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Australian government halves fuel excise
The Australian government has slashed the fuel excise in half for three months to ease pressure at the pump amid the Iran war. Halving the fuel excise is set to reduce the cost of fuel by around 26.3 cents per litre. This will lead to a A$19 reduction for a 65L tank of fuel. The halving of the fuel excise will commence from 1 April and run to 30 June. “We are making fuel cheaper today because we understand that Australians are under serious pressure,” Albanese said. Alongside this, the federal government will also reduce the Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge to zero for three months so truck drivers can continue their work across the nation. The government will also defer the next scheduled increase in the Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge by six months. According to Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the fuel excise cut and reducing the heavy vehicle road user charge will cost $2.55 billion. Opposition leader Angus Taylor called for a halving of the excise last week, which he estimated to cost $1.5 billion alone. The government have also created a four-stage fuel security plan, which includes the potential for state and territory governments to implement “practical measures to reduce fuel demand”, but does not explicitly f
Energy
Trump taps ethanol lever as fuel nears 2022 highs
The United States Environmental Protection Agency, directed by the Trump administration, on Wednesday waived summer restrictions on the sale of E15 gasoline - a fuel blended with 15% ethanol - in an effort to ease prices that have surged more than 30% since the Iran war began. The agency also suspended federal enforcement of certain state fuel requirements and lifted restrictions on E10 blends, effectively allowing the production and distribution of gasoline with 9-15% ethanol content from 1 May through at least 20 May. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the waivers would prevent fuel supply disruption and that the agency would monitor conditions and extend them if warranted. The national average for regular gasoline hit US$3.98 per gallon this week, according to AAA - the highest since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Diesel has climbed more than 40% since the war began to $5.37 per gallon.A familiar playbook, stretched thinThe E15 waiver is not new. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have issued summer ethanol exemptions in recent years, and bipartisan calls to make the policy permanent have been growing. The move sits alongside a broader suite of emergency measures: a 172-million-barrel release
Energy
Kuwait warns Hormuz closure risks catastrophe
Kuwait has warned that the economic blockade of Gulf Arab producers due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz could be catastrophic and will trigger a domino effect across the world. “We are outraged by this attack against us,” Sheikh Nawaf al-Sabah, the CEO of the Kuwait Petroleum Corp., told the oil industry at S&P Global’s CERAWeek energy conference. “This is an attack not only against the Gulf, but it is an attack that is holding the world’s economy hostage.” This comes as Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) has reduced its crude oil production due to disruptions to shipping in the Strait. According to al-Sabah, KPC will only produce oil for domestic consumption right now. The company said production could be resumed “relatively quickly” if the war in Iran ends and reaches full production within three to four months. On 10 March, Kuwait reduced output to around 500,000 barrels per day, a significant decrease from the more than 3 million barrels per day before the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran war on 28 February. This follows Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser's warning that the Iran war could have “catastrophic consequences” for the world economy. Al-Sabah said Nasser understated the potential impact. “It’s a domino
Energy
US aims to bring more diesel to market: Wright
The United States aims to bring more diesel to the market, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said, as fuel prices rise amid the Iran war. Wright did not give any specific details on how or when the new diesel would be added. Diesel prices in the U.S. have climbed by around 40% since the start of the war. “We do have some ideas on diesel, that we can bring extra diesel to the marketplace. And I think we will see that happen before too long,” Wright said in a CNBC interview. According to Wright, the U.S. is not considering limiting diesel exports. “You don’t want to interrupt the free flow of energy trades,” he said. “If we blocked exports, we’d have to turn down our own refineries and produce less oil and less refined products. That wouldn’t be productive for the United States, certainly wouldn’t be productive for the world.” An increase in heavy crude from Venezuela could also be used to produce more diesel in U.S. refineries, Wright said. The U.S. has begun releasing a slate of 172 million barrels from its strategic oil reserves, though Wright said further releases were not likely. Oil prices sank today after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would postpone all strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure for five day
Energy
An ill wind: US LNG to win big from protracted Iran war
