Brent traded above $73 a barrel, after sinking by almost a third over the past three months, while West Texas Intermediate was near $70. US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had positive discussions in Qatar and technical talks with Iran are moving ahead, a senior administration official said. The duo were in Doha for indirect talks to ease tensions over the critical waterway that connects Gulf producers to world markets.

Crude has fallen in recent days as the warring parties continued discussions to reach a more lasting accord, although recent attacks around Hormuz have marred negotiations. Oil tanker traffic is now showing signs of recovery, and has picked up since the US and Iran exchanged strikes over the weekend.

“We expect that by the end of July this is done,” said Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., referring to the conflict. “Once we have a normalization of flows through the strait, the expectation is that we go into an oversupply.”

Goldman Sachs pegs the surplus at close to two million barrels a day next year, even after accounting for restocking of global strategic petroleum reserves following the Iran war. Morgan Stanley has also warned of a looming glut as flows through the strait return faster than expected, cutting its price forecasts for the second time in about two weeks. 

Markets are now contending with a gush of crude from other sources too. Iran said it exported more than 40 million barrels of oil since the US lifted its naval blockade, while Russian shipments are surging to records, causing a major buildup of barrels at sea.

Iran has reiterated its determination to control maritime traffic through the strait, a reminder that key sticking points — including over the country’s nuclear program and and end to fighting in Lebanon — remain in place and stand to complicate discussions during the 60-day ceasefire window.

Traders will also be looking to US crude inventory data due later Wednesday. That comes after Energy Information Administration data published last week showed nationwide stockpiles hit their lowest level since 1984.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

SK is bringing together renewable assets and businesses, including solar, wind and fuel cells, from its subsidiaries SK Innovation, SK ecoplant and SK eternix, according to the release. KKR is making an investment of undisclosed value from its Asia Pacific infrastructure investments, it said.

The new firm describes itself as Korea’s largest renewable energy business, and will have about 1.7 gigawatts of operating capacity with a development pipeline that could grow that to 10 gigawatts, according to the release. KKR will have management control initially.

South Korea’s power sector is dominated by nuclear and coal and gas, with wind and solar accounting for just 6.7% of total generation in 2024, according to BloombergNEF data. President Lee Jae Myung is pushing for more renewables to help reduce carbon emissions, while also expanding electricity output to ensure supply for building more data centers and semiconductor factories. 

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The company will take a pretax charge of as much as $2.9 billion in its fiscal third quarter tied to canceling the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex and other initiatives, Air Products said Tuesday in a statement. The firm said it made the decision to halt the project based on expected financial returns not meeting its “stringent” criteria.

Shares of the Pennsylvania-based company jumped as much as 12% in New York.

The move is the latest setback in the push to develop hydrogen as a clean fuel in the US after the Trump administration’s signature tax bill slashed a tax credit for the gas. It’s also another blow for carbon capture and sequestration, which the oil and natural gas industry has long promoted as key to fighting global warming.

“What you are seeing here is about reduced government support for the industry long term,” said Joseph Majkut, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research group. “The future for hydrogen projects in the United States is in great question given lack of support for climate action, no federal climate policy and a more challenging fiscal picture coming into the future.”

Once seen as a climate-friendly way to power heavy industry from ships to steel and cement factories, hydrogen projects around the world have been cancelled or scaled-back amid weak demand and high costs. The Trump has administration canceled billions of dollars in hydrogen projects destined for the West Coast, which the previous Biden administration envisioned as helping start a market for the nascent fuel.

Air Products announced the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex in 2021 in what would have been its largest-ever US investment, with an expected $4.5 billion cost. The project as envisioned would have used natural gas to produce 750 million cubic feet of so-called blue hydrogen, in which hydrocarbons are used as a feedstock in combination with carbon capture. The chief executive officer overseeing the project, Seifi Ghasemi, was later ousted. The project was expected to be operational in 2026.

Air Products also said Tuesday it will discontinue a zero-carbon liquid hydrogen facility in Casa Grande, Arizona and other smaller-scale projects supporting clean energy distribution.

“These exits are being driven by challenging commercial conditions, project-specific economic factors, and slower-than-expected development in certain markets, largely hydrogen for mobility,” the company said.

Research firm Capstone LLC said in an email that the decision by Air Products to stop developing the project is more likely the result of factors including potentially unexpected costs or challenges to secure offtake agreements.

“Market reality is not matching the exuberance the industry had a few years ago,” said Majkut, who is the director of CSIS’s Energy Security and Climate Change Program. “We are are not seeing the demand for hydrogen projects that were imagined.”

(Updates with additional context.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The update to the National Energy System Operator’s long-term grid plans, released on Tuesday, compares with roughly £58 billion outlined in 2024. The forecast accounts for rising power usage, including from data centers, which require massive, constant flows of power.

A congested grid is one of the biggest challenges to Britain’s clean power goals. While wind and solar generation has grown rapidly, the country’s transmission capacity has lagged behind. That can force the system to switch off renewables output because those supplies can’t reach areas where they’re needed, with more expensive gas-fired plants elsewhere paid to generate instead. 

NESO warned that without timely upgrades, those balancing costs could roughly triple between 2031 and 2035.

NESO also recommended that three times more new undersea cabling is needed than new onshore transmission lines, along with upgrades to existing infrastructure to reduce the impact on communities from pylons. It also said that investment is needed to deal with growing electricity demand from other areas too, such as transport and heating.

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Speaking to state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran wants to work out an agreement with Oman, which borders the southern side of the vital waterway, to oversee ships passing through Hormuz. But Iran will move forward with its own plans “if for any reason Oman is not interested in doing so,” he said.

“We have warned the Omanis that other countries have no right to interfere in this matter,” Gharibabadi said.

That stance will add to the pressure around the next round of peace talks, which the US said are set to take place in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are set to attend, according to the White House.

Since the conflict erupted in late February with a US-Israeli bombardment of Iran, the Islamic Republic has said it wants to manage the chokepoint — widely considered international waters — along with Oman. It’s said that could involve ships paying fees of some sort, something strongly resisted by the US, Europe and most Gulf Arab states.

Oman is an ally of the US but maintains close ties to Iran. It’s under pressure from Washington and other world powers not to agree to any tolling or fee system with Tehran. In France on Monday, the country’s leader, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, agreed with President Emmanuel Macron on “ensuring freedom of navigation without conditions or restrictions.”

The sultanate’s officials previously told European counterparts there’s no way of going back to the pre-war status quo with the Strait of Hormuz and there could be fees for services such as de-polluting the strait or helping ships navigate it, Bloomberg reported last week. Oman has consistently said it will abide by international maritime laws.

