The world consumption of oil is set for its first fall in a decade, as global investors continue to focus on the coronavirus outbreak and whether or not it will derail the world economy this year.

The new coronavirus will take a chunk out of China's oil demand. Producers must respond with an output cut.

Australia continues to battle “catastrophic” fires as the severe heatwave and bushfire crisis continues.

Australia continues to battle “catastrophic” fires as the severe heatwave and bushfire crisis continues.

Fashion is one of our world’s foremost soft powers.

Global carbon emission growth is expected to only begin slowing down in the 2030s, international energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie has said.

International cement companies - including Dublin-based CRH - have been urged by European-based investment funds to significantly cut their greenhouse gas emissions or risk losing access to capital.

Carbon tax hikes every year will be considered after an energy report warned that a third of all electricity demand here in future is set to come from data centres and large energy users.

Energy Minister Richard Bruton is open to considering annual hikes in carbon taxes and confirms that upward changes to the levy will be considered for the 2020 budget.

Tedium brings great vulnerability; a wavering, easily-broken concentration means important decisions can be made or, worse, neglected as we daydream.

Hopes that UK Prime Minister Theresa May could clinch a last-minute deal with the EU boosted sterling against the euro, as markets continued to predict that any Brexit involving Britain crashing out at the end of the month was most unlikely.

Oil jumped as Saudi Arabia prepares to slash shipments to US refiners within weeks in an effort to prevent a price-killing build-up of American stockpiles.

Crude oil prices continue to climb despite attempts by oil producers to reassure the market about availability and the existence of enough spare capacity to offset oil lost as a result of US sanctions on Iran.

Clouds are gathering over the outlook for the oil market, as trade tensions and rising crude supply threaten to swamp demand growth, but some of the world’s most prominent energy investors are convinced the price will return to record highs.

Money managers who are reducing their bullish bets on oil are following a “dangerous” strategy, according to Goldman Sachs.

BP is to begin a share buyback programme, making it the first major European energy company to resume buybacks since the 2014 price slump in a sign years of austerity have paid off.

It’s been a year of weather extremes. Floods have killed thousands in India and across Asia. Record hurricanes have wreaked havoc across the Caribbean and the US. Fires, driven by drought, lay waste to large parts of Portugal and California. Closer to home, unprecedented

Brent crude surged to a 26-month high as Turkey threatened to shut down Kurdish crude shipments through its territory to punish the Iraqi region for holding an independence referendum.

What happens to the price of oil in the coming months will be critical to the global inflation outlook, and, of course, to the monetary policy of the world’s major central banks.

Oil prices fell to their lowest in over five weeks yesterday following US data showing an unexpectedly large weekly build in US gasoline inventories and International Energy Agency (IEA) data projecting an increase in non-Opec production.

Environmentalists have vowed not to be deterred by the US’s rejection of the Paris Climate Change Accord but to use the international outcry to galvanise efforts towards meeting its carbon reduction targets.

A new accord by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to extend its curb on output has not yet had its desired effect of driving up prices but the effect of earlier cuts may be paying off for the cartel, an Irish energy has said.

The benefits of Opec’s agreement to cut output have proved elusive. With less than three weeks to go before the group’s next meeting, something is very, very wrong as far as oil producers are concerned.

US president Donald Trump’s missiles pushed the oil price up by $4 but deeper oil market change is under way. Syria has no significant oil trade but rockets alert speculators to instability nearby.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Oil fell back from one-year highs yesterday on fears that a production cut by the world’s largest exporters might not be enough to erode a two-year old global surplus of unwanted crude oil.

Oil traded near $46 a barrel in New York as the market weighs a force majeure declared by Exxon Mobil on crude shipments out of Nigeria against excess US oil and product inventories.