India’s state-run refiners are shifting back to the discipline of long-dated term contracts and a broader supplier mix, an intentional move to cushion themselves from a more fractious trading environment and the fading advantage of discounted Russian barrels. Since 2022, Russia’s rerouted crude transformed India’s feedstock economics, with Urals and other grades regularly undercutting Middle Eastern official selling prices.

That bargain is no longer assured. Discounts have narrowed, freight and insurance premia have been volatile, and the political cost of leaning on Russian supply has risen as Washington threatens punitive measures tied explicitly to those purchases.

Norway’s Energy Minister Terje Aasland has announced plans to launch a new oil and gas licensing round on the Norwegian continental shelf, marking the first offer of exploration rights in previously untapped frontier areas since 2021.

The move represents a major policy shift following a four-year moratorium that limited new acreage awards to areas near existing fields, a compromise originally struck to secure parliamentary backing from a smaller left-wing party.

Kuwait’s decision to award phases two and three of the Al-Zour North power plant to Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and the Gulf Investment Corporation marks a major step in the Gulf’s push toward cross-border energy cooperation and private-sector-led infrastructure development.

Valued at more than 1 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($3.27 billion), the project is one of the largest electricity and desalination investments in Kuwait’s history, designed to ease the country’s chronic power shortages and reduce reliance on emergency load-shedding measures.