A daring junior oil and gas explorer has set out to put the African country of Namibia—which has never produced a single barrel of oil - on the world’s energy map in a wildcat drill campaign that has taken many by surprise.

One of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporters, Qatar, expects global natural gas demand to peak at some point around 2040, Bloomberg reported on Monday, quoting a bond prospectus of Qatar Petroleum it had seen.

Despite a strong rebound in oil prices, seeing them hit three-year highs, U.S. shale oil producers are sticking to their output discipline, Reuters reports, citing rig count data and industry insiders.

Brazil's Oil Boom Continues Unabated

Oil prices rallied to their highest levels in two and a half years after OPEC+ recently agreed to extend its historic production cuts. On Monday morning, WTI was trading at $71.66 per barrel while Brent crude was changing hands at $73.49, levels they last touched in 2018.e

With oil trading above $70 per barrel while investment activity remains low, the world’s publicly traded exploration and production (E&P) companies are set to generate record-breaking free cash flows (FCF) in 2021, a Rystad Energy report projects. Their combined FCF is expected to surge to $348 billion this year, with the previous high being $311 billion back in 2008.

The OPEC+ alliance is widely expected to decide next week to further ease the collective production cuts, but the additional supply from August will likely still be less than the supply deficit on the market, analysts and traders told Bloomberg in a survey.

$100 a barrel oil “sure is possible,” Harold Hamm, executive chairman at Continental Resources, told FOX Business on Thursday, commenting on oil prices and supply and demand on the oil market.

Solid oil demand is driving up the spot crude prices in every part of the world. This is a clear indication that the physical oil market is finally catching up with the recent rally in the paper market.

Oil prices jumped further today after the Energy Information Administration reported a crude oil inventory draw of 7.6 million barrels for the week to June 18.

“Canadian oil industry’s carbon emissions are among the world’s highest for every barrel of oil it pumps,” Reuters reported this week. A typical barrel of oil derived from the thick crude bitumen that naturally occurs in the Albertan oil sands (an energy-intensive process) emits three to five times more greenhouse gas emissions than the global average.

Crude oil prices clambered upward on Monday afternoon as the market feared that Iran nuclear talks may be stalled after hardliner Ebrahim Raisi won the Iranian presidential election.