Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Friday April 10, 2026
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Oil prices edged higher in choppy trading Friday as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz deepened, with the vital shipping lane still largely closed despite a ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures for May delivery gained 0.4% to $98.29 per barrel as of 1:06 pm. ET. International benchmark Brent crude futures for June delivery were up 0.56% at $96.48 per barrel.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday warned Iran to “stop now” if it was charging tankers to transit the strait, a move that risks undermining a 2-week ceasefire agreement that was contingent on reopening the waterway.
Shipping flows through the chokepoint, which handled about 20% of global oil supply before the war, remained severely restricted, keeping markets on edge.
“Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump’s top economic advisor Kevin Hassett said Thursday that getting even one oil tanker across the strait would provide a “huge chunk of what’s missing.”
Top Stories
Baird Maritime – April 9, 2026
Occidental reports oil discovery at prospect in the Gulf of America
Occidental Petroleum has announced that it has discovered oil at its Bandit prospect in the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico). The exploration well, located approximately 125 miles (201 kilometres) south of the Louisiana coast in Green Canyon Block 680, encountered oil-bearing Miocene sands.
The project co-owners are currently evaluating the results to determine the next stages for the discovery. Occidental serves as the operator with a 45.375 per cent working interest, while Chevron USA and Woodside Energy hold 37.125 per cent and 17.5 per cent respectively.
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Reuters – April 9, 2026
Iran war raises demand for US fuel, boosting Gulf Coast refining margins*
U.S. Gulf Coast refiners are reaping the strongest margins in years as disruptions to Middle Eastern oil flows from the Iran war raise demand for U.S. fuel exports, analysts and experts said. Asian and European refiners have been hit hard by a slump in Middle Eastern crude exports due to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, forcing some to cut production.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, conditional on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, though tanker traffic remains limited and doubts persist over whether the fragile truce will hold. U.S. refiners, less reliant on Middle Eastern crude, are well placed to benefit from global fuel shortfalls, by maximizing international sales from the U.S. Gulf Coast export hub. The U.S., the world’s largest fuel market, has about 18 million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity, much of it on the Gulf Coast export hub.
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Houston Chronicle – April 9, 2026
Texas lawmakers spent hours Wednesday grilling grid officials, data center developers and energy companies on the potential impacts of the state’s data center boom, as public backlash grows over its heavy demands on water and power. But state representatives also seemed sympathetic to concerns raised by data center companies that various rules being debated in Texas, such as a nonrefundable fee meant to weed out speculative projects and lower electric rates, could stymie new investment. In one exchange, state Reps. John McQueeney and Charlie Geren repeatedly pressed grid officials about why one developer, a friend of theirs, was purportedly asked to pay a $30 million deposit before knowing how much power the company would receive — or when. “How do you justify that?” McQueeney asked.
It was a reflection of the pressure that Texas politicians are facing from both sides — angry residents and wealthy, impatient tech companies — as the state emerges as the fastest-growing data center market in the world. In their testimony, data center companies framed their facilities as critical infrastructure for the modern digital world. Texas might be the “only place in the free world” able to compete with China in developing artificial intelligence, said Haynes Strader, chief development officer of Skybox Data Centers, because of the state’s abundant natural resources and business-friendly environment. “Data centers have become this physical thing to be mad about if you’re afraid of AI,” Strader said. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t be. There’s a lot of scary stuff having to do with it.”
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Reuters – April 9, 2026
Goldman Sachs lowers second-quarter 2026 oil price forecasts*
Goldman Sachs trimmed its second‑quarter 2026 forecasts for Brent and U.S. crude to $90 and $87 a barrel, respectively, late on Wednesday, after the U.S. and Iran agreed on a two-week ceasefire. Previously, the bank forecast Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices to average $99 and $91 a barrel, respectively.
“Given the reduction in the risk premium at the front of the curve and already edging up oil flows through the SoH (Strait of Hormuz), we nudge down our Q2 forecast for Brent/WTI,” the bank said in a note. … Goldman kept its third-quarter forecast unchanged at $82 for Brent and $77 for WTI, and for the fourth quarter at $80 for Brent and $75 for WTI. The bank said risks to its price forecasts remain skewed to the upside, reflecting the potential for longer‑lasting disruptions and more persistent crude production losses.
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Bloomberg – April 9, 2026
IMF Chief Says Oil Shock Tests a World With Little Fiscal Buffer*
The International Monetary Fund said that the conflict in the Middle East is a major supply shock that will test the resilience of a world with limited scope for fiscal support, even as US and Iran have negotiated a two-week ceasefire. Given the uncertainties around the Middle East conflict, the Washington-based fund will publish a range of scenarios in its World Economic Outlook report next week. But even in the most hopeful case, the IMF is cutting its growth forecasts, managing director Kristalina Georgieva said. “What we do know is that growth will be slower — even if the new peace is durable,” Georgieva said in prepared remarks Thursday ahead of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings that start next week in DC.
