Year 10 of speaking and moderating at ADIPEC nears

Delighted to announce that yours truly will be moderating and speaking at ADIPEC 2026 - the world's largest energy conference and exhibition - in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from November 2 to 5, on a number of panels and executive dialogues. This year's ADIPEC will also be The Oilholic's tenth outing at the event, where energy opportunity takes shape, and one can hardly wait. Super excited, going to drum roll and uncork the ol' champers for this one dear readers! 

Explore ADIPEC's exciting and wide-ranging agenda here. Discussions touch on critical energy issues of our age, geopolitics and technological advancements through industrial AI, automation and advanced computing. More details on The Oilholic's panels and sessions will appear here shortly. 

It's all about energy resource management and transition through innovation, visionary leadership and action.

Looking forward to the deliberations, meeting thought leaders, fellow industry professionals and colleagues. Join, if you can, for some fantastic industry exchanges and networking in Abu Dhabi. 

More from ADIPEC soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Digital banner courtesy of dmgevents. 

That diesel deal & the subsequent kerfuffle

Another week, another geopolitical kerfuffle courtesy of US President Donald Trump. 

On Sunday, the President announced a confidence building diesel deal with Russia, allowing the Kremlin to reenter the global diesel market. 

That's if you believe no one was buying their's in the first place - a logic only applicable in West. 

Not one to shy away from controversy, Trump did what Trump does best - spring a surprise. It seems straight after pushing fellow G7 nations into releasing 100 million barrels of diesel, Trump indicated that Russia would be putting out diesel export tranches of 2.25 million barrels (immediately), 3.75 million (November) and 7.5 million (December). 

However, both Russia's ability to provide what Trump says the country would as well as the impact of the move on diesel prices at the pump - currently north of $6 per gallon stateside - remains questionable. Here's the Oilholic's take via his column on Forbes.

Yours truly also discussed the diesel deal development and general direction of the crude oil market in interviews on broadcast media this week. 

Starting with the latter point, in an interview with Asharq Bloomberg's Mohamed Fathy, yours truly touched on the current volatility and why there's a premium in favour of spot crude prices over already elevated futures prices. 

Ultimately, the market needs a solution to the Middle East crisis - however imperfect that might be - for this to end, and for prices to come down because there is plenty of crude in the market. Were peace to prevail, $100 per barrel Brent prices simply cannot be sustained and carry considerable downside in that eventuality. 

But the market remains in the land of geopolitical risk premiums that are hitting home harder via spot markets, rather than futures trading levels. 

As for the former point - Trump's new 'diesel deal' with Russia - yours truly discussed the figures related to it in an interview with Barbara Serra on Sky News, and why as noted in the Forbes column one is wholly unconvinced.

One additional thing worth noting here - as the Oilholic said on Sky News - is that people should spare a thought for Europe where the US-Russia move may perhaps come as an economic relief of sorts, but wont ease inflationary pressures caused by multiple geopolitical crises. 

For instance, in the UK, diesel is around £2.07 per litre ($2.75) at the pump at the time of writing! European economies are indeed heading for a very tough Q4 2026. On that sombre note, its time to say goodbye for now. More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I: Fueling up a car © andreas160578 / Pixabay. Photo II: Energy Market Analyst on Asharq Bloomberg © Asharq Bloomberg, October 2026. Photo II: Energy Market Analyst Gaurav Sharma on Sky News © Sky News, October 2026. 

Turning to ocean energy at ICOE OEE 2026

Earlier this week, The Oilholic also attended ICOE OEE 2026 - a global event on ocean energy being held in The Hague, Netherlands, whilst in town for another engagement. 

The International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) and Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) joint event, supported by the Dutch Energy from Water Association (EWA), featured a conference programme with several technology and policy content streams. 

These were accompanied by networking events and site visits to key Dutch ocean energy sites and companies. The Oilholic viewed it as a great opportunity to meet key stakeholders in the ocean energy sector from the industry and supply chain firms to startups, research fellows to those leading corporate innovation and development.

The event offered a glimpse of "watts in the water" and how the various forms of ocean energy can potentially be amplified in service of a rapidly electrifying world. The discourse touched on the wider offshore energy ecosystem and inter-organisational collaboration that's shaping the next generation of clean ocean energy across tidal, wave and other marine energy applications. 

