HOUSTON (Reuters) – Retail power marketers in Texas are appealing multi-million dollar bills from last week’s blackout that they say could cripple them and unravel Texas’ nearly two-decade-old experiment as the most deregulated U.S. electricity market. Wholesale prices, which last year averaged $26 a megawatt hour, soared to $9,000 per MWh for days as grid … Read more Texas power crisis could cripple small marketers, unravel market deregulation

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. crude oil output dropped 58,000 barrels per day to 11.063 million bpd in December, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report on Friday. The move came as onshore oil production fell in Texas and North Dakota, the top oil-producing states, outpacing a slight rise in offshore output … Read more U.S. crude output drops to 11.06 million bpd in December – EIA

Feb 25, 2021 (Bloomberg) Mark Carney, a leading figure behind this year’s global climate talks, has sparked concern among green advocates with recent remarks claiming the half-trillion-dollar asset manager where he works zeroed out pollution across its portfolio. His comments call into question what it takes to attain net-zero status.Carney is a former Bank of England governor … Read more Mark Carney’s Net-Zero Claim Confounds Climate Experts

By Reuters Staff BERLIN (Reuters) – There is an exchange between the U.S. government and Germany regarding the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to take Russian gas to Europe, a German government spokeswoman said on Friday without giving details. Germany and Russia say Nord Stream 2 is just a commercial project. Washington has long argued the … Read more Germany says there is exchange with U.S. on Nord Stream 2

By Reuters Staff (Reuters) – Trade groups representing U.S. public power and natural gas companies urged President Joe Biden to declare a gas emergency for last week’s extreme weather and authorize the secretary of energy to cap the price of gas. In a Feb. 19 letter to Biden, the American Public Power Association (APPA) and the … Read more U.S. trade groups urge Biden to cap natural gas prices after Texas freeze last week

By Kevin Crowley Feb 25, 2021 (Bloomberg) Exxon Mobil Corp. erased almost every drop of oil-sands crude from its books in a sweeping revision of worldwide reserves to depths never before seen in the company’s modern history. Exxon counted the equivalent of 15.2 billion barrels of reserves as of Dec. 31, down from 22.44 billion a … Read more Exxon Casts Out Canadian Oil Sands in Massive Reserves Slump

By Alex Longley and Andres Guerra Luz Feb 25, 2021 (Bloomberg) Oil extended its rally to a new one-year high as the market weighed a tightening global supply outlook against indications prices may be overextended.Futures in New York rose almost 1% to the highest intraday since January 2020 after falling earlier on Thursday. The oil futures … Read more Oil Fluctuates Near One-Year High With Global Supply Tightening

By Doug Alexander and Simon Casey Feb 24, 2021 (Bloomberg) Exxon Mobil Corp. agreed to sell some assets in the North Sea for more than $1 billion as the company focuses on newer and larger sources of oil and gas such as Guyana, Brazil and the U.S. Permian Basin. The company will sell most of its … Read more Exxon to Sell Some North Sea Assets for More Than $1 Billion

WASHINGTON/OTTAWA (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought on Tuesday to turn the page on the Trump era, stressing the countries’ deep ties and pledging to work together to counteract Chinese influence and address climate change. “The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend than Canada,” Biden … Read more Biden, Trudeau pledge to counter China, climate change, in warm first ‘meeting’

(Reuters) – Cheniere Energy Inc reported a smaller fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday compared with the third, as an uptick in economic activity fueled by COVID-19 vaccines lifted demand and prices for liquefied natural gas. Net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to $194 million, or 77 cents per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from … Read more Cheniere Energy posts smaller quarterly loss as LNG demand recovers

By Robert Tuttle Feb 23, 2021 (Bloomberg) U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline is sparking renewed interest in shipping Canadian oil-sands crude by rail, and that comes with its own environmental risks.Cenovus Energy Inc. and Imperial Oil Ltd. have increasingly turned to trains to move their crude, with oil exports by … Read more Keystone XL’s Death Sparks Rush to Ship Oil-Sands Crude by Rail

Feb 22, 2021 (Bloomberg) Now that the lights are back on in Texas, the state has to figure out who’s going to pay for the energy crisis that plunged millions into darkness last week. It will likely be ordinary Texans. The price tag so far: $50.6 billion, the cost of electricity sold from early Monday, when … Read more Texans Will Pay for Decades as Crisis Tacks Billions Onto Bills