Before the US-Israeli attack on Iran started Feb. 28, the IMF had planned to upgrade its global growth outlook, Georgieva said. The US and Iran agreed this week to a truce that remains fragile. But the damage to infrastructure and supply chains warrants a downgrade to the economic outlook, even in the most optimistic case, the IMF chief said. In response to a supply shock that has send oil prices surging and increased food insecurity in many parts of the world, Georgieva urged policymakers to take a careful approach. With many countries bloated with public debt, they cannot afford blanket fiscal support. “I appeal to all countries to reject go-it-alone actions — export controls, price controls, and so on — that can further upset global conditions: don’t pour gasoline on the fire,” she said. Back in January, the IMF slightly raised its outlook for global growth to 3.3% this year, saying economies had been remarkably resilient amid trade and geopolitical tensions.
The Latest TERse Tips
Some reasons why the US is the main beneficiary of the Iran War with Anas F. Alhajji (10 min.) — YouTube
Mexican state oil firm Pemex said it put out on Thursday a fire at its Dos Bocas refinery in southern Mexico, with no injuries reported in the second such blaze within less than a month — Reuters*
Why Gulf Nations Would Bear the Brunt of Hormuz Tolls — economists think the region’s oil-producing countries may have little choice but to absorb a possible Iranian toll in the long term — The Wall Street Journal*
Delta’s Ace in the Hole for Surging Jet Fuel Costs: Its Own Refinery — the airline’s 2012 acquisition of Pennsylvania refinery has been called both prescient and pointless — The Wall Street Journal*
Charted: Oil Trade Through the Strait of Hormuz by Country — Visual Capitalist
President Donald Trump warned of attacks “bigger, better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before” if Iran does not comply with what he described as the “real agreement” tied to the cease-fire — “All U.S. ships, aircraft, and military personnel, with additional ammunition, weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded enemy will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the real agreement reached is fully complied with,” he said — Time
Tesla reportedly considering compact SUV next — report suggests the Austin automaker is considering a more consumer-friendly model, even as it ramps up manufacturing of its robotaxi — Austin American-Statesman*
Dozens of Tesla Cybercabs spotted at Gigafactory Texas, signaling possible production start — clusters of the purpose-built robotaxis at Tesla’s Austin factory suggest manufacturing may be underway as the company targets an April launch window — San Antonio Express-News*
Governor Greg Abbott Thursday celebrated the groundbreaking of the Entergy Legend and Lone Star power stations, marking a major expansion of Texas’ energy capacity that will add more reliable and affordable power in Southeast Texas — see the press release
Saudi Arabia’s critical pipeline to the Red Sea suffered a recent attack from Iran, cutting throughput by 700,000 barrels per day — the attack hit a pumping station on the East-West pipeline, according to a state-news agency report. This pipeline brings crude oil from processing facilities near the Persian Gulf to an export terminal on the Red Sea called Yanbu — CNBC
Record oil production in West Texas helps stabilize U.S. supply amid Iran war — production in West Texas has helped the U.S. stabilize its demand for foreign oil amid the Iran war, despite drilling fewer oil wells — Texas Tribune
Texans have experienced a significant 35.5% increase in idle electricity costs since 2020, primarily due to “vampire devices” that drain power even when turned off, according to a new study from Domestic & General — KDAF
Oil & Gas Texas
Texas Tribune – April 9, 2026
Railroad commission hopeful Bo French says he wasn’t invited to a GOP candidate forum in Midland
On Thursday, Texas Railroad Commissioner candidate Bo French told his more than 50,000 followers on X that he had been snubbed by a Republican candidate forum in Midland, his hometown. “To my friends in Midland, know this, I was not invited and knew nothing about this event,” he wrote, linking to a local news story recapping the event. “The good news is, actual conservatives around the state are rallying behind my campaign despite the dirty tricks of RINOs.”
However, an official with the Midland County Republican Women, which hosted the event on Wednesday, said he had been invited. Rhonda Lacy, vice president of programs for the organization, said they reached out to French in advance, without success. On Jan. 20th, she sent an email to his campaign website, the only way she had to reach him at the time. Despite repeated attempts to reach him via calls, texts and emails since January, Lacy, who has served in some capacity with the club for 50 years, did not hear back from him.
