Oil drifted higher in thin pre-holiday trading as investors’ conviction that the US and Iran can reach a nuclear deal waned while strong US data buoyed a shaky demand picture. West Texas Intermediate edged up by 0.5% to settle above $61 a barrel, with volumes trending lower ahead of Monday’s Memorial Day holiday. The US and Iran concluded a fifth round of nuclear talks in Rome that yielded “some but not conclusive progress,” according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. A wrong turn in the negotiations, which have spurred criticism from several high-ranking Iranian officials, may lead to tighter sanctions, crimping flows from the OPEC member. Meanwhile, strong US economic data helped erase an earlier rout of nearly 2% after President Donald Trump said in a social media post that the European Union had been “very difficult to deal with” and that he would recommend a 50% tariff to be imposed on the bloc on June 1. The US dollar slumped to its lowest level since 2023, making commodities priced in the currency more attractive. Geopolitics have been a major focus for traders this week, with a report from CNN that US intelligence suggested Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities driving brief gains earlier in the week. After that, Araghchi, Iran’s lead negotiator in talks with the US, said a deal was possible that would entail Tehran avoiding nuclear weapons, but not ditching uranium enrichment. Still, the outlook remains overall bearish. Crude has shed about 14% this year, hitting the lowest since 2021 last month, as OPEC+ loosened supply curbs at a faster-than-expected pace, just as the US-led tariff war posed headwinds for demand. Prices had recovered some ground as trade tensions between the US and China eased, but data this week also showed another increase in

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Thursday that the Baltic Sea is becoming “a new area of confrontation” with Russia, putting the country’s critical infrastructure increasingly at risk. His warning comes a day after Polish authorities said a sanctioned Russian ship was performing “suspicious maneuvers” near the power cable connecting Poland and Sweden. The tanker left for an unspecified Russian port after the Polish armed forces intervened, they said. The undersea power link was not damaged, but Poland is checking whether any explosive devices were planted, the prime minister said after meeting top navy commanders. The Baltic Sea has become a flashpoint in recent months after the detention of several vessels on suspicion of tearing up undersea telecommunications cables. Baltic nations have also increased scrutiny of unregistered tankers due to concerns about sanctioned Russian oil, saying that Moscow’s so-called ‘shadow fleet’ could lead to security breaches and environmental risks. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine there have been “too many incidents” in the Baltic Sea for Poland to take maritime security lightly, Tusk said at a meeting with Polish naval commanders in the coastal city of Gdynia on Thursday.  The risks are keenly felt in Poland, which shares a border with Russia’s ally Belarus and exclave of Kaliningrad, home to a naval base at Baltiysk. On Wednesday, Russia declared that it would defend its vessels in the Baltic Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, by all legal means after briefly deploying a fighter jet as Estonia tried to halt an oil tanker in its economic zone. In recent years, Poland has expanded its energy infrastructure to wean itself off Russian supplies. It has constructed a gas link to Norway, a liquefied natural gas import terminal as well as expanded port capacities to handle growing flows of goods and military aid to neighboring Ukraine. 

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, owner of the world’s largest fleet of liquefied natural gas carriers, said it is hard to buy Chinese vessels for the time being as the US ramps up scrutiny of the Asian country’s shipbuilding industry. “It is difficult to purchase Chinese vessels under the current circumstances, because of the port entry fees” that the US is proposing for China-built ships calling at its ports, a spokesperson for the Japanese firm said. Earlier on Friday, the Nikkei reported Mitsui O.S.K. was planning to shift new orders from China to South Korea. But the plans have not yet been finalized, the spokesperson told Bloomberg News. The Japanese firm is aiming to reduce risks, according to remarks made by President and Chief Executive Officer Takeshi Hashimoto during an interview.  “We will wait and see about new business with the Chinese,” Hashimoto said in the report, which added that Mitsui O.S.K. will not cancel any existing contracts with Chinese yards. Washington has issued a flurry of measures under President Donald Trump’s administration aimed at curbing China’s maritime dominance and reviving its own flagging shipbuilding industry. The moves have shaken up the global shipping market, prompting shipowners to rethink where they want their vessels to be built in the future. South Korean shipbuilders have sensed an opportunity. Last week, major shipbuilders HD Hyundai Co. and Hanwha Ocean Co. offered to help the US improve its shipbuilding capacity and restore its maritime dominance. South Korean builders have an 18% share of ships under construction worldwide in deadweight tons terms, while the Japanese have 11%, according to data from Clarksons Research. Mitsui O.S.K. owns a fleet of 97 LNG vessels, according to a 2024 corporate presentation. It also maintains the world’s second-largest merchant fleet at 873 vessels.  Chinese shipyards make up two-thirds of the global orderbook. In

