Vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained subdued July 10-12 as heightened regional security risks continued to weigh on movements through the strategic waterway, according to S&P Global MINT and S&P Global Commodities at Sea data. A total of 73 vessels transited the strait during the 3-day period, averaging fewer than 25 crossings/day. Transits fell to 11 on July 12, the lowest since June 14, after Iran declared the strait closed amid what the Persian Gulf Strait Authority described as “illegal movements” of US military forces in the region. No inbound crossings were recorded July 12, the first such occurrence since June 12. Six of the day’s 11 transits were assessed as compliant vessels. Total crossings were 32 on July 10 and 30 on July 11. The Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) said July 12 that the regional threat level remained severe. Despite Iran’s closure declaration, JMIC said the southern route remained available and had been expanded for two-way vessel traffic. Energy carriers—including oil, chemical, LPG, and LNG tankers—accounted for about 48% of transits July 10-12. About two-thirds of energy-carrier crossings involved compliant vessels, although only 10 compliant energy carriers entered the Persian Gulf, mostly without visible automatic identification system (AIS) signals. Inbound tanker capacity also softened. An average 6.5 million b/d of new oil and LPG tanker capacity entered the Gulf through Hormuz July 1-12, with VLCCs and Suezmaxes accounting for nearly 80%. Average inbound capacity fell to 6 million b/d July 10-12 from 8.5 million b/d in the first week of July. All compliant outbound energy carriers transiting Hormuz during the 3-day period did so without visible AIS signals, including ADNOC-operated LNG carrier AL HAMRA and several VLCC and product tankers. Iran-linked and US-sanctioned vessels accounted for nearly 60% of all crossings during the period.

Date: Thursday, August 6, 2026Time: 11:00 AM (GMT-04:00) Eastern Time – New YorkDuration: 60 minutes Already registered? Click here to log in now. Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming a strategic priority across industrial organizations, yet many companies continue to struggle with fragmented data, disconnected workflows, and AI initiatives that never move beyond pilot projects. The challenge is not access to AI—it is creating the business context, governance, and lifecycle intelligence needed to transform AI insights into measurable operational outcomes. Join Siemens Digital Industries Software to learn how Intelligence Center X, part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, helps organizations connect enterprise data, workflows, and AI capabilities into a single governed environment where people and AI work together to drive faster, more informed decisions. In this session, we’ll explore how organizations can: • Move beyond isolated AI experiments to enterprise-scale deployment • Connect engineering, manufacturing, operations, supply chain, and service data into a unified intelligence framework • Enable AI agents to operate within governed, human-in-the-loop business processes • Improve operational performance through AI-assisted decision-making • Accelerate issue resolution, reduce manual effort, and increase organizational agility Attendees will also learn how Intelligence Center X combines lifecycle intelligence, industrial data models, AI orchestration, and low-code application development to create production-ready AI solutions that deliver measurable business value. Real-world examples will demonstrate how organizations have achieved significant improvements, including reductions in manual effort, faster issue resolution, improved data quality, and enhanced decision-making capabilities. Whether you are responsible for digital transformation, operations, manufacturing, engineering, or executive strategy, this webinar will provide practical insight into building a scalable foundation for industrial AI and creating a future where people and AI work together to drive business outcomes.

TotalEnergies has let contracts to Halliburton for work on the GranMorgu deepwater oil development project offshore Suriname. The workscope includes drilling and completions services for a long-term program that includes applying integrated digital workflows, real time data, and remote operations control for drilling and completions. As part of the project scope, Halliburton worked with local suppliers to upgrade its liquid mud and cement plant and supported construction of Suriname’s first completions and drilling workshop, featuring advanced maintenance and repair capabilities, the service provider said in a release July 13. The aim of the GranMorgu project is to develop resources on Block 58, which lies about 150 km off the Surinamese coast. Specifically, Sapakara and Krabdagu fields, which contain estimated recoverable reserves of nearly 760 million bbl, TotalEnergies noted on its website. The project’s floating production, storage, and offloading unit (FPSO), with a capacity of 220,000 b/d, is based on tested design principles of units in nearby Guyana and designed for potential future tie-in of satellite fields. Production start-up is expected in 2028. TotalEnergies is operator of the project with 40% interest. Partners are APA Corp. (40%) and state-owned Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname NV (20%).

