The Russia-Ukraine war remapped the world’s energy supplies, putting the U.S. at the top for years to come
An LNG import terminal at the Rotterdam port in February 2022.
Federico Gambarini | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine a year ago has shifted global energy supply chains and put the U.S. clearly at the top of the world’s energy exporting nations.
As Europe struggled with threats to its supply of natural gas imports from Russia, U.S. exporters and others scrambled to divert cargoes of liquified natural gas from Asia to Europe. Russian oil has been sanctioned, and the European Union no longer accepts Moscow’s seaborne cargoes. That has resulted in a surge in U.S. crude and refined product shipments to Europe.
“The U.S. used to supply a military arsenal. Now it supplies an energy arsenal,” said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital.
Not since the aftermath of World War II has the U.S. been so important as an energy exporter. Weekly data from the Energy Information Administration shows a record 11.1 million barrels of crude and refined product exports in the week ended Feb. 24. That is more than the total output of either Saudi Arabia or Russia, according to Citigroup.
Exports averaged about 10 million barrels a day over the four week period ended Feb. 24. That compares with 7.6 million barrels a day a year ago.
“It’s amazing to think of all those decades of concern about energy dependence to find the U.S. is the largest exporter of LNG and one of the largest exporters of oil. The U.S. story is part of a larger remapping of world energy,” said Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global. “What we’re seeing now is a continuing redrawing of world energy that began with the shale revolution in the United States. … In 2003, the U.S. expected to be the largest importer of LNG.”
Yergin said the changing role of the U.S. oil and gas industry in the world energy order will be a topic of conversation among the thousands attending the annual CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston March 6-10. Among the speakers at the conference are CEOs from Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Baker Hughes and Freeport McMoRan, among others.
“One of the ironies, from an energy perspective, is if you only looked straight back, where we were the day before the invasion … if you look at price, you would say not much has happened,” said Daniel Pickering, chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners. “The price of global natural gas spiked but came back down. Oil is lower than where it was before the invasion. … The reality is we certainly have set in motion a rejiggering of global supply chains, particularly on the natural gas side.”
According to the Department of Energy, the U.S. has been an annual net total energy exporter since 2018. Up to the early 1950s, the U.S. produced most of the energy it consumed, but in the mid-1950s the nation began to increasingly import greater amounts of crude and petroleum products.
U.S. energy imports totaled about 30% of total U.S. consumption in 2005.
“There’s a global LNG boom that has become much more apparent and visible to the market,” said Pickering. “We’ve shifted around who consumes what kind of crude and products. We’ve meaningfully changed where Russian oil moves to.”
India and China are now the biggest importers of Russia’s crude. “You look at those things, and to me, we very clearly adjusted the way the world is thinking about supply for the next four or five years.”
But a year ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine, it was not clear the world would have sufficient supply or that oil prices would not spike to sharply higher levels. That is particularly true in Europe, where supplies have been sufficient.
oil
RBC commodities strategists said there were a number of factors at play that helped Europe get by this winter.
“A combination of warm weather, mandated conservation measures, and additional supplies from alternative producers such as the United States, Norway and Qatar, helped stave off such a worst-case scenario for Europe this winter,” the strategists wrote. “Countries that had relied on low cost Russian gas to meet their economic needs, such as Germany, raced to build new LNG import infrastructure to prepare for a future free from Moscow’s molecules.”
But they also point out that Europe is not in the clear, especially if the military conflict continues. “Key gas producers have warned that it could be difficult for Europe to build storage this summer in the absence of Russian gas exports and a colder winter next year could cause considerable economic hardship,” they added.
Qatar has promised to send more gas to Europe, and the U.S. is building out more capacity. “In gas, we’re going to be a very real player. We’re trustworthy. We have rule of law. We have significant resources, and our projects are reasonably quick, compared to a lot of other potential projects around the world,” said Pickering. “My guess is we will go from [capacity of] 12 [billion cubic feet] of exports a day to close to 20, and we will be a big supplier to Europe.”
Pickering said U.S. exports are currently around 10 Bcf a day.
Among the companies he finds attractive in the gas sector are EQT, Cheniere, Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy.
The oil story is different. Pickering said the U.S. industry chose not to be the global swing producer. “We’re not the swing producer because we decided not to be with our capital discipline,” he said.
Energy companies now have earnings visibility they did not have before, and that could be the case for another five years or so, Pickering said. Oil companies have not been overproducing, as they had in the past, and they did not jump in to crank up production despite calls from the White House in the past year.
The White House has also been critical of the energy industry’s share repurchase programs, which many have.
“They’re generating a lot of cash. They’re being rewarded by shareholders for being disciplined with that cash,” Pickering said. “You did see companies signal their optimism, like with Chevron’s $75 billion share repurchase.”
“The Russia, Ukraine dynamic may have ushered in an era where it’s cool to bash big oil, but my expectation is you can bash all the way to the bank and the political dynamic is very different than the financial and economic dynamic,” he said.