By Jeremy Hill and Katherine Doherty Feb 23, 2021 (Bloomberg) The Texas power crisis is threatening to spark a new wave of distress in the Lone Star State, following a going concern warning from Just Energy Group Inc. “The Texas power loss will have a significant impact on businesses that haven’t been able to restore power and can … Read more U.S. Bankruptcy Tracker: Texas Energy Crisis; Subchapter V Surge

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Deb Haaland, U.S. President Joe Biden’s historic pick for interior secretary, will seek to reassure lawmakers that she will balance energy interests with climate change goals as the top administrator of America’s vast public lands on Tuesday. Haaland, a Democratic congresswoman from New Mexico, would be the first Native American to take … Read more Senate weighs historic Interior nominee, Republicans to grill her on fossil fuels

WASHINGTON/OTTAWA (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will try on Tuesday to move past an early disagreement after Biden blocked the Canadian-backed Keystone XL pipeline and look to reset relations after the rocky years of Donald Trump. In his first bilateral meeting with a foreign leader since taking office … Read more Biden, Trudeau aim to move past Keystone pipeline disagreement in first bilateral meeting

Feb 21, 2021 (Bloomberg) Oil prices will rally sooner and higher than previously thought as the global energy demand recovery outpaces the supply response from the OPEC+ alliance, shale and Iran, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Consumption will get back to pre-virus levels by late July, while output from major producers is likely to remain “highly … Read more Goldman Sees Brent Oil at $75 as Supply Response Trails Demand

Feb 22, 2021 (Bloomberg) Trafigura Group sees oil markets firming in the coming months as most of the world emerges from lockdowns and production losses from the recent U.S. deep freeze add to a tighter supply outlook.“We have a strong market going into summer,” Ben Luckock, co-head of oil trading at the commodities trading giant, said … Read more Trafigura Sees ‘Strong’ Oil Market Heading Into Summer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. federal energy regulators said on Monday they will examine threats that climate change and extreme weather events pose to the country’s electric reliability in the wake of last week’s deadly Texas freeze that left millions of people without power. “The effects of climate change are already apparent,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission … Read more U.S. energy regulator says will examine climate change’s threat to power reliability

WASHINGTON — The catastrophic cold snap that paralyzed the electrical grid in Texas has opened up a new front in the age-old battle between green-energy champions and their fossil-fuel rivals. One side sees the chance to build a new, fortified and more sustainable power grid. The other calls it proof positive that it’s too soon … Read more Deep freeze, power crisis in Texas sparks fresh climate-change falsehoods

Feb 22, 2021 (Bloomberg)  The millions of people who struggled to keep warm in Texas, with blackouts crippling life inside a dominant energy hub, have laid bare the desperate state of U.S. electricity grids. To fix nationwide vulnerabilities, President Joe Biden will have to completely reimagine the American way of producing and transmitting electricity. Biden wants to overhaul the nation’s grids so they derive … Read more After Texas Crisis, Biden’s Climate Plan Hangs on Fragile Power Grid

LONDON/HOUSTON (Reuters) – OPEC and U.S. oil companies see a limited rebound in shale oil supply this year as top U.S. producers freeze output despite rising prices, a decision that would help OPEC and its allies. OPEC this month cut its 2021 forecast for U.S. tight crude, another term for shale, and expects production to … Read more OPEC, U.S. oil firms expect subdued shale rebound even as crude prices rise

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Plans for seismic surveys to help find oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have fizzled due to a lack of protection for polar bears, according to a brief statement Saturday from the Department of the Interior. The Kaktovik Inupiat Corp (KIC), the Native-owned company that applied for permission to conduct … Read more Arctic drilling plan in Alaska hits roadblock

 Feb 21, 2021 (Bloomberg) After enduring a wretched week of Arctic storms, hunger and cold, several Texans lucky enough to have power were handed another pain point — massive electricity bills.Houston resident David Astrein, 36, a human resources director at a manufacturing company, said he’s been charged $2,738.66 for 20 days this month versus $129.85 for … Read more Texas Homes Slammed by Thousand-Dollar Power Bills After Storm

By John Kemp LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. petroleum consumption and inventories have returned to normal after the pandemic and volume war last year, with the significant exception of jet fuel, where demand remains suppressed by travel restrictions. Market rebalancing has been completed earlier than seemed likely a few months ago, as a result of a strong … Read more Column: Oil market rebalancing largely complete, except for jet fuel

