July 31, 2026

Baker Hughes data released Friday shows the total US oil-and-gas rig count rose to 588, up 48 from a year ago, with active oil rigs increasing by one to 451. Gas rigs held steady at 127 and miscellaneous rigs stayed at 10, according to Oilprice.com. The modest weekly increase amid WTI prices near $85 a barrel suggests operators are adding capacity incrementally rather than ramping aggressively, a posture consistent with a market still digesting this week's volatility.

Ukrainian forces struck Lukoil's Volgograd refinery, a 300,000-barrel-per-day facility producing gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, as Kyiv resumed attacks on Russian refining capacity, Oilprice.com reports. Ukraine's Security Service called the strike 'successful' but gave no details on the extent of damage. Renewed strikes on Russian refining capacity keep a geopolitical risk premium embedded in crude prices even as this week's broader sell-off eases.

Brent crude is on pace for an 8% weekly loss, but continued disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea is keeping prices supported near $90 a barrel, Oilprice.com reports. Saudi Arabia is working to organize a maritime coalition against Houthi threats, while Iran's IRGC claims to have turned back several tankers attempting to transit Hormuz. The combination of a steep weekly decline and a firm price floor illustrates how shipping-lane risk, not just supply-demand fundamentals, is currently setting the market's range.

Gold producers posted record output in the first quarter even as all-in sustaining costs hit a record $1,785 an ounce, according to Mining.com. The World Gold Council expects conflict-driven energy costs to push that figure higher in coming quarters. Rising extraction costs alongside record production point to a market where higher gold prices are increasingly compensating for, rather than reflecting pure profit growth from, the metal's rally.

Ukraine has begun treating Iranian cargo vessels bound for Russia as military targets, striking Iranian shipping in the Caspian Sea after Russia's use of Iranian-designed drones intensified the war, Oilprice.com reports. Kyiv considers Iran an indirect combatant given its role supplying drone technology to Moscow. The expansion of the conflict's maritime dimension into the Caspian adds another theater where energy shipping and geopolitics are increasingly intertwined.

China's installed solar power capacity stood at 1,274 gigawatts as of the end of June, just short of the country's 1,275 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity, according to a China Electricity Council report cited by Oilprice.com. Chinese authorities expect solar to overtake coal capacity as soon as this quarter. The milestone marks a structural shift in China's generation mix even though coal still supplies the larger share of actual electricity generated.