Brent climbed as much as 2.5% to $107.97 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate advanced toward $97, before giving up some gains after Axios reported Tehran offered the US a fresh proposal to open the strait. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip by his top envoys to Pakistan, which is mediating talks, while Iran said it won’t negotiate if it’s being threatened.

A ceasefire has mostly held in place since early April, but a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by both the US and Iran has cut daily transits through the key waterway to near zero. The supply shock has choked off supplies of crude, fuel, natural gas and fertilizers, raising concerns about an inflation crisis.

“The Strait is still very much under siege, with traffic halted,” said Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It seems like neither side wants to go back to outright conflict. We’re in this purgatory, where it’s just stalemated.”

Iran, through Pakistani mediators, offered the US the proposal for reaching a deal to reopen the strait and end the war, with nuclear talks postponed for a later stage, Axios reported, citing people it didn’t name including a US official. Trump is expected to hold a meeting on Monday with his top national security and foreign policy team to discuss the stalemate in the negotiations, it said. 

The US president on Saturday told his envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to skip the trip to Pakistan, and later told reporters that Iran “offered a lot, but not enough.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his nation won’t enter “imposed negotiations under threats or blockade.”

The Iran war, now in its ninth week, has driven up energy prices and led to shortages of key products such as liquefied petroleum gas in India, and prompted airlines to cut flights. The International Energy Agency says the conflict is causing the biggest supply shock in history.

“Consolidation above $100 is the area that we’re heading” toward, said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities. “As every day ticks forward, there’s less and less chance that we’ll see a deal anytime soon.”

The longer Hormuz is closed, the more consumption is going to have to recalibrate lower to align with supply that’s dropped at least 10%, according to traders. A loss of 1 billion barrels is already all but guaranteed — more than double the emergency inventories that governments released after the conflict with demand destruction likely to spread. 

US forces intercepted a sanctioned vessel in the Arabian Sea on Saturday as part of the blockade, according to US Central Command. The US deployed a Navy helicopter to intercept the vessel, which subsequently complied with military directions to turn back to Iran under escort. A total of 38 ships have been redirected since the start of the blockade, Centcom said.

Most of Iran’s crude is exported to China, with the country’s private refiners — known as teapots — taking advantage of the cheaper barrels. On Friday, the US sanctioned Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co. over its links to Tehran, just weeks ahead of an expected summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hengli has denied any trade with Iran.

“The market’s already priced in a decent amount of risk,” said Haris Khurshid, chief investment officer at Karobaar Capital LP in Chicago, referring to the Iran war. Brent crude will likely trade in a range of $100 to $115 a barrel, unless there’s “a broader regional escalation,” he added.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The next two weeks are forecast to be hotter than normal in the Southeast Asia country, with swathes of anomalous warmth of up to 3C above average blanketing much of the north and parts of the south, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, according to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Temperatures are also expected to be slightly above normal in May and June, according to the weather model.

The country has imported about 276,000 tons of LNG so far this month, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s already a monthly record and more than double the amount in the same period last year. April shipments also far surpass volumes in the preceding months, like the 70,000 tons bought in March, the data showed. Meanwhile, data from Kpler shows Vietnam importing 191,000 tons so far in April, also higher than any previous month.

Thailand and Singapore have also been buying LNG from the spot market, but Vietnam has seen the most notable increase in imports among its Southeast Asian neighbors. State-owned Petrovietnam Gas JSC has issued tenders for several spot cargoes in the past two months for delivery through June. It most recently sought to purchase a prompt April cargo on Thursday.

Vietnam is among several nations urgently seeking LNG at a time when spot prices have surged due to the conflict in the Middle East. With top producer Qatar’s capacity hobbled by Iranian strikes and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of global supply passes — the market for the super-chilled fuel is seeing greater competition between Europe and Asia for limited cargoes. 

Other countries, including Indonesia and India are also expected to see unseasonal warmth in the months ahead, according to the ECMWF. That’s likely to boost power consumption and demand for gas, which could further strain global supplies.

Industries and consumers are also turning to alternative energy sources. Vingroup has proposed to the government that it be allowed to replace a planned LNG project with renewable power due to surging fuel prices linked to the war.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Japan stands out among countries heavily dependent on energy from the Persian Gulf, having so far refrained from calling for conservation measures seen in places like Australia and South Korea. The nation has relied on releases from its strategic oil reserve, while seeking alternative sources of supply. The government is mindful of not hurting economic growth or spurring panic among consumers.

The public appears keen for more action though. Some 74% of those surveyed in a recent poll by Nikkei and TV Tokyo said energy-saving is needed. In another poll last week by broadcaster ANN, 64% of people said the government should call for conservation measures.

“The public is very conscientious, so when the government makes a request, people tend to make a real effort to comply,” Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa said at a press briefing on Friday. “We should be careful not to exaggerate things or spread horror stories that make people overly anxious,” he said, adding that measures were not needed at the moment.

Takaichi has said repeatedly that Japan has enough oil for the time being and that the country has secured stable supply into next year. However, the country has not been immune from the knock-on impacts of the war, now in its ninth week, and the double blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. A shortage of naphtha has led to a major toilet maker suspending new orders and is also hitting petrochemical and other home-fixture firms.

Major business and industry organizations have also taken a careful approach to commenting about the need for demand-side measures.

Hideo Suzuki, the executive managing director of the Petroleum Association of Japan, said in an interview with Nippon TV on Thursday that Japan was the only nation reliant on Middle Eastern oil that hadn’t taken steps to suppress demand as he called for swifter action. 

However, the association released a statement on Friday, saying the country has secured enough oil for the time being, and that no immediate measures to restrict consumption were needed. Suzuki’s remarks were based on a scenario that should the war persist, measures may be required, the PAJ said. 

A spokesperson for the organization declined to comment on why the PAJ had released a statement clarifying Suzuki’s comments.

While the central government has been reluctant to go ahead with conservation measures, efforts are emerging at the local-government level. Tottori prefecture has made an early start to an annual campaign encouraging bureaucrats to ditch suits and ties in favor of lighter clothing to cut air-conditioning use.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Peace talks between the two sides stalled again after US President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip by his top envoys to Islamabad in Pakistan, saying that Iran had “offered a lot, but not enough.” Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his nation won’t enter “imposed negotiations under threats or blockade,” adding that trust won’t be rebuilt “without ending hostile actions.”

As of Sunday morning, observable traffic leaving the Gulf through Hormuz was down to a small coastal cargo ship, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. A small chemicals and oil-product tanker was the only one seen making its way in the opposite direction. The waterway has been largely empty since Iranian gunboats fired at ships and US military intercepted Tehran’s vessels in the past week.

Iran continues to fill supertankers with millions of barrels of crude, even as it remains unable to deliver them. A satellite image from Sunday morning covering Kharg Island and the surrounding waters shows two very large crude carriers moored at the terminal and at least 19 other ships anchored nearby.

The vessels seem to be congregating off Kharg — and another group accumulating near Chabahar close to the border with Pakistan — as the US Navy prevents Iran-linked ships from moving out of the Gulf of Oman. American forces intercepted the sanctioned M/V Sevan in the Arabian Sea on Saturday, the latest incident after other vessels were turned around last week while at least two others were boarded in Asia. 

The US has dialed up the pressure by sanctioning Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co., one of China’s largest private oil refiners, citing its purchases from Iran. The move reflects a broader push to isolate buyers of Iranian oil. China has been the top importer. 

Ship Movements

Ships observed leaving the Gulf since Saturday morning were limited to three small oil tankers, a small LPG tanker, two bulk carriers and two small coastal cargo ships.

Two of the tankers, both of which crossed on Saturday, are sanctioned by the US and are now anchored off Oman near Shinas. The third, a small products carrier, left Dubai on Thursday and was last seen exiting the strait on Sunday morning. Its destination is unclear.

Tracking signals suggest the LPG tanker left Iraq’s Umm Qasr port in mid-April and that it, too, is now anchored off Oman. One of the bulk carriers followed a similar route.

The other bulker is hugging the Iranian coastline, heading east through the Gulf of Oman.

Observed inbound traffic since the start of Saturday has been limited to a single small chemical/oil products tanker and two tiny coastal cargo ships.

The tanker was heading past Iran’s Qeshm Island, signaling its destination as Hamriyah in the United Arab Emirates. One of the cargo ships has gone to Khasab at the tip of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, while the other is heading along the Iranian coast.

Vessels transiting Hormuz with active Automatic Identification System signals during the past day were confined to a narrow northern lane near the Iranian islands of Larak and Qeshm, a route approved by Tehran.

The US blockade may encourage Iran-linked ships entering or leaving the Gulf to switch off their tracking signals to avoid detection, making it harder to get an accurate picture of traffic through the waterway. This means transit figures may sometimes be revised higher when vessels reappear far away from the riskiest waters.

