Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Thursday January 22, 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 up on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted down tension with Europe over his demand for Greenland, while disruptions in supply from two large fields in Kazakhstan and a better demand outlook for 2026 lent support.
West Texas Intermediate for March rose 13 cents, or 0.21%, to $60.75 a barrel.
Brent crude was up 9 cents, or 0.14%, at $65.33 a barrel by 0320 GMT.
The contracts climbed more than 0.4% on Wednesday, following the previous day’s rise of 1.5%, after OPEC+ producer Kazakhstan halted output at its Tengiz and Korolev oilfields because of issues regarding power distribution.
Also on Wednesday, Trump suggested a deal was in sight over the Danish territory, while ruling out use of force to end a dispute that had risked the worst rupture in transatlantic relations in decades.
Top Stories
MSN – January 21, 2026
Chevron set to finalize Singapore oil asset sale in Q1 – Reuters
Chevron plans to close a deal to sell its oil refining and distribution assets in Singapore in this year’s Q1, as it engages in a final round of talks with global commodities trader Glencore and Japanese refiner Eneos, Reuters reported Wednesday. The assets for sale, valued at $1B or more, include Chevron’s (CVX) stake in a refinery, a terminal and retail stations in Singapore, and the company is looking to include retail stations in Cambodia and Malaysia in the deal, according to the report.
The sale is part of the company’s plans to divest refining and storage assets in Asia as it restructures globally to streamline operations and reduce costs. Chevron holds a 50% stake in Singapore Refining Co., which operates a 290K bbl/day refinery in Singapore; partner PetroChina owns the remaining 50% share through its Singapore Petroleum Co. unit.
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Rigzone – January 21, 2026
Western Midstream Secures New Deals with Occidental,ConocoPhillips
Western Midstream Partners LP (WES) announced Tuesday it has amended its natural gas gathering and processing contracts in the Delaware Basin with Occidental Petroleum Corp and expanded its partnership with ConocoPhillips in the same basin. The new agreements with ConocoPhillips and Occidental advance WES’ transition to fixed-fee arrangements in the maturing basin, The Woodlands, Texas-based company said in a statement on its website. The previous agreement with Occidental already provided for a transition to a fixed-fee structure; the new agreement speeds up that transition, according to WES.
Houston, Texas-based oil, gas and chemicals producer Occidental agreed to reduce its ownership in WES from about 42 percent to around 40 percent under the renegotiated gathering and processing contracts, “further positioning WES as a standalone midstream enterprise”, WES said.
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MSN – January 21, 2026
Valero, Phillips 66 buy Venezuelan oil cargoes as part of Washington’s deal with Caracas
Valero has bought a cargo of Venezuelan crude oil, two sources said on Wednesday, one of the first deals by U.S. Gulf Coast refiners that are part of Washington’s agreement with Caracas to export up to 50 million barrels. Phillips 66 has also purchased a cargo, one of the sources said.
Both bought the crude from trading house Vitol, the sources said, adding that it was traded for delivery to the U.S. Gulf Coast at a discount of about $8.50 to $9.50 a barrel to Brent crude. Vitol and rival trading house Trafigura were the first firms to be awarded licenses by the U.S. government to trade Venezuelan crude after President Nicolas Maduro’s ouster in early January.
Kinder Morgan beat Wall Street expectations for fourth-quarter profit on Jan. 21, helped by higher volumes of natural gas transported through its pipelines. Shares of the pipeline operator rose 3.2% to $29.49 in extended trade. U.S. midstream companies such as Kinder Morgan are benefiting from a surge in oil and gas production in the Permian Basin, as well as rising demand for natural gas driven by record liquefied natural gas exports and soaring power generation tied to artificial intelligence operations, cryptocurrency mining and data centers.
The company said it transported about 48,353 billion British thermal units of natural gas per day in the quarter, compared with 44,507 billion Btu per day a year ago.