Gharibabadi’s remarks offered fresh evidence of Iran’s resolve when it comes to the strait, through which one fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies normally flow. Shipping traffic has picked up since Iran and the US signed an interim peace deal around two weeks ago. But it’s still far below pre-war levels and Iran attacked ships on Thursday and Friday, prompting skirmishes with the US.

The interim deal said Iran wouldn’t charge tolls for 60 days but left open the possibility of ships being forced to pay some fees after that.

Iran has not confirmed a fresh round of negotiations, though some senior officials are set to be in Qatar, one of the main mediators between Washington and Tehran.

“The Americans are traveling to Doha, but we have no plans to meet with them,” Gharibabadi said. He added Iranian officials would be there to follow up on the interim agreement — which both sides called a memorandum of understanding — through Qatari interlocutors.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump declined to say whether he thought the new talks would lead to a breakthrough after the spate of attacks in recent days jeopardized the ceasefire. He made clear his focus remains on keeping nuclear weapons out of Iran’s hands.

“The meeting in Doha is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not,” Trump said. “We’re going to find out, but we’re winning militarily. It’s almost won militarily, I would say, and it’s really very simple. It’s the denuclearization of Iran. We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon, and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.”

The US, Europe and Gulf Arab nations are increasingly concerned about charges being imposed for the use of Hormuz, which would likely add to energy costs and risk creating a precedent for other countries. Even so, Iran’s ability to dictate to shippers may be limited as long as the southern Omani route remains open to traffic.

For the time being, oil tankers have continued to navigate the strait despite the attacks. A trio of tankers was heading toward the strait inbound late on Monday while two successfully sailed out of the waterway earlier in the day, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. 

Two more oil supertankers, including one that turned back last week, appeared to be making another move toward departing the Persian Gulf.

(Updates with context throughout.)

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State-owned PTT PCL is in discussions with developers for equity and supply on a long-term basis, including with Woodside Energy Group Ltd. about its Louisiana LNG facility, said the people, asking to not be identified because the matter is confidential. Talks are still in the early stages, they added.

The US is just one of the countries where PTT is looking for opportunities to expand its LNG portfolio, the company said in a statement to Bloomberg News, without elaborating. Woodside declined to comment.

Several leading Asian importers including Thailand have seen their LNG supply upended by the Iran war, which has choked off shipments from the Middle East and driven up prices. The Southeast Asian nation has a long-term contract with Qatar, but has been forced to take expensive spot cargoes to meet demand.

Efforts to diversify supply away from the Middle East following the war have prompted growing interest in Woodside’s Louisiana LNG plant, Chief Executive Officer Liz Westcott said in May. The goal for the project, which is currently under construction, is to begin shipments in 2029.

Separately, the Thai government is planning to accelerate investments in LNG import infrastructure, with the construction of new data centers expected to significantly increase electricity demand, Energy Ministry Permanent Secretary Prasert Sinsukprasert told reporters earlier this month.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Demand over the past five years surpassed the government’s expectations, said Ren Yuzhi, director‑general of the planning department at the National Energy Administration. The growth of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and other emerging sectors is compounding the problem for energy planners trying to map out the next five.

Deliberations extend to potentially rethinking China’s geography and where electricity is consumed, after decades of building up power networks to serve the massive cities in the east.

“Forecasting future energy demand — especially electricity — is a key challenge in the next planning cycle,” Ren said in an exclusive interview on Friday, after his agency released more details on the energy component of China’s new five-year plan that runs through 2030.

“AI computing centers and the development of electric vehicles are important factors,” he said. “EVs, in particular, have seen faster growth in recent years — especially this year — and charging demand has risen significantly.”

Understanding future energy demand is critical for the planners guiding trillions of dollars in investment in China’s more centrally planned economy. The task is made more complicated by the country’s transition to cleaner but less consistent renewable energy.

China now expects an average annual increase in power demand of around 600 billion kilowatt-hours in the next five years, according to the NEA, which would be more than Germany produces in a year. That compares to 570 billion kilowatt-hours over the past five years, said Ren.

Marked Shifts

The implications of getting it wrong can be seen in the marked shifts in China’s energy policy over the past five years. 

In 2021, planners estimated China would need about 4.6 billion tons of coal equivalent a year by 2025, a 14% increase from 2020 levels. Instead, demand grew so fast that total production ended up at 5.13 billion tons last year. 

A series of power shortages in 2021 and 2022 led to an about-face in the country’s policy around coal. 

In April 2021, President Xi Jinping said the country would strictly control coal-fired power generation projects, as well as limit the increase in coal consumption through 2025.

But after the shortages, which occurred during a period of disruptions related to the pandemic, skyrocketing global energy prices and a drought that shriveled domestic hydropower output, authorities changed tack. China kept its green energy ambitions, but miners were also pushed to boost output to record levels and hundreds of new coal power plants were approved.

Officials said the new coal plants were intended to backstop the country’s fleet of intermittent wind and solar plants, which saw an even greater surge in growth following the power shortages. But power output from fossil fuels still rose 19% from 2020 to 2025, and is up another 3.4% this year through May. 

China’s current plans call for peaking coal by 2030. To achieve that, clean energy will need to grow swiftly and be flexible enough to handle all additional demand. 

Traditional industries like steel continue to consume vast amounts of energy, while new sectors like AI and advanced manufacturing are becoming important new sources of demand. At the same time, China wants to shift energy use from fossil fuels to electricity, which will add further strains to the grid, Ren said. 

“We will not only need to meet traditional demand, but also the growing needs of people’s daily lives,” Ren said. “Increasingly, new areas are having a significant impact.”

Those new sources of demand are prompting policymakers to reconsider how energy and industrial capacity are geographically distributed, he said. Rather than continuing to transmit large volumes of electricity from western China to the eastern seaboard, authorities are weighing a shift toward relocating energy-intensive industries westward, closer to renewable resources.

“The western region has traditionally focused on exporting coal, electricity, and natural gas,” Ren said, referring to a point made earlier Friday at a press briefing by NEA deputy director Wan Jinsong “Going forward, it is more likely that the west will export finished products and computing power.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The $1.4 billion development is one of the largest integrated wind and battery energy storage projects in Central Asia. 

It will combine a 1GW wind farm with a 600 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) designed to improve grid stability and support the integration of renewable energy.

Once operational, the facility is expected to generate enough electricity to power around 880,000 homes in southern Kazakhstan while avoiding approximately 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. 

The development also includes the construction of more than 400 kilometres of overhead transmission lines to strengthen the region’s electricity network.

Hitting renewable goals

The project is being led by Masdar in partnership with W Solar, Qazaq Green Power, a Samruk-Kazyna Fund company, and the Kazakhstan Investment Development Fund.