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Bloomberg – April 9, 2026
Texas Landowner’s Stock Sinks as CEO of Top Shareholder Dies*
Shares of Texas Pacific Land Corp. tumbled Thursday after the chief executive officer of its largest shareholder died, rattling investors in the Permian Basin landowner that has drawn attention as technology companies seek sites for data centers. The stock fell 15.7% Thursday, the biggest one-day drop since March 2020. Murray Stahl, who was CEO of Horizon Kinetics Holding Corp. and a board member of Texas Pacific, passed away on April 7, according to a statement. The firm owns nearly 15% of the Dallas-based Texas Pacific, whose market value reached $35 billion last month, exceeding that of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co.
“Aside from being TPL’s largest shareholder, he was its largest cheerleader,” said Chadd Garcia, portfolio manager with Ave Maria mutual funds, a top-20 Texas Pacific shareholder. “Ultimately, TPL was included in the S&P 500, an achievement I am sure five years ago, few people but Murray viewed as being possible.” Texas Pacific, a land bank created out of a 19th-century railroad bankruptcy, owns nearly 900,000 acres in West Texas, much of it atop shale oil and gas reserves in the Permian Basin that have benefited from higher commodity prices this year. The land is already used for Bitcoin mines, utility-scale batteries and renewable-power projects. Its access to cheap natural gas has attracted interest from tech giants including Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. seeking electricity for large data centers.
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Houston Chronicle – April 9, 2026
Texas legislators must answer difficult water policy questions*
Changes to Texas’ water regulations have traditionally drawn emotional responses and claims that they would reallocate water and eliminate private property rights. “We don’t have the luxury of reacting to water issues,” said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association. “We’re not planning for the next drought or outage. We’re planning for the next generation.” Water is not just another resource, he told those attending the Permian Basin Water in Energy Conference. “It is the one resource that determines whether anything else is possible.”
As a former member of the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate, he recalled the turmoil over regulatory changes tied to Senate Bill 1 in 1997, which created regional conservation districts, and later legislation in 2005. The upcoming legislative session will have tough policy questions to answer, he said. One is the rule of capture versus development rights and whether a new system is needed. Another is if conservation districts should be defined by county lines or aquifer boundaries. Should all of the state be part of conservation districts? And finally, what does water export mean? Does it mean water exported out of a district, county, city or aquifer?
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Washington Post – April 8, 2026
Mexico’s president weighs fracking to curb reliance on US natural gas
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday announced plans to tap into unconventional natural gas deposits in an effort to lower her country’s reliance on foreign energy at a time when the Iran war is disrupting global energy markets. But Sheinbaum — a scientist and climate expert — notably avoided the term hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” a drilling method used to extract oil and natural gas from deep underground bedrock using a highly pressurized liquid. Instead, she framed the initiative as a quest for “sustainable” extraction, emphasizing that environmental impacts would be minimized to the greatest extent possible.
The technical feasibility of “sustainable fracking” is a subject of significant debate among environmental scientists and energy experts. But Sheinbaum said a technical committee will spend two months evaluating less harmful methods, such as utilizing nonpotable water and reducing chemical additives. The committee will also assess the potential costs of these mitigations, she said.
“All the gas we import comes from a type of extraction that has environmental impacts” and is “100 meters from the Mexican border,” she noted, alluding to fracking projects in Texas. Mexico is the world’s single largest buyer of U.S. gas. While noting that natural gas import contracts with the U.S. remain secure and the bilateral relationship is strong, she argued that increasing energy sovereignty is a responsible necessity. “Is more gas needed? Yes. Can all gas be replaced? Hardly,” she added.
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April 7, 2026
Is Texas ready to start reusing oilfield waste?: Sierra Club
What if the water used to extract oil and gas could be cleaned and reused? At first glance, it might sound like a practical solution, especially in a state like Texas, where water supplies are increasingly strained. But the deeper you look, the more complicated the answer becomes.
To understand why, it helps to start with the scale of oil and gas production itself. Texas leads the nation in energy production, accounting for about 43% of all U.S. crude oil output. Much of that production relies on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – a process where large volumes of water mixed with chemicals are injected deep underground to break apart rock and release oil and gas.
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Dallas Morning News – April 2, 2026
‘This business is in my blood,’ Presidio Petroleum landman and GC Brett Barnes says*
Brett Barnes is a landman. His title is general counsel for Presidio Production, a Fort Worth upstream oil and gas company. But Barnes is a landman. Maybe not in the sense of the popular Paramount streamer — “I’ve never been kidnapped by a cartel,” he notes — but a landman, nonetheless. His daddy was a landman. He worked more than 25 years at Oryx Energy, starting in the days when it was still known as Sun Oil Co. When Oryx was sold, he went to work at Eni, the Italian national oil company. After Eni, it was Stephens Production Co. Landman, through and through. The younger Barnes continued along that arc. When he graduated from the University of Texas Law School in 2006, Brett took his J.D. to Anadarko Petroleum and ignored it — to work as a landman. He worked more than four years at EOG Resources — as a landman. He left in 2011 for the Forestar Group — to become a land manager. You get the picture.
