Washington hit dozens of Iranian military targets in an early Thursday operation aimed at degrading Tehran’s ability to threaten US troops, its Arab allies and commercial shipping in the region, US Central Command said in a post on X.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted air bases in Jordan and Kuwait, according to statements on Telegram, saying the former was a response to US strikes on residential areas of the Islamic Republic. The Kuwait Army said Iran targeted a building in the north of the country, killing one worker and causing “significant” material damage. 

Two liquefied natural gas vessels at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean Sea were struck in a drone attack on Wednesday, according to the North African nation’s cabinet, causing fires but no injuries. No party has yet claimed responsibility.

The tanker strikes were the first in Egyptian waters since the US-Israeli war on Iran began just over five months ago. For much of the conflict, Iran’s retaliation has centered on Arab states in the Persian Gulf and Jordan.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq have now been drawn further into the fray, with Riyadh this week joining the US in attacking Iran-backed militias in Iraq in response to attacks on Saudi oil facilities. 

Houthi militants in Yemen, who are also sponsored by Tehran, have attacked Saudi vessels in the Red Sea after announcing a blockade targeting the kingdom.

The US and Iran had paused an exchange of strikes at the end of last week to give diplomacy a chance to end the war. That lull ended Tuesday night when Tehran carried out what US President Donald Trump called a surprise attack, firing multiple ballistic missiles at an American military base in Jordan. The assault sent oil prices soaring. 

“We’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, two days after playing down the prospect of a renewed escalation. “They know what’s coming.”

There was no indication the latest US attacks had targeted civilian infrastructure that would signal a major expansion of the military campaign. Trump has regularly threatened to strike Iranian bridges and power plants to force the Islamic Republic into a new peace agreement. 

Oil prices steadied on Thursday, with benchmark Brent crude trading at about $90 a barrel after surging 8% in the previous session.

Energy prices have been advancing since the latest round of hostilities got underway this week, just days after a pause in about two weeks of tit-for-tat strikes. That came after the collapse of a ceasefire and an end of formal talks aimed at building on an interim peace agreement signed in June, which is now effectively obsolete.

Negotiations between the US and Iran are “ongoing” to restore stability, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said in Islamabad, without giving details. 

Trump has repeatedly said the US and Iran were close to reaching a deal, even as Tehran denied it was engaged in active talks with Washington. Major differences remain, with Iran refusing to meet US demands to ensure commercial shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz remains uninterrupted.

A prolonged conflict poses political risks for the US president, whose Republican Party faces an uphill fight to retain control of Congress in the November midterm elections. Those will largely hinge on the economy, with voters giving Trump poor marks on his handling of the issue. 

The war has brought a sharp increase in US gasoline prices as shipping through Hormuz came to a standstill, reducing supplies of oil and LNG. The strait remains largely closed with few ships passing through. 

The protracted nature of the war and shuttering of Hormuz is also weighing on Saudi Arabia, which saw its economy contract the most since the Covid-19 pandemic in the second quarter. The slump was driven by an 24.7% decline in the oil sector, versus 2.9% growth in the first quarter.

Qatar, meanwhile, has sent its first LNG shipment through the strait since one of its tankers was attacked in the waterway about three weeks ago. The move indicates that QatarEnergy may be resuming shipments through the strait after pausing them when the Al Rekayyat gas carrier was struck July 7.

Pakistan negotiated with Iran to secure safe passage for the Al Areesh, which had been idling in the Persian Gulf since picking up a shipment from the Ras Laffan export facility in early July, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The South Asian nation has been seeking to use its diplomatic ties to ease a deepening energy crunch.

The US continues to enforce a blockade against Iran, which is primarily aimed at preventing the Islamic Republic from exporting oil and products.

(Updates with Iran strike on Jordan in third paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

US reactor operators bought about 3.28 million separative work units, or SWUs, of Russian enrichment services in 2025, equal to almost 26% of their total purchases, according to data published Wednesday in the Energy Information Administration’s latest uranium marketing report. That compares with 17% a decade earlier. 

The vulnerability is growing more urgent as Washington promotes a nuclear revival driven by power demand from data centers and electrification. Existing utilities are seeking to extend reactor lives and restart plants, while developers of small modular reactors need to secure fuel for projects over the next decade.

Both groups also remain exposed to international trade, even as the Trump administration disrupts supply chains with sanctions and tariffs. Foreign sources supplied 77% of the enrichment services purchased by US operators in 2025. Russia was the largest single source.

A 2024 US law bans Russian uranium imports but allows the Department of Energy to grant waivers when alternative supplies are unavailable or imports are deemed to be in the national interest. That authority expires no later than January 2028.

The arrangement creates a political choke point because deliveries are contingent upon both US waivers and Russian export licenses, leaving utilities exposed to a further deterioration in relations between Moscow and Washington. Sanctions have already transformed trade in oil, gas and other energy commodities since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Domestic and allied enrichment projects are advancing, but their timing leaves a gap. Urenco USA — owned by the British, Dutch and German nuclear consortium — is adding about 700,000 SWU of annual capacity by early 2027. Larger projects from Centrus Energy and Orano aren’t expected until 2029 and beyond. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Coal-fired plants accounted for 49.7% of electricity output from January through June, according to the National Energy Administration. Renewable sources supplied more than 40%, with wind and solar alone generating nearly a quarter of the total, officials said at a press briefing Thursday.

China has spent years expanding wind and solar, while keeping coal at the heart of its power system to avoid electricity shortages. The country is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and burns more coal than the rest of the world combined, but is also the biggest producer of renewable energy. Any lasting shift away from coal would carry implications well beyond China’s borders.

“This is a phased achievement resulting from the long-term replacement of fossil-fuel generation by non-fossil energy, marking a new breakthrough in China’s green and low-carbon energy transition,” said Xing Yiteng, deputy director-general of the administration’s Department of Development and Planning.

Even so, coal use is still rising in absolute terms. Output from thermal power plants increased in the first half as electricity demand grew, partly driven by high-tech manufacturing, electric-vehicle charging and data centers. Coal’s share fell as cleaner sources expanded even faster.

The rapid expansion of renewable energy is also exposing weaknesses in China’s electricity network. Renewable projects are increasingly being forced to cut output because the grid cannot absorb all the electricity they produce. 

Solar utilization fell to 91.4% in the first half from 94.3% a year earlier, while wind slipped to 90.9% from 93.5%, Pan Huimin, deputy director of the administration’s renewable energy department, said at the same briefing.

Beijing is ramping up investment in the power system to ease grid bottlenecks. Spending on grid infrastructure rose 14% in the first half from a year earlier, while investment in energy storage climbed 74%. 

Battery systems are also being used more frequently, averaging 1,195 hours of operation in 2025, nearly double the level in 2023.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The company has now attracted a total of $4 billion, accounting for about 30% of all funding raised by fusion developers to date, according to a statement Thursday. The latest round is the industry’s biggest since Commonwealth garnered $1.8 billion in 2021. 

Fusion promises abundant, carbon-free energy, but it will require overcoming significant scientific and engineering hurdles to commercialize the technology, and progress has been slow. That’s one of the reasons why earlier funding rounds for the industry featured individual billionaires who were comfortable making speculative investments in a field where success has never been guaranteed. Commonwealth’s latest funding shows this is changing, a sign of growing confidence. 

“This is a new class of capital,” Bob Mumgaard, Commonwealth’s chief executive officer, said during a conference call. 

Commonwealth’s investors now include pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, industrial partners and infrastructure investors, though the Devens, Massachusetts-based company didn’t identify them. 

Fusion involves replicating the conditions within a star, generating intense heat and pressure that forces small atoms to fuse into larger elements, releasing energy. Commonwealth has completed about 80% of a demonstration system at its headquarters and expects to switch it on next year. 

The goal is to contain a superheated cloud of plasma within a donut-shaped device known as a tokamak, triggering a fusion reaction that releases more energy than is required to sustain it. If successful, the demonstration would pave the way for the company’s first commercial power plant, which it is already developing in Virginia.

“This really puts us in a position where we can go quickly,” Mumgaard said.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Al Areesh, which had been idling in the Arabian Gulf since picking up a shipment from the Ras Laffan export facility in early July, sailed through Hormuz with its transponder turned on and was entering the Gulf of Oman on Thursday morning local time, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

The tanker is signaling Pakistan as its next destination. The South Asian nation has mediated peace talks between the US and Iran and previously shunned more expensive spot LNG cargoes in the expectation that supplies from Qatar would resume. However, more recently it has made plans to procure immediate shipments for August.

The latest move indicates that QatarEnergy may be resuming deliveries through the strait after pausing journeys when the Al Rekayyat gas carrier was struck on July 7. An increase in flows through Hormuz may also allow the company to ramp up production at the world’s largest LNG plant — a plan that was placed on hold following the attack.

Neither QatarEnergy nor Seapeak LLC, the company that owns the tanker, responded to a request for comment.