The Zhambyl wind project supports Kazakhstan’s target of sourcing 15% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030, rising to 50% by 2050. It also contributes to Masdar’s ambition of expanding its global renewable energy portfolio to 100GW by 2030.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Yerlan Akkenzhenov, said, “Our partnership with Masdar drives renewable energy development and propels Kazakhstan toward carbon neutrality,” adding that “This project will strengthen regional energy security and bring cutting-edge technologies to the renewable energy sector.”

New RTC project announced 

Alongside the ceremony, Masdar signed a roadmap agreement with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development to explore the country’s first Round-the-Clock (RTC) clean energy project. 

The initiative aims to provide continuous utility-scale renewable power and in its initial phase could supply up to 200 MW of baseload electricity for data centres and AI infrastructure.

The agreement will support site identification, technical studies, and stakeholder engagement as the project advances.

Masdar Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi said that this project would help deliver reliable and affordable clean energy for Kazakhstan’s emerging industries. 

Warming bilateral relations

The Kazakhstan initiative builds on Masdar’s growing portfolio of large-scale renewable energy projects. 

In 2025, the company broke ground on a 24/7 solar and battery storage project in Abu Dhabi, combining a 5.2 GW solar photovoltaic plant with a 19 GWh BESS capable of delivering up to 1 GW of continuous baseload power.

Nurlan Zhakupov, Chief Executive Officer of Samruk-Kazyna, described the project as an important milestone in the strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and the UAE.

“The 1GW wind farm opens a new chapter in the cooperation between Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates and reflects our shared commitment to advancing a low-carbon economy, deploying innovative technologies and building a sustainable energy future for Kazakhstan.”

The Iran war and Qatar’s temporary export impasse brought a supply deficit, which has been filled by a combination of rising exports from elsewhere, demand substituting fuels – particularly within power plants, or pulling supplies from storage – at a much smaller extent compared to oil, however.

Most of these dynamics appear illustratively in Europe. Storage remains in deficit that largely originates from last year. Overseas natural gas imports hold up well and show no meaningful drop over the past months, despite the Middle East’s supply outage. 

The weather impact in Europe

The now-ebbing heat wave, however, leaves some marks. With hydro and nuclear power suffering from the heat and drought, natural gas power plants were in use more often than normal, especially during the evening hours. 

This additional demand seems to prolong the storage deficit somewhat, namely in France and Belgium. The past weeks’ weather impact on power markets became a hotly commented topic in Europe.

Within hours, markets shifted from abundance around noon to scarcity in the evening, when air conditioners kept humming but the sun set and solar generation dropped. Simultaneously, intraday power prices swung widely, reaching peaks so far only witnessed during cold winter evenings.

The answer may lie in battery storage

These sharp moves up and down the power generation curve likely has already been partially eased by the growth of grid battery storage capacity. With data only partially available, the impact is still difficult to gauge. A look abroad, to Australia or California, where grid battery storage is available at scale, suggests that this phenomenon could disappear as quickly as it appeared. 

On the back of significant cost reductions, battery storage has become clean energy’s boom segment, and the early adopters experience lower power prices overall, more reliability, and lower natural gas power generation. With all the attention on data centres, these observations are worth noticing.

Power scarcity is not the issue, but rather adequate alignment of the combo electrification boom on both the supply and demand side of the market. Only where this alignment is mismanaged do grid challenges seem to appear. 

Even though the natural gas market should see a similar supply improvement compared to oil and long-term pressure on prices, we stick to our neutral view.

Summer weather risks are here to stay a bit longer. After the summer, Europe’s storage deficit should narrow.

XRG’s latest acquisition covers the Meseta Buena Esperanza, Aguada Villanueva, and Las Tacanas blocks, which are operated by YPF. 

Italian energy major Eni has also acquired a 32% stake in the same assets, while YPF will retain the remaining 36%. The Final Investment Decision (FID) is expected to take place in the second half of 2026. 

A statement said that the transactions remain subject to customary regulatory approvals. 

Strengthening Argentina’s LNG export ambitions

The deal comes at a time when geopolitical tensions have severely restricted LNG supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. 

However, this project is designed to connect Vaca Muerta’s vast unconventional gas resources with international markets through a planned 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) LNG export facility.

XRG said the assets will provide long-term gas supply for floating LNG facilities while also supporting condensate production.

Mohamed Al Aryani, President of International Gas at XRG, said the investment strengthens the company’s role in the development of a significant new LNG supply source.

“Argentina has the potential to play an increasingly important role in meeting the world’s growing demand for natural gas, and projects such as Argentina LNG will be important to unlocking that opportunity,” he said.

Horacio Marín, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of YPF, said the agreements represent another milestone in the development of the Argentina LNG project.

Guido Brusco, Chief Operating Officer of Global Natural Resources at Eni, said, “Vaca Muerta is one of the world’s richest unconventional basins in terms of resources: our participation positions us across the entire value chain, from Argentine upstream to the supply of LNG to international customers, creating value while contributing to global energy security.”

What the deal means for XRG

XRG has previously announced a joint development agreement with YPF and Eni for the Argentina LNG project.

The company, which was launched in 2024, is an international lower-carbon energy and chemicals investment company, with an enterprise value of over $80 billion.

For XRG, the Vaca Muerta acquisition fits neatly into its goals to capitalise on the energy transition while focusing on emerging economies. 

XRG’s global gas and LNG portfolio includes interests in the Absheron gas and condensate field in Azerbaijan, Offshore Block 1 in Turkmenistan, the Area 4 concession in Mozambique’s Rovuma Basin, including the planned Coral North FLNG and Rovuma LNG developments, along with the Rio Grande LNG project in the US. 

And while energy access, reliability and affordability are fundamental issues, during past crises we have seen sustainability as a priority come under pressure.

At Ipieca, the global oil and gas association dedicated to advancing environmental and social performance across the energy transition, we recognise that sustainability is at the core of building not only resilient energy systems, but also creating a competitive advantage for energy companies when faced with changing and challenging markets.

Collaboration as a key enabler 

Creating reliable, sustainable energy systems depends on a surrounding enabling environment, in which collaboration is key. 

Collaboration across companies, sectors and borders can support data and knowledge sharing to build the awareness and capacity necessary for the adoption and uptake of sustainability practices related to adaptation and resilience, responsible resource management, energy efficiency and social inclusion and local development, which can help ensure the resilience of energy companies. 

International cooperation can support the technical and regulatory frameworks, finance and shared infrastructure needed for a reliable, sustainable and interconnected energy system.