Halliburton surpassed analysts’ expectations for fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by steady demand for its services and equipment in international markets, and said it would look to re-enter Venezuela as soon as commercial and legal terms, including payment certainty, were resolved. The Houston-based company, which kicked off the earnings season for U.S. oilfield services providers, has focused on international markets, particularly Latin America, Europe and Africa, as North America drilling and production activity has remained tepid.
Halliburton was among the oil companies that met with the White House earlier this month to discuss potential investment in Venezuela after the U.S. ousted President Nicolas Maduro in early January. “I think we could scale up fairly quickly (in Venezuela),” said CEO Jeff Miller on a post-earnings conference call, adding that the company was working to secure licenses from the U.S. that allow it to operate in the country. Halliburton said it could move equipment quickly into Venezuela, adding that it would be fairly straightforward to become operational.
The Latest TERse Tips
“The Permian shale region faces freezing conditions from Friday, with minimum temperature expected to plunge to -10 Celsius (14 F) in Midland, Texas. The polar vortex is going to test winterisation (and could lead to large production losses, although likely short lived)” — Javier Blas, Bloomberg
ERCOT has issued a Weather Watch from January 24-27 “due to forecast below-freezing temperatures with the possibility of frozen precipitation, higher electrical demand, and the potential for lower reserves. Grid conditions are expected to be normal during an ERCOT Weather Watch” — see the press release
U.S. natural gas futures jumped more than 50% in two days, putting futures on track for their biggest weekly gain in more than three decades, as dangerously cold temperatures are set to take hold of a massive swath of the country — Dallas Morning News*
Fossil fuels are a ‘crutch’: How AI’s unlikely winner could be renewable energy — Energy demand from data centers, crucial in the artificial intelligence buildout, has buoyed sentiment in the otherwise flat renewables sector — CNBC
The world is facing an irreversible water “bankruptcy,” with billions of people struggling to cope with the consequences of decades of overuse as well as shrinking supplies from lakes, rivers, glaciers and wetlands, U.N. researchers said Tuesday — Dallas Morning News*
Chinese EVs Blow Past Tesla and Tariffs En Route to Global Reign — U.S., European Union and Mexico try to quash accelerating demand for China’s hottest electric vehicles — The Wall Street Journal*
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Oil & Gas Texas
Zacks/Yahoo! News – January 21, 2026
Chevron and Turkey in Talks for Joint Oil & Gas Exploration
Per Bloomberg, Turkey’s state-owned energy company, Turkish Petroleum Corp. or TPAO, is in discussions with Chevron Corporation CVX to jointly explore oil and gas resources, marking another step in Turkey’s push to strengthen domestic energy production. The talks, which remain confidential, focus on potential collaboration in seismic studies and drilling operations across key offshore regions.
If finalized, the partnership would add Chevron to a growing list of major U.S. energy companies working with Turkey, following a January agreement between TPAO and Exxon Mobil CorporationXOM for joint exploration in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. According to this agreement, XOM would identify oil and natural gas resources in the untapped areas of the Black Sea and Mediterranean.
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S&P Global Platts – January 21, 2026
US Gulf Coast refiners seen benefiting from increased use of heavy Venezuelan crude
Some US Gulf Coast refiners are moving forward on US President Donald Trump’s promise to direct Venezuela’s heavy crude barrels away from China and into their cokers, increasing utilization and improving overall refinery economics. Venezuelan crude exports to the US are seen picking up from the most recent Energy Information Administration monthly data, which shows Venezuelan crude exports averaging 135,000 b/d in October 2025, down from the 295,000 b/d in October 2024.
“We estimate that PADD 3 refiners would be able to absorb an additional 300,000-400,000 b/d of heavy Venezuelan crude to raise coking utilization to 2024 levels,” according to a December report from S&P Global CERA.