More than a dozen tankers are currently idling near Ras Laffan, according to the ship-tracking data, indicating that they may be preparing to pick up shipments from the Qatari plant. An empty LNG carrier owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.’s shipping arm also appeared in the Gulf on Wednesday after traversing Hormuz in the opposite direction, with its location broadcaster turned off.

Still, a resumption in strikes by the US and Iran is deepening concerns that LNG flows through Hormuz will remain compromised, leaving the global market tight. Attacks took a brief pause in an effort to advance talks to end the months-long conflict, but that lull ended Tuesday night when Iran fired multiple ballistic missiles at an American base in Jordan. In response, the US launched a new wave of strikes on Thursday local time.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The contract covers the supply of nine customised centrifugal compressors designed for high-pressure gas processing applications. The equipment will support a multi-billion-dollar energy expansion project in the Middle East aimed at strengthening gas infrastructure and enhancing the reliability of global energy supplies.

According to the company, the project involves coordinating strict delivery schedules across multiple engineering teams, licensors, and international stakeholders. Ebara Elliott Energy said its ability to provide a flexible phased delivery programme and detailed milestone planning played a key role in securing the contract.

The compressors will be manufactured and tested through the company’s global production network before deliveries begin in line with the project’s construction schedule.

The award highlights continued investment in large-scale gas projects across the Middle East, where countries are expanding production and processing capacity to meet growing global demand for natural gas while supporting energy security.

“The world needs dependable energy today while planning for a lower-carbon tomorrow, and this project does both,” said Nobu Miyaki, Chairman and CEO, Ebara Elliott Energy. “At this scale, there is no room for error. Larsen & Toubro Limited and their end user chose us because our engineering teams design for extreme conditions, and our technology delivers real-world reliability when it matters most. Trust is earned project by project, and our global manufacturing team is ready to execute.”

Baker Hughes, Halliburton, and SLB offset regional weakness through strong demand for LNG infrastructure, offshore developments, and digital solutions, while Honeywell Technologies benefitted from growing investment in automation and gas processing projects. Weatherford stood out for its cash-generation performance despite softer earnings. 

The quarter showed a broader industry trend: companies with exposure to energy infrastructure, power systems, automation, and digital technologies are better positioned to navigate market volatility.

Baker Hughes: LNG and gas equipment drive growth

Baker Hughes delivered strong sequential growth during the second quarter despite ongoing disruption across the Middle East. The earnings show that profitability remained resilient, with adjusted net income rising 3% to $640 million. Revenue rose to $6.7 billion from $6.6 billion in the first quarter, while orders surged from $8.2 billion to a record $10.5 billion this quarter. 

“IET delivered another exceptional quarter of orders, with record bookings doubling year-over-year to $7.1 billion and backlog increasing 19% to a new all-time high. The strength was driven by robust demand across Power Systems and LNG, with particularly strong momentum in power generation.”

- Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman, President, and CEO of Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes' strongest performance came from the Industrial & Energy Technology (IET) division, which generated a record $7.1 billion in orders, as compared to $4.9 billion in the last quarter. 

“IET delivered another exceptional quarter of orders,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman, President, and CEO of Baker Hughes, adding that the “strength was driven by robust demand across Power Systems and LNG, with particularly strong momentum in power generation.”

Overall, the results show Baker Hughes’ shift toward energy infrastructure, LNG, and power solutions under its Horizon 2 growth strategy. The company now expects Horizon 2 orders to exceed $45 billion. 

Weatherford: cash generation takes centre stage

The company's cash generation strengthened significantly versus last quarter. Operating cash flow rose quarter-on-quarter to $175 million, while adjusted free cash flow jumped to $139 million, supported by lower capital spending and disciplined cost management.

Compared with the first quarter, Weatherford delivered a weaker earnings performance in the second quarter as Middle East disruptions affected activity. Second quarter net income dropped $39 million, while revenue fell 4% quarter-on-quarter to $1.1 billion. 

“Despite the significant disruption in the Middle East due to the Iran conflict, our second-quarter results, especially adjusted free cash flow, were strong, demonstrating the reliability and resilience of our operating paradigm.”

- Girish Saligram, President and CEO, Weatherford

Net income dropped 71% sequentially, mostly due to geopolitical uncertainty across key Middle East markets. However, Weatherford’s proposed Delaware redomestication is projected to deliver annual cash savings of $20 million-$30 million from 2027.

Weatherford President and CEO Girish Saligram said, “Despite the significant disruption in the Middle East due to the Iran conflict, our second-quarter results, especially adjusted free cash flow, were strong, demonstrating the reliability and resilience of our operating paradigm.”

“While the Middle East situation remains volatile and creates activity headwinds in the short term, our longer-term thesis remains intact. A return to the pre-conflict operating levels is expected to be gradual, contingent on continued regional stability, and requires an absence of further geopolitical escalation,” Saligram said. 

Halliburton: international expansion supports recovery

Halliburton posted one of the strongest sequential improvements, as net income rose from $461 million to $534 million, and revenue increased to $5.7 billion from $5.4 billion in the first quarter. For Halliburton, Europe and Africa led regional performance, with revenue jumping 19% quarter-on-quarter.

This growth was supported by activity in the North Sea, Namibia, Egypt, and Angola. Middle East and Asia revenue declined 2% as a result of the ongoing geopolitical conflict in the Middle East, according to Halliburton. The quarter showed Halliburton's growing exposure to international offshore developments and its continuing investment in digital technologies, automation, and AI-enabled asset management systems.

“In North America, I see clear signs that we are in the early innings of a recovery. In international markets, our performance around the world outpaced disruptions from the Middle East conflict. I expect that our consistent focus on returns and capital discipline will drive long-term success for Halliburton and its shareholders.” 

- Jeff Miller, President and CEO, Halliburton

“In North America, I see clear signs that we are in the early innings of a recovery,” said President and CEO Jeff Miller. “In international markets, our performance around the world outpaced disruptions from the Middle East conflict. I expect that our consistent focus on returns and capital discipline will drive long-term success for Halliburton and its shareholders.” 

SLB: offshore growth helps soften Middle East disruption

SLB delivered a strong quarter despite its significant exposure to the Middle East. Net income increased 5% to $786 million while revenue increased 3% sequentially from $8.72 billion to $8.97 billion. 

Revenue from the Middle East fell roughly 13% compared with the previous quarter as disruptions affected operations, particularly in Iraq. However, this was offset by stronger activity elsewhere, with North America revenue increasing 4% sequentially and international offshore markets maintaining momentum.

“SLB delivered solid second-quarter results, as broad-based sequential growth across international markets — led by offshore activity in Latin America, Europe & Africa and Asia — more than offset the impact of continued disruptions in the Middle East.”

- Olivier Le Peuch, CEO, SLB

“SLB delivered solid second-quarter results, as broad-based sequential growth across international markets — led by offshore activity in Latin America, Europe & Africa and Asia — more than offset the impact of continued disruptions in the Middle East,” said SLB CEO Olivier Le Peuch.

“Excluding the Middle East, revenue grew sequentially across all Divisions, supported by higher offshore activity, a rebound in U.S. unconventionals and strong demand for production and recovery solutions,” Le Peuch added. 

SLB also highlighted its growth in digital technologies and data centre infrastructure. Digital revenue increased 9% compared to the previous quarter, while data centre solutions revenue grew 33%. 

Honeywell Technologies: LNG demand drives automation growth trend

Honeywell Technologies’ second quarter net income surged to $5.68 billion from $821 million from the last quarter, largely due to a one-time gain related to Quantinuum's deconsolidation following its IPO. Revenue rose to $9.72 billion from $9.14 billion. 

“The second quarter marked a historic milestone for Honeywell Technologies as we completed the separation of Honeywell Aerospace and began a new era as a leading pure-play automation company. The results we delivered this quarter are the outcome of a year-plus long process to simplify our business, and we are already seeing the benefits of this transformation today.”

- Vimal Kapur, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell Technologies

Honeywell's energy-focused businesses saw strong LNG-related order activity offsetting softer margins in parts of its process automation portfolio. The company's Process Automation and Technology segment reported a 24% increase in orders, driven by robust demand from LNG projects.

“The second quarter marked a historic milestone for Honeywell Technologies as we completed the separation of Honeywell Aerospace and began a new era as a leading pure-play automation company. The results we delivered this quarter are the outcome of a year-plus long process to simplify our business, and we are already seeing the benefits of this transformation today,” said Vimal Kapur, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell Technologies.

Themed “Forging Africa’s Strategic Energy Growth Through Global Collaboration,” this year’s edition converted a week of dialogue among senior government officials, regulators, national and international energy companies, investors, financiers, and technology providers into binding commitments across the energy value chain.

Gas and upstream projects dominate investment activity

Gas & LNG accounted for the largest share of total value at approximately 39%, followed by Upstream at 31%, Midstream at 16%, Engineering & Technology at 10%, and Downstream at 4%. The composition tells its own story: capital is prioritising gas development to spearhead Africa’s energy transition.