It was common, even before the US imposed its latest restrictions, for Iran-linked ships to stop sending signals as they headed into the Strait of Hormuz to exit the Gulf. They generally didn’t enable them again until well into the Strait of Malacca in South East Asia, about 13 days sailing from Iran’s Kharg Island.

NOTES: 

Because vessels can move without transmitting their location until they’re well away from Hormuz, automated positioning signals were compiled over a large area covering the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea to detect those that may have departed or entered the Gulf.

When potential transits are identified, signal histories are examined to determine whether the movement appears genuine or is the result of spoofing — where electronic interference can falsify the apparent position of a ship. 

Some transits may not have been detected if vessels’ transponders haven’t been switched back on. Iran-linked oil tankers often steam from the Gulf without broadcasting signals until they reach the Strait of Malacca about 10 days after passing Fujairah in the UAE. Other ships may be adopting similar tactics and won’t show up on tracking screens for many days.

This tracker will be published during heightened tensions involving Iran, and aims to capture traffic for all classes of commercial shipping.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Carney has made energy security and independence a cornerstone of his economic agenda. Ottawa has been trying to accelerate approvals of major energy projects that reduce reliance on exporting to the US, including signaling support for a new million barrel a day oil pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast.

“We’re starting to see improvement and we thank the federal government for acting expeditiously on this,” Matthew Akman, Enbridge’s president of gas transmission and midstream, said at a press conference. “There’s more of a sense of purpose and an an intent and a prioritization, which is what we need to see in Canada.”

The Sunrise pipeline expansion will increase natural gas transport capacity by as much as 300 million cubic feet a day on Enbridge’s main gas transport system, the company said. That extends from the Montney shale formation in the northeast down into the US Pacific northwest. It will also add about 139 kilometers of new pipeline and 11 pipeline looping segments. 

Construction is scheduled to start this summer and be in service by late 2028. 

Still, Akman said there is room for improvement. He said the company finds that the regulatory process moves faster in the US, which is driving investment by the midstream company south of the border. 

Last week, Enbridge was granted nine permits by President Donald Trump to operate existing pipelines that cross into the country from Canada and expand throughput on a system in North Dakota.

The 36 First Nations that recently acquired a 12.5% stake in the West Coast gas system will have the option to participate in ownership of the expansion, he said.

(Adds US permits in second to final paragraph)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Mills, a Democrat running for US Senate, bucked her own party in rejecting a proposed moratorium on permitting for data centers larger than 20 megawatts until November 2027. The veto likely kills the measure in its current form. While the proposal garnered nearly unanimous support from Democratic legislators when it passed earlier this month, the number of backers is still well short of the two-thirds threshold necessary for an override. 

Political pushback against data centers is rising nationally. While the industrial projects are key cogs in the advancement of artificial intelligence, opponents are concerned about their effects on energy prices and water availability. Maine only has nine data centers, but developers have been exploring smaller-scale projects. 

Mills opposed the freeze because it would stop a planned data center that would replace a recently shuttered paper mill in Jay, a town about 60 miles north of Portland. She unsuccessfully pushed lawmakers to include an exemption for the $550 million project, which would create as many as 1,000 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs once in operation, according to its developer.

In her veto message Friday, Mills pointed to the “devastating blow” that the mill’s closing has had on Jay, which is located in her home county.

“I supported the exemption and would have signed this bill if it had included it,” Mills said.

Mills, a two-term governor, is trailing political newcomer Graham Platner in the June 9 Democratic Senate primary despite winning the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other establishment Democrats. Recent polls show Platner leading by more than 25 percentage points. 

Representative Melanie Sachs, the Freeport Democrat who sponsored the bill, called Mills’ decision “simply wrong” and criticized the governor for rejecting a pause that she said most Mainers support.

“While a veto might protect the proposed data center project in Jay, it poses significant potential consequences for all ratepayers, our electric grid, our environment and our shared energy future,” Sachs said in a statement.

Democratic politicians across the US have seized on opposition to data centers as part of an affordability pitch ahead of the midterm elections. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have proposed legislation that would prohibit “AI data centers” until national safeguards are established. Some Republicans, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, are also calling for limits on data center development. Lawmakers in other states including New York, Georgia and South Carolina have proposed freezes similar to the one vetoed by Mills.

The Maine legislation also would have established a state council to assess both the economic opportunities posed by data centers and the risks to ratepayers, grid reliability and the environment. Mills said that despite her veto, she believes the state should begin planning for the potential impacts of large-scale data centers.

(Updates with legislative sponsor’s comments in eighth paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

West Texas Intermediate futures fell as much as 3.3%, before recovering slightly to trade near $94 a barrel after the White House said it was sending two envoys to Pakistan with the intention of talking with Iranian officials also slated to be in Islamabad. 

Tehran, however, sounded a more pessimistic tone on potential discussions on ending the war launched by the US and Israel in late February. No talks are slated to take place between US and Iranian officials during Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s trip to Pakistan, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported earlier.

Still, the development erased some of the geopolitical premium that had been added to prices earlier this week, driven by uncertainty over talks, escalating rhetoric and rising military threats. Traders had been closely tracking the movements of both delegations for signals on whether peace talks will again take place and offer some relief as the strait — which connects the Persian Gulf to global markets — remains largely shut. 

Recent developments “suggest that traders are getting increasingly comfortable with the idea that the kinetic phase of the US-Iran conflict is ending, or has already ended, and that an economic war is becoming entrenched,” said Thierry Wizman, Global FX & Rates Strategist at Macquarie Group.

US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts — as well as his decision to continue a naval blockade of Iranian ports — have been detrimental to negotiations through mediators such as Pakistan, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.

The blockade, a major sticking point in bringing Tehran to the negotiating table, is choking off Iranian crude exports — the only flows out of the Persian Gulf since the war began at the end of February. A US-sanctioned supertanker laden with Iranian oil appeared to halt its transit through Hormuz on Friday.

“All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon and in meaningful and verifiable ways,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday. “Or instead, they can watch their regime’s fragile economic state collapse under the unrelenting pressure of American power, a blockade as long as it takes. Whatever President Trump decides.”

Trump said in a social media post this week that he had ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” boats laying mines in the strait. 

Crude oil production in the Persian Gulf will take “a few months” to mostly restore, assuming a full reopening of Hormuz and no renewed strikes, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts including Daan Struyven said in an April 23 note. The bank sees output being curtailed by about 14.5 million barrels a day, or more than 50% in April. 

“Even a full reopening may still leave flows taking several months to normalize, creating additional tightness, especially in diesel and jet fuel, and forcing countries and companies to curb demand,” Saxo Bank’s Hansen said.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

BloombergNEF has tracked 4.9 gigawatts of energy storage announcements that are co-located with on-site fossil fuel generation at data centers. That’s about 32% of announced global on-site data center battery capacity. The sites include some of the largest AI data center complexes under development, such as Elon Musk’s Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, and the combo has become so popular that companies such as Caterpillar Inc. and GE Vernova Inc. have announced products or partnerships pairing energy storage with gas generation. 

Batteries are a linchpin for unlocking solar and wind energy’s full potential by soaking up excess green energy and then discharging it when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. However, the steep drop in battery costs is now allowing energy-storage technology to be deployed in conjunction with natural gas to provide more reliable power for data centers. 

While gas can provide round-the-clock power, not all plants work 24/7. For many behind-the-meter facilities, data centers are choosing gas turbines that run for shorter periods and don’t ramp up quickly enough to meet computing needs. That has hyperscalers turning to batteries, which can rapidly discharge power, to fill these gaps. The batteries also help prevent damage to gas turbines that aren’t designed to be used for frequent  ramping cycles. 

“I assumed batteries would be a tool for decarbonization,” said Michael Thomas, founder of clean energy research firm Cleanview who has also been tracking the rise of energy storage paired with gas. “What we are learning in this new AI era is that they can also be used as a tool for fossil fuel power because their technological advantages make it possible to build and operate an off-grid power plant.”

While data centers now face an average of four years to get power from the grid, they are turning to gas generators paired with energy storage as a bridge source of energy, said Allison Weis, Wood Mackenzie’s global head of energy storage. As long interconnection queues delay requests for utility-connected power, data center developers are finding it faster to bring their own generation. 

Data centers also have sharp demand spikes driven by computing-intensive tasks, such as training models. Batteries paired with gas can help provide power rapidly enough to ensure smooth operations. Energy storage is projected to support 9.8 gigawatt-hours of gas generation at data centers through 2030, according to BNEF.

Some of the largest US data center projects are deploying batteries alongside gas generators.  At xAI’s Colossus facility, rows of Tesla Inc. Megapacks are being installed next to gas turbines as part of a 1.2 gigawatt off-grid power plant that will supply the massive data center. In West Texas, Pacifico Energy’s GW Ranch off-grid data center will have 1.8 gigawatts of battery storage installed next to 7.65 gigawatts of gas-fired power generation. Williams Cos., a natural gas pipeline operator, plans to install Tesla batteries along with natural gas-fueled power plants its building for several data center projects. “Batteries really help support the turbines and give us the 99.999% reliability,” said Executive Vice President Rob Wingo at the S&P Global Power Markets Conference in Las Vegas last week. Using natural gas will add more planet-warming emissions into the atmosphere while also contributing to local air pollution. The West Texas project recently received the largest air pollution permit ever granted in the US, while Musk’s Memphis project has faced multiple lawsuits arguing the gas turbines are worsening air quality in historically Black communities.