Reliability and affordability

This current geopolitical context has brought to the mainstream the interconnection of energy systems, but also the importance of energy to just about every other sector of the global economy. Achieving resilient energy systems requires the development of integrated, cross-sector pathways that advance decarbonisation while safeguarding energy security and economic prosperity. 

The oil and gas industry has a critical role to play in this transition, leveraging its technical expertise, infrastructure and investment capacity to support the deployment of lower-carbon solutions at scale. By acting as a bridge between existing and emerging energy systems, the sector can help ensure that progress towards climate goals is accompanied by continued access to reliable and affordable energy.

Supporting new technology

Strategic investment in lower-carbon fuels and regional carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) hubs offers a significant opportunity to strengthen both resilience and sustainability. Lower-carbon fuels can enhance energy diversification and support emissions reductions across multiple sectors, while shared CCUS infrastructure can accelerate decarbonisation by enabling industries to access cost-effective emissions management solutions. 

These investments can help underpin industrial competitiveness, support economic development and reinforce the long-term reliability of energy systems. 

This will be particularly important for hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy industry, aviation and shipping, which are fundamental to global economic activity yet face complex decarbonisation challenges.

The continued development of lower-carbon fuels, CCUS and other enabling technologies can help these sectors maintain operational continuity while progressively reducing emissions. 

A resilient energy transition must therefore focus not only on achieving climate objectives, but also on ensuring that essential industries can continue to deliver the goods, services and infrastructure upon which societies depend.

Determining sustainable operations

Realising this vision will require cooperation across governments, industry, financial institutions and civil society. 

Mobilising investment, harmonising regulatory frameworks, sharing knowledge and developing common infrastructure will be essential to accelerating deployment of low-carbon technologies. 

By strengthening global partnerships and aligning efforts across sectors, we can build a more resilient, secure and sustainable energy system that supports both development aspirations and climate ambitions.

Our energy system can only be considered truly sustainable if it supports fair growth and improved living conditions for all, while delivering on climate mitigation goals and protecting and enhancing nature. 

To deliver this will require unprecedented collaboration with all countries, sectors, energies and technologies playing their part.

The World Bank Group will still work to support borrowers “in delivering on their own ambitions as set out in their national plans” for climate objectives, it said in a statement Monday.

It also will continue with its climate change action plan, the so-called CCAP, but will now retire a 45% co-benefits target. The term refers to funding aimed at both supporting climate action while also furthering development objectives.

“We will complete our shift from inputs to outcomes to maximize development impact,” the Washington-based bank said.

Monday’s move follows strong Trump administration pushback against the bank’s climate change initiatives. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in April that the bank’s 45% target for climate finance “breeds inefficiency, distorts economic decision making and moves the bank away from its core mission.”

Bessent Expectation

Bessent also said in April he expected the bank to “immediately shift its myopic focus on climate and financing volumes to one that emphasizes high-quality, durable projects rather than shaping and selecting projects to chase arbitrary financing targets.”

Last year, 48% — over $39 billion — of the bank’s financing had climate co-benefits, up from a 44% share in 2024, according to the bank.

At the request of the World Bank’s board, the lender’s independent evaluation group will now evaluate the plan, the statement also said, without offering a timeframe for the review.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Under an agreement with the Interior Department, Duke will voluntarily terminate its lease valued at $129 million located in the Carolina Long Bay Area and invest the same amount in additional generating capacity, the agency announced Monday.

Duke aims to invest the refunded money in projects such as nuclear generating facilities and grid upgrades before the end of the year, according to a company statement.

The Trump administration’s decision to terminate the North Carolina lease is part of broader White House strategy that’s resulted in the cancellation of billions of dollars in offshore wind leases held by companies such as Invenergy LLC and TotalEnergies SE.

Duke acquired the lease in 2022. It said the area could support up to 1.6 gigawatts of wind energy, enough to power 375,000 homes by 2032. The utility announced in 2025 it was pausing development in the area as it reevaluated costs and conditions, WRAL reported.

Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, he has followed through on a campaign pledge to block new wind projects and thwart other renewable developments. These moves have continued despite surging demand from power-hungry data centers and new factories.

(Adds comment from Duke Energy.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The so-called Mission 300 program is the biggest attempt yet to boost energy access on a continent that’s home to about 80% of the 570 million people globally who have no access to power. 

The program is expected to see tens of billions of dollars invested to reach a target of 300 million connections by 2030 as the development institutions push governments to enact power-industry reforms to woo private investors in exchange for funding. 

“The momentum that we’ve been working on is starting to pay off,” Anna Bjerde, the World Bank’s managing director of operations, said in an interview. “Governments have to double down on reforms because nothing flows in an area where there’s uncertainty. There’s no investment flowing to uncertainty.”

To date the program, created in 2024, has brought power to more than 50 million people. So far 36 countries have produced compacts, detailed plans on how to boost power access, under the program and that number is expected to rise to more than 40 in 2026, according to Bjerde.

This year the African Development Bank plans to approve projects itself to bring power connections to as many as 15 million people, said Kevin Kariuki, the lender’s vice president for power, energy, climate and green growth. Those projects include a program of about $59 million to roll out mini-grids in Eritrea, one of the world’s most isolated nations. 

“Some bragging rights are in order. We are currently the most active multilateral development bank in Eritrea,” Kariuki said in an interview. “It’s in countries where there is almost nothing that transformation can be most visible.”

The African Development Bank has three projects in Eritrea including one that will bring power to more than 300,000 people.

Eritrea, which has been led by Isaias Afwerki since 1993, has fought wars against its neighbors and has been in default to the World Bank since 2012.

Other programs set up under the Mission 300 umbrella are also expected to get underway this year.

Zafiri, a $176 million platform set up to buy equity stakes in companies that provide off-grid power to help them expand, expects to make its first investments this year, according to Andrew Herscowitz of the Rockefeller Foundation, which helped set it up.

Nations in east and southern Africa are also being pushed to develop cross-border trading in power through interconnected grids. 

“We’re really back into power pools,” Bjerde said. “If Africa can get these pools to work, you can lower costs across borders and take advantage of countries with surpluses.”

Next Africa newsletterhereAppleSpotify anywhere you listen

(Correct spelling of name in 11th paragraph. The story was first published on June 25.)

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The country is estimated to have bought about 5.29 million tons of the super-chilled fuel this month, according to the ship-tracking researcher, comparable to last year’s traded volumes. 

Lower domestic output, depleting storage levels, a hot summer, and international prices falling from highs reached during the peak of the US-Iran war all contributed to the uptick. While the nation’s LNG imports have been sluggish over the past months, as buyers choose cheaper pipeline gas, the renewed appetite could intensify competition with other buyers in Asia and Europe before winter.