In a nudge to the hosts, delegates also got a showcase of research and the real-world impact of initiatives in South Netherlands.

Alongside these wide-ranging discussions, two analysis strands stood out for this blogger. The first one being pragmatic discussions on the commercialisation of ocean energy technologies and the various avenues under consideration to go down the cost curve.

Indeed, many attendees offered (and presented) approaches and strategies to reduce cost at every stage of the design and project development process of what are unsurprisingly big ticket projects.

The second one was the use of AI in ocean energy and deployment of digital twins. Real sea demonstrations are pretty complex and capital intensive projects in often intimidating operating environments. It is why the capacity to accurately model and predict how a system will behave is extremely valuable. That is where AI is proving to be pretty handy. 

ICOE OEE 2026 discussed these very AI solutions being deployed today in ocean energy to support modelling, develop predictive digital twins, and ultimately reduce operational costs and improve ocean energy devices.

Away from the dialogues and networking with industry peers, yours truly also took time out to visit the event's exhibition floor. This year's expo drew in nearly 40 exhibitors from the UK to Canada.

To round up an exciting few days of discussions, here's a parting thought from ICOE OEE 2026 - with, of course, the caveat of the investment climate attached - research suggests the tidal stream energy market carries an estimated global resource of 800-1,200 Twh that could replace nearly 13% of the world's fossil fuel powered electricity generation! Let's see where that ship sails. 

But that's all from The Hague for now folks. More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I: An ICOE OEE 2026 showcasing session in The Hague, Netherlands, October 5, 2026. Photo II: Marine energy technology on display at ICOE OEE 2026. Photo III: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma at the ICOE OEE 2026, October 7, 2026 © Gaurav Sharma, October 2026. 

Visiting ADNOC's panorama digital command center

Last week, whilst on a business trip to Abu Dhabi, the Oilholic had the pleasure of visiting ADNOC's headquarters for meetings, and view the group's Panorama Digital Command Center. 

Local media describe the center as ADNOC's new age "mission control" hub. The last time this blogger visited it was back in 2019 when functionality was just being built in and embedded across the enterprise, and amplified in a phased manner. 

The Panorama Center of 2026, now fully functional, aggregates real-time information from across all of ADNOC Group’s 14 subsidiaries and joint venture companies. Yours truly got a demonstration of how it uses smart analytical models, AI, and the power of cross-enterprise big data to generate operational insights and recommendations. 

It was explained how at any given point in the business cycle Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Group CEO of ADNOC, and the leadership team can access this data from a device remotely. This access to real-time data and analysis provided by the facility enables simulations and scenario planning, and plays an important role in business continuity. 

Business disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and the Iran War earlier this year, have put the system to test which came out with flying colours. It has added billions in business value in challenging and stable climes alike. 

In a broader sense, the center effectively acts as ADNOC's digital "eyes on the ground" and enables speed, accessibility, and integration across operations, a spokesperson added. So, what exactly are we talking about here?

According to team ADNOC, the center aggregates anywhere between 200,000 and 250,000 live data points from across the business and its subsidiaries from over 55 operating sites - both onshore and offshore. 

The system tracks end-to-end ADNOC activities across its upstream, midstream, and downstream operations. 

It can provide data right down to individual equipment layers like compressors, key business parameters like energy consumption monitoring, flaring metrics, inventory levels, and even data on ADNOC's global maritime fleet of LNG and bulk carriers. Scenario planning, predictive maintenance, and optimising product feed quality from daily up to longer operating horizons are all very much part of the equation. 

If this blogger may add - it is also quite a sight to behold with a 50 metre-long curved screen split by over 120 granular dashboards. The dashboards feed and project group-wide information. This is also accessible via portable devices for key personnel (as mentioned earlier). 

The center uses Schneider Electric's hardware and software, including its subsidiary AVEVA's open management infrastructure and unified supply chain platforms. For context, their wider industry potential was put to readers of this blog in 2024 by the SE unit's CEO Caspar Herzberg. 