Saudi Aramco has awarded Halliburton a multi-year contract to provide stimulation and completion services for the company’s unconventional gas development program in Saudi Arabia. Halliburton said July 15 that the award is part of a broader multibillion-dollar contract framework supporting the Kingdom’s unconventional resource expansion. Under the agreement, Halliburton will deploy intelligent fracturing automation technologies designed to optimize treatment performance in real time and support execution across multiwell development campaigns. The company said the technologies will enable greater digital integration across field operations. Development of the Jafurah unconventional gas field, the Middle East’s largest liquids-rich shale gas play, is under way. In support of the program, Halliburton plans to expand local manufacturing capacity, strengthen its supply chain network, and increase workforce development initiatives within the Kingdom as activity levels continue to grow. “Beginning in the third quarter of 2026, Halliburton will deploy the Kingdom’s first fully integrated intelligent fracturing platform through OCTIV® Auto Frac and Sensori™ fracturing monitoring services to contribute to asset value for one of the world’s largest unconventional fields,” said Rami Yassine, senior vice-president, Eastern Hemisphere, Halliburton. Jafurah background Jafurah is a key component of Aramco’s gas expansion strategy intended to help meet rising demand for natural gas in power generation and industry. In February 2026, the operator said it seeks to expand sales gas production capacity by about 80% by 2030 compared with 2021 production levels. At the time, Aramco said unconventional shale gas output from Jafurah began in December 2025. The field covers about 17,000 sq km and is estimated to contain 229 tcf of raw gas and 75 billion stb of condensate. Aramco expects the development to produce 2 bcfd of sales gas, 420 MMscfd of ethane, and about 630,000 b/d of high-value liquids by 2030.

Rompetrol Rafinare SA—jointly owned by Kazakhstan’s state-owned JSC NC KazMunayGas (KMG) subsidiary KMG International NV (54.63%) and Romania’s Ministry of Economy, Energy & Business Environment (44.7%)—is using proprietary operations management software from Emerson Electric Co. to improve alarm performance its more than 5-million tonne/year Petromidia refinery in Năvodari, Romania, on the Black Sea. To date, implementation of Emerson’s DeltaV AgileOps operations management software has helped reduce distributed control system (DCS) alarm volumes at the Petromidia refinery by more than 95%, the service provider said on July 14. Emerson said the project improved alarm performance, increased operator effectiveness, and brought alarm rates within the Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association (EEMUA) 191 guideline recommendations. Before implementation of DeltaV AgileOps, alarm behavior at the refinery—Romania’s largest—expanded beyond recommended best practices, including high alarm volumes during plant disturbances, nuisance-chattering alarms, and alarms that remained active during normal operation. To address those issues, Rompetrol Rafinare worked with KMG International’s engineering and maintenance services provider SC Rominserv SRL to improve alarm quality and reduce nuisance alarms across the refinery. Use of DeltaV AgileOps—which pulls alarm and event data directly from the DeltaV DCS running the plant—provided continuous visibility into alarm performance, including average and peak alarm rates, recurring alarm sequences, and time spent outside recommended operating thresholds, Emerson said. Following implementation, engineering teams at the refinery used performance dashboards and historical trending to identify high-frequency alarms, stale alarms, and nuisance “bad actor” alarms responsible for disproportionate alarm activity. The teams evaluated alarm behavior during steady-state operation, startup conditions, and process disturbances, then assessed proposed changes to alarm limits, priorities, and suppression strategies against plant data. Emerson said the project reduced alarm generation to fewer than 50,000 alarms/month from more than 2 million alarms/month during normal operation. Emerson—which linked the outcome to EEMUA 191 guidance that

US crude oil inventories for the week ended July 10, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased by 1.7 million bbl from the previous week, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). At 409.7 million bbl, US crude oil inventories are about 6% below the 5-year average for this time of year, the EIA report indicated. EIA said total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million bbl from last week and are 8% below the 5-year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories both decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 4.6 million bbl last week and are about 11% below the 5-year average for this time of year. Propane-propylene inventories increased by 3 million bbl from last week and are 28% above the 5-year average for this time of year, EIA said. US crude oil refinery inputs averaged 17.1 million b/d for the week ended July 10, which was 99,000 b/d more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 96.2% of capacity. Gasoline production decreased, averaging 9.6 million b/d. Distillate fuel production increased, averaging 5.3 million b/d. US crude oil imports averaged 5.7 million b/d, up 60,000 b/d from the previous week. Over the last 4 weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.5 million b/d, 12.2% less than the same 4-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports averaged 354,000 b/d. Distillate fuel imports averaged 93,000 b/d.