Pacifico Energy and xAI didn’t respond to requests for comment on the environmental impact of their projects. A Williams spokesperson touted the use of “modern, high‑efficiency natural‑gas turbines with advanced emissions controls and continuous monitoring” at its off-grid sites. “Pairing gas generation with batteries improves how those generators operate — smoothing load swings and reducing start‑ups and ramping, which are the most emissions‑intensive conditions,” the spokesperson wrote.

Utilities are also building more energy storage facilities on the grid next to power plants “to help maximize the megawatts” and support data center load growth, said Noah Roberts, executive director of the US Energy Storage Coalition. Large batteries help utilities make the most of power that would otherwise be wasted and also help meet power demand while also lowering costs, he said. 

Roberts pointed to the example of NIPSCO Generation, a utility in northern Indiana that is building two 1.3 gigawatt gas-fired power plants and an energy storage system with 400 megawatts of capacity to serve planned Amazon data centers. 

And in Michigan, utility DTE Electric Co. has plans to build six energy storage systems to complement a 1.4 gigawatt data center for Oracle Corp. Doing so will help the utility boost the capacity of all generating resources by 25%, he said. Roberts called that project “a great example of where energy storage is completely agnostic to the type of energy that is providing electrons to the grid.”  

Michigan regulators recently approved that project despite a challenge from the state’s attorney general over customer cost concerns.

Fluence Energy Inc., a global energy storage provider, is in talks with large natural gas companies to supply batteries that can help get data centers up and running before turbines arrive, said Chief Growth Officer Jeff Monday.

“We are seeing massive demand coming out of the hyperscalers and data center operators,” Monday said, noting that projects pairing batteries with gas generation are part of the fastest-growing part of the company’s energy storage pipeline.

Coupling batteries with natural gas also promises to extend the life and usefulness of fossil fuel plants. That is setting batteries up for a dual role as an enabler to putting more green energy on the grid and delaying the phase-out of fossil fuels.

“There is nothing about batteries that are inherently clean,” said Thomas. “Batteries are just a technology.”

(Updates to add BNEF projection for batteries and gas in paragraph 7. A previous version corrected the title of Fluence Energy executive in paragraph 16.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are set to depart Saturday for talks this weekend, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview on Friday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is also set to be in Pakistan but hasn’t publicly agreed to sit down with Trump’s representatives. No talks are slated to take place between US and Iranian officials during the foreign minister’s trip, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported earlier.

Araghchi earlier posted on social media that the purpose of his travel is to consult with partners on bilateral matters. Still, Leavitt claimed the Iranians had reached out to the US to arrange the fresh round of talks. 

“We’re hopeful that it will be a productive conversation and hopefully move the ball forwards towards a deal,” Leavitt said on Fox. She later told reporters that the US has “certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the past couple of days,” without elaborating. 

Vice President JD Vance, the lead negotiator for the US, will not be headed to Pakistan for now, she said.  

“Everybody will be on standby to fly to Pakistan if necessary,” she added. “The president is dispatching Steve and Jared to see what they have to say.”

Officials in Pakistan familiar with the matter said earlier they expected a second round of peace talks between the US and Iran, while declining to say when the negotiations would happen or at what level.

Investors have scrutinized signals from each delegation as they weigh prospects for a reopening of the vital Strait of Hormuz. Friday’s developments put the S&P 500 on track for its longest weekly advance since 2024, and US crude dropped below $94.

The developments came as the US increased pressure on Iran with its naval blockade, seeking to get Tehran to agree to talks, while Israel and Lebanon are set to extend a ceasefire for three weeks.

Trump ordered the US Navy to shoot any boat putting mines in the Strait of Hormuz, after the military intercepted two oil supertankers that tried to evade restrictions on traffic to and from Iran’s ports.

The move by Trump, who claimed Iran is laying sea mines in the strait, is part of the White House’s attempt to cut off the country’s oil exports, squeezing it economically and forcing it to make concessions that will help end the war.

“I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary, on Friday said a second aircraft carrier will join the blockade in just a few days.

Trump’s allies say the blockade will force Iran to start shutting down crude production — its main source of foreign-exchange earnings — within about two weeks. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts have said it may take closer to a month for the US to achieve that goal.

The US naval operation has caused many Iran-linked vessels to turn around rather than go through the Hormuz strait. Still, at least some are making the crossing, according to ship-tracking firms, potentially giving Iran the ability to withstand the restrictions for longer.

A US-sanctioned supertanker laden with Iranian oil appeared to halt its transit on Friday. Traffic through the waterway — through which one-fifth of the world’s supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas normally flow — remains at a virtual standstill.

The White House has given a 90-day extension to a shipping waiver that makes it easier to move oil, fuel and fertilizer around the US, marking the latest effort to counter supply disruptions caused by the war.

US gasoline pump prices now average more than $4 a gallon, the highest level since 2022 and adding to the war’s unpopularity among the majority of Americans.

Some of Trump’s advisers believe his tough, brash messaging on social media and the continuation of the blockade are hindering the chances of a peace deal with Iran, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. 

Iranian negotiators have said Trump’s posts are aimed at humiliating Tehran’s leaders and making them less inclined to strike a deal, according to several officials with knowledge of the diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Iranian authorities said the strait was reopening for all commercial traffic last Friday. But they quickly reversed their decision when it became clear the US would not suspend its blockade in tandem.

The standoff means there’s no guarantee a return to hostilities will be avoided. The war, which saw Iran strike Israel and Gulf Arab states with thousands of drones and missiles, has already killed more than 5,000 people.

Trump, late on Thursday, said Israel and Lebanon will extend their ceasefire, which was due to end on Sunday, lifting one roadblock to ending the war with Iran. 

Trump announced the deal in a social-media post after meeting Israeli and Lebanese envoys at the White House. He said he would host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanon President Joseph Aoun in the near future. Neither leader confirmed that and it would be politically sensitive as the countries don’t formally recognize one another.

Israel has been waging war against Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon. Trump wants to avoid a return to hostilities in the Arab country because Iran has said that’s crucial to striking a broader peace agreement with the US.

Israel invaded southern Lebanon and launched airstrikes across the capital Beirut and other areas after Hezbollah, in solidarity with Iran, began firing rockets at the Jewish state in early March. More than 2,000 Lebanese people have been killed in the war and more than one million have been displaced, according to the Lebanese government.

Israel says the attacks and the occupation of swathes of southern Lebanon were necessary to protect its own northern communities. The ceasefire there began on April 16 and has broadly held, though each side has accused the other of violating the agreement with attacks.

(Updates with markets data in ninth paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Still, with cargoes of liquefied petroleum gas trapped in the Persian Gulf, the country has yet to find enough supply to meet pre-crisis demand — exposing a major energy vulnerability, forcing prices up and pushing out some consumers entirely. 

India has raised local output by over a fifth since strikes on Iran began in February, to about 46,000 tons a day. That will rise to 50,000 tons after Nayara Energy Ltd.’s refinery restarts in May after a period of maintenance, according to the oil ministry.

Refiners have also secured about 650,000 tons of additional supply for May, roughly 21,000 tons a day, including record volumes from the US, according to people familiar with the matter. They asked not to be named as the issue is not public. 

“India has been facing challenges in LPG but the government has taken several steps,” Sujata Sharma, joint secretary in the oil ministry, said Thursday. “Enough cargoes have been tied up.”

That total, however, is still well below the 100,000 tons that India — the world’s second-largest consumer of LPG — consumed daily before the crisis.

A historic energy crisis has rippled across Asia over the past two months, with countries struggling to manage shortages of crude, LPG and liquefied natural gas, as well as spiking prices.

India has ordered state refiners to maximize production of low-margin LPG at any cost, and has cut supplies to the commercial sector to 70% of normal levels in order to protect households. LPG cylinder refill times have lengthened. The government has pushed more consumers to switch to piped gas — which comes from domestic sources — while also relaxing pollution rules to allow coal and kerosene.

But change is slow, after years of government campaigns to get consumers to use LPG cylinders as a cleaner alternative to biomass. There are now 334 million LPG users, while piped gas connections are being added at a rate of 10,000 a day. That’s an increase of just 3% since the conflict began, to a little over 17 million.

“India is likely to face tight LPG supply through May,” said Sumit Ritolia, lead analyst at Kpler. Imports may shift to the Atlantic Basin and other non-Middle East sources, helping supply chains to normalize — albeit at a higher price from here, with normalization likely from June as supply chains stabilize.

State refiners Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. have recently purchased spot cargoes for May-June loading from the US, people familiar with the matter said. Some vessels are being redirected from Hormuz routes to US loadings. The US is set to export a record 471,000 tons of LPG to India this month, Kpler data show.

