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U.S., Israel and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. Dado Ruvic | ReutersOil prices fell more than 3% on Friday as President Donald Trump holds off for now on helping Israel to destroy OPEC member Iran’s nuclear program.Global benchmark Brent fell $2.78, or 3.53%, to $76.07 per barrel. U.S. crude oil gained 84 cents, or 1.12%, to $74.30 per barrel.Trump said Thursday that he would make his decision on striking Iran within the next two weeks, but wanted to provide space for potential negotiations to take place over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.”Based on the…

China saw its shipments of rare earth magnets to foreign markets crash by 53% in May to the lowest level for any month since February 2020, according to data from the General Administration of Customs cited by Reuters.At the beginning of April, China announced it would curb its exports of dysprosium, gadolinium, scandium, terbium, samarium, yttrium, and lutetium. These so-called “heavy” and “medium” rare earth elements are mostly used in automotive applications, including rotors and motors and transmission in electric vehicles and hybrids, as well as in the defense industry in parts of jets, missiles, and drones.China also imposed restrictions on exports of…

TotalEnergies SE and QatarEnergy have secured an exploration area spanning 14,900 square kilometers (5,752.92 square miles) onshore Algeria. The Ahara license, awarded under the North African country’s 2024 bidding round, sits at the “intersection of the prolific Berkine and Illizi Basins”, TotalEnergies said in a press release. France’s TotalEnergies will serve as operator with a 24.5 percent stake during the exploration and appraisal phases. State-owned QatarEnergy also owns 24.5 percent. Algeria’s national oil and gas company Sonatrach SpA has the majority stake of 51 percent in accordance with Algerian law. Ahara marks QatarEnergy’s entry into Algeria’s upstream sector, QatarEnergy said…

Stock markets ticked higher on Friday while oil skirted close to its biggest daily drop since April after President Donald Trump pushed back a decision on US military involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict.Rising risks from the Middle East have loomed large on the world’s top indexes again this week.Europe’s main bourses all rose between 0.5 per cent-1 per cent after similar gains across Asia, although it was touch and go whether it would be enough to prevent a second straight weekly loss for MSCI’s main world index. Israel bombed targets in Iran, and Iran fired missiles at Israel overnight as…

  Japan’s talks with the US over trade and tariffs “remained in a fog,” the country’s top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Friday. Tokyo has been unable to achieve a trade deal with Washington and fulfill its goal of convincing President Donald Trump to scrap a 25% tariff on cars from Japan, and a 24% tariff on other Japanese imports that has been paused until July 9, despite efforts by both sides to reach an agreement. July 9 is an important date but not a deadline for bilateral trade talks, Akazawa told a news conference. Commentators have said an…

The Johan Castberg oilfield in the Barents Sea has reached full capacity of 220,000 barrels per day (bpd), operator Equinor said on Friday, noting that peak capacity has been reached just three months after the field in Norway’s Arctic waters came on stream.Seventeen of a total of 30 wells have now been completed. The wells that have come on stream are producing as expected, Equinor said.At the end of March, Equinor started up the Johan Castberg oilfield, following several months of delays due to inclement winter weather in the waters of Norway’s Arctic.The project is expected to recoup the $8…

Canadian institutional investor, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (La Caisse, formerly CDPQ), announced a new sustainable investing target, aiming to reach $400 billion in “climate action” investments by the end of this decade. The pledge, unveiled as part of La Caisse’s 2025–2030 climate strategy, marks a major acceleration in the asset owner’s efforts to drive global decarbonization and support the energy transition, following La Caisse’s success in surpassing its prior climate goals, set in 2021, to reach $54 billion investments in low carbon assets and $10 billion in industrial decarbonization investments by 2025. La Caisse also said that…

HPQ Silicon Inc., a technology company driving innovation in advanced materials and critical process development, is proud to announce that its French technology partner, NOVACIUM SAS, has launched the industrial production of cylindrical lithium-ion battery cells incorporating its third-generation silicon-based anode material. Following the press releases dated July 30, 2024, and March 19, 2025, which highlighted the strong performance of 18650 cells made using its GEN3 silicon-based anode material, Novacium has attracted significant interest from a number of key players in the energy sector. The resulting cells — offering a capacity of 4,000 mAh and 1,000 charge cycles — are…

Mumbai has introduced battery-swapping stations at 31 Metro and Monorail locations. These battery-swapping kiosks allow users of Honda-compatible electric two- and three-wheelers to quickly exchange their depleted Mobile Power Pack for a fully charged one in under two minutes. Mumbai’s latest battery swapping initiative is a collaboration between Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Ltd (MMMOCL) and Honda Power Pack Energy India Pvt Ltd. The project has installed battery swapping stations for two and three-wheeled electric vehicles in battery kiosks at 25 Metro stations across the city, as well as six monorail stations. MMMOCL expects the stations to earn extra non-fare…

The European Commission has proposed legislation to stop the importation of natural gas, oil and oil products from Russia into the European Union by 2027, betting on global liquefied natural gas (LNG) and increased regional infrastructure interconnectivity. “This will increase our energy independence while also reducing the revenues Putin uses to finance his war”, Energy and Housing Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said in a statement issued online by the Commission. “The Commission will work hand in hand with all Member States, especially those that may face challenges because of this. No Member State will be left without energy as a result…