Meanwhile, ADNOC continues to invest in its digital transformation and AI (e.g. smart data analytics Thamama Subsurface Collaboration Center, AI-assisted value chain modeling, rock image pattern recognition, and and blockchain-based hydrocarbon accounting, to name a few). Further updates on investments are expected at ADIPEC 2026 in November.

So, dear readers if you imagined a multi-billion dollar energy enterprise being managed from a single room with live data streaming in - that's no longer a future fantasy. It's happening here and now! The Oilholic's thanks to Team ADNOC for giving one another glimpse of it. That's all for now from Abu Dhabi folks! More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photos: Energy analyst Gaurav Sharma at ADNOC's Panorama Command Center in Abu Dhabi, UAE © ADNOC Group, September 2026.

A word on oil tanker rates

As the third quarter of 'crude' year 2026 nears its end, oil tanker rates have bounced by several multiples. In many cases, rates saw a 1000% jump compared to pre-Iran War charters and bids. And it seems $1 million-plus rates for VLCCs are all the rage. 

So, what has materially altered for such a drastic rise to happen with rates at their highest ever since the start of the Iran War on February 28? Well, for starters, it is (and remains) a market that's very news sensitive, and tanker prices are up not just due to geopolitical risk premiums but inefficient ship-to-ship transfers, longer journey times, and rising insurance costs. 

This very topic was the subject of the Oilholic's market commentary on CNA in an interview with Roland Lim. 

One's take is that while $1 million rates for VLCCs may hold over the very short-term, the situation is unlikely to last and may change pretty fast in a volatile environment.

Let's say any solution, however imperfect, is found for the crisis in the Middle East - a glut beckons six months on based on current announcements on global tanker capacity additions, currently running into billions of dollars. But for now the tanker party rolls on. More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo: Energy analyst Gaurav Sharma on CNA. © CNA, September 2026.

Media missives from Gastech 2026

With Gastech 2026 drawing to a close, the Oilholic capped a fantastic and engaging week out in Bangkok, Thailand by hosting three pivotal panel sessions on subjects ranging from the transformation of human mobility to the natural gas-AI nexus to regulation of the energy business.

Yours truly also hit the airwaves and spoke to media outlets about the energy market and developments at the conference. The first broadcasting call was with the TRT World, followed by Asharq Bloomberg, and the final one with Energy Connects. This blogger's week also included plenty of other missives via the keyboard for Forbes, Energy Connects and of course, via this blog.

All blog entries for Gastech 2026 may be found here, and here's an Energy Connects preview of the event. And here are selected Forbes copies based on soundbites and insight from the event. 

• Europe Faces ‘Decades-Low’ Winter Natural Gas Storage Levels, September 21, 2026
• Data Center Boom Driving LNG Demand Uptick In Southeast Asia, September 22, 2026

More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Forbes click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Critical Mass click here.

To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma speaks on Asharq Bloomberg, September 16, 2026. © Courtesy Asharq Bloomberg, September 2026.

Gastech 2026 Days III & IV: Deals and dialogues galore

As Gastech 2026 entered its home stretch, alongside the deep dives came news of mega-deals. According to data gathered by various stakeholders and the event's organisers, billions of dollars in energy agreements were seen moving from discussion to delivery in Bangkok. 

By the end of day three, memoranda of understanding, supply agreements and investment commitments with a combined estimated value of $40 billion were either announced or advanced at Gastech.

Among the many deals and MoUs, the four that stood out for this blogger include - (1) China Gas Holdings and Venture Global LNG's 20-year sales and purchase agreement for 0.5 mtpa of US LNG from 2030, (2) GE Vernova and B.Grimm Power's agreements on natural gas-turbine supply and long-term services, aimed at new and existing power-generation capacity in Malaysia and Thailand, (3) PETRONAS, PTTEP JDA and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority's formalisation of a 35-year production-sharing contract and natural gas sales agreement in the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area, delivering new natural gas supply to both countries, and (4) Samsung Heavy Industries' $1.2 billion order for LNG carriers and crude oil tankers, adding to the fleet capacity required to keep global energy trade moving.

As the deals flowed, Gastech's 800-plus speakers - present company included - advanced the event's discourse about the future of energy security, sustainability and affordability. 

