Oil settled at a three-month high as the US ratcheted up sanctions against Russia, adding to a run of bullish developments that have propelled crude to a strong start to 2025. Brent futures rose 3.7% to settle above $79 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate closed above $76. The sweeping sanctions target two firms that handle more than a quarter of Russia’s seaborne oil exports, as well as vital insurers and a vast fleet of tankers. Brent earlier surged 5% to top $80 as speculation about the measures rippled through the market. “President Biden opted to go big on energy sanctions his team has been considering over the past several weeks, which caught traders largely complacent about sanctions-related disruption risks,” said Bob McNally, founder of the Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official. Crude is up more than 6% this year, a robust start that has taken some market participants by surprise as many banks and agencies had forecast a significant supply glut that would weigh on prices. Now, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have been among the first to increase price forecasts. Hedge funds have been getting increasingly bullish on crude in recent weeks, with money managers’ net-long positions in Brent at the highest in almost eight months. While the market had been anticipating additional sanctions on Russia, the potential scope of the restrictions was unclear, and targeting a large number of tankers threatens to significantly constrain the nation’s ability to access vessels. Traders had also been bracing for tougher sanctions on Iranian oil, which would tighten a market already facing dwindling US stockpiles. The tighter fundamental picture, alongside the cold weather and lower Russian seaborne exports, has buoyed the recent rally. Under increasingly bullish conditions, “no one wants to be short here,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice

Shell has found what it suspects could be unexploded ordnance around 50 miles off the east coast of Shetland, near a pipeline that runs from the Brent platforms to the St Fergus Gas Terminal near Peterhead. The UK-listed supermajor’s senior media spokesperson told Energy Voice confirmed it has a vessel in place after it found a potential explosive device near its the Far north Liquids and Associated Gas System (FLAGS) pipeline. In a statement, the spokesperson said: “I can confirm that we have discovered a suspected unexploded ordnance during a routine inspection of the FLAGS pipeline in the North Sea in December 2024, approximately 80km [49.7 miles] East of Shetland.” Shell (LON: SHEL) is working with “a third party” to investigate the object and “fully identify” it. “We continue to liaise with relevant authorities including the Maritime Coastguard Agency, and have positioned a guard vessel at the location,” the company spokesperson added. Finding unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the North Sea is fairly common. © Supplied by OEG Energy GroupHughes Subsea worked on the identification and clearance of the unexploded ordnance (UXO) for ScottishPower Renewables’ 1.4GW East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in 2024. Last March OEG Renewables business Hughes Subsea identified and undertook clearance work of UXO at ScottishPower Renewables’ 1.4GW East Anglia Three offshore wind farm. The pipeline falls under a joint venture between Shell and Esso. The FLAGS pipeline forms part of the Shell Esso Gas and Associated Liquids (SEGAL) system which is made up of two wet gas transportation pipelines. FLAGS is responsible for transporting gas from the Northern North Sea to the Aberdeenshire terminal. The discovery of “suspected unexploded ordnance” has not impacted the FLAGS pipeline as Shell confirmed that it is “operating normally”. UXO is a term used to describe explosives that have not been

Renewable energy developer OnPath Energy has announced plans to invest around £1 billion in clean energy projects across the UK over the next five years. The announcement came as the company opened its new Sunderland headquarters, at Chase House on Rainton Bridge Business Park, with Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson attending. She said: “Clean power will unlock billions of pounds in investment and reindustrialise Britain with thousands of skilled jobs across the country. “Through our plan for change, this Labour government will build an energy system that can bring down bills for households and businesses for good.” OnPath Energy owns and operates ten onshore wind farms across Scotland and northern England with construction across several more projects expected in 2025. The company has created more than 30 jobs over the last 12 months, with more set to follow. The Wearside company – formerly Banks Renewables – was acquired by Brookfield Asset Management in late 2023. The Toronto-headquartered fund, chaired by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, has over $1trillion (£818bn) worth of assets under management. OnPath Energy CEO Richard Dunkley said that the investment plan will “create and support hundreds of skilled, sustainable green jobs across the UK, including within the North East. “Alongside this, we are working to bring communities with us on the energy transition by creating industry-leading commitments on community benefits and community shared ownership. “We will achieve this by developing people, giving them the skills required to underpin the sector’s future success, and by operating in genuine partnership with stakeholders and the communities in which we’re working; we describe this as the OnPath Together approach to development.” Dunkley added: “OnPath has ambitious plans to make further long-term capital investment in this high-quality renewable energy infrastructure, amplifying the difference we can make to a