The impact of the crunch is visible across the economy. Restaurant menus have been cut back and hotplate sales have jumped. Workers on the outskirts of New Delhi staged violent protests earlier this month over the rising cost of living, and some migrant workers have left for their villages, unable to afford the cost of cooking in the city.

Panic buying and price gouging have worsened the crunch, and the government said this week that authorities have conducted nearly 150,000 raids, arrested 255 people and penalized nearly 300 distributors.

India has managed to move eight LPG vessels through Hormuz after bilateral negotiations with Tehran. It is now seeking the safe exit of the DV Sarv Shakti, SYMI and Gaschem Erica, the people said. 

Yet with a US blockade and two Iranian shooting incidents in a week, transits through the waterway remain at a standstill.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Rockville, Maryland-based company sold 44.3 million shares for $23 each, according to a statement Thursday. X-Energy had marketed the shares for $16 to $19 each.

At the IPO price, the company has a market value of $9.1 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings.

X-Energy designs small modular nuclear reactors and makes advanced nuclear fuel. Its reactors use so-called Triso pebbles, or tristructural isotropic, poppyseed-sized uranium kernels that burn hotter and longer than conventional fuel. The firm plans to use its reactors to power industrial facilities and artificial intelligence data centers and has agreements in place with Dow Inc., Amazon and Centrica Plc.

Ark Investment Management was interested in buying as much as $105 million worth of shares in the offering at the IPO price, according to the filings.

The offering comes as firms have been racing to bring the first US small modular reactor to market. X-Energy aims to make its first delivery by the early 2030s. Citigroup Inc. analyst Vikram Bagri wrote in a note to clients April 17 that X-Energy’s IPO launch “suggests continued appetite among investors for small modular reactors.”

Founder and chairman Kamal Ghaffarian controls 61% of the class B shares of the company, while affiliates of Ares Management Corp. have 26%, the filings show.

X-Energy had a net loss of roughly $390 million on revenue of $94 million, not including grants, last year, compared with a net loss of $126 million on revenue of $84 million a year earlier, the filing shows.

The offering is being led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and Moelis & Co. The company expects to debut Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol XE.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The decision to continue exempting energy shipments from the 1920 Jones Act is set to be announced as soon as Friday, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The planned 90-day extension comes as the world drains pre-war crude inventories that have provided a buffer against the near-paralysis of cargoes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The current waiver, which expires May 17, effectively exempts crude, refined petroleum products, natural gas, fertilizer and other commodities from the law’s requirements that cargo between US ports must be transported on US-flagged, -built and -owned ships. The move could provide relief for US refiners as they begin booking waterborne deliveries for July. 

The full scope of commodities the extended waiver would cover was not immediately clear. A White House official said an extension is under consideration, without elaborating.

According to the White House, the Jones Act waiver has already been used by dozens of tankers and has helped roughly 9 million barrels of American oil get to domestic destinations. Although the exemption was given on March 18, that total reflects only a few weeks’ of use, because refiners reliant on waterborne shipments of crude typically buy them a few months ahead of time.

President Donald Trump and top officials have said oil and gasoline prices will fall after Middle East conflict ends. But the spike in energy prices looms large for the administration ahead of the November midterm elections that are set to determine control of Congress, which are likely to hinge largely on the public’s views about the cost of living.

The action is one of a number of steps Trump has taken to blunt spiking fuel prices — and address growing supply concerns — with the US and Israeli war against Iran setting off a global energy crisis. The administration has also temporarily waived some domestic fuel specifications and sanctions for some waterborne Russian crude. 

Oil industry leaders have praised the administration for its initial waiver and become increasingly vocal in lobbying for an extension. They’ve argued it’s made it easier to access fuel and oil supplies — including domestic crude — and has helped fill some of the roughly 13 million barrel hole created by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz that normally carries about a fifth of global crude supplies. 

The law’s opponents have long argued the its provisions raises the cost of waterborne goods carried between US ports, though shipping costs have climbed amid the war even for Jones Act tankers.

Representative Ed Case, Democrat of Hawaii, which is heavily dependent on imported fuels, asked Trump for an extension Wednesday.

The “dual constraint of reduced international supply and insufficient domestic shipping capacity has made the waiver essential to maintaining adequate fuel flows to the state,” Case said in a letter to Trump. 

For years, Jones Act supporters have fought off previous requests for exemptions — including a bid during Trump’s first term to relax its mandates in order to facilitate shipments of liquefied natural gas to Massachusetts and Puerto Rico. The law’s backers argue the requirements are needed to sustain American shipbuilding capacity that’s essential to national security.

Trump administration officials have stressed the waiver will not impact American shipbuilding.

(Updates with detail on timeline of extension in second paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Only one ship, bulk carrier LB Energy, was seen moving through the waterway early Thursday, with none seen entering. Products tanker Ocean Jewel is currently idling at the entrance to the corridor, having aborted a transit not long after Iranian forces began firing at three ships.

Two of those attacked vessels, the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas, were subsequently boarded by Iranian forces, marking a new stage in Tehran’s efforts to exert control over traffic through Hormuz.

At least one vessel made it through in the hours after the shootings. Ascanio, a Greek-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier that had delivered food to Iran crossed the strait late Wednesday, and is now heading south in the Gulf of Oman.

Shipowners with vessels in the Gulf have been on edge in recent days, with Wednesday’s altercation marking the second round of attacks in less than a week. Over the weekend, Iranian forces abruptly ended a brief opening of the strait by shooting at passing vessels — a move Tehran later said was a response to the US decision to maintain its own naval blockade.

US forces say they have turned around 31 ships since its warships began barricading Iran’s coastline on April 13, most of them oil tankers.

While ship-tracking platforms indicate dozens of ships have crossed the blockade boundary, some of those have since been intercepted by US forces, the US said in a separate post. Of those, two Iranian supertankers are now anchored in Chabahar, an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman, while another is currently being escorted by a US warship.

LB Energy’s owner is Woody Chartering Ltd., according to maritime database Equasis, which has the same Greece-based address as its manager, Grehel Shipmanagement Co. Ocean Jewel’s owner and manager is Shanghai-based Ocean Jewel Shipping Co. Ltd. Ascanio Maritime Ltd., the owner of Ascanio, has the same address in Athens as its manager Minoa Marine Ltd. 

The companies didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Sabine Pass facility is a joint venture between QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil. The historic load marks an important step towards the commencement of full commercial and export operations.

New vessel receives debut shipment

The LNG cargo was safely loaded onto QatarEnergy’s Al-Qaiyyah, a recently built LNG carrier with 174,000-cubic-meter capacity from the Republic of Korea.

“This is a significant industry milestone that marks a new chapter in QatarEnergy’s global efforts to meet rising LNG demand and ensure reliable supplies to international markets,” said His Excellency Mr Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, President and CEO of QatarEnergy.

“The Golden Pass LNG project is one of the single largest investment decisions in the history of the US LNG sector, affirming QatarEnergy’s position and reputation as a reliable provider and a trusted partner of choice that drives growth and development around the world.”

Landmark project in LNG supply chain

Golden Pass LNG is a 70/30 partnership between QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil. The companies announced their final investment decision of more than $10 billion for developing the project in February 2019.

The Texas facility has 18 million tons per annum of LNG production capacity, 70% of which will be offtaken by QatarEnergy Trading, QatarEnergy’s wholly owned LNG trading entity.

Golden Pass LNG achieved sustained liquefaction operations and first LNG production from the first of its three LNG trains on 30 March.

The commencement of LNG offtake from Golden Pass LNG will complement QatarEnergy Trading’s global LNG portfolio and support the growth of its business.

“I would like to thank the relevant US authorities and regulators for their cooperation on this key project,” H.E. Minister Al-Kaabi added.

“We are also grateful for the strong commitment of the QatarEnergy and Golden Pass LNG teams in delivering this important energy project, as well as the invaluable role played by our strategic partner, ExxonMobil,” he said.

But a potential future shortfall is emerging as the industry confronts pressure to discover more oil and gas resources to service future needs and ensure energy security.

Exposing the gap

A financial disconnect is increasingly evident after a decade where investment in exploration has lagged behind production.

McKinsey & Company says capital spending on exploration has never been so low relative to production, suggesting a “discovery gap” as industry outlooks predict demand through to 2040. Part of the reason lies in uncertainty over the pace of the transition, combined with the need to generate investor returns.

This equation has led some energy companies to seek income from short-cycle projects, meaning more funds for finding projects such as onshore shale instead of areas requiring longer-term strategies, such as exploration and well discovery.

As the narrative has shifted, so too have conversations, as executives contemplate finding new oil and gas in the face of rising energy demand that cannot be met by renewables alone.

The supply-and-demand gap is widening, but reserves cannot be rebuilt without renewed exploration.

McKinsey’s Global Energy Perspective (GEP) projects a 25 million barrel per day oil shortfall by 2040, while production from existing wells declines each year.