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Bloomberg – January 21, 2026
Bag by bag—in what Ron Gusek calls giant “super sacks”—Liberty Energy Inc. loaded 45 million pounds of sand in late 2024 from a California port and sent it across the Pacific. The cargo was bound for Australia’s remote Beetaloo Basin, where beneath red dirt sits a hard-to-reach reservoir of natural gas roughly the size of Belgium. When the sand landed in the outback, Liberty planned to mix it with high-pressure fluids and inject it underground to release natural gas in a process commonly known as fracking. It’s a uniquely American invention that’s quickly becoming a major US export, thanks to rising power demand and the world’s inability to quit fossil fuels.
A 10,000-mile supply chain for frack sand is of course not “sustainable over the long run,” says Gusek, Liberty’s chief executive officer. But in the early days of fracking development—before oil and gas basins have established their own sand mines, water infrastructure or pipelines—this is how the industry spreads. And spreading it is.
For decades, fracking was a high-tech phenomenon (or an environmental nightmare, depending on whom you asked) almost exclusively of the US energy industry. In West Texas and other energy-rich North American regions, the unconventional methods combining hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have been used since the early aughts to unlock vast energy resources once considered unreachable in tight-rock formations, vaulting US shale into a $1.4 trillion sector, according to research firm Enverus. Most other nations largely stayed clear of the novel techniques, opting instead for more established drilling methods.
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Houston Chronicle – January 21, 2026
Orphaned oil and gas wells in Texas broke a 20-year record in December. Here’s why*
The number of orphaned wells across Texas reached over 11,000 at the end of 2025, breaking a 20-year record, according to the latest data from the state. So-called orphaned wells are oil and gas wells that are not actively maintained and have no operator on file with regulators, meaning the responsibility to clean up after and plug them lies with the state. Roughly 2,000 new wells joined the list over the last year, bringing the total of known orphaned wells to 11,123, according to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry.
Because of the continued consolidation of the oil and gas industry, increased production costs, and lower crude prices – the price of oil fell roughly 20% over the last year – companies are more likely to go bankrupt or dissolve, leaving unplugged wells behind for the state to fix. The number of orphaned wells across the state is likely to grow even further as a result. Orphaned wells pose both a tax burden and an environmental problem for Texans; the cost to plug onshore wells is typically around $30,000, though the Railroad Commission has frequently had to pay 10 times that amount to plug wells that end up gushing contaminated water, according to records previously obtained by the Chronicle.
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Houston.com – January 21, 2026
Exxon Mobil Begins Baytown Refinery Expansion Near Houston
Exxon Mobil has officially broken ground on its latest refinery expansion in Baytown, a development that marks one of the region’s most notable industrial projects of the year. The initiative, located just east of Houston, aims to boost production of ultra-low sulfur diesel and high-performance lubricant base stocks. The move underscores the company’s ongoing commitment to modernizing its Gulf Coast operations and increasing the availability of cleaner fuel options.
The project, unveiled this week, will introduce new process units designed to increase efficiency while reducing emissions. According to Exxon Mobil representatives, the expansion supports growing demand across the transportation, industrial, and manufacturing sectors. These upgrades are also expected to enhance the facility’s flexibility in meeting market shifts.
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Yahoo! News – January 20, 2026
Magnolia LNG seeks more time to build Lake Charles LNG plant
A Louisiana facility that would export liquefied natural gas needs more time to finish construction and begin operations, its owner says.New York-based Glenfarne Energy is asking U.S. regulators for a five-year extension on an April deadline to complete the facility in Calcasieu Parish. In a Jan. 15 filing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Glenfarne and project partner Kinder Morgan cited “unprecedented delays” at the Department of Energy and regulatory uncertainty during the Biden administration as the primary reasons for the delay.
Originally approved in 2016, the Magnolia LNG export plant would be built on a 115-acre site along the Industrial Canal near Lake Charles. An initial five-year extension was granted in October 2020 due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Glenfarne said in the filing.Construction has not started, and the newest extension sought by the companies would allow operations to begin as late as April 2031.Magnolia LNG currently lacks the required authorization to export to non-Free Trade Agreement countries.
