Month: October 2026

When it comes to Helium-3, the biggest cost divide is between Earth and the Moon. Potential sources range from tritium decay and terrestrial helium wells on Earth to lunar regolith on the Moon. Today, Earth-based sources remain far easier and cheaper to access. This graphic, created by Visual Capitalist’s Cody Good in partnership with Pulsar Helium, compares major potential sources of Helium-3 by cost, scalability, and accessibility. It’s part three of four in the Helium 3: From Theory to Opportunity series, delivering key He-3 insights for…

BP is still considering a sale of all or part of its UK upstream portfolio, which could fetch around £2 billion ($2.7 billion), though talks of a sale to Ithaca Energy fell through earlier this month, according to reports by Bloomberg and the Financial Times. We think the information is credible. A sale would fit the group’s strategic direction, and the company is an outlier in the UK, where other majors have either sold down or formed joint ventures. At the same time, BP has been pushing aggressively on the exploration front since…

The Middle East’s latest peace deal just got a peace deal of its own. Israel and Hezbollah agreed Friday to halt fighting in southern Lebanon after days of escalating clashes threatened to derail the fragile US-Iran peace process, reducing the risk that the first major test of the U.S.-Iran agreement would turn into its first major failure. Negotiations between Washington and Tehran are supposed to begin under a 60-day framework agreement designed to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and eventually restore millions of barrels per day of…

Russia, one of the world’s largest oil producers and exporters, is now rationing gasoline in its own capital. After months of increasingly successful Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, gasoline shortages have emerged in Moscow, forcing major fuel retailers to limit sales while authorities scramble to keep supplies flowing. The shortages follow repeated attacks on refineries and fuel infrastructure that have steadily chipped away at Russia’s refining system. The latest blow came this week when Ukraine struck Gazprom Neft’s Moscow…

The U.S. dollar is cracking—and the market knows it. After years of monetary excess, swelling deficits, and policy uncertainty, the world’s reserve currency is losing its grip as a store of value. Capital is fleeing paper promises and piling into hard assets at a pace not seen in decades. Nowhere is this more visible than in precious metals: Gold has surged to above $4,100 per ounce, silver has ripped past $70, and palladium—once written off—has clawed its way back to $1,350. Add an unstable geopolitical backdrop stretching…

Nuclear power is experiencing a massive revival across Europe, with the regulatory environment shifting decisively in its favor thanks to surging electricity demand from the AI and data center boom, climate goals, volatile global energy markets and the urgent need for structural energy independence. It’s a big wishlist, and nuclear may be the fastest way to realize it. Massive power demand by the tech giants and hyperscalers is exceeding traditional grid capacities in Europe and the United States. AI data centers require huge amounts of baseload…

The first new oil sands project in Alberta since 2014 has started commercial production, aiming for a daily average of 80,000 barrels once it ramps up. The Blackrod project, led by International Petroleum Corp., moved to the first phase of production despite the peak oil demand narrative that has dominated the past decade, especially in Canada. Canadian oil sands have been in the focus of transition attention as especially energy-intensive, meaning emission-intensive, and as a high-cost way of extracting crude oil from the ground. Under activist…

Donald Trump has been battling wind turbines in the court of public opinion and in actual court for over a decade now. Trump has railed about “windmills” repeatedly over the course of his presidential term and campaign trails, calling the technology “so pathetic and so bad” before proudly declaring that no wind power will be approved on his watch. “I can proudly say […] that we have not approved one windmill since I’ve been in office. And we’re going to keep it that way. My goal is to not let any windmill…

Germany may be getting cold feet about ending its oil reserve waiver. Berlin said this week it is considering extending a temporary reduction in national oil stockpiling requirements beyond the current August 31 deadline, even as markets celebrate the U.S.-Iran agreement and the expected reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Officially, Germany insists there are no physical shortages. That’s true. But governments generally don’t keep discussing emergency measures when they’re completely comfortable with the situation. Germany joined the International…

Every AI boom forecast being published right now — every bull case, Big Tech earnings call, and valuation model — seems to be making the same assumption. The electricity will be there to power it when they need it. It won’t. Bitzero (NASDAQ: AIBZ) spent the last four years betting against that assumption. The company locked in more than a gigawatt of low-cost power across Norway, Finland, and North Dakota, well before the rest of the industry started fighting over every available megawatt. The company is already cash flow positive,…