“This business is in my blood,” Barnes says. For the last eight years, he’s been general counsel at Presidio Petroleum, a company that acquires mature, producing oil and gas properties in a market that is hitting a newfound stride. The company is on the cusp of going public thanks to a deSPAC merger announced last year. But it was at Forestar, a smaller production pubco, that Barnes says he became a lawyer-landman. “I had the opportunity to work directly under the company’s general counsel as an in-house attorney while also serving as vice president of land. It was essentially a front-row seat to a crash course in how to be a GC, and it changed the trajectory of my career.”
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Houston Chronicle – April 3, 2026
One time when I was a kid, my mother threw a Houston Oilers mug at me and my brother. She missed. The mug hit the wall above us and shattered into hundreds of pieces. Instead of apologizing, she screamed at us to pick up the mess she had made. That traumatic childhood memory popped into my mind as I was thinking about what President Donald Trump is doing to the global energy system. He smashed it and now is demanding that the rest of the world clean up his mess. Both Trump and my mother explained their actions with a “look what you made me do” tone.
And just as my brother and I were innocent victims of a parent’s rage, so it will be with global energy consumers. Those of us who depend on reliable, affordable energy — that is, everyone — will suffer. But unlike my mother, who wreaked havoc all by herself, Trump’s behavior has sparked a reaction from Iranian leadership. Imagine me and my brother, just standing there stunned by the mug-throwing incident only to discover that our angry neighbor who is armed with dozens of mugs also starts throwing them at us. The cycle of madness can feel endless. Damage and trauma accumulate in its wake.
Here’s what that geopolitical trauma looks like: Fear of Iranian attacks has effectively halted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Israel has struck Iranian oil fields, the United States has bombed a major oil export facility in Iran, and Iran has struck Qatar’s main liquefied-natural-gas production site and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. Overall, nearly 20% of the world’s LNG has been shut down. And even if Hormuz fully reopens, much of that energy production won’t be restored for years.
Oil & Gas National & International
CNBC – April 10, 2026
The fluctuating price of dated Brent, the global benchmark for real-world barrels of crude, has prompted energy analysts warn to that acute stress in the physical oil market shows little sign of abating amid worries over a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East. As energy market participants continue to monitor shipping disruption through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, an unprecedented gap has emerged between dated Brent and front-month Brent futures, suggesting supplies will remain tight for some time.
The spot price of dated Brent, which refers to physical cargoes that have been assigned delivery dates from 10 days forward to one month ahead, came in at $131.97 per barrel on Thursday afternoon, according to data compiled by Platts. That’s up over 7% from the previous session but down from a record high of $144.42 on Tuesday, just before the U.S. and Iran announced a two-week truce. Dated Brent is assessed based on bids, offers and trades in the open physical spot market, which means it reflects the real-world price tag of crude oil. Brent crude futures for June delivery, meanwhile, were last seen trading 0.6% higher at $96.51 per barrel on Friday morning.
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Turkiye Today – April 9, 2026
Satellite image shows smoke, fire at Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq facility
New satellite imagery provided by the European Space Agency showed large plumes of thick black smoke rising from Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility on Wednesday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran and following earlier reports of an Iranian attack.
The image was taken on April 8 at around 10:00 a.m. local time, or 3:00 a.m. Eastern time, according to the report. It showed smoke and fire at the Abqaiq facility, one of Saudi Arabia’s most critical oil processing sites. The satellite image, provided by the European Space Agency, showed thick black smoke rising from the facility. The report said the image came after earlier reports of an Iranian attack on Wednesday.
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The Wall Street Journal – April 9, 2026
Extent of Damage to Middle East Energy Facilities Key to Economic Impact, OECD Says*
The impact of the conflict in the Middle East on economic growth and inflation around the world will partly depend on the damage caused to energy production and transport infrastructure, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s chief economist. The Paris-based research body last month released new forecasts for the global economy that saw little change under the assumption that energy prices start to fall back later this year from the highs they have reached in the weeks since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. However, oil and gas prices over the coming years don’t just depend on whether the Strait of Hormuz is open or closed to shipping.
