The United States and Iran are poised to return to the negotiating table at a moment when tensions between the two are high and trust is low.
The talks were initially planned for July 10 in Oslo, according to RFE/RL’s sources, who now say the meeting has been postponed — likely to next week.
Brazil is preparing to defend its oil export sector as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports starting August 1. The move has escalated tensions between the two countries, with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vowing reciprocal action: “If he charges us 50%, we’ll charge him 50%,” Lula told local media outlet Record.
The problem of AI data centers’ energy consumption has been drawing more and more attention as the AI race heats up and data centers proliferate. Indeed, the problem has become so pressing in some countries that they have set limits on the number of data centers that can be built there.
This marks the strongest signal yet that Aramco intends to take a material position in the U.S. LNG sector. It also follows earlier exploratory efforts with projects such as Delfin LNG and Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles facility, though those discussions have not resulted in formal agreements. The Commonwealth negotiations, if concluded, would give Aramco a direct channel into the fast-growing U.S. Gulf Coast export market, amid rising demand in Asia and Europe.
The North American Reliability Corp. has been warning of blackouts for two years now, citing extreme temperatures but also increased reliance on weather-dependent sources of electricity, notably wind and solar installations. The latest warning came earlier this year, with NERC attributing the danger to the surge in demand for electricity. The surge, in turn, was driven by the proliferation of data centers, which consume enormous amounts of electricity.
OPEC’s second-largest producer, Iraq, was the single biggest supplier of crude from the cartel to the United States in May, per data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) cited by Iraqi media outlets Shafaq News and IraqiNews.
Rising Canadian oil production and continued demand for more shipping capacity at the key U.S. refining hubs have prompted Canada’s pipeline giant Enbridge to test interest from potential shippers for a new pipeline in Illinois linked to the Mainline system.
The 40 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) federal leases, spanning approximately 1,000 km2 and located 175 to 330 km from shore, include 13 blocks located in the Walker Ridge area, 9 blocks in the Mississippi Canyon area and 18 blocks in the East Breaks area.
After coming into office, the administration of President Donald Trump has eliminated licenses for oil companies to operate in Venezuela, despite initial hints that it would continue them, with presidential envoy Richard Grenell’s visits to Caracas. This means that sanctions on state-owned PDVSA are fully back on. Chevron, the main U.S. corporation on the ground, is back to having only a secret license for minimum maintenance and security, as it still a shareholder in four joint ventures.
Of the 81 million tons of LNG that Australia exported last year, as much as 40% went to Japan. But Australia’s east coast has been suffering tight gas supply, which has become a hot political topic, with parties running in the latest elections, earlier this year, all prioritizing supply security for Australians in the east.