China’s domestic gas production fell 2.1% year on year to around 21.7 billion cubic meters in May, the first annual decline for the month in more than a decade, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The drop in output is mainly due to offshore disruptions and maintenance at some processing plants, according to Go Katayama, a principal insight analyst for LNG at Kpler.

Storage levels were around 46% at the end of May, below the five-year seasonal average, and are expected to fall further by end-June, Katayama said. “This leaves China with a relatively thin inventory buffer ahead of July and August, supporting continued spot LNG purchases.”

The war in the Middle East has choked shipments from the Gulf, which typically supplies about a third of China’s LNG, though the drop in deliveries from Qatar has mostly been offset through other sources, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Demand in China is expected to remain elevated through August, though it should soften in the fourth quarter as domestic production recovers and petrochemical gas consumption weakens, Katayama said. Total imports this year are seen at 63.8 million tons, slightly below the 2025 level, as elevated spot prices continue to weigh on industrial use, he said.

More News:

• Pakistan LNG is seeking to purchase a cargo on a DES basis for June 30-July 4 delivery
• GAIL India purchased an LNG cargo on a DES basis for July 25-Aug. 10 delivery at the low-to-mid $14/mmbtu range
• Pakistan is seeking to buy liquefied natural gas for delivery this week as a string of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz disrupts flows of the super-chilled fuel
• A liquefied natural gas tanker docked at a US-sanctioned storage unit in Russia’s Murmansk region, the first time the vessel has loaded blacklisted fuel and the latest sign of Moscow’s efforts to expand exports despite Western sanctions

Drivers:

• European natural gas climbed as the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran was put to the test by strikes over the weekend, despite both sides agreeing to halt attacks for now
• China’s 30-day moving average for LNG imports on June 28 was 178k tons, 11% higher than this time last year, according to ship-tracking data
• European gas-storage levels were ~48% full on June 27, compared with the five-year seasonal average of ~63%
• Europe’s 30-day moving average for LNG imports was 158k tons/day on June 28, 1.3% higher than the five-year seasonal average, according to ship-tracking data
• Estimated flows to all US export terminals were ~18.8 bcf/day on June 28, down 2.4% w/w: BNEF

Buy tender:

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Brent was near $72 a barrel after jumping as much as 1.9% at the start of trading, while West Texas Intermediate was around $70. Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely before peace talks resume this week, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Oil has erased almost all of its gains since the US and Israel first attacked Iran at the end of February. About a fifth of the world’s crude and liquefied natural gas traveled through the Strait of Hormuz before the conflict, and a resumption in negotiations offers the prospect of a more permanent peace deal that will see a full reopening of the key waterway.

“The market feels increasingly comfortable treating these moves as tactical rather than structural,” said Haris Khurshid, chief investment officer at Chicago-based Karobaar Capital LP. “Until something fundamentally changes, traders are happy to fade both the rallies and the sell-offs.”

Tehran targeted the Kiku over the weekend. The very large crude carrier had loaded about 2 million barrels of oil in Qatar and last signaled its location off Fujairah, a United Arab Emirates port in the Gulf of Oman. 

Oil and natural gas shipments through the strait — which had picked up again following an interim agreement between the sides — eased following the latest flare-up. Shipowners will likely remain wary of crossing the chokepoint and hundreds of ships remain trapped in the Persian Gulf.

Over the weekend, a Saudi Aramco-operated helicopter crashed in Ras Tanura — Saudi Arabia’s energy heartland — near the Persian Gulf coast, the country’s press agency said, without elaborating on the cause. It wasn’t immediately clear if the incident on Sunday affected any energy facilities.

Elsewhere, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the country faces fuel supply problems including queues at gas stations. He confirmed that a full ban on diesel exports is among measures under discussion to mitigate supply tightness.

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State-owned Pakistan LNG released a tender over the weekend seeking to procure a shipment for June 30 to July 4 delivery, with offers due on Monday, according to a document on its website.

The unusually prompt purchase request underscores how buyers remain unable to count on cargoes transiting Hormuz, a key conduit for about a fifth of the world’s LNG. Pakistan has been grappling with an energy shortfall since the war disrupted shipments from its top supplier, Qatar, forcing purchases of pricier fuel fuel from the spot market over the past few months.

On Saturday a ship carrying Qatari oil was attacked in the strait, days after a Singapore-flagged container ship was hit. Following the strikes, the Joint Maritime Information Center — which liaises between navies and merchant shipping — raised its threat level in the region to substantial.

Transits of inbound and outbound LNG carriers through the waterway have paused since then, ship-tracking data show. That includes an empty LNG tanker that was heading into the gulf via the strait before U-turning on Friday. It  has remained in the Gulf of Oman.

It isn’t guaranteed that Pakistan will purchase a shipment, and the country often scraps tenders if a delivery from Qatar is freed up or the prices are too high.

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The Arctic Express, which changed its flag to Russian in May, loaded fuel at the Saam floating storage unit, which holds gas from the Arctic LNG 2 project. Both Saam and Arctic LNG 2 have been sanctioned by the US.

The shipment suggests Russia is continuing to expand its fleet of vessels to circumvent Western restrictions. Including Arctic Express, at least 21 ships have been used to ferry LNG from sanctioned Russian projects, according to a Bloomberg analysis of tracking data. The biggest obstacle to increasing exports from Arctic LNG 2 remains the shortage of vessels capable of transporting the fuel to willing buyers.

The tanker, which was commissioned in 2007 and was formerly managed by a Greek company, changed ownership to St Petersburg-based Smp Techmanagement LLC around May 13, according to ship database Equasis. 

Smp Techmanagement owns three other LNG vessels that are part of Russia’s dark fleet. Bloomberg News couldn’t immediately find an email address or phone number for the company.

Russia added four other tankers —  that until recently serviced Oman’s export plant — to its shadow fleet earlier this year. Arctic LNG 2 exported over 400,000 tons of the fuel in May, a record high for the facility which began shipments in 2024, ship data shows.

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The helicopter went down at around 6 am local time, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The cause of the crash remains unknown. 

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy said investigations are underway to determine the circumstances that led to the crash. 

“The relevant authorities have launched a full investigation to determine the cause of the crash,” the ministry said in a statement. 

The ministry also extended condolences to the families of those who lost their lives.

Several Gulf countries expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia, conveying their sympathies with the families of the victims. 

The incident comes just two days after Aramco began loading crude oil from the export terminal in the Ras Tanura refinery on 26 June, which was shut for nearly four months. 

In March, Aramco had paused operations at the site as a precautionary measure after it was hit in a drone attack as part of the US-Iran conflict. 

Located on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, the Ras Tanura complex is home to one of the region’s largest refineries, with a processing capacity of around 550,000 bpd. 

