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There have been persistent rumors that industry insiders are bracing for a widespread shortage of motor oil. Are these rumors accurate? I decided that I was going to investigate this and discover the truth. Unfortunately, I have very bad news. Multiple sources within the industry are confirming that we are facing much higher prices and physical shortages of certain products if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened soon.I realize that what I have just shared is not welcome news, but it isn't going to do any good to stick our heads in the sand.According to Axios, supply chains for...

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz means virtually no gas has left Qatar’s shore for more than two months. The nation is also cut off from the sea routes through which it imports everything from vehicles to produce. Fears of regional instability have hurt tourism and eroded business sentiment. Ras Laffan, Qatar’s industrial center for gas production, is shuttered, and roads are blocked. At the vast Hamad port south of Doha, loading cranes stand paralyzed. Throughout the capital, hotels and boutiques sit in noticeable silence. Qatar’s growth forecasts have been slashed amid the cessation of L.N.G. trade. For Qatar,...

A new Toyota dealer bulletin is starting to spread online, and it’s raising a question most enthusiasts never expected to ask in 2026: why is Toyota suddenly telling dealers to substitute engine oil? The internal document (2026-013), dated April 30, 2026, warns Toyota Parts and Service Managers about temporary supply issues involving Toyota Genuine Motor Oil 0W-8 and 0W-16. According to the bulletin, Toyota and ExxonMobil “may experience challenges in fulfilling demand” due to “production and logistics constraints within the global petrochemical supply chain.” And honestly, the timing is hard to ignore. Toyota Is Reportedly Facing A Supply Issue With...

PARIS, May 18 (Reuters) - Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said on Monday ​that commercial oil inventories were depleting rapidly with only a few weeks worth ‌left due to the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. Birol, who is participating in the Group of Seven finance leaders meeting in Paris, told reporters that the release of strategic oil reserves ​had added 2.5 million barrels of oil per day to the market, but ​said these reserves "are not endless". The onset of the spring planting and summer ⁠travel seasons in the northern...

Iran has reportedly begun dumping oil into the Persian Gulf after running out of storage capacity for excess crude. Images allegedly showing oil residue in the waters around Kharg Island began circulating around 10 days ago, with more continuing to emerge as time has gone on. Some reports warn that the situation is rapidly becoming an environmental disaster, as Iran’s coastline has reportedly become heavily coated in oil, which is now said to be spreading to the shores of neighboring countries, including Kuwait.

PARIS, May 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury decided to extend ​its sanctions waiver ‌on Russian seaborne oil, which lapsed on Saturday, after ​several countries asked ​for more time to ⁠buy Russian oil, a ​source familiar with the ​plan said on Monday. The waiver will last another 30 ​days, the source said. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. The ​United States had issued the waiver ‌in ⁠a bid to ease oil supply shortages and high prices due to ​Iran's ​closure ⁠of the Strait of Hormuz amid ​a...

-The UK government will introduce legislation banning new North Sea oil and gas exploration licences as part of its Energy Independence Bill. -Critics argue the policy will increase Britain’s reliance on imported fossil fuels while damaging Scotland’s oil and gas industry. -Rising oil prices and disruptions tied to the Iran conflict have intensified political pressure on Labour to reconsider the ban. The government will make it illegal to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, the King said at the state opening of Parliament, in a sign ministers are refusing to buckle in the face of a...

"They're looking to explore Alaska" is the latest word on how Communist China might reduce its dependence on uncertain Persian Gulf oil imports, according to a Fox News report on Thursday. As you must know by now, President Donald Trump and his impressive entourage are in Beijing for a two-day summit with Chinese Communist Party boss Xi Jinping, which always makes for great TV. I grew up watching presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush meet with an accelerating array of Soviet party bosses, usually so that they could agree that neither side would build more nuclear missiles...

(Links * | * | *)The Jewish Voice Pictorial. vols. 7-10. (1944-7). United States: Cleveland, Ohio, p.8 The Arabs of the Middle East. (End of 1945). THE Arabs of the Near East have quite unexpectedly been brought into the foreground by the end of the Second World War in Europe. In contract with the attitude of America, England and others towards the Jews, who threw themselves, body and soul, into the struggle against Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy and contributed so very much towards winning the war in the Near East, is the suddenly manifested great friendship for the Arabs...

Peru has decided to tap its fuel reserves to protect domestic supply and contain the impact of what is already being described as the country’s worst energy crisis in the last 20 years, following a gas pipeline rupture that severely disrupted the national energy system. The measure was announced by Prime Minister Denisse Miralles, as authorities moved to respond to the emergency triggered by the shutdown of a section of pipeline operated by Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP) in the Megantoni district. The incident led to restrictions in gas deliveries to industrial users and the power sector, while the...

