Strait
** Iran has set a number of conditions for the United States to fulfil in order for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen. The U.S. has not rejected these outright this time, but it has not signaled it was open to fulfilling them, either. The conditions include lifting the naval blockade on Iranian ports, an end to sanctions, and unfreezing Iranian assets.
Europe
** Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices jumped by 4% at trade open in Amsterdam on Thursday, as the United States and Iran remain distant on how to end the war and put an end to the blocked LNG shipments at the Strait of Hormuz.
Asia
** Countries in Southeast Asia are still building natural gas-fired power plants despite the price inflation in gas caused by the Middle East war. Asian countries are also building more LNG import capacity, Global Energy Monitor reported.
Canada
** Canada’s oil patch is experiencing another major M&A boom, with more than $30 billion in deals so far in 2026 and activity potentially surpassing the $53 billion recorded in 2017.
Netherlands
** Europe’s biggest industrial carbon capture site has officially started operating at Norwegian chemical company Yara’s fertilizer plant in Sluiskil, Netherlands, marking a major step for industries counting on the technology to reduce pollution that can be difficult to avoid.
US Energy
** Diesel supply from the Middle East, Russia, and China has dropped sharply, and U.S. refiners have been shipping more overseas to fill the hole. Distillate stocks fell below their normal five-year range in April and should stay below the five-year low through the end of 2026 and most of 2027, according to the EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook.
** Electric utility Georgia Power and tech giant Google said the companies have an agreement under which Google will support power uprates at two of the utility’s nuclear power plants.
** Shell has completed the sale of its interests in two U.S. Gulf of Mexico assets to Talos Energy and Ridgewood Energy, collecting approximately $840 million in cash at closing.
** Big Oil companies have successfully increased production volumes despite falling capex thanks to a combination of drilling efficiency gains, technological advancements as well as a strategic shift toward shorter-cycle, high-return assets.
