India Hits Seven-Year High in Venezuelan Crude as Reliance Loads Up Jamnagar

India Hits Seven-Year High in Venezuelan Crude as Reliance Loads Up Jamnagar October flows could top 465,000 b/d—the strongest since 2019—while India’s decade-long import reshuffle and its No. 2 global refined-product export role show how discounted heavy barrels still clear through the world’s most complex refineries. India’s Venezuelan crude imports are on track for a […]

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China now adding stress to diesel markets – Where do we go from here?

China is once again withholding refined products from the global market, layering fresh stress onto an already strained diesel complex. On October 1, 2026, trade sources reported that Chinese refiners have suspended oil-product exports for October to destinations other than Hong Kong and Macau, pending new guidance from Beijing. State-owned major PetroChina has canceled planned […]

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Iran-Linked Oil Tankers Seized by US Navy Now Headed to U.S. Coast

Three sanctioned tankers carrying nearly six million barrels of Iranian crude—valued at roughly $600 million—are crossing the Atlantic toward the United States, according to vessel-tracking data from TankerTrackers and Kpler. The ships, Majestic X, Tifani, and Lenore, were seized months ago in the Indian Ocean as part of a broader U.S. campaign against Iran’s sanctions-evading […]

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Why Are Global Diesel Prices So High? Exhibit A: Ukraine Drone Hits Novoshakhtinsk Refinery

A Ukrainian drone strike on Friday forced Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the Rostov region offline, according to regional governor Yury Slyusar. The plant, which processes about 110,000 barrels per day (roughly 5–5.6 million tons per year), is not one of Russia’s giants. It is, however, a clean illustration of why diesel—the workhorse fuel for trucking, […]

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The real story is not that China is “back buying everything.” It is that Beijing throttled demand, shifted suppliers, drew inventories, and is now restocking only where landed cost still works — while $1 million-a-day VLCCs make a return to the old full-cycle buying pattern expensive and unlikely.

That is the argument Javier Blas is making in his September 23 Bloomberg Opinion column, China Isn’t Buying More Oil, It’s Buying From Different Markets (also framed as “Don’t Believe the Hype About China’s Oil Buying”). The global market treated China’s pre-war appetite as a floor. In 2026 it became a valve. The Blas thesis: […]

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