The deals signed during the Energy Alliance session further buttressed that position. The NNPC Limited and Seplat Energy Joint Venture signed a 15-year Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement with UTM FLNG Limited to supply 200 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, positioning Nigeria’s first floating LNG project for a Final Investment Decision in the fourth quarter of 2026.

ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria, with partners Chevron, TotalEnergies, and Nexen, announced a $1 billion investment commitment to the Usan Infill Project, a fast-track deepwater development expected to add 40,000 barrels per day to Nigeria’s output, marking the company’s first major drilling campaign in Nigeria since 2016.

During the week, NNPC Limited also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL), a Gas Sale and Aggregation Agreement with Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited, and Network Entry Agreements with Chevron Nigeria Limited, AGPC, and NNPC Exploration & Production Limited (NEPL).

‘Igniting the engine of industrialisation’

Speaking at the signing ceremonies, Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari, GCEO, NNPC Limited, stated: “What we are witnessing today is not just about signing agreements. It is about igniting the engine of Nigeria’s industrialisation.” He set the tone at the opening ceremony, noting: “This year’s NOG Energy Week theme could not be more timely. The conversation around collaboration, investment, and innovation remains central to unlocking Africa’s energy potential and delivering sustainable access for its people.”

For 25 years, NOG Energy Week has been the meeting point where Nigeria’s oil and gas industry negotiates its future, from the early years of building consensus around reform to creating an investment-attractive business environment. Each edition has compounded the trust and relationships that transactions of this magnitude require, and the 2026 results show what a quarter century of sustained convening can deliver.

Industry leaders outline the path forward

H.E. Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Federal Republic of Nigeria, paid tribute to that legacy: “I want to extend my gratitude to the visionaries who, 25 years ago, conceived the idea that Nigeria’s energy story deserved an identity of its own. That vision gave birth to the annual NOG Energy Week, and it is the reason we are all gathered here today.”

H.E. Rt. Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo, Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Federal Republic of Nigeria, framed the road ahead: “The future belongs not to economies that choose between energy security and sustainability, but to those that successfully deliver both. Natural gas has emerged as the indispensable bridge connecting these two objectives.”

From dialogue to deal-making

As Wemimo Oyelana, Portfolio & Country Director, dmg Nigeria Events, stated: “NOG Energy Week exists to spark the partnerships that move energy projects from ambition to delivery. Every deal signed this week is capital, jobs and energy security in motion for Nigeria and the continent.”

Twenty-five years after its first gathering, NOG Energy Week has moved from setting the agenda to closing deals. The $4.5 billion recorded this year is not a ceiling; it is a marker of how quickly Africa’s energy story is shifting from potential to delivery, and a signal to global capital that the continent’s next chapter is already being written, one transaction at a time.

Federal, state and territory energy ministers met virtually Tuesday to discuss the proposed curbs as Australia’s rapidly expanding data center industry — fueled by demand for artificial intelligence and hyperscalers including Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. — attracts opposition from community and environmental groups.

Queensland state and the Northern Territory opposed most measures related to putting guardrails on the data center sector, including introducing a national set of regulations, according to a government statement issued after the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council gathering. All states and territories must support the federal policy for it to proceed.

The federal government will work with states, territories and market bodies on a detailed policy design, with the potential for introduction of more stringent local requirements, the council said in its communique. The ministers are set to meet again in September.

New data centers would need to add at least as much electricity generation to the grid as they consume, Albanese said in a policy speech earlier in July that laid out plans to embrace the sector while shaping how it develops. Bringing these issues into a single national framework would be a global first, he said.

He said operators would be expected to build renewable generation, minimize water use, maximize energy efficiency and fund any additional water infrastructure required, though he provided few details on how the policy would work.

Australia is among a growing number of countries trying to regulate AI without stifling innovation while ensuring adequate power supplies for the energy-hungry data centers that underpin the technology. A surge in data center investment is also helping support the country’s slowing economy.

Australia is emerging as one of Asia’s top locations for data center construction due to its high potential for renewable energy, stable political environment and strong connectivity with the rest of Asia via low-latency submarine cables, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts led by Matt Ingram said in a June report.

Data center investment could hit A$150 billion by 2030, Commonwealth Bank of Australia associate economist Lucinda Jerogin wrote in a note. Six gigawatts of potential capacity are planned, with demand driven by appetite for hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure, she said. 

The country was second only to the US in terms of dollars invested in the sector in 2024, according to a report from real estate group Knight Frank.

Buy-In 

Queensland had previously stated that it doesn’t support the imposition of renewable power requirements in order to remain an attractive market for investors, Premier David Crisafulli said prior to Albanese’s policy announcement. 

The state would support proposals that delivered affordable, sustainable power but “will not support underdeveloped ideas that hand increased power to Canberra at the expense of Queenslanders,” Energy Minister David Janetzki said in a statement on Wednesday.

The measures enjoy public support. A YouGov survey commissioned by Australia’s Climate Council found that 82% of respondents agreed that new data centers should be made to pay for extra renewable energy and storage infrastructure that meets their power needs. 

National rules on data centers would stop states and territories from competing with each other, according to Rob Nicholls, a senior researcher at the University of Sydney’s Centre for AI, Trust and Governance.

“The policy the PM has announced doesn’t work unless there’s buy-in from all the states and territories,” Nicholls said. “Part of the reason you have a policy is to avoid a race to the bottom from the states.”

Chief Executive Officer Belinda Dennett of industry group Data Centres Australia — whose members include Google, AirTrunk and Microsoft Corp. — said the group is supportive of the principle that new electricity demand should be backed by new supply, with many operators and customers already underwriting renewable energy.

Still, the industry wants clarity on three key issues, Dennett said, including whether the compliance obligation falls on the data center operator or the tenant, when that obligation takes effect, and what energy usage is being offset — the facility’s actual electricity consumption or its nameplate capacity.

(Updates with comments from Queensland energy minister)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Bloom reported second-quarter profit of 62 cents per share, according to a statement Tuesday, blowing past the 28-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The shares gained as much as 14% in after-hours trading in New York.

The company manufactures fuel cells that produce electricity from natural gas, and its systems are in high demand to power data centers. Although conventional gas turbines have a years-long waiting list, Bloom says it can deliver much faster. Oracle Corp. in April said it would buy 2.8 gigawatts of capacity from Bloom after the company made some deliveries in as few as 55 days. 

“Demand is compounding,” Chief Executive Officer KR Sridhar said in a conference call with analysts. “New customers are arriving at a faster pace than ever.”

Booming fuel-cell demand has prompted the company to repeatedly boost sale forecasts. The company said Tuesday that sales this year will range from $3.9 billion to $4.2 billion, up from April guidance of $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion. In February, it projected annual sales of $3.1 billion to $3.3 billion. 

That demand has prompted questions about Bloom’s ability to boost production, and whether it can do so fast enough to deliver fuel cells to all the data centers that are clamoring for electricity now. 

“Bloom Energy’s AI-power earnings upside rests on converting demand into cash,” Rob Barnett, a Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst, wrote in a research note. 

The company has said it’s doubling production capacity at its Fremont, California, facility this year to about 2 gigawatts annually, and the site could eventually be expanded to make as much as 5 gigawatts a year. Sridhar said on the call Tuesday that Bloom uses a sophisticated algorithm to plan manufacturing, but declined to provide specific details on output. 

“We can predict what our capacity needs are going to be,” he said on the call. “Capacity is not going to be our constraint.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Saudi Defense Ministry said it had intercepted the drones on Tuesday, without clarifying whether the facilities were damaged. Similar attacks were carried out from Iraq on Riyadh and the Eastern Region on Monday.

The Saudi government said Iraq must take all necessary steps to ensure that its territories are not used as a launching pad for such attacks. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is visiting Saudi Arabia on Thursday, according to Al Arabiya.

Iraq has set Sept. 30 as a deadline for surrendering weapons held outside state institutions, as the premier seeks to deter the influence of militants in the country.

Iraq on Monday said it wouldn’t allow its territory become a staging ground for assaults against neighboring countries. Drones were also fired at Saudi Arabia from Iraq in May, as Gulf nations including Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates were hit from Iraqi territories throughout the ongoing Iran war.

Iran-affiliated militias in Yemen also carried out assaults on oil facilities on Riyadh and the Eastern Region, the Saudi cabinet said earlier Tuesday. 

The Houthis, a clan from Yemen’s north that took over the capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and triggered a civil war that drew in the Saudis and other Middle East states, claimed Monday that they had targeted Saudi oil facilities with drones. 

The Iranian-backed group earlier said it fired missiles and drones at facilities linked to oil giant Saudi Aramco in the Red Sea port towns of Jizan and Yanbu. There was no confirmation from the Saudi government or Aramco that the company’s sites were targeted.

The Houthis last week announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, in response to what they say was the kingdom’s siege of Sanaa. 