A huge part of that is human mobility - the subject of this blogger's final moderating engagement of Gastech 2026 with Pras Ganesh, EVP & CISO, Toyota Motors Asia. 

We discussed the topic - Mobility in motion: What emerging markets teach us about real-world energy transitions. 

As the global energy transition gathers pace, emerging markets across the Global South are charting pragmatic pathways shaped by affordability, access, and rapid demand growth. Nowhere is this more visible than in mobility, where alternative fuels and electrification are unfolding in diverse and often unexpected ways. 

Ganesh explored how these markets are integrating power systems, digital technologies, and investment to support cleaner transport. Drawing on real-world experience across Southeast Asia, he shared his perspectives on how real customer needs are driving innovation, offering lessons for building resilient, inclusive, and economically viable energy systems for mobility.

The Oilholic also took time out for some energy market commentary onsite in interviews with TRT World, Asharq Bloomberg, and Energy Connects, given the situation in the Middle East. 

Elevated geopolitical risks have made the market very jittery to every new security development in the region. It's all making near-term modelling very difficult. Supply-side complications will persist for a while even if the security situation were to ease imminently. 

For yours truly, the latest moving part - disruption to the flow of the Saudi East-West pipeline - remains a big driver of elevated prices as Aramco is/was using it to mitigate the effects export constriction via the Strait of Hormuz. 

Of course, Hormuz, Ukraine-Russia and (currently) Libya are also pushing prices to the upside, while US light sweet crude is keeping a lid on a pricing overshoot to $150/bbl. 

But the global market and refining complex needs a variety of crude oils, and US light sweet crude at Asian hubs can only help so much. More so, with the shipping costs associated with it. Thanks to all the broadcasters who carried one's 'crude' thoughts. 

And as the event neared its conclusion on day four, it was revealed that 50,000-plus attendees from 150 countries, and 800+ exhibitors came to Gastech 2026. Next year, the event will return to the energy capital of the US - Houston. 

And that's a wrap from Bangkok folks! More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

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To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I: Gastech 2026, Bangkok, Thailand. Photo II: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma (left) with Pras Ganesh, EVP & CISO, Toyota Motors Asia © dmgevents, September 2026. Photo III collage: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma speaks on TRT World, Asharq Bloomberg and Energy Connects. © Courtesy TRT World, Asharq Bloomberg and Energy Connects, September 2026.

Releasing Schneider Electric's latest automation research at Gastech

On Tuesday, at Gastech 2026, the Oilholic was delighted to release the latest instalment of Schneider Electric's global automation research on the energy sector that this blogger contributed to. 

The project is part of one's ongoing partnership with Schneider Electric. At the release, the Oilholic was joined by Devan Pillay, President of Schneider’s Heavy Industries Segment (left) and Ryoko Aoyagi, Country President of Schneider Japan (centre). 

The global study suggested that Asia ranks second in current autonomous maturity, just behind GCC, but aims to lead the pack in five years. More details on the findings are available here. Have a read. Your feedback, dear readers, is always appreciated. 

More musings to follow soon from Bangkok as Gastech progresses and the energy dialogues advance over the coming days. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Forbes click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo: © Schneider Electric, September 2026.

Gastech 2026 Days I & II: 'Transition fuel' to 'pillar of resilience'

The first two days of Gastech 2026 - which officially runs from September 14 to 17 in Bangkok, Thailand - have flown by with senior energy officials, CEOs and global industry experts finding common ground in regarding natural gas as a "pillar of resilience" for powering up the global economy. 

That's a marked contrast to the covid pandemic years leading up 2023, when renewables were all the rage and natural gas was labelled a "transition fuel." 

The proliferation of datacentres and AI, pivot of nations to a digital future and electrification has brought home the realisation that renewables alone cannot by any stretch of anyone's imagination meet the rising power demand. The perceived abundance of natural gas and rising US LNG exports - that have effectively resulted in a US to Asia LNG corridor - is certainly helping. 

In the words of Akanat Promphan, Thailand’s Minister of Energy, and hosting dignitary for this year's Gastech, energy security is not an isolated challenge that each country can address independently. 