Feb 19, 2021 (Bloomberg) —President Joe Biden said he’ll declare a major disaster in Texas and wants to visit the state soon as it recovers from widespread power outages and water shortages following an unusual winter storm. “If in fact it’s concluded that I can go without creating a burden for the folks on the … Read more Biden Says He Hopes to Visit Texas After Winter Storm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration is expected to name as early as Friday the companies it believes are helping build Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, five sources said, a move that could eventually prompt sanctions on the nearly completed project. The State Department report to Congress, which may come on Friday, is expected to … Read more U.S. to unveil Nord Stream 2 pipeline report, but sanctions may take time: sources

Feb 17, 2021 (Bloomberg) Total U.S. oil production has plunged by close to 40% — the most ever — as an unprecedented cold blast freezes well operations across the central U.S., according to traders and industry executives with direct knowledge of the operations.Crude output has now fallen by more than 4 million barrels a day nationwide, … Read more U.S. Oil Production Slumps by Record 40% as Permian Freezes

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The Mexican government called the top U.S. representative in Mexico on Wednesday to press for natural gas supplies after the Texas governor ordered fuel to remain in the state during a freeze that has overwhelmed its energy grid. Already, earlier this week, natural gas supplies to Mexico from Texas were interrupted … Read more Mexico presses U.S. to guarantee natural gas supplies after Texas export ban

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several U.S. Representatives on Wednesday raised pressure on the State Department to share plans on potential sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline Russia is racing to finish to take fuel to Europe. “If completed, Nord Stream 2 would enable the Putin regime to further weaponize Russia’s energy resources to … Read more U.S. lawmakers ask Blinken for briefing on Nord Stream 2 natgas pipeline

Feb 16, 2021 (Bloomberg) With the right gear, wind turbines can keep on generating through the harshest winter weather. That’s the experience by researchers at an Arctic test site in Sweden, and their knowledge would have come handy thousands of miles away as ice and snow storms in Texas downed generators and triggered widespread blackouts. As much as half … Read more Sweden Shows Texas How to Keep Turbines Going in Icy Weather

By Rachel Adams-Heard, Naureen S. Malik and Brian Eckhouse Feb 17, 2021 (Bloomberg) The finger-pointing began immediately: It was the frozen wind turbines that foolishly replaced traditional sources. No, fossil fuels were at fault. No, Texas’s deregulated power market, unique in the country, had allowed companies to skimp on maintenance and upgrades. As the hours ticked … Read more In Texas’s Black-Swan Blackout, Everything Went Wrong at Once

(Reuters) – A deep freeze continued to wreak havoc on the U.S. energy sector, bringing operations to a halt at the Houston Ship channel, while several of the biggest oil refineries remained offline in the nation’s largest crude-producing state. Overall, around 5.3 million customers were without power in most states including Texas and New York, … Read more Deep freeze shuts Houston ship channel as energy closures mount

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s Equinor is looking to sell more assets in the United States and exit several other countries as part of a major global reshuffle as it tries to return to profit after writing down $25 billion of U.S. assets over the past decade. While the company, like other energy majors, has been … Read more Equinor considers more US asset sales in global strategy revamp

(Bloomberg) —Brookfield Asset Management Inc. plans to raise at least $7.5 billion for a new climate-focused fund, as the Canadian investment firm builds out an ESG business led by former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. The Brookfield Global Transition Fund seeks to take advantage of accelerating interest in solutions to the global climate crisis, … Read more Brookfield Pursues $7.5 Billion Fund Devoted to ‘Net-Zero’ Shift

Feb 14, 2021 (Bloomberg) Oil hit a fresh 13-month high as cold weather in Texas may see supply curbed from America’s largest shale patch.U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures surged as much as 2.2% in early Asian trade, rising above $60 a barrel for the first time in more than a year. Brent crude in London rallied … Read more Oil Rallies as Texas’ Wintry Weather Seen Curbing Shale Supplies

(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is just getting started in the fast-expanding world of sustainable finance.The New York-based lender plans to issue more environmental, social, and governance bonds on a regular basis as part of its plans to deploy $750 billion in sustainable financing, investing and advisory activity by 2030, according to Carey Halio, chief … Read more SUSTAINABLE FINANCE: Goldman Says ESG Finance to Become ‘Core Part’ of Strategy