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Houston Chronicle – January 21, 2026
Trump promised an energy boom in his second term. Texas shows who actually got one*
President Donald Trump signed the first of a flurry of executive orders on the first day of his second term, meant to “unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources.” A year later and the president has opened up drilling opportunities in federal lands and waters, sought to place the U.S. in the top producer’s spot for non-fuel and rare earth minerals, and cut off the energy industries he deemed hoaxes and scams.
Over the last year, however, the U.S. energy sector has also faced higher production costs as a result of tariffs, geopolitical instability along key energy trade routes in the Middle East and South America, and billions in federal funding cuts targeting energy projects. Here is a breakdown of the Texas energy winners and losers a year into the Trump administration’s energy shake-up. The Winners — Oil Refiners: The Trump administration conducted a military incursion into Venezuela at the start of the year, removing the South American country’s president and proclaiming control of the world’s largest known oil reserves.
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Houston Chronicle – January 21, 2026
Texas wants to turn old oil rigs into coral reefs. A bipartisan bill could make it happen.*
A hundred miles off the coast of Freeport, dive boats congregate around a series of oil platforms where amberjack and angel fish swim between 300-foot-tall pilings covered in coral. Andy Lewis, who runs a charter business out of Freeport, described the site as “like little islands in the middle of the ocean.” “You’re out in the middle of nowhere, and suddenly you’re in a structure surrounded by fish,” he said. “It’s like swimming in a Petco aquarium.”
For decades, divers and fishermen have known that some of the most abundant marine life in the Gulf lies beneath oil and gas platforms, where coral grows in abundance in an otherwise barren underwater world. Now Congress is weighing whether to let those platforms stay in place indefinitely, creating more fishing and dive sites while also exempting the offshore oil companies that drill there from having to pull their old infrastructure up from the sea floor.
Oil & Gas National & International
Oil Price – January 21, 2026
IEA Raises Forecast of Global Oil Demand Growth in 2026
The world’s oil demand growth is set to rise by 930,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2026, thanks to lower oil prices and a normalization of economies after the 2025 tariff chaos, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday, raising its demand growth estimate by 70,000 bpd from last month. Oil demand is forecast to grow by an average 930,000 bpd this year, accelerating from 850,000 bpd in 2025, the agency said in its closely-watched Oil Market Report for January. In the December report, the IEA had expected global oil demand growth at 860,000 bpd for 2026.
The upgrade reflects a recovery in feedstock demand in the petrochemicals industry, on top of expectations of normalized economic conditions after the unpredictable and chaotic tariff policy of the Trump Administration last year.
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Energy News – January 21, 2026
Tengiz: Fire Paralyzes Kazakh Oil Giant and Threatens CPC Exports
Oil production at Kazakhstan’s Tengiz field has remained shut since January 19 following a fire that broke out the previous day at the site’s GTES-4 power station. According to three industry sources cited by Reuters, this disruption could last another 7 to 10 days, potentially extending into February. Operator Tengizchevroil (TCO) confirmed the temporary shutdown of operations at the Tengiz and Korolevskoye fields, citing power supply problems.
The fire affected two turbine transformers, according to KazMunayGas, Kazakhstan’s national oil company. TCO has already cancelled five CPC Blend crude cargoes scheduled for January and February, totaling between 600,000 and 700,000 metric tons, according to sources. These volumes were to be shipped from the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) Black Sea terminal. Chevron, TCO’s majority shareholder with 50%, did not respond to requests for comment.
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Miami Herald – January 21, 2026
At Davos, Trump says Venezuela oil boom looms as U.S. backs Rodríguez regime
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Venezuela is poised to earn more from oil in the next six months than it has over the last two decades, underscoring a dramatic shift in Washington’s policy towards the South American nation following the U.S. military operation that captured former strongman Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.