The group has since attacked tankers linked to Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, which the kingdom opted to use for the bulk of its crude exports after the Strait of Hormuz, where about a fifth of the world’s oil flowed before the US-led war on Iran, remains near a standstill. 

On Tuesday, the Houthis said they targeted a Saudi oil tanker with ballistic missiles for violating the maritime blockade, forcing it to retreat.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Chinese state-owned energy giant is working with an adviser to help gauge interest for its 15% stake, which could be worth a few billion dollars, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. PetroChina may reduce its holding gradually through several smaller transactions, they added.

The discussions are at an early stage and no final decision has been made, the people said. PetroChina didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

China’s largest oil and gas producer plans to use proceeds from the sale to help finance the facility’s second phase, the people said. The expansion, which would double the plant’s output, is gaining urgency as the war involving Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a key route for about a fifth of global LNG shipments — leave the market facing a supply crunch.

The LNG Canada project has provided an important alternative for China after the Middle East conflict disrupted deliveries from Qatar, which supplied nearly 30% of Chinese LNG imports last year. Cargoes from Canada have partly offset that shortfall, ship-tracking data show.

The first phase of the project’s facility in Kitimat, British Columbia, began exports last year, kicking off a wave of new global supply. Its partners — which include Shell Plc, Mitsubishi Corp., Petroliam Nasional Bhd. and Korea Gas Corp. — agreed to invest in the $31 billion project in 2018.

“We are not in a position to comment on any process that may be undertaken by our joint venture participants,” Sarah Norman, a spokesperson for LNG Canada, said by email. 

Chinese companies are also seeking more LNG from Canada and other producers to reduce their reliance on Gulf supplies and guard against future disruptions, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The firm will sell 90% of the output from Project Sterling to Tesla, according to a statement. The facility is scheduled to begin operating in 2028 and will include 509 megawatts of peak solar generation and 360 megawatts of four-hour battery storage. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The agreement is rare for Tesla and highlights the growing need to enter so-called power purchase agreements as AI-driven data center growth tightens US markets. Other tech giants have been entering such contracts for years, and were major drivers of the solar and wind boom of the past decade. Renewable projects paired with batteries have become one of the fastest ways to bring new capacity online, particularly in regions where utilities are struggling to meet rising demand.

Tesla, which typically buys its electricity from local utilities and grids, didn’t respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours. The firm also owns some generation assets. 

The plant will be connected to the grid overseen by the Western Area Power Administration with access to California. Grids across the US face unprecedented demand growth as the data center buildout has severely strained network areas that until recently had massive supply gluts.

The average electricity price to consumers is projected to increase 4.3% this year to a record 14.22 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to US Energy Information Administration data going back to the late 1990s.

The deal is the first between Tesla and ContourGlobal. Agreements such as this one typically run for 10 to 15 years, providing buyers with predictable electricity costs while giving developers the revenue certainty needed to finance new projects.

Sterling will become the largest renewable asset in ContourGlobal’s portfolio. The company acquired the project in late 2024 and will trade the remaining 10% of its output by itself. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The company has shortlisted sites in at least three states to build nuclear projects and will start work after the government finalizes the rules for private companies, Chief Executive Officer Praveer Sinha said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday.

“What we can expect is that early part of 2028 we will start possibly the construction activity,” Sinha said. “We are targeting that 2032-2033, we will have the first of the nuclear plants ready in the private sector.”

The South Asian nation’s nuclear push mirrors a global revival of the industry. Countries are shedding the caution that followed the 2011 Fukushima disaster as surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centers revives interest in atomic power. Japan is restarting reactors, while China, South Korea, and Bangladesh are among the nations building new ones.

Tata Power has identified sites in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Gujarat and geotechnical studies have already started, according to Sinha. 

He expects the government to clarify issues such as long-term uranium supplies and price stability as it finalizes the rules of the nuclear bill. “We expect the approval process will take 12 to 14 months,” he added.

Last year, India’s parliament passed a bill that opened up the sector to private firms, with an ambitious goal of expanding the country’s nuclear generation capacity eleven-fold by 2047. The sector supplies just 3% of India’s electricity now, with state-owned Nuclear Power Corp., operating the entire capacity of 8.8 gigawatts. The expansion will require nearly 19.3 trillion rupees ($202 billion) in investment, according to a government panel.

Earlier this month, Australia agreed to supply uranium for India’s civil nuclear program and expand energy cooperation during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The government will consider measures including risk-capital funding in order to promote Japanese firms’ participation in such pipeline projects, according to a document released by the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry late last week. The paper, which outlines key challenges and potential new measures aimed at strengthening Japan’s stable energy supply, was opened for public comment through Aug. 22. 

The move comes as Saudi Arabia is considering expanding the capacity of its crude oil pipeline to the country’s Red Sea coast, Reuters has reported. The head of Japan’s oil refiners’ lobby group said in mid-July that both Abu Dhabi and Riyadh had asked Tokyo to cooperate in expanding pipeline facilities in the region.

The ministry is likely seeking to expand the role of the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security as one of the potential measures to achieve this, according to a Meti official. This includes allowing Jogmec to provide financing for pipeline projects on a standalone basis, the official said.

The public company’s mandate for supporting oil transportation investments, including pipelines, is currently limited to projects associated with upstream oil and gas development, according to the ministry.

The import-dependent nation relies on the Middle East for nearly all of its oil, and has been hit particularly hard by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. More than 90% of Japan’s crude oil imports passed through the strait in 2025, according to Meti.

The country’s crude imports in July are expected to be fully sourced from areas that don’t require transit through Hormuz, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said last month, to make up for supply shortages resulting from disruption in the strait.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

But there is another — and I believe more compelling — interpretation.

Customers whose cargoes continued arriving through Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea, or through the UAE’s Habshan-Fujairah Pipeline bypassing Hormuz, may well conclude they are dealing with some of the world’s most reliable energy suppliers. The recent crisis did not expose a failure of Gulf producers. It validated decades of strategic investment designed precisely for moments like these.

The distinction is an important one. There is a fundamental difference between geopolitical risk and supplier reliability. No energy producer can eliminate regional conflict or geopolitical tensions. The true measure of leadership is whether producers anticipate those risks, invest to reduce their impact, and continue delivering when markets are under extraordinary stress.

For decades, energy markets have measured leadership by production capacity, reserve replacement, and spare capacity. Those metrics remain essential. But today’s world demands another benchmark: resilience capacity.

Resilience capacity is the ability of an energy system to anticipate disruption, absorb shocks, adapt quickly, and continue delivering reliable supplies despite geopolitical crises, infrastructure failures, cyber threats, or market volatility. In a more uncertain world, it may become the defining measure of energy leadership.

Leadership is measured by preparation

The Strait of Hormuz has long been recognised as one of the world’s most strategically important — and vulnerable — energy chokepoints. The recent disruption did not reveal a new risk. It validated investments made years before the crisis ever occurred.

Long before the latest tensions, Saudi Arabia invested in the East-West Pipeline linking its eastern producing fields with export terminals on the Red Sea. The United Arab Emirates constructed the Habshan-Fujairah Pipeline, enabling significant export volumes to bypass Hormuz altogether.

Strategic storage facilities, expanded export terminals, and operational redundancy were developed not in response to a single crisis, but as part of a deliberate long-term strategy to ensure customers continued receiving reliable supplies.

These investments were never simply infrastructure projects. They were investments in confidence. No producer can guarantee that geopolitical crises will never occur. Responsible producers invest so geopolitical risk does not become supply risk.

Leadership is measured across the entire value chain

The recent crisis also highlighted another often-overlooked reality: energy security extends well beyond crude oil production. Disruptions to Hormuz affected not only crude flows but also global markets for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and petrochemical feedstocks. Product security can quickly become just as important as crude supply security.

This is where Gulf producers — particularly Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco — have demonstrated long-term strategic leadership. For decades, Saudi Arabia has invested not only in maintaining production capacity and significant spare capacity, but also in one of the world’s most extensive downstream portfolios.

Through investments in refineries, petrochemical complexes, storage terminals, and integrated marketing ventures across Asia, Europe, and North America, Aramco has strengthened the resilience of global fuel supply chains while creating greater flexibility during periods of disruption.

Reliable energy markets are built not simply on producing molecules but on ensuring those molecules can be transported, refined, stored, and ultimately delivered to consumers under virtually any market condition.

Every bypass pipeline, every strategic storage terminal, every refinery located closer to demand centres, and every investment in integrated logistics enhances resilience capacity — not only for producers, but for consumers as well.

Leadership is measured by performance

The true test of reliability comes when markets are under stress. Throughout the recent crisis, Gulf producers worked to restore exports, maximise alternative infrastructure, and fulfill contractual commitments under exceptionally difficult circumstances. Their objective was not simply to maximise production, but to minimise disruption for consuming countries already facing heightened uncertainty.

Refiners do not judge reliability solely by headlines. They judge it by whether contracted cargoes arrive, refineries continue operating, and customers receive the supplies they depend upon. Trust in energy markets is earned one cargo, one contract, and one investment decision at a time.