“What worries us is the damage to infrastructure,” said Stefano Scarpetta, the OECD’s newly-appointed chief economist. “We do not really know the extent of this damage, and the time it will take to repair.” The conflict has already disrupted supplies of oil and natural gas to Asia, which relies heavily on imports from the Middle East that usually transit through the Strait of Hormuz. This has already led some factories to cut production, and to rationing of some fuels, including gasoline. China, Japan and South Korea have some protection thanks to large energy stockpiles, but countries like Indonesia and Thailand have more limited reserves and are at more immediate risk of facing shortages. However, countries around the world will feel the impact of higher energy prices, regardless of where they source their supplies. The U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week cease-fire that went into effect Wednesday. President Trump said the truce was conditional on Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. But even if the strait is reopened, supplies of energy to the rest of the world are unlikely to quickly return to pre-war levels.
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KXAN – April 9, 2026
Iran demands $1 per barrel of oil passing through Strait of Hormuz, paid in crypto
Iran reportedly intends to require ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay the cryptocurrency equivalent of $1 per barrel of oil on board during the two-week ceasefire with the U.S. Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, which works with Iran’s government, told the Financial Times about the requirement on Wednesday.
He said that it will cost $1 per barrel of oil and that ships need to email Iranian authorities about what they are carrying. K“Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in bitcoin, ensuring they can’t be traced or confiscated due to sanctions,” Hosseini told the newspaper.
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The Wall Street Journal – April 9, 2026
More BP Investors Demand Proof That Fossil-Fuel Pivot Will Benefit Shareholders*
More BP shareholders are backing a move calling on the energy major to prove that increasing investment in oil-and-gas production will deliver value for investors. The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, a group representing U.K. pension funds, said Thursday that it was joining other investors in supporting a resolution to be voted on at this month’s shareholder meeting, in response to the London-listed group’s shift away from a renewables-focused strategy. The resolution calls on BP to demonstrate that higher spending on fossil-fuel production can deliver value for shareholders, and was filed earlier this year by U.K. and European pension funds along with activist investor Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, or ACCR.
Earlier this week, shareholder Legal & General said it would support the resolution. Proxy adviser Glass Lewis said it recommended voting for the resolution, which it said “could provide decision-useful information for shareholders.” In the original resolution, the shareholders called on BP to take a tighter approach to capital expenditure and to offer disclosure that showed how investment decisions promoted disciplined allocation of capital. In response, BP said that following engagement with its largest investors, it is “fully focused on building a simpler, stronger and more valuable BP.”
“That’s why we are making these recommendations, to provide transparent, standardized disclosures that support clear comparisons across companies,” the company said. BP Chair Albert Manifold said the board recommended shareholders vote against the resolution. The extra disclosure would duplicate existing reporting by the company, Manifold wrote in a statement on the company website. “It would pull the company in the opposite direction to where we want and need to go, which is towards simpler, standardized and comparable reporting,” he said. “It also cuts across the board’s responsibility to decide how to address disclosure for all shareholders.”
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Bloomberg – April 9, 2026
Iran and Ukraine Make Oil Shocks Look Too Easy: Liam Denning*
It is kind of surprising that oil shocks are shocking. A vital commodity coursing through the capillaries of modern life that is also, via a cosmic joke, reliant on some of the most volatile places on Earth. Why wouldn’t there be disruptions? Yet, history shows we get blindsided again and again. The current disturbance, now suspended in a murky two-week ceasefire, is different in terms of scale. The supply choked off in the Strait of Hormuz equates to 10% to 15% of global demand, significantly higher than the 7% hit during the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74. But it is also different, momentous even, in one other respect that also links it to another, somewhat overshadowed, oil shock erupting thousands of miles further north around St. Petersburg.
What links Iran’s closure of Hormuz with Ukraine’s recent disruption of Russia’s oil exports to the Baltic Sea is how cheap and easy they look relative to the damage done. This asymmetry is an important dimension of a new energy system — more fragmented and insecure – that is emerging out of these wars. Iran did not have to swamp Hormuz with mines, establish air or naval superiority there, nor sink every tanker daring the narrow gauntlet. From the outbreak of hostilities to Tuesday’s announcement of a two-week pause, there had been 22 confirmed attacks on vessels in the Strait and the Middle East, according to the International Maritime Organization, an average of less than one a day.
Iran targeted the ships with ballistic missiles, along with cheaper drones and some mines. But above all, it leveraged something that costs nothing: Fear. US and Israeli attacks have undoubtedly degraded Tehran’s military capabilities, just not by enough to persuade ship owners, insurance underwriters or crews that the possibility of attack had been sufficiently reduced. Ed Morse, senior advisor at Hartree Partners LP, a commodities trading firm, gives the example of a theoretical ship owner who, quite apart from any safety concerns for the crew, must weigh the possibility of not just a $120 million tanker getting sunk but also the loss of maybe $300 million of profits while they await a replacement.1 Iran didn’t need to occupy the Strait; it merely needed to suggest that those waters were best avoided.
