CENTCOM Destroys 3 IRGC Oil Tankers After Iran Targets 2 U.S. Navy Warships

U.S. Central Command struck three Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked crude oil tankers on September 5 after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two U.S. Navy warships in regional waters. The American ships evaded the attack. No U.S. personnel were harmed. Tehran’s shadow fleet paid the bill. That is the energy war in one exchange: Iran shoots […]

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Weekly Rig Report: Baker Hughes Flat at 588, WellDatabase at 601 After a North Dakota Reclass, Enverus Still Running Higher

The three major U.S. rig tallies are telling the same structural story and three different weekly headlines. Baker Hughes held unchanged at 588 for a second straight week. WellDatabase printed 601, down 30 week over week but up 23 year over year. Enverus’s GPS-based daily count continues to run well above both weekly censuses, last […]

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The U.S.–Venezuela oil deal does more than reroute barrels. Its second-order effects strike at the heart of China’s two-decade oil-for-loan model in Caracas: who controls production, who prices the crude, who books the cargoes, and who decides whether Beijing ever gets repaid.

President Donald Trump’s late-August 2026 arrangement with North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) grants the company 100-year rights over 17 fields in Lake Maracaibo and the Orinoco Belt, holding an estimated 65 billion barrels—about one-fifth of Venezuela’s proven reserves. NABEP plans as much as $100 billion in infrastructure investment. The U.S. government receives rights to […]

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Mike Wirth framed Chevron’s new $7 billion Venezuela commitment as a “win-win-win” during a Bloomberg Television interview from Caracas: better heavy crude for U.S. Gulf Coast refiners, stronger energy security, and fresh investment and jobs for Venezuela.

The September 2, 2026 sit-down with Tyler Kendall came the same day Chevron announced updated joint-venture agreements with PDVSA. The company will invest more than $7 billion over five years across three existing ventures, add acreage in the Orinoco Belt’s Carabobo area, and target more than 600,000 barrels per day of production—more than triple the […]

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Chinese refiners are paying record premiums for Russian ESPO crude as cheap sanctioned barrels from Iran dry up and Venezuelan oil moves onto the open market.

November-loading ESPO from Kozmino is trading at more than $7 per barrel over Brent, with some offers to independent refiners reaching $10, according to traders cited by Bloomberg and OilPrice.com. That is a sharp reversal from the deep discounts China extracted for years. ESPO loads on Russia’s Pacific coast and reaches Chinese ports in less […]

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