Total discovered resources in the last decade have dropped by more than 50%, from 331 to 156 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Only Guyana has yielded a sizeable new basin in the last decade. McKinsey notes: “Many companies now face hollowed-out exploration teams, long cycle times, increased unit exploration costs, and low success rates.”

Shrinking capital

The US/Israel conflict with Iran has resulted in damage to oil and gas infrastructure in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. The extent varies, as do the anticipated duration and cost of repairs; further disruption is being factored in by an industry currently confronting frozen production as shipping remains stalled through the Strait of Hormuz.

In addition, consumers and refiners are tapping into oil inventories to mitigate the immediate impact of supply upheaval. In March, global oil stocks fell by 85 mb, even as on-land and offshore inventories grew in the Middle East and China, according to the IEA’s Oil Market Report (OMR).

“Global crude throughputs continue to struggle with disruptions to feedstock supplies and infrastructure damage that are tightening global product markets,” said the OMR.

McKinsey notes that reserve-replacement ratios have hit historic lows. Many firms now produce more oil and gas than they discover.

It identifies reduced capital expenditure as the primary of six reasons exploration has shrunk, falling about 6% each year since the 2014-15 crash; the same percentage increase for exploration wells drilled until then from 1995. That has since dropped about 12% annually.

Finding costs per barrel have climbed amid diminishing discovered resources and unattractive, lengthy cycle times averaging 20 years from exploration to oil recovery.

McKinsey says investors have tended to be risk-averse about long-term oil and gas returns in an uncertain energy transition climate, pushing firms towards near-term cash flow opportunities. This has “diluted portfolio optionality”.

In turn, talent pools and experience in companies have eroded, while few discovery prospects have clear seismic or geophysical signatures, increasing uncertainty in technical assessments and making portfolio outcomes less reliable.

Addressing the supply gap

Experts suggest a reset is required, beyond the geopolitical shocks currently impacting energy supplies.

It is clear long-term energy demand is going one way, so upstream investment must scale in exploration, infrastructure, and human capital — to ensure secure, reliable, affordable supplies.
McKinsey says companies will be required to make “integrated shifts in strategy, operations, and capabilities”.

This includes prioritising commercial barrels, moving faster with agile governance, and modernising risk frameworks to back more and larger bets.

It echoes suggestions to deploy digital capabilities and AI to compress cycle times and improve hit rates, “all while delivering strong risk-adjusted returns and lower environmental intensity to meet investors’ expectations”.

If limited exploration traits persist, operators could rely on costlier, more carbon-intensive barrels, something that clashes with decarbonisation aspirations in a delicate global economic environment.

McKinsey concludes: “With renewed talent, strategic partnerships, and a focus on advantaged resources at scale, exploration can play a decisive role in securing future oil and gas supply."

“Everyone is placing more emphasis on the new energy transition since the conflict in the Middle East” began, founder and chairman Li Zhen said in an interview with Bloomberg Television this week. Ongoing advancements in solar and wind, and cost improvements in batteries mean governments can “achieve self-sufficiency and not rely on fossil fuel supplies from a few countries,” he added.

Li’s comments come as the US-Israel war against Iran continues to snarl energy supplies and deepen worries about global inflation and energy security. Countries reliant on energy imports are accelerating the shift toward clean technologies, from solar and batteries to electric vehicles, mainly driven by businesses and consumers.

China’s exports of electric and hybrid vehicles more than doubled in March on a yearly basis, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association released this month. It’s an indication that individuals and industries are hunting for alternatives to traditional energy supplies. Ningbo Deye Technology Co., another energy storage maker, this month attributed a jump in its quarterly profit to stronger overseas demand driven by geopolitical risks.

Gotion, which counts Volkswagen AG as its largest shareholder, sees demand for energy storage systems — needed to ensure constant supply from renewable sources like solar and wind — growing to five times more than for EVs in the long run, Li said.

China’s energy storage industry has seen strong demand from power grids and data centers for artifical intelligence over the past year. Meanwhile, growth expectations for EVs have been dampened by intense competition and a slowing economy. 

“The momentum in AI means it will require a lot of electricity, therefore more energy storage is needed. And that’s a huge opportunity for us,” Li said.

The Shenzhen-listed company’s shares have doubled over the past year.

Gotion seeks to build capacity of 100 gigawatt-hours each in the APAC and EMEA regions as well as the Americas in the next five years and double overseas shipments this year. Li said the Asia-Pacific region may see “faster demand growth.”

The Hefei-based firm also aims to boost domestic growth by 50% this year, he said. 

Gotion, which supplies batteries to carmakers including Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., has been stepping up overseas expansion in recent years, with factories planned in the US and Morocco, as well as one in Slovakia that is slated to start production by end of the year, according to Li.

However, the company has said it could not move ahead on plans for a $2.4 billion Michigan battery plant announced in 2022 because of a withdrawal of support from the US state and local partners. Top Chinese battery makers, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. and BYD Co. Ltd. have also faced backlash in the US due to security concerns and calls for supply-chain independence in Western countries. 

“We must strive to improve our battery, and cooperate better with the American markets,” Li said, adding he believes Gotion can “help solve local employment problems, contribute to tax revenue and play a role in local economic development.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Brent futures settled above $101 a barrel in New York, the highest in two weeks, amid conflicting reports about plans to reschedule peace talks which have ultimately failed to materialize. Washington and Tehran remain deadlocked on several key issues, including the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. 

Iranian gunboats fired on a cargo vessel and a container ship in the strategic waterway Wednesday, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations, a naval liaison with the shipping industry. The attacks are the latest in a series of maritime incidents sparked by the conflict. Traffic through Hormuz, a vital artery that normally carries about one‑fifth of global crude flows, remains at a near-halt.

US President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire with Iran indefinitely, but also maintained a naval blockade on ships going to and from the country’s ports to pile pressure on its government, another bullish signal for oil prices. 

Traders also closely followed key US oil inventory data published Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration, which showed declines across all major refined product categories. The world has been looking to US supplies to offset disruptions from the Middle East. Heightened export demand pushed total oil and fuel exports to a fresh record, according to the agency.  

Volatility has soared to its highest since 2020, when the Covid pandemic sapped demand. The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has informed Congress it could take six months to fully clear the waterway of mines deployed by the Iranian military, citing three officials familiar.

“President Trump’s decision to extend the ceasefire indefinitely indicates a belief that economic warfare is more effective than kinetic warfare at this stage in the conflict,” said Will Todman, senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “He is hoping that Iranian leaders blink first as the economic toll of the US blockade mounts on their economy.”

Trump later on Wednesday said in a post on Truth Social that if the US lifted its blockade to open the Strait of Hormuz, “there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!”

Iran won’t reopen the strait as long as the US Navy continues to intercept ships and will, if necessary, break the blockade by force, Tasnim reported. Iran has maintained that the blockade is a violation of the ceasefire. 

The US on Tuesday said it stopped and boarded a sanctioned oil tanker, after seizing a cargo ship over the weekend, and said it has directed to turn around or return to port a total of 29 vessels.

At least two fully laden Iranian tankers have sailed out of the Persian Gulf and past the US blockade this week. The exit of the tankers demonstrates the limits of US efforts to curb Tehran’s crude exports.

“Our base assumption is shifting toward a slower normalisation of Persian Gulf flows by mid‑May, rather than the earlier expectation of improvement by late April,” Societe Generale SA analysts including Ben Hoff wrote in a note. The change alone is prompting the bank to consider raising its year-end Brent price forecast from $79 a barrel to $85, the analysts said. 

“Even so, this revised level may still underestimate both the difficulty and duration of normalisation, particularly given the scale of shut‑ins and the constraints around shipping, insurance, port damage, and debris clearance.”

The prolonged conflict has fueled backlash over the Trump administration’s handling of rising energy prices. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rejected a claim that Iran has received $14 billion thanks to the Trump administration’s sanction relief on Iranian oil in a bid to tamp down energy prices. Bessent also said prices “might have been at $150” if not for the move to implement price relief. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

A total of 9 gigawatts of long-term capacities will be auctioned on Sept. 1 and Dec. 8, with another round of 2 gigawatts — which can include battery storage — held in May 2027, according to the document from the economy ministry. The legislation has been in the works for three years, and the plants should be operational by 2031.

Europe’s biggest economy — which took its last nuclear plants offline three years ago and plans to phase out coal — will need the flexibility of gas-fueled power when wind and solar output aren’t enough. Germany plans to finance the auctions via a levy that’s added to consumers’ bills, a potentially controversial measure after a contentious gas-storage levy was recently abandoned.

A ministry spokesperson confirmed the details of the document and said that discussions over the draft law have started. However, the proposal faces pushback from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s junior partner, the Social Democrats, within the government and in parliament. 

“These proposals amount to a surrender in the face of the agreed-upon goals and the urgent demands of the fossil fuel crisis,” Nina Scheer, energy lawmaker for the Social Democrats, said in a statement. The plans “perpetuate our dependence on natural gas rather than overcoming it.”