Leadership is measured by looking ahead

The most enduring consequence of the Hormuz crisis may not be the disruption itself, but the investments it will inspire.

Just as earlier disruptions accelerated investments in bypass pipelines, strategic storage, and export diversification, recent events are likely to catalyse a new generation of resilience investments across the Gulf. Additional storage capacity, enhanced maritime logistics, expanded downstream integration, digital supply-chain management, cyber resilience, and greater export flexibility will further strengthen the reliability of Gulf energy supplies.

For decades, Gulf producers invested primarily in expanding production capacity. The next chapter is likely to focus equally on expanding resilience capacity — building energy systems that are not only larger, but more adaptable, redundant, and secure.

History rarely remembers energy crises for the disruptions they cause. It remembers them for the innovations and investments they inspire. The true measure of energy leadership is not the absence of geopolitical risk. It is the presence of resilience capacity. In an increasingly uncertain world, resilience has become one of the world’s most valuable energy resources.

The new measure of energy leadership is not whether geopolitical risks exist — they always will. It is whether producers prepare for them, continue delivering through them, and emerge even better prepared for the next challenge. By that measure, Gulf producers are not simply preserving trust — they are setting a new standard for energy leadership in an increasingly uncertain world.

• Joseph McMonigle is the President of the Global Center for Energy Analysis and former Secretary General of the International Energy Forum.

A de-escalation is “weeks away, not months,” Macquarie’s energy strategist Vikas Dwivedi said in a interview on Friday. “They’re long a put option, but that value is decaying with time and the expiration date is the midterms.”

While a comprehensive peace deal is unlikely in the short-term, tensions are expected to ease, allowing oil flows from the Middle East to resume, Dwivedi said. As soon as a deal is reached, the market will be “significantly” oversupplied, he added. 

Before the conflict broke out in late February, the oil market was bracing for a glut, but the war sapped millions of barrels of supply.  The US Energy Department forecasts that stocks are set to start building again, reaching a daily surplus of 2.73 million barrels in the fourth quarter, and rising to 5 million barrels in the first three months of next year.

US President Donald Trump’s incentive to reach an agreement to end a war that’s wildly unpopular comes as his Republican party hopes to retain control of Congress during the November midterm elections. The price of gas, which is again above $4 a gallon nationally, and wider inflation, are top voter concerns.

Iran, for its part, risks facing a more aggressive US military campaign after the midterm elections. The country won concessions from the US during a now-defunct ceasefire and its economy remains stressed by the war.

Oil markets have been gripped by multiple geopolitical flashpoints disrupting global flows. The US-Iran war drags on, and the Strait of Hormuz remains essentially shut, while Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched attacks against Saudi oil tankers transiting the Red Sea. On Monday, oil prices fell as the US hit pause on attacks, with Trump saying it was in order to give diplomacy another chance. But it’s unclear if any substantial negotiations between the US and Iran were taking place. 

A potential de-escalation of the conflict ahead of the elections would likely involve concessions from both sides, including the imposition of tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, an outcome seen as “inevitable”, Dwivedi said. 

“It’s as clear as day, we don’t have a way to stop Iran for blocking the strait,” he said. Iran, on the other hand, may continue to be denied access to billions of dollars in frozen funds. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Nvidia is in discussions to help the creator of ChatGPT lease a $500 billion, 10-gigawatt hub that SoftBank Group Corp. is overseeing in Ohio, people familiar with the matter said. The US chipmaker may provide a guarantee of as much as $250 billion to the AI lab, one of the people said. Negotiations are in their early stages and could collapse or financing terms may change, the people said, asking to remain anonymous to describe private talks. 

A guarantee by Nvidia would highlight the increasingly circular financing behind the AI boom, as tech giants fund ever-larger projects that ultimately generate business for themselves. Investors have in recent weeks begun to cool on lofty tech stock valuations, worried that there’s more capacity under construction than future AI services will require. Big US players from Meta Platforms Inc. to Alphabet Inc. have accelerated borrowing in recent months to bankroll that historic buildout, prompting fears about overly ambitious spending on a technology that’s yet to provide consistent returns.

The Ohio data center complex as envisioned would be among the largest in the world — a mega-symbol of the enormous demand for computing to propel AI development. It’s also a centerpiece project for SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and the Trump administration, which hailed the investment as a major win. 

The Japanese investment powerhouse intends to join big tech firms in driving trillions of dollars into data center construction and AI development in coming years. A major financing deal involving Nvidia would help SoftBank borrow more capital for its tentpole Ohio project, which is being developed by subsidiary SB Energy.

“While Nvidia’s investments and partnerships reinforce confidence in long-term AI buildouts, investors remain concerned about circular financing,” said Gary Tan, a portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments. 

ChatGPT’s developer has been in talks to secure that capacity for weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier. Nvidia is separately discussing financing for OpenAI chip purchases that may total $350 billion, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Representatives for Nvidia, OpenAI and SoftBank didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

Nvidia’s talks to provide a roughly $250 billion financing backstop for an OpenAI data-center lease, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, look constructive for CoreWeave, Crusoe Energy and other neoclouds. The structure suggests Nvidia is prepared to support larger AI infrastructure build-outs, easing concern that capacity demand is fading or that funding markets won’t absorb the next wave of projects. Alphabet’s capex increase last week pointed to sustained hyperscaler spending, and similar signals from Microsoft, Amazon and Meta this earnings season would reinforce our view that high-end AI computing remains supply-constrained. We’ll watch whether Google makes similar credit-wrapper commitments to neocloud partners in its orbit, as it previously did with Fluidstack, and whether such backing lowers financing costs. 

- Anurag Rana and Josh Christensen, analysts

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang has directed billions of dollars into companies throughout the AI supply chain. He’s aiming to accelerate the uptake of his products and eliminate roadblocks that threaten to slow the adoption of artificial intelligence. 

Nvidia is separately investing $1 billion in Naver Corp. to help finance an AI data center under construction, and is teaming up with SK Group to build more than 2 gigawatts of AI data centers on the Korean Peninsula.

For Nvidia, closer ties with SK will help improve its access to high-bandwidth memory chips. That conglomerate’s SK Hynix Inc. business and South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co. are the two biggest providers of the crucial components — semiconductors that are in short supply because of the global build-out of AI data centers.

Huang has argued that investments in companies such as Anthropic PBC and OpenAI will help not only his business but provide an investment return. Critics have expressed concern that such moves represent an artificial inflation of demand. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The status will grant the “highest level of prioritization” for progressing approvals, Woodside said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The offshore Browse project is a key pillar in Woodside’s growth plans and will help shore up supply for the country’s oldest liquefied natural gas export terminal, North West Shelf. Environmentalists have taken the federal government to court over a decision to extend the lifespan of North West Shelf to 2070. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

In the Middle East, the opposite is happening.

This year, for the first time, Siemens published a dedicated Middle East edition of our Infrastructure Transition Monitor — a survey of 400 senior executives across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and Oman, supplemented by in-depth interviews with regional leaders and experts. We did this because what is happening in this region deserves its own conversation. The pace, the scale, and the intent are different here, and the data confirms it.

When we asked executives to describe current progress in transforming infrastructure to support the energy transition, the words chosen most often were “accelerating,” “effective,” and “following a clear vision.” That is a striking finding at a time when the transition has stalled or slowed in many other markets. Two-thirds of regional executives say the global energy transition needs to accelerate significantly compared with 57% globally.

But what makes the Middle East story truly distinctive is not just the ambition. It is the way that ambition is being organised and executed.

Decarbonisation as strategy, not compliance

Across the Middle East, decarbonising core operations has become the number-one organisational priority over the next three years. Globally, it ranks seventh. That gap is not marginal — it reflects a fundamentally different relationship between sustainability and competitiveness.

70% of organisations in the region have already set direct and indirect emissions targets, compared with 58% globally. And this is not happening in isolation. 65% of executives say businesses and governments are working closely together on energy-system policy — six points ahead of the global average. Governments here set large, visible strategic priorities — UAE Net Zero 2050, Saudi Vision 2030, Qatar National Vision 2030 — and industry moves quickly to align. That public-private coordination is accelerating execution in ways that other regions have struggled to replicate.

Building intelligence in from day one

The region is also making a deliberate choice about how it builds. Rather than constructing infrastructure and digitising it later, organisations here are embedding AI and digital intelligence into assets from the start. 68% of executives describe digitalisation as a critical enabler of the energy transition, and 62% expect AI to reshape how their organisations operate within three years.

This is not theoretical; it is already operational. Across the region, industrial AI is being used to optimise building performance, predict maintenance issues in municipal systems, and manage complex cooling loads in data centres, where it can reduce energy consumption by up to 30%.

57% of organisations are already using AI to help decarbonise their operations. The top three technologies executives expect to have the biggest positive impact on decarbonisation over the next three years are all AI-related.