U.S. gasoline inventories are on pace to drop to historical seasonal lows by late summer, further straining a tight fuel market upended by the war in Iran. Stockpiles are expected to fall below 200 million barrels by the end of August, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a May 4 note. The projections for record seasonal low fuel inventories are the latest indication that the global energy supply crunch appears set to continue for months to come. “The U.S. gasoline market is genuinely tight and tightening further into summer,” Morgan Stanley analyst Martijn Rats and strategists Charlotte Firkins and Amy Gower...

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), futures on NYMEX, is 2.6% higher to near $98.00 during the European trading session on Tuesday. The oil price gains sharply amid growing doubts that the temporary ceasefire between the United States (US) and Iran, announced in early April, would last long. Tensions between the US and Iran have renewed as US President Donald Trump stated, on Monday, that Iran’s proposal was “stupid”, adding, “Ceasefire is on life support.” The renewed uncertainty over the US-Iran permanent resolution has prompted fears of a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage to almost 20% of...

“Operation Epic Fury was the loud one. Operation Economic Fury is the quiet one. . . . While the carriers were on television, Treasury was doing the actual demolition.” —Jesús Enrique Rosas on X Expect a consequential week. The Persian Gulf remains closed and colossal oil slicks leak out of Kharg Island while Iran blusters and stomps its feet. No one can even try to buy its oil anymore, not even China. The sanctions are too onerous. Iran’s wells must be shut in now. Imagine how the production chiefs out in the oil fields are howling at their insane IRGC...

Satellite imagery revealed a massive suspected oil slick spreading near Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, in what experts say could be evidence that Tehran’s oil infrastructure is buckling under mounting U.S. pressure. The slick, seen in Copernicus Sentinel satellite images between Wednesday and Friday, covered roughly 45 square kilometers west of the island, according to analysts cited by Reuters. The incident is emerging as a potential sign that Trump’s maritime pressure campaign is achieving one of its central objectives: overwhelming Iran’s export system to the point where Tehran can no longer move or store crude fast enough to...

In case of any doubt about Norway’s commitment to maintain – and expand – its production of gas and oil offshore, the energy minister, Terje Aasland, has a pithy response: “We will develop, not dismantle, activity on our continental shelf.” This week, to the alarm of environmental campaigners, he announced that three gasfields off the country’s southern coast would reopen by the end of 2028 – nearly three decades after they closed – to meet a shortfall caused by the impact of the war in Ukraine and disruption to supplies from the Middle East. The decision will help keep gas...

“As we warned: the regime has run out of storage capacity. For days now, they’ve been faking tanker transfers while pouring massive amounts of extracted oil straight into the ocean. Deliberate. Criminal. Environmental catastrophe. They are literally poisoning the sea. This is ecocide in real time.”

China had a head start on controling rare earths. Trump cut off oil from Iran to China, and uses that as leverage to get access to China rare earths. Israel is pioneering new rare earth extraction technology in the Negev, and working on recycling old electronics and batteries for their rare earth content.

The Norwegian government has been heavily criticised for approving plans to reopen three North Sea gasfields nearly three decades after they were closed to help fill the gap in energy supplies created by the Middle East war. Amid sharp price rises in oil and gas since the US and Israel’s attack on Iran in February, Oslo has also given its approval for oil and gas companies to explore in 70 new locations in the North Sea, Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea. The decision by the Labour-run government goes against the advice of the country’s environment agency and has infuriated left-leaning...

American attack helicopters sank six Iranian small boats in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday — as the Trump administration works to back the regime into a corner — forcing it to choose between allowing ships through the strait or attacking them and provoking a return to war. Two US-flagged cargo ships successfully passed through the strait as part of a new American initiative, “Project Freedom.” Frustrated by the lack of progress with Iranian negotiators, Trump is allegedly forcing Iran’s hand by deploying US warships directly into the Strait of Hormuz to escort neutral vessels that have been trapped in...

Beijing's empire isn't built on factories, AI labs, or rare earths. It's built on a single nation the West spent two decades dismissing — Iran. And the day Tehran's regime falls, the entire architecture China assembled over thirty years folds inward like wet cardboard. In this deep dive, we expose the hidden financial, energy, and geographic dependencies binding Beijing to Tehran — from the secret yuan-settled oil deals and the petroyuan experiment, to the Belt and Road's only viable land corridor, to the $9–12 billion annual "shadow fleet" subsidy quietly underwriting Chinese export manufacturing. We examine why China cannot quietly...