The new gas plants are proposed to run for at least 15 years and should be capable of switching to hydrogen, as part of the country’s aim to be climate-neutral by 2045.

“No power plants capable of using hydrogen are currently being built on the market,” Energy State Secretary Frank Wetzel said at a utilities conference of Handelsblatt in Berlin on Wednesday. “We are now promoting them — that is key.”

The government will introduce a capacity market from 2032, with auctions in 2027 and 2029, according to the document, which was first reported by German media. As a way to encourage local production, half of the parts used for the new plants should be manufactured in the European Economic Area.

(Updates with SPD reaction in the fourth paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The company’s Australian and Papua New Guinean assets will report to four regional business units, instead of having individual management teams, according to executives familiar with the situation and an email sent by Brett Darley, Santos’ chief operating officer for Australia and PNG upstream oil and gas. The executives asked not to be named as the announcement is not public.

“By focusing on efficiency and productivity, discipline and innovation, we will ensure our business continues to deliver safe, reliable, and competitive energy for decades,” he wrote. The changes come as the company approaches the end of a multiyear phase of production growth, which will need it to shift focus toward improving profitability across its existing operations, according to the email. 

Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher has faced criticism after an attempted sale to a consortium led by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. faltered last year, and investors have demanded higher growth and returns. After reporting a slump in profit in February, Santos launched a review of its Australian operations and slashed its workforce.

Shareholders including Australian pension fund HESTA have pointed to a limited pipeline of new energy projects and declining green capital expenditures, while also criticizing Gallagher’s remuneration.

It was not immediately clear whether the overhaul would result in reduced headcount. Many Santos managers will need to relocate from their jobs in Western Australia to Brisbane, according to the executives.

The Alaska business unit will not be impacted by the changes, it said.

“At times, roles across the organization have relocated to align with activity levels and locations,” Santos said in an emailed statement. “With our organizational changes announced earlier this year, some activities and a small number of roles may be relocated to the appropriate operating centers.”

The corporate center will remain in Adelaide, the company said by email.

(Updates with company comment in the last two paragraphs.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Now analysts wonder if Tesla’s quiet moneymaker faces problems of its own.

Batteries have given Tesla a badly needed boost. The company’s popular Megapacks — giant batteries that can keep factories, data centers or the electric grid itself humming — are being installed worldwide. Much smaller Powerwall units, meanwhile, supply individual homes. As Tesla spends heavily to ramp up autonomous taxis, and its Optimus robots seem forever a year away, batteries have become an important source of cash.

Tesla doesn’t report battery revenue on its own, instead lumping it in with its solar business. But together, the company’s revenue from batteries and solar gear rose to $12.8 billion last year from $2.8 billion in 2021 — a 358% increase. Tesla’s annual deployments of energy storage doubled in 2024 and grew another 49% in 2025, reaching 46.7 gigawatt-hours last year. 

In contrast, revenue from Tesla’s core electric car business peaked at $82.4 billion in 2023 and fell to $69.5 billion last year amid growing competition, policy headwinds and a consumer backlash to Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s politics. The Texas-based company does, however, remain the top seller of EVs in the US, and its stock hit a record high of $489.88 per share in December on hopes for its future lines of business. 

“The growth of the energy business is offsetting a lot of that weakness on the auto side,” said analyst Garrett Nelson with the CFRA research firm. “We are optimistic regarding the future growth of that business and helping sustain the company overall, sustain the earnings as they move through this transition phase,” Nelson said.

That optimism, however, is now being tested.

When Tesla reported its latest delivery numbers this month, first-quarter battery deployments took an unexpected plunge. They fell 15% from the same period last year, whereas many analysts were predicting an increase. Nor was there an obvious reason for the drop. 

Reliant on big projects, the battery business can be lumpy. And the entire industry faces headwinds from Washington, DC. President Donald Trump hasn’t revoked tax credits for batteries as he has for new solar plants and wind farms. But most solar and wind projects include batteries to store their surplus power during periods of high production. A slowdown in renewable projects could crimp the battery business as well.

Analysts will be looking for an explanation of the poor quarter when Tesla holds its latest earnings call Wednesday. They’re hoping the drop in deployments was a one-time glitch and not a sign of troubles to come. 

“While surprising, I am not ready to call it a trend yet,” said Seth Goldstein, an analyst with the Morningstar market research firm. Unusually harsh winter weather, for example, could have led to unexpected delays on large energy storage projects using Megapacks. “When Tesla can recognize revenue and deployments from that can really make a quarter quite noisy," Goldstein said.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. 

Analysts also are looking to future products to restore long-term growth. Megapack 3, capable of delivering about a quarter more electricity than its predecessor, is expected to launch later this year from a new, $200 million Houston-area facility. A planned “Megablock,” unveiled at a September Tesla energy event, will combine four Megapacks. 

Large-scale energy storage barely existed as an industry when Tesla started building cars in 2012. Now, however, batteries are being deployed at breakneck speed, backing up solar plants and wind farms, cutting peak power demand from electrified factories and helping prevent blackouts on the grid. Tesla was an early mover, opening one of the world’s first big, grid-tied battery projects in Australia in 2017. Now, the company has installed more than 2,100 commercial and utility-scale projects across the globe, from Chile and Japan to Scotland.

It has also seized a commanding lead in North America, with nearly a 40% share of the market, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. The next largest competitor, Sungrow Power Supply Co., holds a 10% market share. 

Batteries don’t generate their own electricity — they merely store it and deliver it when needed. But they can be installed in a fraction of the time  it takes to build a power plant, and at a fraction of the cost. BloombergNEF forecasts that global energy storage capacity will balloon in the next decade, reaching 8 times its current level in 2035.  

“The economics are favorable to build a battery versus something like a power plant,” said Morningstar’s Goldstein. “Utilities are looking to maintain grid reliability, they’re looking at what’s the best return on investment that’s going to be allowed by regulators, and batteries are increasingly becoming a low-cost option to help with that.”

Project developers favor Tesla’s Megapacks because they combine the battery, inverter, control software and energy-management tools into a package that is relatively easy to deploy and operate, said Allison Weis, global head of energy storage at Wood Mackenzie. That integration helps Tesla compete with often-cheaper Chinese competitors.

In the US such competitors also face tariffs on their China-built batteries, a levy now set at 43.6% according to BNEF. But for Tesla, the tariffs cut both ways. While the company produces some of its own battery cells at its Nevada Gigafactory, many of its cells come from China and are assembled into batteries in the US. 

Tesla, however, just stood up its own cell factory in Nevada, which the company in January said had an installed annual capacity of 7 gigawatt-hours and is expected to begin operations this year. Tesla also has a $4.3 billion supply agreement with LG Energy Solution Ltd. for cells from a plant in Lansing, Michigan, with production scheduled to start in 2027, according to the US Department of the Interior. 

While the slowdown in renewables could pose a problem for the industry within the US, data center developers are rapidly turning to batteries to help power their new projects. As of April, BNEF has tracked 51.5 gigawatt-hours of on-site energy storage at data centers for projects that are either announced, under construction or already operational. 

They include data centers used by Musk’s own artificial intelligence firm, xAI. Tesla sold $430 million worth of Megapacks to xAI last year, in another example of Musk’s companies buying each others’ products. The relationship could also give Tesla greater insight into future power center energy demands than its competitors will have. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Hero II and Hedy, two Iran-flagged, very-large crude carriers, were captured in satellite imagery moving past the blockade line announced by the US and into the Arabian Sea on April 20, according to data intelligence firm Vortexa. The two can carry as much as 4 million barrels of oil.

Frustrated with Iran’s continued control of the Strait of Hormuz, and Tehran’s ability to continue shipping its crude, President Donald Trump announced a blockade last week — interdicting Iran-linked vessels entering or leaving the Gulf. A cargo vessel was seized at the weekend, and the US government said on Tuesday that it had boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in waters east of Sri Lanka.

Figures from Vortexa, however, suggest that Iran is still able to export its oil, with at least 34 Iran-linked tankers and gas carriers making their way through the strait and past the warships. Of those, 19 have been heading out of the Gulf, and most were carrying cargo.

Vortexa detected the shipments using satellite imagery, as vessels seeking to circumvent US forces are typically turning off their transponders. Hero II was last seen more than a month ago when it was sailing northward in the Strait of Malacca, while Hedy last broadcast its location off Khor Fakkan in late February.

The ultimate destination of the two shipments was not clear. The vast majority of Iran’s crude exports end up in China, though India received two shipments of Iranian crude in recent weeks before a US sanctions waiver expired.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

“It won’t be smooth sailing,” Katrina White, a clean energy analyst, said during a presentation Tuesday at the BNEF Summit New York.