In Saudi Arabia, we are helping Ceer Motors build smart factories for the next generation of domestic electric vehicles, and training over 100 Saudi engineers to run them. In the UAE, smart building technologies deployed across 60 government buildings are delivering up to 27% energy savings. In Qatar, more than 200 buildings are equipped with Siemens smart technology. These are not pilot projects. They are operational deployments delivering measurable results.

The grid: where ambition meets reality

None of this works, however, without a grid that can keep up.

Electricity demand across the Middle East and North Africa has tripled since 2000 and is projected to rise another 50% by 2035, driven heavily by cooling, desalination, and the rapid expansion of data centres. Power-grid limitations are cited by executives as the single biggest factor likely to slow the clean energy transition, and 62% say electrification is being held back by inadequate grid infrastructure.

The region knows this, and it is acting. Earlier this month, the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure inaugurated the Emirates Monitoring Center (EMC), the country’s first unified platform providing real-time visibility across the entire national power grid. For the first time, all four of the UAE’s electricity utilities are linked through a single monitoring and coordination system, covering ~48 gigawatts of installed generation capacity. Siemens delivered the core platform, achieving the world’s first fast-track deployment of the latest generation of our energy management system. The centre has been designed to grow alongside the country’s evolving energy landscape, supporting renewable integration, future cross-border interconnections, and AI-enabled predictive analysis.

This is what grid modernisation looks like in practice. Not just a bigger physical network, but a smarter, more coordinated electricity system that can balance renewable integration, industrial electrification, and the demands of a growing digital economy. It is why 64% of executives in our survey identify smart grids and grid software as crucial enablers of the transition.

A model worth studying

At Siemens, we have been a partner in this region for over 160 years. We are working hand-in-hand with governments, businesses, and communities to co-create the technologies and solutions that will drive sustainable progress, from smart cities and renewable energy to advanced manufacturing and intelligent grids.

What I see across the Middle East today is a region that refuses to slow down. Growth, decarbonisation, and resilience are not being treated as competing priorities; they are converging. And the combination of clear national visions, strong public-private collaboration, and a willingness to build intelligence into infrastructure from the start is producing results that the rest of the world should be paying close attention to.

The energy transition is not losing momentum everywhere. In this part of the world, support for acceleration remains strong.

With the Strait of Hormuz already facing constraints, Saudi Arabia’s increased reliance on Red Sea exports via Yanbu is now being tested. Oil prices climbed sharply in July, with Brent briefly surpassing $100 per barrel on 23 July before falling back. This situation highlights the implications for crude availability, supply tightening, diesel supplies, shipping costs, and Asian markets.

Importance of Bab el-Mandeb for oil flows

Bab el-Mandeb is a narrow waterway, with its narrowest point measuring approximately 14 miles, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. In June-July 2026, oil flows through the strait reached 7.4 million barrels per day (mbpd), according to Kpler data.

The strait serves as a vital bypass, supporting Saudi exports loaded at Yanbu and destined for key markets, particularly in Asia. It also carries a significant share of global petroleum trade alongside broader commercial shipping.

Impact on Saudi Arabia and Red Sea operations

Saudi Arabia has shifted substantial volumes, around 4-5 mbpd, via the East-West pipeline to its Red Sea terminals. Since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Yanbu has handled more than 70% of the kingdom’s crude and condensate exports. But last week's attacks have affected this route. Saudi crude loadings through its western terminals of Yanbu and Jizan dropped around 36% over the last two weeks, falling to 6.1 million bpd from a peak of 9.5 million bpd. Multiple tankers turned back or rerouted in response to the threats.

Direct incidents involving Saudi-linked tankers have prompted safety concerns and operational pauses. As Saudi Arabia’s main alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb now faces direct challenges. No new tanker attacks have been reported in the Bab el-Mandeb area since last week's attacks, suggesting that maritime traffic is continuing albeit with heightened security concerns. Saudi Arabia continues to ship oil, with millions of barrels of Saudi Arabian crude still moving from its Red Sea coast despite Houthi efforts to impose a blockade.

Ying Cong Loh, Market Analyst - Crude Oil at Kpler, said, “The drop is real and immediate, but it isn't a shutdown: Saudi-loaded cargoes are still transiting the strait, just at roughly half the throughput seen before the strikes.”

The kingdom is now rerouting shipments via the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline across Egypt. This, however, is an expensive workaround and adds considerable voyage time, particularly for oil shipments bound for Asia. Saudi oil exports from Yanbu to South Korea take roughly 24 days via Bab el-Mandeb, compared to 54 days via Suez and the Cape of Good Hope, according to Kpler data.

Effects on global oil markets

As Brent crude briefly jumped more than $100 per barrel this month, analysts continue to highlight risks if the attacks continue, leading to physical supply losses or a shortage of tanker availability. Sustained disruptions to Bab el-Mandeb would have implications beyond Saudi Arabia’s crude exports. Longer voyages around the Cape of Good Hope would tie up tankers for additional weeks, reducing fleet availability and increasing global freight rates. 

Regionally, Asia remains the main destination for Saudi crude exported via the Red Sea. Countries such as South Korea, China, and India would be particularly affected by prolonged delays. India could also face a dual impact through higher costs for imported crude. Meanwhile, Asian refiners that have increasingly relied on Saudi crude shipped from Yanbu may be affected, while Europe could face tighter diesel supplies as Middle Eastern cargoes take a longer route. 

The proposal, which Shmyhal discussed with Canadian Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, follows agreements reached by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Shmyhal said in a post on X.

As part of the talks, the two sides discussed the possibility of direct grant support from Canada worth C$650 million ($461 million) to help Ukraine buy gas for the coming winter as part of Ottawa’s broader aid package. Ukraine has faced repeated Russian strikes on its energy infrastructure through successive winters of the war, now well into its fifth year. 

Zelenskyy this month overhauled his government and said preparations for winter were a key reason driving the change. Sergii Koretskyi, chief executive officer of state-run energy company NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, was named as prime minister, replacing Yuliia Svyrydenko. 

Ukraine’s power and heating infrastructure remain vulnerable to Russian ballistic-missile strikes and low supplies of interceptors.

Ukraine also invited Canadian suppliers to store gas in its underground facilities and sought supplies of energy equipment from Canadian manufacturers, Shmyhal said. The ministers also discussed cooperation on small modular reactors, or SMRs, an area Kyiv wants to fold into the proposed long-term agreement as it looks to Canada’s experience in the technology.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Iran conflict’s disruption of Middle East energy flows has strengthened the case for the conduit that would ferry African gas to Europe, Moroccan Ambassador Youssef Amrani said in an interview Wednesday in Washington. He declined to provide further details on discussions about funding for the project.

The US Exim Bank has had early stage talks about the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline, a spokesperson said. The World Bank declined to comment.

Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, a 12-nation economic bloc, signed an inter-government agreement on July 19 formally backing the proposed 6,800-kilometer (4,230-mile) pipeline. The conduit will link gas deposits in countries including Nigeria, Senegal and Mauritania, before connecting to the existing Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline that joins Morocco to Spain.

The pipeline is “one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects under development today in Africa,” Amrani said.

It joins a slate of giant energy projects on the continent including Algeria’s proposed Trans-Sahara gas pipeline, an oil refinery that billionaire Nigerian investor Aliko Dangote plans to build in Kenya, and multibillion-dollar gas developments in Mozambique. 

Morocco is pushing to get the decade-old plan for the pipeline into development as Europe looks to diversify gas supply. The US-Israeli war on Iran has pushed European prices for the fuel to their longest streak of daily gains in eight years, raising concerns around filling stocks ahead of the European winter.    

The large number of countries participating in the AAGP project would make it difficult to execute, said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a global research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. She cited persistent operational and supply disruptions on the smaller West African Gas Pipeline that connects Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana.

Corbeau also questioned the need to extend the project into Europe, at a time when the continent wants to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.

The proposed AAGP pipeline’s capacity is expected to be 30 billion cubic meters, half of which will be destined for Morocco and the rest to Europe, according to Moroccan state energy company ONHYM, which together with the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. is leading the project.

The pipeline is slated to start construction in 2028 and produce first gas by 2031, pending financing commitments.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The empty very large crude carrier New Champion made a dramatic about-turn in the Gulf of Aden Friday, after idling there during its voyage toward the Red Sea, according to ship-tracking data. The vessel had been chartered by a Chinese buyer to pick up a cargo of crude from Yanbu, shipping fixtures show. It’s now heading eastward at a near top speed of around 16 knots.

It’s not clear what exactly prompted New Champion’s U-turn. Some providers of shipping insurance have in recent days been unwilling to offer coverage for any vessels calling at Saudi Arabia due to the risk of attacks, according to ship and insurance brokers.