President Donald Trump has said there is North Sea oil to last 100 years with the Granite City as its hub. A message posted on his site Truth Social also took aim at “unsightly windmills” – long a bugbear for Trump since he opposed the development of the Aberdeen Bay wind farm which can be seen from his golf course on the Menie Estate. The US president urged Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government to support “modernised drilling” in the North Sea which would cut the cost of energy. Mr Trump said “large amounts of oil lay waiting to be taken” as he promoted the White House’s trade agreement with Britain. “Our negotiated deal with the United Kingdom is working out well for all,” he said. “I strongly recommend to them, however, that in order to get their energy costs down, they stop with the costly and unsightly windmills, and incentivise modernized drilling in the North Sea, where large amounts of oil lay waiting to be taken. He added on his own social media site: “A century of drilling left, with Aberdeen as the hub. “The old fashioned tax system disincentivises drilling, rather than the opposite. “UK’s energy costs would go way down, and fast!” The president’s intervention came as the UK regulator Ofgem announced the first cut in the energy price cap for year which will reduce energy costs from July. However, prices still remain high and cost of energy for households and business has often been cited as major disincentive for investment and growth. It is not the first time he has weighed in on the North Sea since becoming 45th president. In January, he claimed the UK was making a “big mistake” in its energy policies, sharing a story about US oil and gas firm APA – previously

George Dibb has been seconded to the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) as principal policy advisor for industrial strategy as the government prepares to detail its plans for the economic growth. Dibb currently serves as associate director for economic policy and head of the Centre for Economic Justice at IPPR. He is responsible for leading and overseeing IPPR’s work on UK economic policy and is based in the Westminster office. His secondment to DESNZ will last for 12-month. Writing on LinkedIn, Dibb said: “Net zero is the economic opportunity of the 21st century so I’m delighted to be joining the team in DESNZ to ahead of the publication of the government’s industrial strategy white paper.” Margaret Curran, Baroness Curran has also received a position at DESNZ, becoming as minister of state. The move comes as her predecessor Philip Hunt, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, leaves the government. A DESNZ spokesperson said: “Lord Hunt has worked tirelessly on our clean energy superpower mission, steering the Great British Energy legislation through the House of Lords and working closely with the nuclear industry as the government puts Britain back in the global race for nuclear energy. “We thank him for all of his work and wish him the very best in retirement. We are delighted to welcome Baroness Curran to continue to deliver on the department’s priorities.” And writing on Twitter, secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband said: “Phil has been instrumental in passing the GB Energy Bill and has been a great advocate for our brilliant nuclear industry. He has earned his retirement from the frontline.” He added: “Having worked with Margaret for many years I know she will be a brilliant minister, fighting for energy security, lower bills, good jobs and climate action.” © Supplied by

A legal battle against the Net Zero Teesside (NZT) gas-fired power generation and carbon capture and storage project in the north-east of England was quashed in the appeal courts this week. Environmental consultant Andrew Boswell has lost his climate case against the project and its developers BP and Equinor in the Court of Appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice. Prime minister Keir Starmer sent a clear message earlier this year that he wanted to crack down on disruptive legal cases against major energy infrastructure in the UK. The energy secretary is responsible for approving environmental impact assessments for major infrastructure such as the NZT carbon capture projects, which Boswell sought to have repealed on the basis of an emissions calculation that he said was “out of date”. A second legal case against gas plant challenging government funding for the project is unlikely to be heard in court now that environmental campaigner Boswell has lost his appeal case against the project’s climate impact. NZT is a major project in the East Coast Cluster, one of two areas focused on carbon capture and storage (CCS) backed by £21.7 billion of government support. Boswell told Energy Voice that the second case was subject to a stay in court around the subsidy challenge. In that second case, he claimed that the project secured £10bn of subsidies, including a £6bn loan guarantee, only after he had launched his legal challenge. He argued in the High Court last year that the project’s emissions are greater than those that were accounted for in the impact assessment, and that it ignored upstream emissions produced outside the UK. He also said the project will create a sustained market for unabated gas production, which due to declining reserves in the North Sea, will make the country reliant on imports