Markets

It is a follow-up to the Feature of the Week: Diesel Crisis, on Aug. 3. While crude markets remain relatively muted below $100/b, downstream fuel markets are experiencing unprecedented supply tightness, particularly diesel.

Crude oil futures experienced sustained upward momentum throughout the week as lingering geopolitical risks, a hardening U.S. stance against Iran, and ongoing shipping hazards in the Strait of Hormuz offset efforts by Persian Gulf producers to maintain export volumes.

Looking into the coming week, crude benchmarks—WTI, Brent, and Murban—are positioned to maintain a firm geopolitical floor, while remaining vulnerable to sudden headline shifts.

The reinstated US naval blockade has effectively halted Iranian oil exports, making Tehran's crude irrelevant to global oil balances.

US petroleum markets are defined by expanding commercial crude inventories, elevated domestic refinery throughput, robust Atlantic Basin export demand, and an aggressive upstream pivot by major producers toward domestic and regional assets.

Following dramatic geopolitical shifts in early 2026, Venezuela’s vast hydrocarbons sector is undergoing a rapid, multi-faceted restructuring.

In contrast to Mexico's decision to hold back its shale activity—as discussed in the

Europe is trapped in a cycle of energy crises—from Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the Red Sea attacks to the Iran war—yet the continent's greatest threat may not be geopolitical conflict but the terminal decline of global oil production.

As the Strait of Hormuz remains heavily disrupted by the Iran war, Gulf oil producers are deploying increasingly creative and costly workarounds to keep crude flowing to global markets.

China and Japan, Asia's two largest oil importers, have adopted fundamentally different strategies to survive the worst supply disruption in decades.