Regulation ///
Jennifer Granholm was confirmed as Secretary of Energy, putting the former Michigan Governor at the head of agency that will play a key role in implementing President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate agenda.
Without Keystone XL, rail will become a more important way for Canadian oil to reach U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, which need the heavy crude to replace declining supplies from Mexico and Venezuela. And more rail traffic means greater derailment risk.
Deb Haaland’s assurances during her nomination hearing appeared to provide little comfort to Senate Republicans, who argued that the Democratic lawmaker’s criticism of fracing, support for pipeline protesters and endorsement of the Green New Deal make her unfit for a job that includes overseeing energy development on federal land.
After four years of bruising trade battles with Donald Trump, the Biden administration already has canceled a permit for TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline and threatened new “Buy American” provisions for government procurement contracts.
The Senate ultimately is still expected to confirm Haaland, but the slim control Democrats have means Haaland needs every vote she can get. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the committee considering her nomination, threw into doubt the fate of another Biden nominee last week.
A Nigerian court restricted Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s access to its bank accounts in the West African country amid a legal dispute with a local oil producer over a pipeline deal six years ago.
Angolan lawmakers revoked a ban on exploration for crude and natural gas in protected natural reserves, including the Kassanje Basin and the wildlife-rich Okavango River Basin.
Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian says recent winter storms would not have had such devastating consequences had it not been for decades of poor policy decisions prioritizing unreliable renewable energy sources at the expense of reliable electricity — something Texans now know is essential to everyday life.
Lowering Mexico's tax demands on Pemex, its biggest taxpayer, could help the oil giant reorder its finances as it struggles with a $110.3 billion debt load, sinking production, and some of the highest tax obligations of any oil company in the world.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a media briefing on Feb. 17 that he was banning gas from leaving the state through Feb. 21 to ensure in-state power generators had ample supplies. Abbott said he was forced to act as millions of Texans remain without power for a third day amid frigid temperatures, with no clear timeline for restoring service.
Iran said an attempt by the U.S. government to seize 2 million barrels of oil aboard a Greek-owned tanker was “an act of piracy,” as tensions between Washington and the Islamic Republic show little sign of easing under Joe Biden’s presidency.
Vice President Kamala Harris drew derision on social media after she told a West Virginia television station that people could be put to work reclaiming abandoned “land mines.” A day earlier, climate envoy John Kerry said during a White House briefing that displaced laborers face “better choices” making solar panels and installing wind turbines.
The Texas Railroad Commission is taking action to prioritize natural gas supplies to support electricity generation, as the state faces multiple days of record cold temperatures.
Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng said she is focusing her efforts with the new Biden administration on mutual U.S.-Canada interests despite early policy hiccups that risk further fracturing ties between the two nations, whose commercial relationship is worth $725 billion a year.
Texas’s energy regulator is taking an uncharacteristically critical approach toward burning off excess natural gas, a sign that growing pressure from environmentalists and investors to curb the controversial practice is paying off.
Investors are betting that Russian oil giants such as Lukoil, Rosneft and Tatneft will rally as they mop up market share from rivals in the U.S. and and other countries seeking to switch to clean energy.
Equinor ASA said the Nigerian Supreme Court overturned a ruling that had threatened to divert 1.5% of the company’s profits from one of the country’s largest oil fields to a former consultant.
To “retroactively remove regulatory approval on the basis of which an investment was made is, in my view, a slam dunk case of a claim for damages through NAFTA under the investor protection provisions,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said on Tuesday.
The Department of Justice filed a case in a U.S. district court, seeking to seize the cargo on the Greek-owned Achilleas tanker. The U.S. alleges that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the IRGC-Qods Force covertly shipped the oil abroad.
The transaction between Oxy and India's Reliance Industries is the energy industry’s first major petroleum shipment for which greenhouse gas emissions associated with the entire crude lifecycle, well head through combustion of end products, have been offset.