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The Wall Street Journal – April 9, 2026
Trump’s Perilous Straits: Kimberley A. Strassel*
Those who wish Donald Trump success in his effort to rid the world of the Iranian threat spent this week warning the president of the security risks of quitting before the job is fully done. Weak-kneed Republicans might also consider the political risks. GOP hand-wringers—inside the White House and out—are pushing the president hard to call it quits. The American people have limited tolerance for war, they note. The longer the Strait of Hormuz blockade lasts, the higher oil prices—and the cost of gas, diesel, jet fuel, heat and fertilizer—will climb, frustrating the public and potentially damaging the economy. Every day the president is focused on bombing and war messaging, they warn, is a day he isn’t out making the case for his domestic achievements on energy, prices, deregulation, taxes. Look at the polls! See those Republican losses in those special elections! The midterms are coming!
All true, and all missing the obvious point: How this conflict ends matters more than when, both strategically and politically. Republicans need to emerge with an obvious, definable success. Anything less adds a huge new liability to a GOP that is already rolling into a midterm election with a disadvantage. Give the president credit for deciding to strike Iran despite the politics. Having degraded Iran’s nuclear program last year, he might have put off further action until past the midterms, if ever. Congressional Republicans would have preferred that approach. It’s the course many presidents might have taken, knowing that Americans—focused on their own cost-of-living concerns—might be hard to convince, especially with Democrats and the media rooting for failure. Mr. Trump nonetheless decided the moment was now, midterms notwithstanding, and took bold action.
Yet the politics remain. And having chosen to invest so much time and focus, so many resources, on this war—time not spent on domestic cheerleading—it’s all the more important Republicans come out of this with some political benefit. That can happen only with a clear-cut victory against Iran, one the critics can’t credibly spin as defeat. This week’s messy “cease-fire” isn’t clear-cut. It leaves Iran with leverage over the strait and access to enriched uranium. The headlines offer a glimpse of the political damage anti-Trump forces intend to inflict via any such ending. Good luck finding an in-depth story about Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine’s briefing this week, detailing how a mighty U.S. joint force, in 38 days, dismantled one of the world’s largest militaries.
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Reuters – April 6, 2026
Bridger’s Canada‑Wyoming crude line seen costing $2 billion, topping 1 million bpd*
Bridger Pipeline’s proposed project to transport Canadian crude from the U.S.-Canada border to Wyoming would cost about $2 billion and have the capacity to transport more than 1 million barrels of oil per day, according to new details released by the company. The company first outlined plans in January to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for a pipeline capable of transporting 550,000 barrels per day of Canadian crude from near the U.S.-Canada border in Phillips County to travel south through eastern Montana before crossing into Wyoming and terminating near Guernsey.
However, filings submitted in late March show the proposed 36-inch pipeline would span nearly 650 miles (1050 km) and ultimately have the capacity to deliver up to 1.13 million barrels per day to Guernsey, Wyoming. Bridger expects the pipeline to initially operate at about 550,000 barrels per day. The project, which the developers say would largely follow existing pipeline corridors to minimize new land disturbance, would cost about $1.96 billion for the 435.2 miles that will be laid within Montana.
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Jerusalem Post – April 3, 2026
Gulf states consider bypassing Strait of Hormuz with new oil pipelines via Haifa – FT
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Utility Dive – March 31, 2026
Before we build more gas pipelines, we need better data: Researchers at 3 universities
A familiar debate is heating up about the need to build more gas pipelines. During extreme cold weather, both electric- and gas-heating demand increases. This demand from gas-heating customers and gas-fired electric generators can drive up the price for gas and potentially strain the pipeline capacity to transport it. Add inadequate winterization, freezing equipment and failures at the electric distribution level to the mix, and we get the usual headlines of thousands of people without power.
So, the argument goes, we need more pipelines to survive extreme winter weather. And maybe we do. But as a group of researchers modeling how the gas and electric systems interact during disasters, we are here to tell you that “more steel” isn’t the first answer. In fact, before we spend billions on infrastructure, we need to invest in something much cheaper: data. It is possible to plan, utilize and strengthen our nation’s energy infrastructure to be more reliable and resilient in the face of extreme weather. But, right now, many of us who are working on the resilient grid of the future are effectively flying blind.
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Truthout – March 20, 2026
Operation Epic Fury Explained: Riches and Domination Drive This War
Speaking of windfall profits, the leading financial beneficiary of the war so far looks to be a young liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter called Venture Global. It is a U.S.-based LNG company sitting on substantial uncontracted spare capacity that it can sell to the highest bidder. Coincidentally or not, its founders are big Trump supporters. Other LNG exporters are also seeing surging stock prices, while traders like Vitol, Trafigura, Shell, and TotalEnergies are likely making a killing on contracted LNG volumes bought at low U.S. prices and sold into Asia and Europe, where markets are spiking.
