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Within the oil and gas industry thrives a powerful segment of participants whose investments in vital infrastructure enable ever-burgeoning development in the geographies they touch. They connect producers to users with a broad range of necessary specializations. The security of their future is tied to volumes moved in relati…

“I think gas prices are a conspiracy.” – Tom Braidwood On Sunday, a world chronically short of diesel woke up to the happy news that Ukraine—undoubtedly with the full support of those who currently occupy positions of power across Europe and Great Britain, and perhaps even the US—had caused significant damage at the Gazpromneft Moscow Refinery, a facility capable of handling 245,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. In the weeks leading up to the Moscow attack, the Ryazan Oil Refinery (320,000 bpd), Saratov Refinery (140,000 bpd), Syzran Refinery (150,000 bpd), and Yaroslavl Refinery (300,000 bpd) were also hit, while reports circulated on Monday morning that Ukrainian drones had attacked the Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim Oil Refinery (190,000 bpd) as well. We are undoubtedly missing others. Much rejoicing | AP In unrelated news, voters in Germany expressed a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the country’s direction of travel, dealing a wildly embarrassing blow to its hapless chancellor, F

“War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.” – William McKinley There’s no sugarcoating the ominous turn of events that occurred in the Middle East over the past two weeks. The rapid advance of the Houthis across the Red Sea coast, the serious damage sustained by the newly all-important East-West Pipeline in Saudi Arabia, and continuing signs of an imminent global diesel crunch all come on the heels of months of disruption to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The economic calamity that nearly everybody assumed would follow shortly after Hormuz closed—including us, it must be said—looks soon to be upon us. Bleeding the strategic reserves, stretching alternative supply routes, deferring massive amounts of crude demand, and talking up nonexistent peace negotiations certainly postponed the reckoning longer than most could have anticipated, but those tactics were always meant to buy time for things to get better. That they have unarguably gotten materia

“Thankfully, there’s no rehab for success.” – Lil Wayne In early July of 2025, the government of Angola made a fateful decision to raise diesel prices nationwide by one-third, part of a years-long campaign to phase out costly fuel subsidies. A three-day strike by minibus and taxi drivers spiraled into nationwide bouts of violent unrest. By the end of the month, some 30 people were confirmed dead, 277 injured, and over 1,500 arrested. Despite these severe civil disruptions, the government ultimately held firm. The riots came to an end, but the reduced subsidy levels held. Energy is life | Getty How local customers are treated in net energy-exporting regions is often an underappreciated political, economic, and strategic challenge. It seems only fair that resource wealth should, at a bare minimum, accrue life-nourishing benefits to surrounding residential and industrial consumers, but fairness is rarely value-optimizing for the risk capital needed to extract such wealth in the first p

“If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.” – Lucy Larcom Watching the parade of negative-charisma European elites cascade toward their inevitable political demise would be entertaining, were it not certain that their equally incompetent replacements would spawn into place from a seemingly endless line of empty suits, like so many Pez popping out of identical plastic dispensers. Consider soon-to-be-ousted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Anybody who labored through his bizarre speech to the Bundestag on Wednesday would hurriedly bet the under on his longevity in the post. Already the least popular German chancellor of the modern era—his roughly 15% approval rating bests his predecessor, the hapless Olaf Scholz, for that dubious title—Merz’s response to an electoral rout suffered by his party in last Sunday’s regional election in Saxony-Anhalt was a classic five-stages-of-grief display stuck on “anger.” The unruly session barely avoided devolving into fisticuffs. Keir