BNEF is forecasting more than 100 gigawatts of new demand in the next decade for data centers, with many of those turning to natural gas — a fuel that can provide round-the-clock power. That option is running into rising costs for turbines and supply chain bottlenecks. Meanwhile, White said wind, solar and batteries are faster to build, but the cutting of key financial incentives, tariffs, permitting red tape and long waits to connect to the grid are holding projects back.

Earlier in the day, Toby Rice, the chief executive officer of natural gas producer EQT Corp., also said as much as 100 gigawatts of additional power may be required for artificial intelligence computing facilities and other large power users.

“That’s the energy equivalent of adding over 20 New York Cities,” Rice said during a panel discussion Tuesday. “And we need to add it quickly.”

Power has become one of the critical hurdles for US technology companies racing to build out the infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence systems. One gigawatt is equivalent to a traditional nuclear reactor.

Data center developers are pouring billions of dollars into projects across the US, but the electricity industry is struggling to scale to meet their massive demand needs. Limited transmission capacity, long waits for grid connections, labor shortages and slow permitting process are all threatening to delay new power projects.

“That’s really the bottleneck,” Karen Fang, global head of infrastructure and sustainable finance at Bank of America Securities Inc., said during the morning panel. “It’s really the physical aspect of the system-level execution.”

For power-hungry assets, renewables can be the fastest to deliver electricity. But the Trump administration’s rollback of policy support for green energy and introduction of regulatory red tape has thrown up additional roadblocks, White of BNEF said. 

“In many cases, this red tape can actually be deemed illegal, but it still provides so much disruption to the industry that it delays project timelines,” White said.

While there remains plenty of capital available for power infrastructure projects, deploying it remains another challenge for the industry, including finding enough bankers to do deals. 

“The banks that are financing our projects are also financing the data centers and the LNG terminals, so I think human capital constraints is definitely a concern,” said Matthew Ransweiler, senior vice president of finance at Invenergy, a power producer and developer. 

In addition, some banks are hesitant to make tax equity investments into clean energy projects until new federal rules on foreign entity ownership are clarified, Ransweiler added. However, the sheer demand for electricity will likely mean there should be plenty of funding for power projects, even those that will lose tax breaks, said Eugene Kasozi, managing director for project finance at BBVA CIB. 

“Demand is driven by the need for power, which then drives the need for infrastructure, which then drives the need for capital,” Kasozi said. “That’s a very healthy pull versus push situation.” 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Installations of long-duration systems — an umbrella term for so-called super-batteries that can store and deliver electricity for many hours or even days — are surging as the world looks to better harness renewable energy. Deployments are forecast to almost quadruple this year after a record 2025, according to BloombergNEF.

China has built a commanding lead in lithium-ion batteries, which generally hold up to four hours of discharge and can delay the use of daytime solar power until the evening demand peak. Storage over far longer time periods — to handle sustained spells of low renewables output, or to ensure grid stability — has greater potential for competition as it encompasses a wider range of technologies.

Those options include batteries using a more eclectic mix of metals, or systems that can store energy in hot bricks, tap the potential of gravity, or compress air into caverns. 

“The race is still pretty much open,” and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, said Frederic Godemel, executive vice president for energy management at Schneider Electric SE, a supplier of power equipment including server racks and cooling technology.

While China currently accounts for about 72% of cumulative long-duration storage capacity — including almost all installations last year — the US is the second-largest market and expected to ramp up deployments later this decade, as are nations including Germany, India and Japan, BNEF said last month. US installations could be accelerated further as the boom in data center construction adds fresh demand for reliable power.

“China leads in scale,” said Yiyi Zhou, a BNEF analyst specializing in energy storage. “The US has the most diversified type of technology in development.”

Unlike in other areas of clean technology, Chinese companies also have less potential to become major exporters and capture market share overseas. China is focused on a narrower set of technologies than other countries, and long-duration storage — often referred to as LDES — can typically need specific designs for particular locations.

“Long-duration storage is not a commodity like solar panels,” said Zhou. “I don't expect LDES to be easily exported at a large scale.”

That’s likely to support domestic supply chains, and the UK and Italy are among nations already setting policies to encourage deployments. Developing viable and cost-effective methods for 10 to 100 hours or more of storage “should be a priority for governments anticipating future high shares of variable renewable electricity supplies” or weather-related disruptions to hydropower, the International Energy Agency said in a February report.

Long-duration storage technology is “one of the critical missing pieces for deeply decarbonized power systems,” said Kostantsa Rangelova, a global electricity analyst at climate think tank Ember.

Soaring US demand for electricity and a shortage of natural gas turbines — which complicates the prospects of quickly adopting the fuel — also “opens up a door” for long-duration storage that can complement renewables, said Gabriel Kra, co-founder of Prelude Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in Form Energy Inc., a Somerville, Massachusetts-based startup.

“There is nothing that I see in the evidence or the data that would suggest that Chinese companies, or any particular Chinese company, has any advantage right now,” Kra said. 

Form Energy, which deploys iron-air battery technology that can feed electricity to power grids for 100 hours, completed an agreement last month with a data center developer. In February, the company struck a similar deal to supply utility Xcel Energy Inc. for a Google site in Minnesota.

California is set to host one of the world’s largest compressed air energy projects — which works by squeezing air into tanks or natural caverns and releasing it through a turbine to generate electricity. Because long-duration storage assets need both technical expertise and local knowledge, it’s unlikely startups outside China will lose ground to “a Chinese developer coming and competing in our backyard,” said Curtis VanWalleghem, chief executive officer of Toronto-based Hydrostor Inc., the Kern County project’s developer.

“We know this market extremely well, where to put things, and we have the special technology,” he said. “Our solution has a unique value proposition, that when we optimize around it, we can win.”

While the sector is forecast to grow outside China and deliver new opportunities to startups, the world’s No. 2 economy will remain the crucial market for long-duration technologies. Yet China’s frontrunner companies aren’t domestic battery titans like Contemporary Amperex Technologies Co. Ltd., which are largely engaged in pushing the potential of existing product types.

Zhongchu Guoneng Technology Co., a VC-backed spinout from the Chinese Academy of Sciences that uses compressed air technology, and Dalian Rongke Energy Storage Group Co., a vanadium-flow battery company, are currently among the nation’s leading firms, according to BNEF. China’s government is also supporting dozens of pilot projects testing alternatives to lithium-based technologies.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The funding round was led by VXI Capital and included investments from Engine Ventures and Tamarack Global, according to a statement Tuesday. Among other things, the Chevy Chase, Maryland-based company will use the proceeds to pay for equipment that needs to be ordered long in advance. 

Blue Energy plans to build a power plant for a data center being developed in Port of Victoria, Texas. The company will initially use natural gas generators at the site, then later install small reactors using a standardized construction model that can be repeated. 

The strategy will make the project faster to develop and easier to finance by avoiding the kind of massive cost overruns that have long bedeviled large traditional reactors that are highly customized, Chief Executive Officer Jake Jurewicz said. 

“This is the Ikea kit for how to build a nuclear power plant,” Jurewicz said in an interview. 

Blue Energy, which is doing early development work at other locations, plans to use light-water reactors for its projects and is evaluating several vendors. The company says it already has a supplier lined up for the gas turbines.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Wind power demand from state utilities, the biggest retailers in the country, is estimated to reach 107 gigawatts over the next five years, lending momentum to the sector, Executive Vice Chairman Girish Tanti said in a phone interview on Monday. Should there be a shortfall in purchases from government buyers, there’s enough demand from industrial clients to fill the gap, he said.

Wind is gathering interest in India due to its ability to meet high demand in the evening and early morning, when solar power is absent. The war in the Middle East, which has choked fuel supplies to the country’s natural gas power plants, has put a bigger onus on wind power to cater to such requirements. 

India added a record 6.3 gigawatts of wind power capacity in 2025, tracking solar’s rapid growth, as it approaches its goal to install 500 gigawatts of clean power generation capacity by 2030.

Suzlon is also boosting its pitch to buyers in Europe, where it currently has a modest presence but sees the market offering an opportunity of more than 100 gigawatts over the next five years, Tanti said. He was in Madrid to attend the annual WindEurope event, where the company plans to launch its 5-megawatt and 6.3-megawatt turbines to complement the existing 2-megawatt and 3-megawatt fleet. 

For the next few months, the company will build the foundation of its European business, including obtaining product certifications and project approvals, Tanti said.  

The war in Ukraine put a spotlight on energy security among most European nations, according to Tanti. “Renewables fit pretty well into that design. They are cost-efficient, economically viable and you can build them quickly,” he said. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Solar, wind and other renewables made up 34% of global electricity generation in 2025, overtaking coal’s 33% share for the first time since 1919, when demand was a tiny fraction of current levels, according to the report. 

Global coal generation declined in 2025, the first drop since 2020, the report added.

The shift comes as energy security tops the political agenda globally with the Iran war upending the world’s oil and gas flows. Oil and gas prices have surged in recent weeks after attacks on key energy facilities in the Middle East and shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s sharpened the focus on renewables as a way to limit exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets.

