In the News

Rusty Braziel, executive chairman of RBN Energy, said at the EarthX conference that global oil prices are primarily driven by geopolitical stability in the Middle East, not U.S. production. Speaking on a panel about Iran-related market disruptions, he argued that domestic drilling alone won’t significantly lower prices—any major price relief would need to come from reduced tensions in that region.

Panelists discussed whether the U.S. can shield itself from global supply shocks through increased production, infrastructure, or new technologies like nuclear energy, but emphasized that international conflicts still heavily influence energy markets and fuel prices.

The discussion comes as fuel costs in Texas have surged, with gasoline up over 36% and diesel rising more than 60% year over year. Ongoing instability, particularly around key shipping routes like the Strait of Hormuz, continues to create uncertainty and contribute to price volatility.

RBN Energy President and CEO David Braziel joins ‘Mad Money’ host Jim Cramer to talk the global energy picture, crude oil and natural gas prices, and more.

While Asia has been disproportionately affected by the loss of natural gas, “this is a very interconnected global market,” said Lindsay Schneider, principal consultant and analyst at RBN Energy.

So, Asia is now buying LNG that would have been going to Europe, while Europe is trying to refill natural gas inventories it depleted over the winter.

“They need to refill that storage so that they don't start next winter in this precarious position,” Schneider said.

In the event the U.S. strikes and Iranian’s own hostility toward the country’s government help push the regime out of power, Iran’s oil fields offer a major opportunity for international oil companies to expand production, said Robert Auers, market analyst at consulting firm RBN Energy. The nation has been under crippling sanctions, but its infrastructure is considered to be structurally sound, unlike that of Venezuela’s.

The head of the U.S. oil industry’s top lobbying group said earlier this year that American producers are prepared to be a “stabilizing force” in Iran if the regime there falls.

Iran has huge oil reserves that are more easily drilled than the shale formations in the United States, Auers said.

“Iran’s upstream and downstream sectors are much better run than the Venezuelan ones,” Auers said. “There’s potential to grow output nearly right off the bat. You could quickly add back 500,000 to 1 million [barrels a day] in Iran.”

South Bow Corp. is considering an expansion of its pipeline system that may revive a version of the canceled Keystone XL project.

Bridger Pipeline LLC filed an application last month with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to build and operate a 550,000 barrel a day line that would move Canadian crude through Montana to Wyoming. The route would originate near Keystone XL’s planned border crossing, raising the prospect that parts of the long-stalled project could be repurposed.

South Bow was spun off in 2024 from TC Energy Corp., which originally proposed Keystone XL.

The Bridger project would allow the “stranded steel” of Keystone XL to be converted into a working pipeline system, according to a report from RBN Energy LLC. If tied into that dormant footprint, the combined pipes could create a functional cross-border outlet without the need for Keystone XL’s southern leg, RBN said.

A major new oil pipeline proposed to carry crude from the Canadian border to a hub in Wyoming could potentially piggyback off of existing pipe laid for the cancelled Keystone XL project, according to industry analysts and experts.

Regulatory filings submitted in Montana last month show a private U.S. company, Bridger Pipeline LLC, plans to build a 550,000-barrel-per-day pipeline that begins at the Canada-U.S. border near Phillips County, Montana.

The filings do not explicitly say what infrastructure the line would connect to on the Canadian side. But analysts at Plainsview Energy Analytics and RBN Energy say the proposed route suggests it could link to the partially constructed Keystone XL system in Alberta.

“Given the proposed border origin point, the only infrastructure that appears capable of supplying that scale of incremental volume is the partially constructed Keystone XL system in Alberta, which has remained idle since 2021,” RBN Energy analyst Liz Dicken wrote in a recent note.

On a recent episode of The Newsroom podcast, RBN Energy analyst Martin King joined DOB Energy editor Richard Macedo to discuss the 2026 outlook for oil and natural gas markets. King covers his price forecasts and examines how a potential return of Venezuelan oil barrels could affect global supply and markets.

Western Canada’s natural gas sector is setting new production records as drilling efficiency improves and LNG demand grows, according to RBN Energy’s Martin King. Output hit a monthly record of ~20.2 bcf/d in November, and average production in 2026 is expected to approach 20 bcf/d, the highest annual level on record for the region.

Producers boosted supply in anticipation of rising LNG demand—especially from LNG Canada, which came online in April and will consume about 2 bcf/d at full capacity. Despite past price volatility, including negative AECO prices last fall, production has rebounded as expectations for stronger demand persist.

Some gas was temporarily shut in during 2025 due to low prices, but it returned quickly. Companies such as Kelt Exploration are forecasting strong growth, while industry leaders remain optimistic that LNG exports and rising domestic power demand (e.g., data centres) will support prices longer term.

However, near-term prices face pressure from a warm winter, which has reduced demand and pushed AECO prices down recently. Analysts still expect improvement versus 2025, but now see more modest price gains than previously forecast.

President Trump pressed U.S. oil executives to invest heavily in Venezuela’s oil sector, saying companies should be willing to spend at least $100 billion of their own money and warning that if they do not seize the opportunity, others will. While executives expressed interest in Venezuela’s vast undeveloped oil reserves, they stopped short of making firm commitments, citing past losses when the Venezuelan government seized or renegotiated assets. ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said the country is currently “uninvestable,” noting the company’s assets had been seized twice before, though he left open the possibility of future change. Trump promised “total safety, total security” for companies but made clear there would be no financial guarantees and that previous losses should be written off, meaning firms would have to accept significant risk. Analysts emphasized the uncertainty around costs, infrastructure conditions, and political stability; as RBN Energy Managing Director of Refined Fuels Analytics, John Auers put it, “You have to get boots on the ground to see exactly what shape the existing infrastructure is in… all the numbers I’ve seen tossed around about how much it cost are basically wild guesses.” Overall, while short-term and medium-term production increases may be possible, large-scale investment would take years and billions of dollars amid long-term uncertainty about global oil demand.

RBN Energy Founder and Executive Chairman Rusty Braziel joins ‘Mad Money’ host Jim Cramer to talk the impact of U.S. control of Venezuelan oil.