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The Lunar New Year brings shifts in supply in demand patterns across commodities, and 2019 was no different. Chinese oil imports saw a strong year on year increase in January,  but February figures are likely to be weaker due to the vacation. Meanwhi...

In the event of Brexit there could be long-term consequences for UK-Russia energy links, if the UK's policy on sanctions against Russia changes to reflect its vocal opposition to the current Russian government, and close relationship with the US. "T...

From relatively traditional roots, the Japanese beer industry became a hotbed of innovation in 2018. For over 100 years, legislation dictated that beer had to contain 67% malt, with the balance of 33% strictly water, hops, yeast, corn, rice, or more ...

Narrower price spreads between US crudes and Dubai-based crudes have limited arbitrage opportunities to export US crude to Asia recently, S&P Global Platts data shows. However, some deals continue to get done as US crude delivered to Asia remains at ...

Coal is having a bad time in Europe. Germany - the world's fourth largest economy - has said it will phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038 while in the UK, the closure of another large coal plant was announced. Despite these setbacks, the fu...

"If there's one trade that keeps me up at night, it's palladium. If you want my advice, stay clear of it,� were the comforting words of one senior trader who spoke to S&P Global Platts recently. Palladium has been sky-rocking over the past two year...

Renewable energy sources are now a commercially profitable business in many parts of Asia Pacific without government largesse and subsidy support. But the renewables story has just started. Primary energy demand in the region is expected to grow by o...

The US will become a net oil exporter sometime next year. That is, total exports of both crude oil and refined petroleum products will exceed total imports. It’s a remarkable milestone, even if it doesn’t mean that the US is self-sufficie...

Strong demand for sour crude grades helped boost LOOP Sour deliveries in January. In a recent report from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the company said LOOP Sour demand nearly tripled month on month, increasing by some 620,000 barrels to more tha...

Venezuela should be a global oil-exporting superpower. Instead, the Marxist junta ruling the country teeters on the brink of complete economic collapse, with hyperinflation reminiscent of Weimar Germany and the chances of a political coup d'état in...

Renewables are the big winners in the European Union's new power market rules, which are designed to help the grid cope with ever increasing shares of variable sources such as wind and solar. This is part of the EU's long-term push to cut its green...

Activity in what has been a mostly sluggish US Gulf of Mexico is expected to increase modestly in 2019, bringing production growth and more exploration aimed at finding the elephant fields of the future. Brent crude has fallen $20 from highs in the m...

The Upper Midwest market has become the crossroads of America for natural gas, and finding that sweet spot helped the region get through a record-breaking freeze without breaking the bank. Chicago demand reached an all-time high of 10.65 Bcf January ...

This week marks the start of a new phase in London-Brussels relations. But it has nothing to do with Brexit, and it won’t be political power returning to Westminster as a result of the UK’s departure from the European Union. Instead, the ...

The iron ore market’s structural change last year is all to do with the environment, and led by demand patterns in China. Iron ore with a higher content of iron, Fe, allows a reduction of coal usage in the steelmaking process, lowering carbon e...

US light sweet crudes such as WTI Midland and Bakken have been offered into Asia at lower premiums in recent months amid a drop in freight rates from the US Gulf Coast to the Far East, sources in Asia said Monday. Taiwan’s CPC was heard to have...

Shareholder activism has a long history in commodities. In the early 17th century, Isaac Le Maire, grain trader and disgruntled former governor of the Dutch East India Company, attempted to break the company's monopoly by speculatively trading its s...

Rapid technology advances are allowing explorers and producers in Alaska to add hundreds of millions of barrels of new resources to portfolios at a cost competitive with finding oil the Lower 48 states. Chief among the technologies being used are adv...

The LNG market continues to confound expectations. The past year saw strengthening of Platts' JKM despite new supply, as well as de-correlation from other commodities, and flattening seasonality. Meanwhile, in 2017/2018, large volumes of more flexib...

As the UK's self-imposed Brexit deadline of March 29 looms, some market participants in the container shipping industry are bracing themselves for a boost in rates. Hopes of more clarity on the future relationship between the UK and the EU were dash...

As Nigeria gears up for elections next month, policies on mining and mineral exploration will be of special interest to investors. While the country is known for its high-quality crude, with global oil prices significantly below their past highs, Nig...

With gas production from the giant onshore Groningen field set to fall to less than 4 Bcm/year in the early 2020s and to be shut in permanently by 2030 - or even earlier - the Netherlands will become increasingly dependent on imports. For a country u...

A pharmaceutical company’s ill-fated attempt to focus on trading bunker fuel derivatives highlights the unpredictability that IMO 2020 has injected into oil markets. Having sold off its opioids business the previous year, in early 2018, Norway&...

Hitachi's decision to down tools on its proposed GBP16 billion ($20.6 billion) nuclear project in Wales, announced on January 17, could be a blessing in disguise for British consumers. Instead of further subsidizing a globally declining industry, th...

Get used to more scary oil market volatility in 2019. This is the message coming from leading industry strategists and forecasters after a bruising end to last year, when Brent crude dipped below $50/b. Although the benchmark has recovered along with...