While several Gulf nations, along with India, have declared force majeure on oil and gas shipments since the Iran war started – a legal move that excuses them from supply obligation due to events beyond their control – United States LNG exporters could be major beneficiaries of global disruption. Analysis by Energy Flux estimates that U.S. LNG exporters could generate about $4 billion in windfall profits in the first month of the disruption alone. The surge of U.S. LNG exporters is currently experiencing follows a complete halt on 2 March 2026 in Qatari LNG production, which typically accounts for around 20% of global supply. Gas prices soared immediately following the country’s halt of gas production, and global gas markets are expected to experience shortages for weeks, if not longer.Highest bidderInterestingly, U.S. producers – which exported around 108 million metric tons of LNG last year – don’t have the capacity to increase LNG production beyond current levels; they’re currently maxed out. However, given that their customer contracts don’t have fixed destinations - a unique feature of the U.S. LNG industry - they have the ability to reroute volume to where the demand is greatest. In other words, while U.S. LNG

Energy
Beijing chooses trade stability over Tehran
Beijing is the biggest buyer of Iranian crude and stands to lose billions from the Strait of Hormuz closure - yet it has barely lifted a finger since Operation Epic Fury began. The reason was in Paris this weekend, where U.S. and Chinese economic chiefs are currently trying to keep a fragile trade truce from unravelling. Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials sat down in Paris on Sunday to work through the next phase of their trade truce, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng meeting at OECD headquarters to negotiate on tariffs, rare earths, soybeans and export controls. The talks are meant to clear the way for President Donald Trump's visit to Beijing at the end of March, and on paper, they look like routine great-power housekeeping. The timing, however, is anything but routine. The discussions come as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz - a waterway through which China receives roughly half of its oil imports and nearly a third of its liquefied natural gas. In the two and a half weeks since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, Beijing's response has amounted to diplomatic boilerplate - a call for an emergency UN Security Council ses
Energy
US eases sanctions on Russian oil
The United States has eased sanctions on Russian oil and petroleum in an attempt to curb the economic impact of the U.S.-Iran war. U.S. Treasury Scott Bessent said this would be a temporary measure to "promote stability in global energy markets" during the war. The move will last until 11 April. "This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government," Bessent said. In the past, the U.S. has banned countries from buying oil from Russia, even going as far as to impose hefty tariffs on countries like India that refused to comply with the sanctions. This comes as attacks on energy and infrastructure in the Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz rocked global energy markets. Around 25% of the world’s oil travels through the strait, and the war has caused the price of crude oil to surpass US$100 per barrel. Stock markets also fell after three more cargo vessels were hit in the Gulf and Iran’s new supreme leader vowed to keep blocking the strait. Authorities have taken the issue into their own hands. This includes the International Energy Agency (IEA), which said it would release a record 400 million barr
Energy
US may waive shipping law to ease impact of oil surge
The United States is considering waiving a law that requires U.S. ships to be used to move goods between its ports, in a bid to ease the impact of surging oil prices. Under the proposed Jones Act exemption, the law would be waived for 30 days for vessels moving oil, gasoline, diesel, liquefied natural gas, and fertiliser, Bloomberg reported. “In the interest of national defense, the White House is considering waiving the Jones Act for a limited period of time to ensure vital energy products and agricultural necessities are flowing freely to U.S. ports,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “This action has not been finalized.” A waiver could be announced as soon as today, per Reuters. Oil prices have soared amid the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, where around 20% of global oil flows would usually transit. Iran’s newly-chosen Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a written statement today that the country would continue to block the strait as a “tool to pressure the enemy”. Its military has also said the U.S. should “get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel”. In the U.S., national average gasoline prices rose to US$3.598 per gallon today, compared with $
Energy
Japan, Korea and Thailand stuck in LNG spiral: IEEFA
Asia keeps reaching for more gas. Someone should probably tell them how that's been going. Here's a fun game… Take the world's biggest energy-importing region, subject it to repeated geopolitical supply shocks, watch prices detonate, and wait for policymakers to respond by locking in more of the same fuel that caused the problem in the first place. Rinse and repeat. That, in broad strokes, is the story the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has just documented across Japan, South Korea and Thailand in its March 2026 Asia energy research roundup. The IEEFA's core argument is simple and genuinely hard to argue with: Building more gas infrastructure doesn't fix exposure to global gas price shocks, it deepens it. It makes for pretty uncomfortable bedtime reading if you're an energy security hawk, or, you know, a taxpayer in any of those countries footing the bill for imported fuel at crisis prices.Source: IEEFAIran lights the match, Asia buys more petrolThe Iran conflict has been doing what Middle East supply disruptions always do: sending energy markets into a spin and making the renewables argument look increasingly obvious. IEEFA analysts put it plainly - fiscal backstops and monetary