Oil companies, generally, are looking at a propitious reversal in their fortunes compared to where things were at the beginning of the year. 2026 was expected to be a year of oversupply, and prices were projected to stay low. U.S. companies in particular were pulling back their drilling plans, and many of the big international companies announced reductions in dividends and share buybacks.
But just this week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. The EIA raised its forecast for the 2026 average WTI (West Texas Intermediate, or the high-quality crude that serves as the U.S. benchmark for pricing) oil price by over $20 per barrel, saying, “This price forecast is highly dependent on our modeled assumptions of both the duration of conflict in the Middle East and resulting outages in oil production,” meaning it could be higher if the conflict lasts longer. A back-of-the-envelope calculation by Oil Change International suggests that this could generate about $280 million in additional revenue every day for companies producing oil in the U.S. — more than $100 billion over a year. And that’s not counting other fossil fuels.
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Reuters – March 31, 2026
How China can survive without the Strait of Hormuz
The world’s largest importer of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is, paradoxically, also one of the best placed to weather the waterway’s closure. China consumes oceans of oil from the Gulf and imports roughly as much from the region as India, Japan and South Korea combined. In response to the closure of the Strait, officials across Asia are asking citizens to take shorter showers or work from home to save energy. In China, the ruling Communist Party’s flagship newspaper is instead telling readers the country holds its own “energy rice bowl.”
While the editorial does not mention that Beijing has unofficially banned fuel exports to conserve supplies, the country is nonetheless more insulated than many of its neighbours thanks to years of policy measures that have reduced its vulnerability to energy shocks. China boasts an electric vehicle fleet about as large as the rest of the world’s combined, vast and growing oil stockpiles, diversified supplies of oil, and gas and an electricity grid that is almost insulated from imports thanks to domestic coal and renewables. “The current situation is really close to what Chinese planners have had in mind for decades,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Canary Media – April 9, 2026
Fervo Energy inks big turbine deal to build more next-gen geothermal
Fervo Energy, a leading next-generation geothermal startup, is ramping up plans to build out new power plants. The Houston-based company has signed a three-year binding agreement with Turboden America, which will supply 1.75 gigawatts of organic Rankine cycle turbine capacity for Fervo’s forthcoming geothermal projects in the United States. The startup will use the equipment to convert heat pulled from deep underground into carbon-free electricity for data centers and the grid.
Fervo, which is reportedly preparing for an IPO, is currently building the first 100 megawatts of its 500-MW Cape Station in Beaver County, Utah. The project, which will be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal system, is slated to start producing power later this year.
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Clean Technica – April 5, 2026
Superfund Site Still On Track For Solar Power & Green Hydrogen
Now that US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran has disrupted global fuel markets, it’s time for the Energy Department’s $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program to kick into action. Except, not. The program was aimed at building a more resilient hydrogen supply for domestic industries. Too bad Trump ripped up the plan upon taking office last year. Nevertheless, a trickle of activity continues to stir in the area of green hydrogen produced from water, with New Mexico among the states in play. …
One green hydrogen project that did manage to survive the Trump chopper — at least so far — is the Questa Hydrogen Project. To be located at former Chevron molybdenum mine and Superfund site in the village of Questa, New Mexico, the project received $231 million in funding through a US Department of Agriculture program called Empowering Rural America. The award was announced on January 13 of 2025, when former President Joe Biden was still in office.
The Questa project comes under the wing of the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, one of 900 or so member-owned electric utilities around the country established under a Depression-era Act of Congress. The aim was to lift rural communities out of poverty through electrification. To this day, electric coops serve an outsized proportion of counties that fall into the persistent poverty rate.
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Inside Climate News – April 9, 2026
Unpacking Trump’s Use of Emergency Powers to Prop Up Coal
At one time, the U.S. electricity grid ran mostly on coal. But coal-fired power plants have steadily been decommissioned. Power producers found the plants were too expensive to operate and carried risks tied to toxic air pollution, waste and climate-warming emissions. Then President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year with a fresh zeal to revive the coal industry. His Department of Energy invoked emergency powers to force utilities to keep old plants operating.
Not only is this bad policy, it’s also a misuse of a law designed for wartime, according to legal scholars and analysts. If allowed to stand, this poses problems for utilities, grid operators and regulators who plan for decades-long timeframes, only to be overruled by short-term political imperatives that favor certain industries.