New Champion’s pivot exposes the widening economic fallout of the Houthi naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, and points to increased hurdles for Chinese buyers to receive Saudi crude. While Western vessels have stayed cautious about entering the Red Sea to pick up or deliver cargoes to and from Saudi, China-bound ships had continued to receive crude barrels from Yanbu at the rate of around 520,000 barrels per day this year, Kpler data show. Those flows surged during the Iran war, as Saudi diverted Persian Gulf crude exports to Yanbu in order to avoid Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The supertanker appears to be the first Chinese tanker that has changed course in and around the Red Sea, possibly in response to the heightened risk in the region. Earlier this week, two Chinese-owned supertanker safely exited Bab el-Mandeb carrying Saudi cargoes with their transponders turned on, making them the first tankers with Saudi crude to leave the Red Sea unimpeded since the Houthis announced their blockade. 

Behind them in the Red Sea, New Explorer is nearing the chokepoint, fully laden with Saudi crude, while New Pearl that is loaded up with the commodity had just sailed out from Yanbu early Saturday.

Some Western-linked ships and others operated by cautious owners, meanwhile, have been opting to avoid the southern exit out of the Red Sea, preferring to take the safer but much costlier option of sailing both through the Suez Canal and around the African continent to reach Asian buyers. 

The Japan-bound supertanker carrying cooking fuel, Gas King, exited the Red Sea via the canal on Friday, making it one of the first to load and leave the waters with a Saudi cargo since the Houthis announced their embargo. The ship, which previously estimated that it would reach Japan in early August, now has an updated arrival date for late September, data show. 

Other tankers with Western links have sailed through Bab el Mandeb, or approached Yanbu without their transponders on, likely in order to avoid their crew and the vessel from being tracked by the Houthis. 

New Champion, New Explorer and New Pearl are managed by Associated Maritime Co (H.K.) Ltd as listed on database Equasis. The Hong Kong-based company didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment sent outside of regular business hours.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The three firms will each hold an equal share of a 49% stake in a joint venture that will lease and lease back the usage rights to all of the pipeline assets of a subsidiary of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp., according to a statement on Saturday. The transaction is expected to generate $7.85 billion in upfront proceeds for Kuwait.

The deal, the largest foreign direct investment in the country’s history, “sends a powerful signal that Kuwait continues to rise as an attractive destination for global capital, even amid a challenging regional environment,” KPC Chief Executive Officer Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah said in the statement.

Since hostilities between the US and Iran flared again around July 7, Kuwait has been targeted more than any other country by the Islamic Republic’s drone and missile strikes. Kuwaiti bases, some shared with the US, along with power and water plants, have been damaged. 

Still, Kuwait raised $6 billion through a three-part dollar bond sale on Wednesday, underscoring resilient demand for the OPEC member’s debt.

Kuwait opted to press ahead with the pipeline transaction, the first to bring long-term capital from leading global investors into the country’s midstream infrastructure, even amid the conflict. The deal underscores the country’s renewed push to attract foreign investment after years of capital shifting to neighboring Gulf states such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The JV involves lease usage rights for 13 pipelines. Kuwait Oil Co., a subsidiary of KPC, will hold operating and maintenance rights to the assets for 20.5 years in exchange for a volume-based tariff, according to the statement.

Centerview Partners LLC, HSBC Holdings Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. acted as financial advisors on the deal. The proceeds will be used to support KPC’s investment program, which includes boosting crude-production capacity to 4 million barrels a day by 2035.

Kuwait normally pumps about 2.5 million barrels a day, though the war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz forced it to slash output.

Such transactions have become increasingly common across the Gulf as governments seek to diversify their economies and raise money without losing control over their assets.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. sold a 40% stake in its oil pipeline network to BlackRock and KKR in 2019, although an Abu Dhabi entity later repurchased the stake. Adnoc also sold leasing rights for part of its gas pipeline business to an investor group led by GIP, while a consortium led by BlackRock acquired a 49% stake in Aramco Gas Pipelines Co.

“This investment reflects our confidence in Kuwait and our commitment to providing long-term capital in support of strategic infrastructure,” said KKR Co-Chief Executive Officers Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall.

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman said Kuwait’s a “compelling destination for international capital.” Brookfield’s CEO, Bruce Flatt, said Kuwait is a “long-standing and highly valued partner” of the investment company.

Kuwait has suffered multiple strikes on its oil infrastructure this year, including two refineries and KPC’s headquarters in the capital. The country cut production after the Strait of Hormuz was closed and storage tanks filled, with output falling to levels last seen after Iraq’s invasion in the early 1990s. Production has since recovered, though exports remain constrained.

A key US ally in the Middle East, Kuwait is among the world’s wealthiest countries thanks to its vast oil reserves and it one of the largest sovereign wealth funds. Even so, its economy has come under strain this year with the war and production losses, which have caused its fiscal deficit to jump.

KKR, Blackstone and Brookfield — among the world’s largest alternative asset managers — have steadily expanded their Middle East footprint from fundraising outposts into full-scale investing platforms. KKR, which has maintained offices in Dubai since 2009 and Riyadh since 2013, last year appointed former CIA director David Petraeus as chairman of its Middle East business. It established a dedicated regional investment team and subsequently opened an Abu Dhabi office.

Brookfield manages about $16 billion of assets in the region and has continued pursuing acquisitions despite this year’s war, including launching a property joint venture in Dubai and evaluating healthcare and other buyout opportunities.

Blackstone is similarly deepening its presence as the world’s largest alternative asset manager looks to capture a growing pipeline of Gulf transactions. The firm has recently announced partnerships spanning artificial intelligence, logistics and financial technology.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The embassy confirmed that the Indian nationals are safe and that it continues to monitor the situation closely, according to a statement posted on X after the attack on the vessel DISHA. 

Separately, India’s external affairs ministry said a commercial vessel MV OMORFI was attacked while transiting the Black Sea, reportedly in Russian territorial waters. One Indian died in the attack, while two others are reported to be safe, the ministry said, condemning the strikes on commercial ships. The Indian mission in Russia has contacted relevant authorities.

The developments highlight the growing risks faced by seafarers as global conflicts intensify including the war in the Middle East. Last month, vessels carrying Indian crew were struck by American forces in the Gulf of Oman, prompting local authorities to summon a US embassy official in New Delhi.

India’s directorate general of shipping has issued a circular advising all Indian-flagged vessels and foreign-flagged vessels to exercise the “highest degree of caution” while transiting in and around waters in Yemen, the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and the Southern Red sea.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The global benchmark fell roughly 5% on Friday, its biggest intraday drop since late June. Crude fell to a session low after Reuters reported that Pakistan is exploring a path toward resuming stalled US and Iran peace talks, citing three Pakistani sources.

Technical factors also aided the pullback after the commodity reached triple digits on Thursday following attacks on tankers in the Red Sea. Traders have piled into options in record numbers to hedge against a sudden deescalation in the conflict between the US and Iran.

Oil’s relative-strength index, a gauge of its price direction, signaled it’s primed for a period of weakness following a roughly week-long rise.

Crude pared July’s more than 30% advance amid signs of persistent trade flows, with millions of barrels of Saudi Arabian crude still being shipped from its Red Sea coast, despite Yemen’s Houthi militants seeking to impose a blockade on the kingdom’s shipping. 

“The crude market is taking a breather,” said Bart Melek, global head of commodity strategy at TD Securities. “Flows via Bab el-Mandeb have thus far not been majorly disrupted,” while Saudi Arabia continues to invoke workarounds like the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline that crosses Egypt and reduced capacity supertanker transits through the Suez Canal, he added. 

Traders are closely watching US President Donald Trump after he threatened “major military punishment” in the event of further attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, and told Axios on Thursday he was considering a “massive attack” on Iran.

At the same time Trump’s revived levies have fed into worries over another inflationary spike as global bond yields surge, posing a threat to fuel demand. Retail prices of diesel fuel, used in trucking and farming, have topped $5 a gallon in the US and gasoline is above $4 a gallon, heightening the prospect of demand destruction.

Bullish risks

Traders are also contending with what appear to be Ukrainian attacks at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal on Russia’s Black Sea coast, which exports most of Kazakhstan’s oil. 

“Markets are assessing whether Brent should remain at that $100-a-barrel level” as “demand concerns are rising,” said June Goh, senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities SA. “But from a supply angle, we are clearly in deficit with both the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb effectively shut and CPC production curtailed.” 

Some Western shipowners now appear to be making plans to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb strait, at the southern end of the sea, or to sail through it with their location transponders turned off. Another option is to voyage around the African continent to Asian destinations. That diversion takes them north through the Suez Canal and almost doubles some voyage times.

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Westinghouse Electric Co., Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. signed an agreement in January 2025, ending a dispute over whether South Korean reactor exports relied on Westinghouse-controlled technology. 

The settlement gave KEPCO and KHNP rights to use Westinghouse technology for South Korean reactor designs in territories spanning four continents and including Saudi Arabia, according to a copy of the settlement seen by Bloomberg. It reserved North America, Japan, Ukraine and most of Europe for Westinghouse, while restricting KEPCO and KHNP from commercial discussions with customers outside permitted territories without the US firm’s approval.

Details of the Trump deal, which could allow American companies to build reactors in the kingdom, emerged in February and led the South Koreans to complain to Westinghouse whether the terms of their agreement was breached.