Promphan added in his opening remarks that he is committed to strengthening supply resilience and accelerating energy delivery both at home and across ASEAN predicated on a natural gas a firm part of the regional energy mix.

The region and indeed the world it seems is coming around to that conclusion too. That's as the first of Gastech's 200 sessions spread across 15 programmes got underway. Among them were your's truly's first two engagements. The first of these was a Gastech Energy Talk series discuss with Dr. Harald Link, Chairman of B.Grimm Power. We explored how LNG can strengthen energy resilience and support sustainable economic growth across Thailand and the wider region.

Link offered viewpoints on the role of LNG in a rapidly evolving energy landscape, highlighting the need for energy strategies that balance affordability, reliability and long-term sustainability and "the importance of building a compassionate energy ecosystem" that balances consumer affordability with investment certainty, while strengthening fuel security, system stability and the reliable energy foundation needed for inclusive economic growth.

The Oilholic's second engagement over the first two days was a strategic dialogue with Dr. Poonpat Leesombatpiboon, Secretary General of Energy Regulatory Commission of Thailand, Hasan OZKOC, Secretariat Director, MEDREG - Mediterranean Energy Regulators, and Laura Swett, Chairman, US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

The panel explored how effective regulation can support investment, strengthen resilience and advance the energy transition. In particular, Swett provided good cheer for the market highlighting the potential for US energy resources to support both domestic and international markets.

“America and FERC, working together, can position both the American economy and those of our international allies to expand and grow through the abundance of resources that we have in America," Swett noted. 

"We have more than enough to power our grid and meet exponential demand, but also to support grids all over the world." 

More musings to follow soon from Bangkok as Gastech progresses and the energy dialogues advance over the coming days. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Forbes click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Critical Mass click here.

To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma at Gastech 2026. Photo II: Akanat Promphan, Thailand’s Minister of Energy speaks at Gastech 2026. Photo III: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma (left) with with Dr. Harald Link, Chairman, B.Grimm Power. Photo IV: (Left to right) Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma moderates Gastech 2026 strategic dialogue with Dr. Poonpat Leesombatpiboon, Secretary General, Energy Regulatory Commission of Thailand, Hasan OZKOC, Secretariat Director, MEDREG - Mediterranean Energy Regulators, and Laura Swett, Chairman, US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. © dmgevents, September 2026.

Gastech 2026 sessions to be hosted by yours truly

The Oilholic is delighted to be back speaking and moderating at Gastech 2026 being held this year in Bangkok, Thailand. One of the world's largest natural gas conference and exhibition of its kind will run here from September 14 to 17. 

Yours truly will be hosting three sessions at the event with distinguished industry leaders from energy sector and its entire value chain. 

Please do join if you can for some fantastic and insightful industry dialogues. Here are the details of the sessions:

Monday, 14 September 2026 | 13:00 - 13:20 ICT 

Empowering the world compassionately: Reimagining LNG’s role and resilience in Thailand2

Strategic Conference - Energy Talk Session 

With:

• Dr. Harald Link, Chairman, B.Grimm Power

Monday, 14 September 2026 | 16:15 - 16:45 ICT

Regulate or stagnate: The policy choices that will define the next decade

Strategic Conference Session - Executive Leadership Panel

With: 

• Dr. Poonpat Leesombatpiboon, Secretary General, Energy Regulatory Commission of Thailand
• Hasan Ozkoc, Secretariat Director, MEDREG
• Laura Swett, Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

Tuesday, 15 September 2026 | 12:15 - 12:35 ICT

Mobility in motion: What emerging markets teach us about real-world energy transitions

Strategic Conference - Energy Talk Session 

With: 

• Pras Ganesh, EVP & CISO, Toyota Mobility Foundation

More musings to follow soon from Bangkok. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Forbes click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Critical Mass click here.

To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Session details imagery © dmgevents, September 2026.

How much oil is getting through the Strait of Hormuz?

Another week, another round of skirmishes between US Navy and Iran, and another all-too-predictable geopolitical risk premium-driven oil price spike. 

In fact, the Brent front-month futures contract is back lurking around $100 mark on renewed fears of disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. 

