40% month-on-month at $88 per kg, as US miner MP Materials (NYSE:MP) halted raw material exports to magnet producers in China, selling output domestically.
Authorities in Canada’s main oil-producing province of Alberta are mulling ways to invest in Japan’s refining sector as oil sands producers want to market their heavy bituminous crude in the Asian country, proposing to jointly construct a coking unit.
The one-week outage of the 440,000 b/d Whiting refinery operated by UK oil major BP (NYSE:BP) has lifted gasoline prices across main PADD 2 states by $0.27 per gallon from a week ago, further pressuring Midwest gasoline stocks below the 5-year range.
About The Author