(Reuters) – Marathon Oil Corp has laid off around 100 U.S. employees, or about 5% of its total workforce, a company spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday, days after the oil and gas producer cut salaries for top executives and board members. Although oil prices have raced back above the pre-pandemic level of $60 per barrel … Read more Marathon Oil lays off 5% of workforce as part of cost-cut plans

(Reuters) – New Mexico officials are asking the Biden administration to resolve confusion in the state’s oil and gas industry over a 60-day pause on allowing state-level staff to issue approvals for new federal lands drilling. In a letter dated Feb. 9 but seen by Reuters on Wednesday, Sarah Cottrell Propst, secretary of New Mexico’s … Read more New Mexico asks Biden administration to resolve drilling policy ‘confusion’

By John Kemp LONDON (Reuters) – National governments still tend to think about oil refineries as strategic assets that must preserved to provide fuel security in the event of armed conflict, but that reflects an outdated view of risks arising from modern warfare. Exxon’s decision to convert a small refinery near Melbourne into an import … Read more Column: Oil refineries are not national security assets

Feb 11, 2021 (Bloomberg) The world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturers have committed to eliminating their net emissions of greenhouse gases, but reducing the carbon footprint of their production process may mean customers have to bear some of the cost.Global players such as Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA, its German-Spanish rival, … Read more More Green, More Cost: Making Wind Turbines Greener Could Also Make Them More Expensive

LONDON (Reuters) – Global oil supply still outstrips demand due to persistent COVID-19 lockdowns and the spread of variants, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday, but vaccines should help demand recover and soon enable producers to pump more. “With demand forecast to rise strongly and still modest growth in non-OPEC supply expected, a … Read more Oil market rebalancing will soon set stage for more OPEC+ supply: IEA

Feb 11, 2021 (Bloomberg) The polar blast freezing much of the U.S. is driving up demand for heating oil, a boon for a crude market that until now has relied on freight to make up for the pandemic’s devastating impact on driving and air travel. America’s insatiable appetite for online shopping has kept trucks crisscrossing the … Read more Cold Snap Gives Oil Rebound a Boost With Run for Heating

(Reuters) – U.S. crude oil stocks plunged unexpectedly last week, tumbling by more than 6 million barrels, as refiners ramped up production rates to pre-pandemic levels in March amid rising fuel demand, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 6.6 million barrels in the week to Feb. 5 to 469 million … Read more U.S. crude stockpiles plunge as refining activity picks up: EIA

Feb 10, 2021 (Bloomberg) The numbers are simply astounding. Governments, corporations and other groups raised a record $490 billion last year selling green, social and sustainability bonds. A further $347 billion poured into ESG-focused investment funds—an all-time high—and more than 700 new funds were launched globally to capture the deluge of inflows. And 2021 is shaping up to be just as frothy. … Read more The Boom in ESG Shows No Signs of Slowing

(Bloomberg) Chesapeake Energy Corp., the once-iconic energy explorer that helped ignite the American shale-gas boom, is emerging from bankruptcy protection a shadow of its former self. And in a way, that’s just fine with its boss.“Shale has been marked by growth, and growth for all the wrong reasons,” Doug Lawler, the company’s chief executive officer, said … Read more Chesapeake Emerges From Bankruptcy Vowing ‘New Era for Shale’

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc has ordered hundreds of trucks that run on compressed natural gas as it tests ways to shift its U.S. fleet away from heavier polluting trucks, the company told Reuters on Friday. The coronavirus pandemic caused delivery activity to surge in 2020, with truck volumes exceeding 2019 levels on average while passenger … Read more Amazon orders hundreds of trucks that run on natural gas

DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co on Thursday more than doubled the amount of money it plans to invest on electric and autonomous vehicles, to $29 billion, even as it posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $2.8 billion. The No. 2 U.S. automaker also said the global semiconductor chip shortage could lead to a 10% … Read more Ford boosts investment plan for EVs and self driving vehicles, reports loss

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – A weekend court ruling has temporarily blocked winter construction at a huge ConocoPhillips oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason issued an order Saturday barring ConocoPhillips from starting planned gravel mining and gravel-road construction at its Willow project. With an estimated 590 million barrels of oil … Read more Court order delays construction at ConocoPhillips’ Alaska project