President Biden is coming under fire for his attack on oil and gas once again as Canada pleads to keep the cross-border Great Lakes oil pipeline open. Canada is battling against the state of Michigan to keep the cross-border pipeline open as calls to enhance the joint response to climate change seem to be at odds with the two countries’ oil industries. To create meaningful policy change towards clean energy the U.S. and Canada must work together to support their oil and gas sectors while establishing a clear strategy for the eventual movement away from fossil fuels.

When writing the article on this year’s Top Oil Wildcats, one of the hottest candidates had to be dropped out of the list. Not because the prospect turned out to be sub-commercial, far from it, it remains one of Africa’s most interesting untapped plays, potentially opening up a new country with no previous exposure to the world of energy. As Senegal and Mauritania started to break their way onto the energy maps of Western Africa, Guinea Bissau has remained a relative outlier. At the same time it needs to be pointed out that lack of officially recognized discoveries does not necessarily mean lack of hydrocarbons, as can be attested by the Atum prospect. Atum remains one of the hottest plays in offshore Africa, an overlooked gem that would only need a little bit of political stability to shine.

Oil prices moved higher after the Energy Information Administration reported a crude oil inventory draw of 8 million barrels for the week to April 30.

In fuels, the inventory moves were mixed.

The Energy Sector (NYSEARCA:XLE) has taken the lead in the S&P midday sector standings on Wednesday trading, jumping 3.5% as OPEC + appears ready to stick with earlier plans to slightly increase oil production from May 1. The OPEC technical committee has issued a bullish oil demand forecast, although a hawkish tone by the Fed could derail the recent oil price gains.

Meanwhile, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting is scheduled to take place on 27-28 April 2021, with the committee set to announce any changes to its monetary policy immediately after.

Egypt Restarts Major LNG Project On Rising Demand.EU Admits It Can't Go Net-Zero Without Natural Gas.Egyptian Dolphinus Holding and Israeli Delek Drilling struck a landmark agreement and started importing additional gas from Israel's Leviathan and Tamar offshore fields in 2020.

The Joint Technical Committee of OPEC+ is concerned about the growing case numbers in India, Japan, and Brazil, Reuters sources said on Monday.

When it comes to the final frontier for big oil discoveries, it’s not the Guyana-Suriname basin where supergiants like ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES), and CNOOC (NYSE:CNOOC) have already staked their claims. And it’s not the American shale patch, where production has hit reverse gear with no end in sight. It’s Africa, where even small-cap companies are staking outsized claims of the kind that generously reward investors with a bigger risk appetite.

The U.S. renewable diesel market is hot—so hot, in fact, that one of the feedstocks for the highly profitable renewable fuel is running low, according to Valero.

Venezuela's PDVSA is using more of its domestic output of medium and light crude oil grades for refining, reducing their availability as diluents for its heavy export grades, Reuters has reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The increase in local refining has been prompted by fuel supply shortages that have led to rationing, queues, and additional disgruntlement among the Venezuelan population.

Businesses in Nigeria are losing each year around US$29 billion because of the unreliable power supply, the World Bank said in an estimate about the OPEC country, which is the largest oil producer in Africa.

Gunmen abducted early on Wednesday three employees of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on a rig site in northeast India, the country’s biggest oil and gas production firm said in what could be a setback for the Indian efforts to reduce its reliance on crude oil imports.The abduction took place on a rig site of ONGC in the Lakwa field in the state of Assam, which is one of the three largest oil-producing states in India.

The Arab Gulf countries announced as much as US$10 billion worth of new projects in the oil and gas sector during the first quarter of 2021, out of the total US$32.3 billion projects in all sectors, a new report showed this week.