“Clean energy is rapidly redefining the foundation of energy security in a volatile world,” said Aditya Lolla, managing director at Ember. “It is already helping countries reduce exposure to fossil fuel imports and costs while meeting rising electricity demand.”

In total, clean electricity generation rose by 887 tera-watt hours in 2025, according to the report, slightly exceeding demand growth of 849 TWh. Three-quarters of this was met by new solar capacity.

China continues to outpace the rest of the world in renewable deployment, installing more than half of the increase in both global solar capacity and two-thirds of new wind in 2025, the report added.

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Brent dropped as much as 1.1% to $94.44 a barrel after gaining 5.6% on Monday. Iran is sending a team to the Pakistani capital, according to people familiar with the plans who declined to be identified, although it is not clear who would lead the delegation. Earlier, Tehran had said it was hesitant to participate in further peace talks with the US.

Vice President JD Vance is leaving later on Monday to resume negotiations, “either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning,” Donald Trump said in a phone interview on Monday. The US president said it’s “highly unlikely” that he’d extend the truce, which expires on “Wednesday evening Washington time.”

Oil prices have been buffeted in recent days amid rapidly shifting perceptions of the negotiations’ status and whether ships can navigate the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s crude normally transits. The standoff over Hormuz threatens to deepen the global energy crisis and is just one of the unresolved issues between Iran and the US, which also include the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. 

“Either we move toward some form of de-escalation or this drags into a more prolonged disruption, especially around energy supply,” said Dilin Wu, a research strategist at Pepperstone Group. “The market will be super sensitive to any headline updates in the next 24 hours.”

Monday’s session saw conflicting statements from Trump about the timing and viability of peace talks. Oil extended gains after he said that the US would continue to block the strait for Iran-linked ships until an agreement is finalized.

Meanwhile, Hormuz flows remain at a virtual standstill, with three vessels attempting to transit early Tuesday. The crisis flared again over the weekend after the US Navy seized an Iranian vessel while the Islamic Republic’s forces fired at ships and reimposed controls across the strait.

On Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for an immediate ceasefire and the restoration of normal transit through the waterway, according to a Foreign Ministry read-out of a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Oil prices could rise to $110 a barrel if traffic in the waterway remains disrupted for another month, according to Citigroup Inc. Global energy markets may be volatile for two years because of the war, according to International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The first turbine installed at the $5.4 billion East Anglia THREE project features 115-metre blades — the biggest manufactured and used in the UK, with each one longer than a Premier League football pitch.

Impressive statistics

All 285 blades for the project’s 14MW turbines — 95 in total — are being manufactured at Siemens Gamesa’s factory in the north England city of Hull.

When complete, the 1.4GW East Anglia THREE project will produce enough clean power for more than 1.3 million homes.

At 262 metres, the turbines stand higher than the observation deck at The Shard, Britain’s tallest building.

Each turbine has a rotor diameter of 236 metres, and one single revolution will produce enough electricity to power a home for more than four days, charge about 1,700 mobile phones, or brew almost 1,000 cups of tea.

Defining moment

ScottishPower — part of Iberdrola Group — has invested $41 billion in the UK over 15 years. Its ScottishPower Renewables business has 40-plus operational offshore and onshore wind farms and solar sites, generating enough green electricity to power about two million homes.

Charlie Jordan, ScottishPower Renewables’ CEO, described the installation as a UK industry first and a defining moment for ScottishPower, Iberdrola and Masdar as we “celebrate and accelerate the deployment of homegrown renewable energy at scale”.

He continued: “East Anglia THREE will be the biggest and most powerful offshore wind farm in our portfolio.

“That means billions invested in the UK and global supply chains. East Anglia THREE will play a crucial role in the UK’s clean energy future.”

Wind power at scale

Located off the Suffolk coast, it will become one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms when it comes into operation. More than 2,300 jobs have been supported during construction.

“We see tremendous potential for offshore wind, not just in the UK but across the wider European market, where offshore wind can provide critical energy security, power economic progress, and help nations achieve their clean energy objectives,” said Husain Al Meer, Director of Global Offshore Wind at Masdar.

The East Anglia THREE turbine blades are seven metres longer than the previous record.

“These are the biggest blades ever built for a project in UK waters — a real landmark for offshore wind,” added Darren Davidson, UK Head of Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa.

Proven alternatives

The global dependence on this narrow waterway has been laid bare during the Israel/US war with Iran, sending economic pain across continents. With about 20% of global oil supply — some 86 tankers daily — usually passing through Hormuz, existing bypass options have confirmed effectiveness and rewarded investment.

The UAE’s Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP) by ADNOC proved critical when the Strait closed, allowing movement of up to 1.8 mbpd from onshore Habshan fields to Fujairah port on the Indian Ocean. International Energy Agency (IEA) data shows a parallel natural gas liquids pipeline with a capacity of 300,000 bpd.

Saudi Arabia’s 7 mbpd capacity East-West Petroline — built during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war to ease Strait reliance — takes supplies from Abqaiq to the Red Sea coast Yanbu terminal.

The efficacy of each has underlined the need for more shipping methods, not least if Tehran again chokes Strait traffic or introduces tolls.

Energy shocks highlight Hormuz exposure

Iranian missile attacks also made the 1,200km Petroline and Fujairah facilities targets, while Red Sea shipments remain exposed to Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar have no alternatives to Hormuz, and the LNG sector, where Qatar and the UAE together represent almost 20% of global exports, is transit-vulnerable.

“There are no alternative export routes other than tankers through the Strait,” said Ross Wyeno, Associate Director, Lead LNG Short-Term Analysis at S&P Global Energy.

All this drives the need for suppliers to shape the future via substitute routes for hydrocarbons from the Gulf.

An average of 20 mbpd of crude and oil products were shipped through the Strait in 2025, along with about 25% of global seaborne oil trade, of which 80% was destined for Asia. Regardless of negotiated outcomes to the conflict, Iran could still wield influence over shipping lanes in the Hormuz.

Options in focus

KSA could potentially rehabilitate its 1.65 mbpd Iraqi Pipeline through Saudi Arabia (IPSA) and Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline).

The former linked Al-Zubair, southern Iraq, to Red Sea port Mu’ajiz, but hasn’t carried Iraqi crude since August 1990.

Tapline could hypothetically channel 500,000 mbpd Saudi crude to the Mediterranean. Built in 1950 from KSA’s Eastern Province to the Zahrani terminal near Sidon, Lebanon, it remains robust despite ceasing operations in 1983. Oil transportation costs via Tapline to Europe could prove up to 40% less than shipping through the Suez Canal.

The IEA has proposed building a new pipeline linking Iraq’s Basra oil fields and Türkiye’s Mediterranean terminal in Ceyhan.

Türkiye has also proposed extending the strategic Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which began moving crude from northern Iraq in 1976.

Syria is being considered as a potential transit route to the Mediterranean, though this could increase transit times and costs for Asian customers. Kuwait has no meaningful bypass capacity but could revive discussions about linking into Saudi infrastructure.

Türkiye, Syria and Jordan also recently agreed to modernise their railway systems — eventually creating a contiguous corridor between southern Europe and the Gulf — although this would require specific fuel-carrying railcars.

The UAE and Jordan signed an agreement last week to build and operate a $2.3 billion railway linking Jordan’s mining areas to Aqaba port. The 360km project is the first step in building a Jordanian national rail network connecting Aqaba with neighbouring Arab countries, including ports in Syria and the Mediterranean.

Mapping the hurdles

New or rehabilitated cross-border arteries could be costly, politically and geographically complicated, and take years to complete.

However, energy suppliers and consumers now fully recognise the Strait’s fragility — and the price of disrupting vital supplies.

Christopher Bush, CEO of Lebanon-based Cat Group, cited a $5 billion cost to replicate Saudi Arabia’s pipeline today. He said more complex routes from Iraq through Jordan, Syria, or Türkiye could top $15-$20 billion, besides potential security risks, operation and ownership disputes, or terrain challenges.

But, Bush added, “You have a lot of smart minds looking at all of this now.”

Beyond Capex, market realities could limit the viability of many options, not least as Middle Eastern crude flows mostly to Asia rather than Europe.

That could flip policymakers toward growing existing infrastructure: gradual expansion, such as increasing pipeline capacity or storage, could prove more achievable in enhancing resilience.

The Financial Times said KSA is considering expanding capacity or developing additional export routes and Red Sea terminals, including NEOM-linked projects.

Possible long-term options could embrace broader trade corridors stretching from India through the Gulf to Europe.

And the UAE already reportedly has new pipeline capacity under development. According to Robin Mills, CEO of Qamar Energy and Energy Connects columnist, ADNOC planned to build another 1.5 mbpd pipeline to connect offshore fields to Fujairah.

As economists assess the fiscal impact of the Strait’s weaponisation, the energy industry is appreciating the risk-reward calculus of investing in alternative channels.

ADCOP was reported to have cost $4.2 billion after completion in 2012. “Under current wartime oil pricing, the invaluable exports it carries would pay within a month,” added Mills.