For now, many in the market are wondering just how much oil is indeed getting through the strait at the moment. 

However, assessing that is proving pretty tricky. Data aggregators are reporting different numbers of ships now passing through the key maritime artery that Iran disrupted in the wake of the war, and continues to disrupt.

Versus a pre-war volume of 20 million barrels per day, down to near zero at the height of the war (in March and April) and back up in June during a short-lived ceasefire - latest empirical and anecdotal evidence from this blogger's sources puts the volume in the range of 5 to 9 million bpd. 

This is hotly contested, as noted by Kpler, in a blog explaining why figures vary and why its range is 5 to 10 million bpd. Nuances in data gathering aside, vessels also "go dark" switching their trackers off, travel in the dark and in protected convoys near the Oman coastline. 

That protection is near always provided by the US Navy which leaves its government the only source of concrete data. Figures published by it put oil transits at the upper end of the range around 10 million bpd. 

And on September 2, Energy Secretary Chris Wright put the figure above 17 million bpd whilst talking to the media - the highest since the war began. 

In other interviews, including one with Fox News, Wright defended US data quipping: "Why would we lie?" 

That is a fair point, because if the statistics on volumes are fiddled - they will eventually be found out. 

In the meantime, oil prices remain volatile contingent upon the news flow and will likely remain that way for now. Here is the Oilholic's latest Forbes post on the developments and more. Where its all going is anyone's guess. 

Well that's all for the moment folks! Leaving you all with two photos of the Strait of Hormuz (above) taken by this blogger from the Omani coastline some 13 years ago. It was a tad calmer back then. More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

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To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I & II: View of the Strait of Hormuz from Khasab, Musandam Peninsula, Oman. © Gaurav Sharma, August, 2013.

Back to a "highest since July" oil market

Another month of uncertainty in the Middle East has resulted in another round of wild price swings in the oil market, and often heard quips of Brent and WTI futures having hit their highest since July. That was literally just a month ago. 

US President Donald Trump's latest move is to hit Iran economically. With all else failing to resolve a safe and certain passage of energy (and other) cargoes through the Strait of Hormuz, and major regional exporters like Saudi Arabia and UAE exploring alternative transit routes, focus of the White House has now turned to crippling Iran's economy intertwined with its energy industry via non-military means. 

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the latest move as "an economic D-Day" and "the single greatest financial offensive ever" - the full details of which will follow over the coming weeks. Given the limited range of options available to bring a swift end to the tension, such a long shot is worth a try, even if the Islamic republic's capacity to ride it out and pass on the hardship to its people is pretty well documented. 

Meanwhile, the oil market is learning to live with the diplomatic deadlock of the past few months following on from the breaking out of hostilities on February 28. It has become a sort of a 'perma-crisis' or a permanent crisis as risk premiums subside only to rise again, and more of the same.

In recent weeks we have seen crude oil cargoes continue to move under the cloud of geopolitical uncertainty largely along the Omani coastline. Various data aggregators indicate the figure may be somewhere in the region of 9-10.5 million barrels per day. Now, even if taken at the upper end of the range, that's still only around half of the volume noted in February. 

As such the domino effect of all this will continue to be felt by the global market with elevated and volatile prices. But that hit is nowhere near the three-figure levels seen at the height of the conflict in March and April. 

Using Brent as a benchmark as the time of The Oilholic posting this blog - oil futures are trading down 0.6% on last week, up 6% on last month, down 3% on the past three-months but up 33% on last year, as trading on daily developments becomes the order of the day. Expect more of the same for now. 

That's all for the moment folks! More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

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To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo: Oil production site. © Monika Wrangel / Pixabay, May 2015.

Speaking and moderating at Gastech 2026

Delighted to announce that The Oilholic will be speaking and moderating at Gastech Exhibition & Conference 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand, from September 14 to 17.

Explore the event's exciting agenda here. 

The year's event will serve as a vital platform for progressing the global energy agenda amid rising demand, accelerating electrification and growing energy security challenges. 

Convening ministers, CEOs, policymakers, investors, technologists and myriad industry movers and shakers, Gastech's multiple conference streams will address the partnerships, investments and strategic actions required to enhance resilience, secure supply and drive sustainable economic growth. 