The U.S. now produces about 12.3 million barrels of oil a day, and Pickering does not expect that number to race higher. Producer discipline has helped support their share prices. The S&P energy sector is up 18% over the past 12 months, the best performing sector and one of just three of 11 sectors that are showing gains. The next best was industrials, up 1.7%.
“Our absolute production levels are as high as they’ve been when you combine oil and natural gas. We were a net importer, and we’ve dramatically reduced that. It’s a massive shift,” said Pickering. “The shale boom benefited the energy sector. It benefited U.S. consumers. It was a terrible stretch for producers. They did their jobs too well. They overproduced. When we went from 5 million barrels a day to 13 million barrels a day, we were taking the most barrels away from OPEC. That was when we were most influential. We were the swing producer.”
Toyota’s new electric SUV boasts significantly more range, a revamped interior and exterior, and an NACS port, allowing you to recharge at Tesla Superchargers. Despite the upgrades, the 2026 Toyota bZ now starts at under $35,000.
2026 Toyota bZ electric SUV prices and range by trim
The bZ4X, Toyota’s first electric SUV, has been killed off and replaced with the upgraded bZ. Toyota improved it in almost every way possible for the 2026 model year, adding driving range, more features, a fresh new look, and more.
Even with the upgrades, the new and improved Toyota bZ is cheaper than the outgoing bZ4X. Toyota revealed prices for the 2026 bZ electric SUV will start at $34,900, or $2,170 less than the outgoing model.
That’s for the base XLE FWD trim with a 57.7 kWh battery, good for 236 miles range. Upgrading to the extended-range bZ XLE FWD Plus will cost $37,900, but a larger 74.7 kWh battery provides up to 314 miles of driving range, representing a 25% improvement over the 2025 model year.
For AWD, prices start at $39,900. Thanks to new SIC semiconductors, AWD models now pack up to 388 hp, 50% more than the outgoing electric SUV.
The range-topping 2026 Toyota bZ Limited FWD trim starts at $43,300, while upgrading to AWD will cost you an extra $2,000.
| 2026 Toyota bZ trim | Battery | Range | Starting Price* |
| XLE FWD | 57.7 kWh | 236 miles | $34,900 |
| XLE FWD Plus | 74.7 kWh | 314 miles | $37,900 |
| XLE AWD | 74.7 kWh | 288 miles | $39,900 |
| Limited FWD | 74.7 kWh | 299 miles | $43,300 |
| Limited AWD | 74.7 kWh | 278 miles | $45,300 |
Toyota’s new electric SUV now features a built-in NACS port, allowing you to recharge at Tesla Superchargers. With a new thermal management system and battery preconditioning, the bZ can charge from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes.
The new electric SUV features a fresh look both inside and out. Like the latest Camry and Crown, the bZ features Toyota’s new “hammerhead front end design” with an LED light bar across the front.
Inside, the 2026 bZ gets a redesigned center console and a larger 14″ Toyota Audio Multimedia touchscreen, two wireless phone chargers, and an improved dashboard.
Toyota said dropping the “4X” at the end of the name was to simplify things for buyers. The 2026 models are expected to begin arriving at dealerships in the second half of 2025, which could be any day now.
With the 2026 model year arriving soon, Toyota is offering clearance prices on the 2025 bZ4X with up to $12,000 off in lease cash. You can use our link to find Toyota bZ4X models in your area (trusted affiliate link).
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Amid the alliterative, anti-EV “messy middle” rhetoric and the Trump Administration EPA’s ongoing regulatory rollbacks, it’s been tough for fleet and equipment buyers with 8-12 year replacement cycles to make sense of where things are headed – but a new partnership between CASE Construction Equipment and ZQUIP could put those concerns to rest (and make a trip to the CASE dealer a no-brainer).
iVT reports that CASE Construction Equipment has formalized a new partnership with ZQUIP to deliver heavy equipment assets featuring ZQUIP’s swappable energy modules – self-contained power units that could be batteries, fuel cells, or diesel engines. The technology aims to eliminate range and regulation anxiety while maximizing a job site’s energy efficiency and meeting the complex demands of modern construction projects with unprecedented flexibility. And, crucially, at a lower cost than either a mixed BEV/ICE fleet.
“A fully integrated battery system is extremely expensive upfront,” explains Chris LaFleur, managing director of ZQUIP. “This system allows (customers) to buy essentially a bare tool, at a much lower price point.”
For the uninitiated, a “bare tool” is effectively an equipment asset like an excavator or wheel loader that arrives on a job site without a power plant. It’s not electric, it’s not diesel, it’s not natgas – it’s just the machine, with a flat “plate” more or less where you’d expect an engine to be.
Once you’re ready to put that tool to work, a ZQUIP Energy Module gets dropped in, cordless-tool style, and it’s ready to go. That Energy Module could be a contained battery-electric powertrain, or it could be a generator, depending on the energy needs, duty cycles, or regulations (both noise and emissions) that are in play at that specific site.