The facility also serves as one of Saudi Arabia’s most important crude export terminals.

It is one of Aramco’s oldest and largest refining facilities and plays a key role in the country’s domestic refining operations and global crude exports.

SunZia, as it’s called, will be the country’s last landmark wind project for some time. After this year, annual onshore wind power additions are forecast to decline until 2030, according to BloombergNEF.The biggest reason is President Donald Trump’s assault on renewable energy, and wind in particular. He has vowed to block new wind development in his second term. But Trump isn’t the only culprit: inflation, supply challenges and local opposition have complicated development since the Biden administration. The wind industry also has to contend with the end of lucrative tax credits this year, tariffs and long waits to connect to power grids.

“The development pipeline faces a lot of uncertainties,” said Diego Espinosa, a wind analyst for research firm Wood Mackenzie.

The wind sector is also losing out to other renewable energy sources. Even in the Trump era, solar easily provides the most new annual capacity, while batteries are also besting wind capacity additions each year. Solar generation is cheaper and faster to install, a critical factor in an era of surging demand from power-hungry data centers.

“Solar costs have continued to come down more than previously expected, and wind costs have been rising the past couple of years,” said Harrison Sholler, an analyst for BloombergNEF.

Developers of wind have fewer places where it makes economic sense to install their sky-high turbines compared with solar. And large swaths of those locations have already been built out — such as in the Texas panhandle — further limiting opportunities, Sholler said.

The wind industry has known that solar enjoys some inherent advantages, but it didn’t expect the breadth of Trump’s anti-wind campaign. The industry prospered during Trump’s first term despite him hating turbines long before entering politics.

In Trump’s second term, his administration has taken a series of actions to stop wind development. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order calling for a moratorium on approvals of wind projects on federal lands and waters, a decree that was ruled illegal in December by a federal judge in Boston. The administration also issued stop-work orders for five offshore wind farms, which were lifted after developers challenged the decrees in federal courts. Several clean energy groups accuse the Pentagon of halting security reviews of proposed turbines, which are needed to complete projects. The groups sued earlier this month to lift the alleged suspension, which they say is impacting more than 100 projects worth nearly $50 billion in investments. The US Defense Department didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit and allegations that the agency is blocking approvals.

David Carroll, chief executive officer of renewable developer Engie North America, said the inability to get permitting approvals has placed the wind industry in a precarious position.

“You’ve got capital investments that are just frozen,” said Carroll, who is also chair of the trade group American Clean Power Association. “You have boards of companies questioning whether they should continue to develop wind here in the US.” 

Engie is still going to try to complete the more than a dozen wind projects that have been stalled by the permitting freeze, Carroll said. 

“But we are not placing a lot of investment in the development of new wind at this moment, because the risk profile is too great,” he said. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Houston-based shale producer is poised to win the auction for the driller backed by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Kayne Anderson, the people said. A deal could be announced in weeks, said the people, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t public. 

Deliberations are still fluid and a different bidder could still emerge, the people said. The company’s owners could also decide to retain the asset, they added.

Magnolia fell 1.5% to $26.78 at in New York trading Friday, giving the company a market value of about $5.1 billion. 

Representatives for Magnolia didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Representatives for Warburg Pincus and Kayne Anderson declined to comment. 

A deal for WildFire would boost Magnolia’s presence in the Eagle Ford Shale basin of south Texas. 

Private equity firms are shopping several closely held oil and gas companies worth tens of billions of dollars after the Iran war pushed crude prices higher. Publicly traded companies in the US shale patch have embarked on consolidation over the past few years to gain scale and lower costs as some of the top well sites get drilled up.

WildFire operates more than 2,000 wells with the equivalent output of more than 50,000 net barrels of oil per day, according to its website. The company is run by a management team that previously operated WildHorse Resource Development Corp. before selling to shale-gas pioneer Chesapeake Energy Corp. in 2019 for $1.9 billion. 

(Updates trading and comment line.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Jon Jaye is heading to Expand, the largest US gas producer, after nearly 16 years with Exxon, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing career moves. Jaye will join Dan Turco, Expand’s executive vice president for marketing and commercial, who joined from Exxon last year. 

Several other US natural gas traders are also leaving Exxon, the people said. Among them are Jonathan Sadik, Exxon’s head of natural gas financial trading, who is also poised to join Expand. Chris Giddings and Clay Patterson are joining ConocoPhillips. And Collin Link recently moved to Freepoint Commodities LLC, a merchant trading company. 

Exxon declined to comment on the specific departures but said in a statement that “attrition is consistent with historical norms, and we continue to successfully recruit key talent across our trading hubs in support of ambitious growth plans.”  

A Freepoint Commodities spokesperson confirmed Link had joined the company. Expand and ConocoPhillips declined to comment. None of the traders responded to requests for comment.

Exxon has built up its trading division in recent years as it seeks to capture more profit from the company’s vast network of pipelines, refineries and chemical plants. The company revised its compensation policy about two years ago to allow some traders to be paid cash bonuses in addition to stock awards.

But it has a more conservative approach to trading than some rivals, making it challenging to retain top performers in an industry known for risk taking, large bonuses and high employee turnover. The company faces competition for traders from companies like Expand, which also wants to exploit arbitrage opportunities around their physical assets, as well as from merchant traders and hedge funds. 

Expand, formed by the merger of Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Southwestern Energy Co. in 2024, has increased its marketing staff 50% to about 60 in past year to sell more of its gas directly to end-users, who previously bought through trading houses and other marketing companies. Its headquarters is in Southwestern’s former main office, about a mile away from Exxon’s campus near Houston. 

Jaye was based in Houston as Exxon’s head of natural gas and power trading for two years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He took over the position from Jason Coy, who left to join the quantitative hedge fund Squarepoint Capital LLP in 2024.

Leading oil trading firms Vitol Group, Trafigura Group and Gunvor Group all made higher-than-usual profits this year as the US-Iran war disrupted energy supplies and oil and gas markets globally. However, it’s still too early to say if 2026 will rival the industry’s record haul after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. 

Exxon’s first-quarter earnings took a hit of about $3.7 billion due to derivative positions linked to physical deliveries of cargoes. Chief Financial Officer Neil Hansen told investors in April that these were paper losses only and would fully unwind over time, resulting in “material” profits. 

Separately, Tracey Gunnlaugsson, President of Exxon’s trading business, is retiring and will be replaced by Alex Volkov, according to people familiar with the matter. Volkov previously oversaw the integration of Pioneer Natural Resources Co., which Exxon bought for about $60 billion two years ago. 

Gunnlaugsson’s retirement and Volkov’s appointment were reported earlier by Reuters.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Financial terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed in EDF’s Friday statement. KKR declined to comment, including on the deal valuation. 

