Soaring Electricity Demand Meets Gas Turbine Shortage

The surge in electricity demand in the worlds AI hotspots has prompted a comparable surge in the demand for reliable supply. That surge was not expected. There are not enough gas turbines to secure that supply. This means the AI revolution would either have to slow down, or the grid would have to increase its reliance on coal. Natural gas has in recent years been marketed as a so-called bridge fuel between coal and oil, on the one hand, and wind and solar, on the other. When it became clear that bridge is in fact its own country of low-emission baseload generation, natural gas became the object of vilification from activists, to the point that some claimed it was even more harmful for the atmosphere than coal. Then came the AI race. As Big Tech majors rush to expand their artificial intelligence ...

Saudi Arabia, Iran Boost Oil Exports amid Rising Mideast Tensions

Saudi Arabia and Iran are both accelerating oil exports, adding barrels to global markets at a time when the US is deploying military assets in the Middle East, creating uncertainty about future supply. Saudi Arabia is on course to export the most crude in almost three years this month, while Iran has been rapidly filling up tankers in recent days. Combined flows from Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are set to climb almost 600,000 barrels a day from the same period in January, Vortexa Ltd. data show. The buildup in exports and shipping comes as US President Donald Trump weighs next steps in dealings with Iran, raising the stakes for oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for roughly a fifth of global seaborne crude flows. Prior to the US attack on Iran last year, Saudi Arabia boosted ...

Biggest Oil Companies Face 22 Million Barrel Per Day Production Gap by 2040

Wood Mackenzie analysis reveals that 30 of the world's largest oil and gas companies face a combined 22 million barrels of oil equivalent per day production shortfall by 2040 to maintain their market share of oil and gas demand. That's what Wood Mackenzie stated in a release sent to Rigzone on Thursday. In that release, Wood Mackenzie noted that the group of 30 companies collectively produces around 50 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, meeting close to 30 percent of global demand, but added that its latest report expects production from current commercial projects for these 30 companies to fall nearly 40 percent between 2025 and 2040. “Filling the 22 million barrels of oil equivalent per day gap is the equivalent to adding nearly two Permian basins or 14 Guyana-scale plays,” Wood Mackenzie highlighted. “The main industry players can't spend their way ...

Biggest Oil Companies Face 22 Million Barrel Per Day Production Gap by 2040

Black Sea Bottleneck Stalls Tengiz Oil Comeback

Storms in the Black Sea and alerts of potential drone attacks at a key loading terminal are slowing the ramp up of crude oil production at Kazakhstan's giant Tengiz oilfield, industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday. The huge field, capable of producing 950,000 barrels per day, was forced to shut down last month following a fire at the site that damaged critical power supply. Since then, the field, operated by a Chevron-led consortium, has resumed operations and has been gradually raising production. However, the pace of the ramp-up has been slowed due to severe storms in the Black Sea terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles most of Kazakhstan's crude oil exports. Alerts of potential drone strikes from Ukraine on the energy infrastructure on the Russian Black Sea coast have also disrupted loading schedules and forced the Tengiz field to hold off ...

OPEC+ To Consider Oil Output Hike By 137,000 bpd For April

OPEC+ is likely to consider increasing oil output by 137,000 barrels per day (bpd) for April 2026, ending a three-month pause in hikes as they prepare for peak summer demand and navigate market share strategies, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday ahead of a scheduled cartel meeting on March 1. The group had previously implemented 137,000 bpd hikes in late 2025 before pausing increases for the first quarter of 2026 in a bid to avoid creating a supply surplus. Unwinding previous output cuts will allow key members such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE to claw back some market share at a time when oil prices are supported by ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Oil prices have been surging in response to growing U.S.-Iran tensions, with Brent crude jumping to a seven-month high above $71 per barrel. Fears of military action and potential ...

Oil Prices Slip as Massive US Crude Build Offsets Iran Supply Concerns

Oil prices turned negative on Wednesday as a much larger-than-expected U.S. crude stock build outweighed mounting supply concerns from escalating tensions between the United States and Iran. Brent futures were down 12 cents at $70.65 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell 26 cents to $65.37. Record US Crude Build U.S. crude inventories surged by 16 million barrels last week as refinery utilization fell and imports increased, according to the Energy Information Administration. That dramatically exceeded analysts expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.5-million-barrel rise. The EIA adjustment number, which totals unaccounted-for changes in crude stocks, hit a record 2.7 million barrels per day last week. "A bearish EIA report with a large crude build... the price impact was however limited, as the oil market remains more influenced by other factors at present, such as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East," said ...

Saudi Arabia, Iran Boost Oil Exports amid Rising Mideast Tensions

EIA Sees USA Energy Demand Under 2025 Levels for Next 2 Years

In its latest short term energy outlook (STEO), which was released on February 10, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected that U.S. total energy consumption will remain below 2025 levels in both 2026 and 2027. According to its latest STEO, the EIA now sees U.S. total energy consumption coming in at 96.00 quadrillion British thermal units (qBtu) this year and 96.15 qBtu next year. In 2025, U.S. total energy consumption was 96.19 qBtu, the STEO showed. A quarterly breakdown included in the EIA's latest STEO projected that U.S. total energy consumption will come in at 25.30 qBtu in the first quarter of this year, 22.41 qBtu in the second quarter, 24.06 qBtu in the third quarter, 24.23 qBtu in the fourth quarter, 24.93 qBtu in the first quarter of next year, 22.61 qBtu in the second quarter, 24.29 qBtu in the ...

MuseLetter #395: The Empire Crumbles

MuseLetter #395 / February 2026 by Richard Heinberg In the wee hours of Monday, January 19, US president Donald Trump sent a now-infamous text message to the prime minister of Norway: "Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. . . . The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you!" Trump's brief, belligerent message underscores a stark reality: one man is causing an acceleration of civilizational collapse. Only hours later, at the annual gathering of world political and financial leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a general sense of fear ...

How the EU Could Unlock 22 Trillion Cubic Feet of Barents Gas

A rethink of the European Union's Arctic policy could keep Norway's Barents Sea gas ...

Reed Bank Gas Development in South China Sea Hinges on Foreign Partnership

A Philippine tycoon said partnering with China may be an option in the development ...

UK Hits Russian Oil Fleet with Biggest Sanctions in Years

The UK government announced new sanctions on Russia's so-called shadow oil fleet as it ...

The Empire Crumbles: Accelerating Collapse and Community Resilience

The Empire Crumbles: Accelerating Collapse and Community Resilience By Richard Heinberg, MuseLetter #395, February 2026 Systems ...