That exchange and details of the settlement have now been obtained by EU regulators who are scrutinizing whether it goes beyond resolving an intellectual property fight.

Market sharing agreements between competitors have long drawn the attention of watchdogs and the European Commission’s enforcers are seeking more details about the IP settlement between the three firms. Some of those details emerged in correspondence seen by Bloomberg between KEPCO and Westinghouse, even before the US and Saudi Arabia announced a long-sought nuclear technology-sharing deal on Wednesday.

Trump’s Saudi deal doesn’t name Westinghouse, but it could benefit US nuclear companies. While the additional deal conditions announced on Thursday by the US president threaten to derail the agreement, it could eventually help American firms gain a foothold in a region where rivals have been active, especially Russia. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has the potential to become a huge market.

But whereas Trump’s Saudi agreement created business potential for Westinghouse, KEPCO saw a clear violation of the settlement agreement that delineates the kingdom as a territory for the South Korean firms.

Key Project

KEPCO said it had already spent considerable resources pursuing the Saudi deal, calling it one of the company’s “key projects for more than 15 years,” according to a March 16 letter sent to Westinghouse. The South Korean firm said it would require access to a market of “comparable value,” such as the US, to avoid breaching the settlement.

The documents reviewed by Bloomberg don’t include a Feb. 11 letter to KEPCO from Westinghouse, and therefore don’t establish the US firm’s full position. Westinghouse is now owned by Canada’s Cameco Corp. and Brookfield, but is still subject to US export controls.

A spokesperson for KEPCO said the company was unable to comment on the confidential settlement agreement with Westinghouse. KHNP didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A Westinghouse representative declined to comment on the settlement. Chief Executive Officer Dan Sumner welcomed Trump’s Saudi deal.

“The US government’s announcement to launch a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia is a landmark step that strengthens energy security, expands opportunities for US industry and workers, and drives significant long-term economic growth and investment benefits for both countries,” Sumner said in response to a request for comment from Bloomberg News.

Great Access

When asked whether the Trump administration communicated with Westinghouse about entering the Saudi market, the White House referred to the Department of Energy. In a statement on Wednesday, US Energy Secretary Christopher Wright said the deal between Washington and Riyadh will provide “great access for American companies” while “benefiting American industry, workers, and supply chains.”

To be sure, the future of the administration’s proposed deal is far from certain. Congress still needs to review its terms, which potentially could include the manufacture of nuclear fuel. On Thursday, Trump said the agreement wouldn’t permit Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium and was contingent upon the kingdom normalizing relations with Israel.

KEPCO’s letter warns that Westinghouse’s interpretation could cause the settlement to be characterized not as a legitimate technology-transfer arrangement but as market allocation, exposing both parties to regulatory and legal risk under EU competition law.

A separate internal email from the European Commission’s competition regulators — dated July this year and seen by Bloomberg News — shows officials looking to obtain internal Westinghouse, KHNP and KEPCO documents containing information about why the settlement was reached, especially those discussing whether US technology is present in Korean reactor designs. 

The European Commission declined to comment.

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Governments and energy companies ended last winter believing they could afford to delay rebuilding stockpiles, even as they hit the lowest levels since 2022. The jump in gas prices following the start of the Iran war in late February made it hard to justify purchases, while traders bet diplomacy would eventually prevail and flows through the strait — a conduit for a fifth of LNG supply — would resume. 

Nearly five months later, that wager is looking risky. Fighting in the Middle East has flared up again, gas prices are near their highest since the conflict began and Europe is well behind its usual stockpiling pace. Asian buyers from China to Pakistan have been snapping up available LNG shipments to replace lost Qatari supply, effectively pulling cargoes away from Europe.

A key question is whether governments — particularly in the largest market Germany — will intervene to support purchases if Hormuz remains shut, potentially fueling a bidding war with other regions in the months ahead. Few doubt Europe will secure enough fuel for winter. The bigger risk is the cost — and whether households and industry can stomach another jump in heating and power bills just a few years after the region’s last energy crisis.

“We have been like the frog in the boiling water,” said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and former head of gas analysis at BP Plc. “The question is whether the frog will jump because now gas prices are increasing — fast.”

A resumption of LNG traffic through Hormuz remains a distant prospect, with exports effectively halted since a Qatari carrier was struck about two weeks ago. Hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough have faded, with Washington and Tehran downplaying the possibility of talks, while President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb bridges and power plants in Iran.

The economic consequences would be significant. Energy consultancy Baringa Partners estimates that if Hormuz remains closed through September, soaring gas and power prices could be enough to tip the UK and Europe into a contraction toward the end of the year.

“European buyers are now having to go to the market and buy gas and pay these prices they weren’t willing to before,” said Caspian Conran, economist at Baringa. “Otherwise we’re going to freeze in the winter.”

Qatar, normally the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, is preparing for a prolonged disruption. It sent several shipments through Hormuz following an ill-fated US-Iran interim peace pact in mid-June, but now plans to extend its force majeure for European customers until the middle of October and for Asia until September, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

That would all but eliminate any chance of Europe drawing on Qatari supply in the run-up to the heating season. European Union gas inventories are just over 54% full, well below a five-year average of 70% and short of the bloc’s Nov. 1 target of 80%.

“No one expected the US-Iran war to escalate again,” said Alex Siow, lead gas analyst for Asia at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services. “Time is getting tight. EU will have to ramp up its purchases now if it were to hit the target.”

According to Corbeau, Europe would have needed LNG arrivals to match last year’s pace to hit the 80% storage target. Instead, Bloomberg ship-tracking data show deliveries are running about 27% below last year’s levels, based on a 30-day moving average, while imports into Asia have climbed. The shift suggests Asian buyers — which sourced about a quarter of their LNG from the Gulf last year — are seeking supply from other sources, leaving Europe with fewer alternatives.

“Developments in the Gulf are leading market participants to price a prolonged disruption, leaving Europe more vulnerable to a cold shock as we saw in January and parts of February this year,” said Marco Saalfrank, head of continental Europe merchant trading at Swiss-based Axpo Holding AG. 

The EU has also committed to ending Russian LNG imports by January 2027, reducing one of its key supply options. Fuel from the exporter made up 17% of Europe’s deliveries between January and June this year, ship-data shows. EU members this week failed to push through a proposal that would restrict firms from transferring Russian LNG to third countries.

Searing temperatures across Asia are keeping LNG demand elevated, with Pakistan, Bangladesh and India buying spot cargoes at some of the highest prices in years. Traders and policymakers see few signs that demand will ease despite the higher costs. Those countries are under pressure to secure fuel or face rolling blackouts or factory shutdowns.

China, the world’s biggest LNG importer, is also returning to the market. The country has ramped up purchases ahead of peak summer demand while rebuilding inventories, with June imports up 8.3% from a year earlier. Chinese buyers have increased procurement from exporters outside the Gulf to offset Qatar.

Even Japan, which leaned more on coal in March and April, is now boosting gas-fired generation as blistering hot weather boosts power prices to the highest level in over three years. That risks draining storage and adding pressure on utilities to buy from the spot market. The same goes for South Korea and Taiwan.

“Asian countries are organizing tenders, Europeans are not,” Corbeau said.

It remains unclear at what point European utilities and governments will be willing to compete for winter supplies. In May, Germany’s gas market manager said it won’t intervene in refilling inventories, citing conviction that private market actors will eventually do so themselves. In other countries, such as Italy and the Netherlands, governments have started to provide some support, raising the risk of fierce competition for supplies within Europe.

The last time Europe faced similar difficulties in rebuilding its inventories was shortly after Russia curbed pipeline supplies in 2022. The region got through that winter largely thanks to exceptionally mild weather, but counting on a repeat is a risky bet.

“If it’s not a warm winter, then there’ll be problems and the problems will be exacerbated by having less gas and storage,” Centrica Plc’s Chief Executive Officer Chris O’Shea said on a call with journalists following earnings on Thursday. “It is not a very good risk management strategy to hope for a warm winter.”

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The government will look at both the price and stability of supply when issuing a tender and selecting a shipper, Minister of Mines and Energy Keo Rottanak told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Friday.

Cambodia is “doubling down” on LNG as a transition fuel, and the new 900 megawatt plant is part of a plan to diversify energy sources, he added.

At present, Cambodia gets about 63% of its energy from renewable sources, a relatively elevated proportion that has helped to shield the economy from the fall-out from the war in the Middle East, the minister said. By the end of the decade that share is expected to have expanded to about 70%, with LNG accounting for part of the other 30%, Keo Rottanak said.

Electricity prices have not been increased since the war broke out despite escalating energy prices, with the government helping “absorb the shock,” the minister said. Taxes and duties on fuels have been reduced, a policy that would continue despite extra budget costs of up to $60 million a month, he said.

At this difficult time, “we want to make sure that industry continues to grow, at least keep their factory processes going,” he said. “So, if it were to take longer, we will continue to support our households, our industry.”

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