And, like their hand-held Ryobi cousins, you don’t need as many ZQUIP Energy Modules as you need bare tools. In practice, that means you’re not tying up hundreds of kWh of battery capacity in idle machines.
“The customer decides how he wants to use it,” says Eric Zeiser, product portfolio manager at CNH Industrial, CASE’ parent company. “If he wants to keep his cost low in the beginning, he can buy just one energy module. He could buy the simplest module available to keep his initial purchase price down. And then, in the future, if in six months he realizes his job sites are bigger, he needs more power, he buys the second and third module as he needs to.”
What’s more, different sized equipment assets have different energy needs – and bigger equipment means bigger possibilities. So, while a CASE WX155ZQ wheeled excavator accommodates two energy modules, a CX210ZQ tracked excavator supports three. “On the three-bay CX210 you can have an LFP battery, an NMC battery and a diesel hybrid Energy Module, all together working at the same time,” says LaFleur.
More energy needs = more options
Batteries when it makes sense, ICE when you need it. But, even with an ICE generating the power, the machine is still electric.
“The excavators are always electric,” says Rob Bauer, engineering manager for ZQUIP. “The question is, where does the energy come from? In an optimum case, when you have a normal workday, you’re pulling all the energy out of a battery, and that’s a great day. Everything’s perfect. On the other hand, if you’re in a difficult site, or you have to work a lot of hours in a day, we give you options.”
That’s not just options for the operator, it’s options for the OEM as well.
Growing the CASE EV family
For CASE Construction Equipment and its parent company, CNH Industrial, the ZQUIP partnership represents a strategic expansion, enabling it to grow the brand’s beyond existing compact electric offerings without sacrificing round-the-clock capability or requiring a utility-scale supply of new battery materials.
“CNH has always been a leader in sustainability, and we have a full range of compact electric vehicles, but we didn’t have a solution for heavy machinery until now,” says Egidio Galano, director of construction equipment product management for Europe at CNH Industrial.
The new partnership builds on an established relationship between the companies dating back to 2019. CASE’ 580EV electric backhoe loader, released in 2024 as the industry’s first production-ready purpose-built electric backhoe, utilizes the TerraTech platform from Moog (ZQUIP’s parent) for electric motion control and served as ZQUIP’s initial tester.
Since then, the project has continued to evolve, with the potential to grow to even bigger, more capable heavy machinery offerings. No word yet on pricing.
SOURCES | IMAGES: ZQUIP, via iVT.
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Hyundai will introduce the IONIQ 3 in less than a month. It’s expected to be more affordable than the Kona Electric, but Hyundai’s new EV will be much more advanced.
When will Hyundai launch the IONIQ 3?
We will see the IONIQ 3 for the first time at the Munich Motor Show in early September. Although Hyundai Europe’s CEO, Xavier Martinet, claims its IONIQ series is now the number two EV brand behind Tesla, this could be just the start.
Martinet told TopGear that the Inster EV and IONIQ 3 “are cheaper, so they’ll give us total coverage of the EV market.
The new EV, expected to arrive as the IONIQ 3, will sit between the Inster EV and Kona Electric in Hyundai’s lineup. According to TopGear, the IONIQ 3 will be slightly smaller than the Kona Electric, but more advanced. In the UK, the Hyundai Kona starts at £34,995 ($47,000), so prices are expected to start at about the same or even slightly less.
Like the Kia EV3, the UK’s best-selling retail EV through the first half of the year, the Hyundai IONIQ 3 is expected to be offered with 58.3 kWh and 81.4 kWh battery pack options for a WLTP range of about 260 and 365 miles.
Instead of the 800V electrical system used in the IONIQ 5, 6, and 9 models, the IONIQ 3 will use a cheaper 400V setup.
The interior will feature Hyundai’s latest software and new Pleos operating system, offering a smartphone-like user interface.
To save on costs, Hyundai will build the IONIQ 3 at its plant in Turkey. Martinet wants Hyundai to be just as big in the EV market as it is with gas and hybrid vehicles. Regarding EV sales, he explained that it “isn’t an absolute race but a race against the other manufacturers. We want the same share in all types of powertrain.”
Although adoption has been slower than some expected, Martinet still said, “people don’t go back to ICE” after owning an EV.”
Hyundai is expanding its lineup with new low-cost EVs, but still plans to continue selling gas-powered, plug-in hybrid (PHEV), and fully electric (EV) vehicles. It’s also looking to introduce extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), which use a gas engine to power the battery.
Although the IONIQ 3 isn’t expected to arrive in the US, thanks to the new tariffs on imports, Hyundai still offers some of the most affordable EVs on the market.
After cutting prices again last month, the new 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 can now be leased for as low as $179 per month. It’s hard to find any monthly lease under $200, but for a $45,000 electric SUV, it’s a steal.
The Kia EV3 is already a top-selling electric vehicle in Europe and the most popular retail EV in the UK this year. Will Hyundai top it with the IONIQ 3? We’ll find out more soon. Stay tuned.
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