energyindependence

The Trump administration will put up for auction more than 81 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas companies on Wednesday as part of efforts to boost domestic energy production through regular auctions for offshore leaseholds.
The auction will be the second since the US-Israel war with Iran disrupted global crude oil flows and pushed oil prices to four-year highs. It is the third of 30 auctions provided for under the 2025 law by President Donald Trump on tax cuts and spending.

Against a backdrop of wars and global warming, in a world where climate disasters—from wildfires in Europe to melting glaciers in Nepal—are becoming increasingly destructive, solar energy offers clean, affordable electricity. This is the message of an open letter calling for wider use of solar power, signed by prominent climate action leaders, including writer Bill McKibben, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, and former Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Google's parent company, is close to reaching an agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation Energy, as technology companies seek to secure reliable electricity supplies for the rapidly growing data center industry, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

European electricity prices are entering winter at their highest levels since the regional energy crisis: rising natural gas prices and supply disruptions linked to the war in Iran are putting pressure on energy markets, Bloomberg reports.
Wholesale electricity prices in Germany for delivery in January are trading above €180 per megawatt-hour on the European Energy Exchange—more than 60% higher than a year ago.

A coal power plant in Michigan
The U.S. Trump administration has отменён important climate-protection provisions adopted by the previous administration. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revoked requirements to limit greenhouse-gas emissions for coal and gas power plants, its head Lee Zeldin said at a meeting of G20 ministers in Houston on Monday, September 14.

Tajikistan has asked Iran for supplies of 2.55 million tonnes of oil and oil products, seeking to make up for a fuel shortage after disruptions in deliveries from its traditional partner—Russia. Reuters reports this.
According to the request, the republic expects to obtain 2 million tonnes of crude oil, 150,000 tonnes of gasoline, 300,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, and 100,000 tonnes of aviation fuel.

In the first half of 2026, EU countries imported a record quantity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Russian “Yamal LNG” plant. This was reported on Monday, July 13, by the Financial Times (FT), citing data from the analytics firm Kpler.
According to analysts, over the past six months EU countries purchased 9.89 million tons of LNG from companies. This is 18% more than in the same period last year. The German non-governmental organization Urgewald estimates the value of the purchased gas at roughly six billion euros. The main buyers of Russian LNG were France, Belgium, and Spain.

The Prime Minister of Iraq will travel to Washington on Monday to strengthen strategic relations with the United States. During the visit, a number of agreements in the oil and gas sector are expected to be signed.
The agreements include several memorandums of understanding in the oil and gas sector. Iraq is preparing to attract a number of American companies that will help boost the country’s oil production capacity, a government official, Haider al-Abadi, said.

Chevron said on Wednesday that it has reached updated terms of agreements with Venezuela for its joint ventures in the country and plans to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years, aiming to bring production to roughly 600,000 barrels per day.
The move followed months of separate talks amid a recent announcement by Washington of a deal giving the United States control over about 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves. Chevron said it has signed a series of agreements setting new terms for joint ventures in order to support future investments, develop projects and boost production, including additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt.

Liquefied natural gas will become the United States’ second-largest net export industry over the next five years, contributing nearly $1.4 trillion to gross domestic product by 2040, according to a study by S&P Global Energy.
In 2025, the country became the first to export more than 100 million metric tons of LNG in a single year, helped by the commissioning of new production capacity.

China instructed the country’s largest oil refineries to maintain a high level of fuel production amid renewed fighting between Iran and the United States, which poses a risk of disruptions in oil supplies through the Persian Gulf. Bloomberg News reported this on Saturday.

Canada announced on Monday a strategy for the accelerated development of nuclear energy, which includes the construction of up to 10 new large reactors and streamlining the approval process for future projects.
Minister of Natural Resources Tim Hodgson laid out a strategy indicating that by 2035, two new nuclear reactors will be under construction, and another five will be in the planning or development stage by 2040.

On Thursday, the White House issued an order introducing restrictions on certain types of foreign electrical equipment for power grids. The order declares a national emergency regime due to foreign supplies of electrical equipment for backbone power systems.

Russia will supply millions of tons of diesel fuel to the global market; according to the agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump said he reached this, in his words, during a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“An agreement was reached that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the American and global market, another 500,000 tons during November, and 1 million tons immediately after that,” Trump wrote on the TruthSocial social network, stressing that then — “depending on the condition of [Russian] refineries producing diesel fuel” — Russia agreed to supply another 3 million tons of diesel to the market “in the short term.” Thus, a total of about 4.8 million tons of fuel will be released to the market.

The global oil market could need up to two years to rebuild inventories depleted by the war in the Middle East, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser warned. However, some analysts believe the market may be able to rebalance more quickly, MarketWatch reports.

The countries of the “Group of Seven” (G7) agreed to release 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel fuel from strategic reserves within four months, and also to refrain from restricting oil exports. On Friday, October 2, French President Emmanuel Macron said this, The Wall Street Journal reports. The measure is aimed at lowering rapidly rising diesel fuel prices and other petroleum product prices, the newspaper notes.

Refining margin for diesel fuel in Europe fell by about 7% on Thursday as European countries discussed the possibility of releasing emergency diesel reserves amid intensifying pressure from the Trump administration.
Futures for low-sulfur gasoil traded at a premium of $77.44 per barrel to Brent crude oil futures as of 19:06 Moscow time, which was $5.77 below the previous close.

The Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan will put 56 oil and gas fields up for electronic auction on December 25, 2026—exactly half of the 112 blocks planned for implementation by the end of the year, the ministry said on September 23.
The most direct exchange-traded expression of Kazakhstan’s oil expansion is the Brent crude oil futures contract (ICE: BRN), since Kazakhstan exports crude via the CPC Pipeline corridor and directly competes with other exporters in the Urals/CPC Blend price niche; in the longer term, new licenses may affect the positions of TotalEnergies (NYSE: TTE), which holds a stake in the Kashagan consortium, and Shell (NYSE: SHEL), which is involved in the Karachaganak project— the largest foreign operators that are traditionally active in Kazakhstan’s projects.

Shares of the oil and gas company Gazprom on Tuesday, September 22, jumped by 3.17%; at the peak, the quote reached ₽100.27 per share. This is evidenced by data at 16:45 Moscow time. The last time the company’s shares traded above ₽100 was on July 2 of this year.
The driver of the rise in share prices, in particular, was the news that the German party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) has won another victory in the state elections. Party leaders are leaning toward restarting “Nord Stream.”

German natural gas market operator Trading Hub Europe on Monday launched several tenders to ensure gas availability in the first quarter of 2027 amid concerns about low storage-filling rates ahead of winter.
The operator will use long-term options that allow it to secure gas supplies from traders for potential future use as a tool to enhance supply reliability.