The KKR deal comes after LS Power LLC had been in advanced talks to buy EDF’s North American renewable power business, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. At the time, LS Power was discussing paying more than €4 billion ($4.6 billion) for the unit, Bloomberg News reported.

KKR has spent years building out its power portfolio, focusing on renewables and gas assets, as demand for electricity grows rapidly. The investment giant agreed in September to pay $10 billion for a 45% equity stake in Sempra’s infrastructure arm, which builds liquefied natural gas projects. Days later, TotalEnergies SE agreed to sell a stake in North American solar assets to KKR in a deal valuing the portfolio at $1.25 billion including debt. 

The KKR moves have mirrored a larger pick up for takeovers in the  US power industry as energy producers and utilities race to meet insatiable demand from massive data-center projects. In May, NextEra Energy Inc. agreed in May to pay about $67 billion in stock for Dominion Energy Inc. in the largest power acquisition ever.

French state-owned utility EDF operates a portfolio of 5.6 gigawatts of renewable assets in the US and Canada, according to the statement. That’s enough to power more than 4 million US homes. 

EDF is raising funds to help finance the construction of nuclear reactors in France and the UK to replace part of its aging atomic fleet. That investment, costing tens of billions of euros over the next two decades, coincides with falling French power prices, putting the utility’s balance sheet under pressure.

(Adds KKR declined to comment in second paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Brent crude slipped below $74 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was near $70 on Friday. Both benchmarks climbed more than 2% in the previous session — the first increase this week — after the container ship Ever Lovely was struck by an unknown projectile while sailing southeast of Oman.

Ships had been openly transiting the waterway following early progress toward a lasting agreement to end the US-Iran war, adding millions of barrels to the global market. Further talks between Washington and Tehran are likely to be protracted on issues including nuclear policy, but oil futures have rapidly declined recently and are on track for a third weekly loss.

A White House official said it was too soon to say who carried out the strike on the vessel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were no deaths or environmental damage, and that it was able to continue sailing.

The attack has rattled the fragile confidence of shipowners and crews, though ships continued to transit through the narrow corridor on Friday. A handful of tankers turned around early on Thursday after reportedly getting warnings from the Iranian Navy, while the International Maritime Organization said it was pausing its evacuation operations in the strait.

Two key exit routes through Hormuz have emerged because the normal one through the middle is thought to have been mined. One is near Iran, while the other hugs Oman’s coastline and is protected by the US. Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority said Thursday that any transit happening in routes outside its framework would not be protected by “safe-passage guarantees.”

Late Thursday, US President Donald Trump said the strait was open. He made the remarks at the White House while saying Iran would buy US farm goods with money from unfrozen assets, a claim disputed by Tehran.

The attack caused a “short-covering move,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president for trading at BOK Financial Securities Inc. “If you add in a market that has been extremely oversold, prices are more likely to move into a ‘back and fill’ correction before any new selling emerges.”

Earlier this week, Gulf oil was streaming out of the waterway at the fastest pace since the war began. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it sees Gulf exports now running at almost two-thirds of normal levels, while the pace of visible global inventory declines has slowed.

Gulf producers have been rapidly raising output, but are finding it difficult to secure tankers to ferry the oil out. Iraq has been forced to order a production halt at one of its key fields due to the shortage. The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are all boosting supply.

Iraq is seeking a higher OPEC production quota to recoup oil sales lost during the war, even raising the prospect on it could consider leaving the group. The country’s oil ministry later said an exit hasn’t been proposed, and consideration of a move isn’t the government’s official position.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

At least eight empty vessels have congregated off the Ras Laffan facility after most transited through the Strait of Hormuz over the past week, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Another tanker in the Gulf is on its way to the plant, while two other Qatar-linked ships are approaching the eastern entrance of Hormuz, the data shows.

QatarEnergy operates Ras Laffan, the world’s largest LNG export facility, but output has been largely halted since Iranian attacks damaged two production trains and the war led to a near-closure of Hormuz. Higher exports depend on safe passage through the strait, with an attack on a cargo ship renewing concerns and leading to one LNG tanker U-turning before entering.

QatarEnergy — which exported nearly a fifth of global LNG supply last year — has been testing equipment and performing necessary maintenance to prepare for a rapid output increase. Several production trains have been operating at reduced capacity so that the plant can deliver shipments to neighbors, but also be able to raise supply when necessary, Bloomberg previously reported.

Qatar plans to return to normal LNG output within weeks from the undamaged parts of its facility, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said in an interview with the Financial Times this week. The 10-day moving average of exports from Ras Laffan have more than doubled in the past month, but they are still about 80% below year-ago levels, ship-data shows.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

This, coupled with the US Treasury's decision on 22 June to defer Iranian oil sanctions until August 21, has also paved the way for a rapid ramp up of production. 

Thus, as producers across the Gulf restored output faster than expected, Brent crude fell to around $73 per barrel, while WTI teetered close to $70.

According to Rystad Energy, shut-in crude production in the region reached 9.6 million bpd, down from 11.7 million bpd, and the consultancy now expects output to return to prewar levels by the end of 2026, instead of Q1 2027. 

“Two million barrels a day came back online in three weeks, and the recovery is spread across the region,” said Aditya Saraswat, MENA research director at Rystad Energy.

Rystad also expects total regional outages to fall below 2 mbpd by the end of Q3 2026, as producers continue bringing fields back online ahead of earlier expectations.

The International Energy Agency also reported that shipments through the Strait of Hormuz rose in early June, thanks to “ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman, lifting total flows from a May low of 9.6 mb/d to around 12 mb/d.”

The June 2026 Oil Market Report by the IEA also noted multiple ways in which markets responded to the crisis, helping keep oil prices below $150 per barrel:

• Global markets drew down inventories, while the IEA released its largest-ever emergency stock, bringing additional barrels to market. 
• Refineries across countries quickly made adjustments to make up for the decline in the region's refined product exports as well as the losses of Middle Eastern crude oil.
• China, the world's largest crude oil importer, cut its imports by 40% between February and May, helping ease supply pressures in the global market
• Crude exports from other suppliers, particularly the US, increased, while Gulf producers found alternative routes to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

UAE and Saudi Arabia take the lead

Saudi Aramco resumed crude loadings at Ras Tanura on 26 June after a nearly four-month suspension, signalling another important step towards restoring Gulf exports.

Two Very Large Crude Carriers operated by Bahri were seen loading crude at the world’s largest oil export terminal, while another vessel waited offshore.

Saudi Arabia strengthened its position through extensive use of its East-West pipeline during the conflict, which links eastern oilfields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. 

The UAE too depended heavily on the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline during the crisis, and is poised to double its capacity by next year.

