Middle Eastern spread

• Shell's net profit more than doubled from last year to $9.84 billion in the second quarter, beating expectations, helped by higher energy prices and stellar refining margins since the start of the Middle East conflict.
• I enjoyed this Reuters feature on Venezuela's old, run-down refining industry. Once among the biggest and best in the world, Venezuela's refineries are today rusty and damaged following years of neglect and, most recently, a devastating earthquake.

There are signs, too, that the Middle East conflict could become increasingly intertwined with the war in Ukraine. Last week, Ukrainian drones struck an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea that Kyiv said was carrying military cargo bound for Russia.

For now, the region appears stuck in an uneasy middle ground: not a full-scale war, but far from peace. For energy markets, that means living with persistent uncertainty. Concerns about the security and reliability of Gulf oil and gas supplies are no longer seen as a temporary disruption but increasingly as part of the landscape. That may prove to be one of the conflict's most lasting consequences. More on that in my latest column.

The Middle East conflict is spreading into new territory, an unsettling sign that, five months into the war, the standoff between Iran and the United States is becoming ever harder to untangle.

After a brief pause in fighting that began last Saturday, Washington resumed air strikes inside Iran overnight after Tehran launched a salvo of missiles into Jordan. On Wednesday, U.S. and Saudi forces also jointly struck Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq in response to drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities. It was the first time Riyadh has openly joined military action alongside Washington.

There was another dramatic twist the same day. A drone hit a U.S.-owned gas storage tanker at Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta. Cairo confirmed the incident, although it remains unclear who was behind the attack.