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Utility Dive – April 9, 2026
Entergy, Xcel, others seek to upend competitive transmission bidding in MISO, SPP
Entergy, Xcel Energy and seven other utility and transmission companies want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to halt the practice of putting regional transmission projects out to bid in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and Southwest Power Pool region. Requiring competitive bidding for certain transmission projects — instead of giving them to incumbent utilities — slows transmission development by 16 to 20 months on average, the utilities said in an April 7 complaint filed at FERC. They asked FERC to make a decision by July 16.
Former FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee told Utility Dive he disagrees with the complaint’s argument. “The competitive solicitation process has challenges and can certainly be improved but throwing the baby out with the bath water as the complainants suggest is counterproductive and not in the interest of consumers,” Chatterjee, chief of governmental affairs for Palmetto, said in an email. “The commission should focus on reforming the process, not suspending it.”
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Reuters – March 27, 2026
Ceres’ CEO Mindy Lubber: ‘We need to talk to everyone about clean energy, not just Democrats’
While U.S. environmental veteran Mindy Lubber knows that political interest in green issues ebbs and flows, she can’t recall a time when the green tide in Washington D.C. was further from the shore. “In Congress, there are hearings almost weekly on why considering ESG (sustainability investment) is a bad thing” says Lubber, president and CEO of the influential sustainability non-profit Ceres. “The times now are very different. It’s brutal.”
Today’s ruling Republican party is almost allergic to so-called “woke capitalism” and has made eradicating it a priority. Hence, the hollowing out of environmental institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency (of which Lubber was a regional administrator between 1998 to 2001) and the cavalier dismantling of climate policies. “On every value we believe in, we’re being told it’s the opposite. Up is down these days. Black is white,” she says. This new reality is a tough pill to swallow, admits the head of Ceres, whose members include many of the largest Fortune 500 companies (including Apple, Gap, PepsiCo and Starbucks) and nearly 100 institutional investors with close to $10 trillion in assets under management.
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The Times (UK) – March 28, 2026
GridBeyond boss on a charge to keep the lights on in Texas
Back in February 2021, a series of severe winter storms knocked out much of energy infrastructure in Texas, plunging millions of people across the state into cold and darkness — some for several days — as the main grid operator was forced to initiate rolling blackouts to keep the whole system from melting down. Three years later, Texans were worried about the opposite problem. Houston, the state’s largest city, experienced its first 32C day of the year at the unusually early date of May 7, presaging a scorching summer to come. Would the grid that failed so dismally in the winter of 2021 hold up under the strain of all the air-conditioning being switched on? Or would outages just become a fact of life in the Lone Star State?
A local television station turned to Michael Phelan, chief executive of the energy management company GridBeyond, for answers. Could artificial intelligence improve the Texas power grid? While everything may be bigger in Texas, it is not necessarily smarter, which is why the TV show had an unassuming electrical engineer and start-up founder from Ireland on the line. This was the kind of situation GridBeyond was made for.
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Utility Dive – March 30, 2026
Generation declined 0.7% year over year in January while prices went up 9.5%
The U.S. saw a 0.7% year-over-year decline in January electricity generation, in spite of Winter Storm Fern driving consumption significantly higher in particular areas, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration. In the Northeast, January generation increased 8.2% year over year due to cooler temperatures, EIA said. Southern Co. saw daily peak demand “very close” to its all-time high, EIA said. The rest of the country saw January temperatures near average, above average, or — in the West — significantly above average.
The January residential retail price of electricity increased by 9.5% year over year, EIA said, while retail sales declined 1.7%. January’s Henry Hub price for natural gas went up 86% year over year. Changes in electricity generation from natural gas were “mixed,” EIA said, “with the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Central regions all seeing an increase in natural gas generation compared to the previous January, while the Southeast, West, Florida, and Texas all saw a year-over year decrease in natural gas generation.”
Regulatory
Associated Press/PBS – April 9, 2026
States are struggling to meet their clean energy goals. Blame data centers
Nevada’s largest utility says it will need three times the electricity required to power Las Vegas just to handle proposed data centers — and it probably can’t do that without fossil fuels. That means the utility could miss Nevada’s clean energy targets requiring 50% renewable power by 2030. “I can’t remember a time in the history of the industry where we’ve seen as much interest in adding load, which is primarily driven by data centers,” said Shawn Elicegui, senior vice president of regulatory and resource planning for NV Energy, which provides electricity to 90% of the state.
It’s one of many utilities across the country grappling with how to meet the exploding electricity demand for data centers to power artificial intelligence without sacrificing long-term plans to move away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable and zero-carbon sources. In North Carolina, which is also seeing a surge of data centers, the largest utility is revising its long-term plans to delay the retirement of coal plants and to build more natural gas plants. Legislators removed an interim goal for utilities to cut carbon emissions, spurring concern from environmentalists that the state might miss its goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050.