Looking forward to the deliberations, meeting old friends from the industry and making new ones. Register here as a delegate and join The Oilholic, if you can, for some fantastic industry exchanges and networking in Bangkok this September. 

Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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On deep tech startups in the Munich-Dresden corridor

Markus Bohl, CEO of Ignite Next (right)
with Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma,
in Munich, Germany.

For much of the year, the Oilholic has been researching how emerging deep tech startups in the energy and industrials space appear to find a natural home in Germany's Munich-Dresden corridor. 

This concluded with a Forbes feature on the subject available here, should you wish to read it. The initial focus of the research was on purely on the Munich's startup ecosystem. 

But scale-up and mentoring experts Markus Bohl and Alois Eder - the co-founders of Ignite Next - were pretty instrumental in convincing yours truly that Dresden should figure in the mix too, as part of an innovative 400 km-wide corridor. 

For context, Ignite Next helps startups connect, work and scale-up with multiple partners across a broad range of frontier technologies, from semiconductors, photonics, advanced manufacturing, robotics and artificial intelligence, through to quantum computing. Bohl and Eder believe the Munich-Dresden region provides the ideal setting for it. "The overarching idea has always been to give founders direct access to technical expertise, market insight, and investor readiness support in a wider deep tech ecosystem that we’re all a part of in Munich and Dresden," Bohl added. 

Quite frankly, as The Oilholic noted in the Forbes feature, the numbers speak for themselves. Munich remains the primary driver of valuation in Germany - outside of Berlin - securing around the €3 billion ($3.5 billion) mark in raises per year, with a total registered startup enterprise value of over €101 billion ($115 billion), according to Dealroom data.

That’s over a fourth of the combined enterprise value of all VC-backed German startups founded since 1990. The market in Dresden operates on an intertwined scale that’s a fifth smaller than Munich’s each year, but one that’s highly targeted.

As the region marches onwards and upwards, over a fourth of these startups describe themselves as energy, industrial, clean technology or zero-carbon mobility outfits and consider themselves to be increasingly instrumental in driving a Europe-wide "energiewende" or energy transition as their numbers continue to rise. 

(Left to right) Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma, Kevin Berghoff, CEO and Co-founder of Quantum Diamonds, Alois Eder, CTO of Ignite Next and Fleming Bruckmaier, CTO and Co-founder of Quantum Diamonds, at the company's laboratory in Munich.

Via the good folks at Ignite Next, the Oilholic also met the founders of a couple of these startups. The first was Proxima Fusion, who's CEO Francesco Sciortino explained how his energy startup is developing commercial nuclear fusion power plants. 

Its core offering banks on commercialising "stellarator-based" magnetic confinement fusion technology. So far it has raised over €200 million ($230 million) in equity and grants. In simple terms, a stellarator is a fusion power device that confines plasma using external magnets.

And the second was Quantum Diamonds, a startup developing atom-sized quantum sensors carrying the potential to "redefine" measurement in various high-tech industries like semiconductors, according to CEO Kevin Berghoff. 

Both Berghoff and fellow co-founder Fleming Bruckmaier, also invited The Oilholic for a fascinating and informative tour of their laboratory and operational site in Munich, where their team is attempting to commercialise synthetic diamond-based quantum sensors with nitrogen-vacancy centers to provide non-destructive, high-resolution magnetic imaging of semiconductor chips. In today's fraught geopolitical climate that'll probably be deeply appreciated. 

Well that's all for the moment folks! Sincere thanks to Ignite Next, Quantum Diamonds and Proxima Fusion for their time for The Oilholic's wider research into the region, and here's wishing them all every success for the future. More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Forbes click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Critical Mass click here.

To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I: Markus Bohl, CEO of Ignite Next (right) with Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma. © Ignite Next, June 2026. Photo II: (Left to right) Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma, Kevin Berghoff, CEO and Co-founder of Quantum Diamonds, Alois Eder, CTO of Ignite Next and Fleming Bruckmaier, CTO and Co-founder of Quantum Diamonds, at the company's laboratory in Munich, Germany. © Quantum Diamonds, June 2026.