US LNG export projects, whether brownfield or greenfield, are multi-year, billion dollar projects. While construction timelines dictate their commissioning schedule, there can be inconvenient and convenient times in the unpredictable natural gas mark...

There have been better starts to the New Year. The December Caixin Manufacturing PMI, a survey of Chinese manufacturing activity, contracted for the first time in 17 months. Soon after, reports began to emerge that China's growth target will be lowe...

Favorable freight economics have helped drive up demand for light, sweet US crude oil in Europe and an expanding list of countries, including Germany, are looking to import barrels from the US Gulf Coast. USGC-to-Europe crude flows have been on the r...

The internal combustion engine faces an expiry date as the transportation sector moves decidedly towards electrification. Plastics and heavy transportation will not sustain high oil demand on their own. The question is whether the inevitable energy t...

Saudi Arabia has finally silenced its peak oil critics and simultaneously revived interest in its stalled $2 trillion plan to IPO state-owned producer Aramco. The kingdom revealed last week it has enough crude to pump at current rates for at least an...

EU carbon market analysts in December 2018 predicted that sharp price volatility seen in the second half of the year would continue into 2019. As of early January, they’ve been proved right. After surging close to 10-year highs of over Eur25.00...

US President Donald Trump’s administration rocked the global steel market in 2018, with the introduction of a 25% tariff on steel imports that changed trade flows and set off a chain reaction of retaliatory tariffs and additional safeguard meas...

What appears to be the first Very Large Crude Carrier of the year to load and depart from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port is bound for Yeosu, South Korea, according to cFlow, Platts trade flow software. The 2 million barrel-capacity Amad set sail fro...

Russia’s recent win at the World Trade Organization against the EU’s efforts to diversify its gas supplies has come too late to stop Eastern Europe gaining access to non-Russian supplies, even if the EU loses its appeal against it. The EU...

Saudi Arabia cannot continue living beyond its means indefinitely. The kingdom is projecting another hefty budget deficit this year after crude prices plummeted by about than 40% since last October. Until the Arabian petrodollar states learn to tight...

Years late and massively over-budget, Europe's first EPR nuclear plants in Finland and France are on the verge of "energizing�, as the sector jargon goes. Barring last-minute glitches, this will be the final act in what must be the longest-running c...

Is blockchain gaining a foothold in the energy sector? The last two years witnessed a boom in projects around commodities trading and logistics using distributed ledger technology, but the pilots proved slow to move on from proof of concept phases. T...

Prices of a key Australian thermal coal grade went on a rollercoaster ride in 2018 following unexpected friction during yearly contract talks with a major export market, Japan. This hiccup in trade was shortlived and gave way to sustained high prices...

Oil producers are invariably in it for the long haul. Investing billions of dollars to find and develop new resources entails an almost clairvoyant understanding of future demand cycles. However, volatile prices and uncertainty over global growth may...

In early December, President Donald Trump tweeted: "...I am a Tariff Man. When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. It will always be the best way to max out our economi...

There were 56 episodes of Platts’ Capitol Crude podcast this year, covering nearly everything US oil policy touched from Boulder, Colorado to Beijing, China. Here are 10 of our favorite episodes from 2018: February 20 - Free at last! Just days ...

S&P Global Platts President, Martin Fraenkel, explores the issues that will drive commodities in the coming year. After a year of seismic shifts in policy, geopolitics and trade, 2019 could be eventful. The landscape for commodity markets is also cha...

Despite a record rate of US coal-fired power plant closures in 2018, domestic coal prices are unlikely to come under significant pressure, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics, partly because exports are currently providing an outlet for excess s...

Falling crude imports to Texas have tightened the regional sour crude market, boosting the assessed price differential of US Gulf of Mexico grade Southern Green Canyon. The medium sour crude, with an average API gravity of 29.9 degrees and typical su...

The global effort to reduce reliance on gasoline and diesel may be fought on the streets of the world’s cities. In Buenos Aires , officials are making it easier to get around by bike and public transport, even on foot, to reduce car traffic and...

If the threat of higher diesel taxes was enough to cause riots on the streets of Paris, then the impact of an obscure new rule forcing shipping companies to use cleaner fuels in commercial vessels has the potential to turn the "gilets jaunes� movemen...

India's steel production is expected to almost double by 2025 and M&A activity could result in a leaner industry, but headwinds remain, including tight credit lines and exposure to raw material prices. S&P Global Platts spent a week in India in Nove...

Looming 2020 regulations capping marine fuel sulfur at 0.5% have so far benefited manufacturers marketing scrubbers - or exhaust gas cleaning systems, as they are more formally known - but this solution is now being viewed with a more critical eye. A...

The preliminary LNG offtake agreement announced on December 6 between export developer Tellurian and trader Vitol, marks a conspicuous shift in the balance of power in LNG contract markets. The memorandum of understanding calls for Vitol to lift 1.5 ...

Three VLCCs departed the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port over the week ended December 8, with the crude cargoes on board bound for India and South Korea. LOOP did not release the names of the vessels that were loaded and it was unclear exactly which VLCC...