The US imposed its most aggressive sanctions on Russia’s oil industry yet as the Biden administration looks for last-minute ways to boost Ukraine’s leverage in possible peace negotiations after Donald Trump takes office. The measures announced Friday targeted two firms that handle more than a quarter of Russia’s seaborne oil exports, as well as vital insurers and traders linked to hundreds of cargoes. The US also broadened sanctions on tankers that have already proved disruptive. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the moves are aimed at “ratcheting up the sanctions risk associated with Russia’s oil trade, including shipping and financial facilitation in support of Russia’s oil exports.” Friday’s measures move well beyond previous sanctions measures the US has rolled out against Russia as part of efforts to choke off its war machine following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. While Trump could lift the sanctions at any time, he may find it politically unpalatable to do so given the broad bipartisan support in Washington for Ukraine.  The main target of the sanctions, done in coordination with the UK, are major Russian energy companies — Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas. The two firms exported about 970,000 barrels a day of oil by sea in the first 10 months of 2024, about 30% of the nation’s total flows on tankers, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The US is also sanctioning more than two dozen of the companies’ subsidiaries as well as more than 180 vessels, many of which are associated with Russia’s so-called shadow fleet. The latest action doubles the number of targeted oil tankers. There are currently 135 tankers sanctioned by the European Union, UK and US, with many of them blacklisted by some combination of the three. The moves appear likely to disrupt the nation’s exports of petroleum and

Christopher O’Shea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, has said he is “worried” about low gas reserves this winter. “I’m worried because today we have less than 1 week’s gas supply in store in the UK,” O’Shea said in a social media post on Friday. “We need the lights to go on every time the switch is flicked anywhere in the country. And we’re too close to that not being the case for comfort in my view.” The energy giant warned that UK gas stores fell to “concerningly low” levels this month amid freezing cold temperatures. Stocks at UK gas storage sites were 26% lower than the same period last year on Thursday, leaving them at half capacity, it said. The National Electricity System Operator (NESO) issued a system notice on Wednesday, warning of possible blackouts following a 1.7 GW power “shortfall”. The grid operator’s warning followed fears of low wind output and interconnector grid outages that affected imports from Europe. O’Shea cited concern over European gas imports, which have been constrained by restrictions on gas from Russia. “Today it’s very cold and not very windy or sunny,” he said. “Right now the UK is using 45GW of electricity. 2.5GW is coming from solar, 0.6GW is coming from hydro and 3.2GW is coming from wind. Which means we need almost 40GW from elsewhere. “We’re importing almost 7GW from Europe.” The loss of gas from pipelines in Russia has meant Europe and the UK are dependent on a combination of domestic supply, storage, imported gas and liquefied natural gas. The system operator said on Wednesday that wind power delivered 30% of electricity demand in 2024, making it the highest contributor of electricity in a single year. Renewables generated “more than 50% of our electricity for four consecutive quarters”, to and including the third

Crude is climbing today amid reports that the U.S. may unveil a broader sanctions package targeting Russian tankers. That’s what Rebecca Babin, a senior equity trader for CIBC Private Wealth in New York, told Rigzone in an interview on Friday when asked why the oil price is rising today. “This has raised concerns among Indian buyers, who have been the primary purchasers of Russian barrels,” Babin added. “While this story has been on traders’ radar for the past week, the potential scope of the sanctions appears larger than initially anticipated,” Babin continued. “Additionally, cold weather across the U.S. is boosting heating oil demand and could tighten supply due to freeze-offs. Breaking above the key $75 resistance level in WTI has likely triggered systematic fund buying, further propelling the rally,” Babin went on to state. When Rigzone asked Bill Farren-Price, the Head of Gas Research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, why the oil price is rising today in a separate interview on Friday, he told Rigzone he thinks it’s “a combination of cold winter fuel oil and diesel demand, a continued response to OPEC+’s decision in early December to extend cuts, and concerns that Trump 2.0 could mean fresh sanctions on producers”. When Rigzone asked Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates, the same question in another interview on Friday, Varga said, “cold weather in Europe and the U.S. raises expectations of distillate stock draw”. “Existing and planned sanctions on Russia and Iran forces China to look for alternative crude oil supply. It helps Brent. And so does low Cushing stocks, which supports WTI and makes U.S. crude oil exports uneconomic,” Varga added. Answering the same question in another interview today, Ahmed Ben Salem, an oil and gas analyst at ODDO BHF, told Rigzone, “I guess it is