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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Russia’s surprise return to a G20 finance meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, this week laid bare a widening rift.

European attendees openly scorned the presence of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who attended at the invitation of the Trump administration—the first in-person Russian participation since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil called the signal “quite troubling” and insisted “you cannot simply return to normality.” European officials refused […]

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The Everything Shortage: Why Global Supply Chains Are Breaking and What It Means for Energy Markets

The world is short of nearly everything. Shipping routes are under attack, refineries are maxed out, and energy policies have backfired. In this episode, commodities expert Jack Prandelli breaks down the “everything shortage”—the interconnected crises in oil, gas, food, and critical minerals that are reshaping geopolitics and creating the next commodity super-cycle. Discover why diesel […]

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is spot on: the new American tariffs will affect $1.5 billion of Alberta goods. The new Canadian counter-tariffs will affect $4.8 billion of the provincial economy.

That is not a talking point. It is the arithmetic of an integrated energy market that Ottawa cannot wish away, and Washington already understands. Smith’s warning, circulating widely after her CBC Power & Politics appearance and a clip posted by Stephen Taylor, is blunt: Alberta businesses will be hurt more by Canada’s own counter-tariffs than […]

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