Saudi Arabia along with the UAE emerged as the most resilient producers throughout the conflict, as they were able to maintain exports using infrastructure that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. ​

Together, they account for around 65% of the crude still being produced across the region during the disruption. 

“Saudi Arabia is on track for a record 4.5 million bpd through Yanbu this month. The supply picture is clearly improving,” said Saraswat.

The IEA noted that a “full recovery [of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz] will not be immediate, however, as mines will have to be removed from the main shipping lanes and supply chains will take time to normalise.”

In spite of this, companies such as ADNOC, Iraq's SOMO, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, and QatarEnergy have all launched tenders for July cargoes. 

The Iran outlook 

​Iran, meanwhile, is recording the sharpest rebound. “Iran is moving fastest because its shut-in was shorter and upstream damage was limited,” explained Saraswat.

Due to easing sanctions, the naval blockade lifted, and shipping activity gradually resuming, Rystad estimates Iranian production could rise from approximately 2.4 million bpd today to 3.1 million bpd by August. 

If sanctions relief extend beyond August, production could climb to 3.3 million bpd by the end of the year, exceeding pre-conflict output.

Strait of Hormuz: the biggest uncertainty 

Despite the improving situation, concerns surrounding the Strait of Hormuz remain.

According to Saraswat, storage facilities across the Gulf are currently estimated to be only 50% to 60% full after producers relied heavily on inventories to maintain exports during the disruption. 

Unless tanker traffic returns to normal levels soon, producers may once again have to curb output as storage capacity fills, according to Rystad.

Although crude loadings and shipping activity have resumed, security concerns persist after a commercial vessel was struck by an unidentified object in the Strait of Hormuz this week, briefly reigniting fears over the durability of the ceasefire.

“The variable that will determine how quickly prices settle at a new level is Hormuz transit volumes,” Saraswat said, adding that “The diplomatic agreement is a necessary first step, and physical tanker flows through Hormuz are what we are watching now.”

A shipment of the nation’s Al-Shaheen grade was sold this week to Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp., which sought supplies for August to September, according to traders familiar with the matter. The volumes were sold by trading house Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., they said.

Some of the same grade, as well as Qatar’s Marine and Land varieties, were sold to an Indian refiner last week, said the traders, who asked not to be named as they may not speak publicly.

The deals represent the first observed transactions for Qatari crude to refiners in Asia since the war began, although the country has been much more active in reviving production and exports of liquefied natural gas.

In addition, state-owned QatarEnergy on Thursday issued its first crude oil sell tender since the Iran war began. It’s offering cargoes over July and August, which can either be picked up within the Persian Gulf or via ship-to-ship transfer at locations just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil futures have cratered this month, although prices ticked higher on Thursday after an attack on a cargo ship in Hormuz, renewing concerns about safe passage through the waterway. Increased activity through the strait had seen crude exports from the United Arab Emirates rebound, as well as sales from Iraq and Kuwait.

Qatar has been able to get LNG tankers into and out of the Persian Gulf through the strait. It plans to rapidly boost production of the super-chilled fuel once the waterway fully reopens, restoring most export capacity in two months, said other people familiar with the matter.

There’s been increased tanker activity near Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility. The Kiku, a Greek-owned supertanker, was loading 2 million barrels of Qatari crude from the Al-Shaheen floating storage and offloading terminal, ship-tracking data show. 

Kiku appeared in the Persian Gulf on June 19, after last broadcasting from the Gulf of Oman on June 13, making the very large crude carrier one of the first mainstream tankers to enter the gulf since the US-Iran deal.

Separately, state-owned QatarEnergy had also offered a cargo of gasoline for export next month, from its Mesaieed refinery in the Persian Gulf, in a sign that wider processing operations are ramping up.

QatarEnergy — which is responsible for the country’s energy supply, including oil, products and LNG — didn’t respond to a request for comment. In addition, Apex Shipping & Energy Ltd. in Greece, listed as manager of Kiku on the Equasis database, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

(Updates with Qatari sell tender in fifth paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

There can be “no question” that the current tensions in the Middle East have accelerated demand for renewable energy, Kerry, who is co-executive chair of investment manager Galvanize, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Guy Johnson. 

“I think if you talk to knowledgeable folks in the business world, while they don’t make a lot of noise about it right now, they are moving forward,” he said.

The comments come as oil has erased its wartime gains after flows through the Strait of Hormuz ramped up following progress on a US-Iran peace deal.

Kerry pointed to investments in Texas and the United Arab Emirates as examples showing how even governments not necessarily ideologically aligned with the green shift are moving toward the economic logic of renewables.

The “UAE, for instance — an oil and gas producing country — they are building out 19 gigawatts of battery storage and have put four new nuclear plants online, and they have one of the largest solar fields in the world,” Kerry said. Texas “is now massively building out onshore solar and wind.”

Kerry is in the British capital for London Climate Action Week, where politicians, academics and business leaders have gathered to discuss how to address rising temperatures as Europe deals with a heat wave that’s shattered records across the continent.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Every half-decade, Chinese leaders publish a five-year plan outlining economic and societal goals, and then follow it up with several sectoral schemes with more detailed targets and strategies. This year, the broader plan came out in March, and sectoral plans have begun trickling out in recent weeks, including ones on jobs and urban renewal. 

The plan’s release comes at a seeming inflection point for China’s energy transition. Years of rapid build-outs of solar and wind farms have showed that the country has the means to expand clean energy fast enough to power its growing economy, while chipping away at its world-leading emissions. But that’s also put unprecedented strain on the electricity grid, leading to rising curtailment and a slowdown in new renewable installations.

Energy was already a major component of the broader five-year plan. It called for China to peak its coal and oil during the 2026-30 period, double non-fossil fuel energy over the next decade, and focus on developing technologies like hydrogen and nuclear fusion. It also sought to make progress on a major gas pipeline from Russia, and boost capacity of generating technologies like nuclear, offshore wind and pumped hydro storage.

Key targets from the new energy plan include:

Some other details from the plan:

• Wind and solar will account for more than 50% of total installed power capacity.
• It targets 160 gigawatts of pumped hydro and 300 gigawatts of battery storage capacity, along with 50 gigawatts of virtual power plants for demand response.
• It targets 2 million tons of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030, nearly double what’s currently online and under construction.
• Oil output will be maintained at around 200 million tons a year, while natural gas production will steadily increase.
• The country will rationally plan and construct natural gas power plants and promote domestic construction of gas turbines.
• Develop more than 100 million tons a year of coal production capacity that is ready to produce when needed.
• Develop future technologies, such as nuclear fusion, space-based power plants and superconducting transmission.

(Updates with additional details from plan)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.