Speaking in a closely watched address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump praised Venezuela’s new authorities for swiftly agreeing to a deal with Washington and accepting U.S. cooperation after Maduro’s removal. “The leadership is good and smart,” Trump said, referring to the interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president and onetime oil minister. A White House official said Wednesday that Rodríguez is expected to visit Washington in the coming weeks, though no date or agenda was provided. If confirmed, the trip would mark the most significant diplomatic engagement between the two countries in years.
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Yahoo! News – January 21, 2026
Wright tells oil executives that Venezuela’s output can rise 30%, sources say
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told oil company executives on Wednesday that Venezuela’s output can rise 30% from its current level of 900,000 barrels per day in the short- to medium-term, three executives who attended the meeting said. Raising crude output from Venezuela, which sits on the world’s largest oil reserves, is a top objective for U.S. President Donald Trump after U.S. forces seized Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro in a raid earlier this month.
Wright’s closed-door meeting with the executives took place on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Years of under-investment and sanctions have led Venezuela’s oil output to plummet. It pumped 3.5 million bpd in the 1970s when it accounted for 7% of global supply, but today represents just 1% of the world’s production.
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Bloomberg – January 21, 2026
Arctic Blast Raises China LNG Prices Ahead of February Cold Snap*
An Arctic blast is driving temperatures sharply lower across China this week, helping buoy liquefied natural gas prices and prompting authorities to issue warnings about freezing weather. The colder weather has supported demand for heating fuels and halted a two-month slide for domestic LNG prices. The cost of supplies at import terminals inched up to 4,001 yuan a ton ($11.04 per million British thermal units) on Monday from 3,998 yuan on Friday, according to data from the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange. State forecasters are warning of “rare coldness,” with blizzards and freezing rain sweeping from northern China into central and southern regions through Tuesday. Temperatures in some areas may plunge by as much as 16C over the next three days before beginning to recover in the south from Friday, data from the China Meteorological Administration showed.
Cold conditions are expected to return next month, with as many as three cold-air outbreaks forecast through Feb. 16, according to the National Climate Centre’s latest outlook. The timing is especially sensitive as it coincides with the peak Lunar New Year travel rush — one of the world’s busiest travel periods — raising the risk of widespread transport disruptions as hundreds of millions crisscross the country to reunite with family.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
KXAN – January 21, 2026
Tesla lithium refinery, ‘largest in America,’ now operating in Texas
Tesla officially began operations at its lithium refinery in Texas, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on social media last week. Musk wrote in an X post on Jan. 14, “The largest Lithium refinery in America is now operational.” The post linked back to a post from the Tesla North America X account, which shared an informational video about the refinery.
Tesla broke ground on the refinery, located in Robstown, Texas, near Corpus Christi, in May 2023. A press release announcing the groundbreaking said, “The 1,200+ acre site will be the location of the first industrial deployment of an acid-free lithium refining route.”
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Austin American-Statesman – January 21, 2026
Austin Energy says ‘teams are ready’ ahead of arctic blast headed to Texas*
Austin Energy says it is prepared for an arctic cold front expected to push temperatures below freezing and bring the potential for icy conditions to Central Texas this weekend, as city officials pressed utility leaders about winter weather preparedness. City officials questioned Austin Energy about its winter weather readiness during a City Council committee meeting Tuesday, as forecasts show temperatures dropping below freezing by Saturday morning and remaining cold through at least Monday morning.
Austin Energy General Manager Stuart Reilly told council members that while the forecast does not resemble the extreme winter storms that hit Texas in 2021 or 2023, the utility is remaining vigilant because of the likelihood of precipitation. “We get our equipment ready, our teams are ready, we staff up,” Reilly said. “We have additional crews on standby and on call, and we’ll be ready to respond if we need, if there are any impacts, whether weather-related or ERCOT grid-related. We’ll be ready, and we’ll keep the council and the public informed along the way.”
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Inside Climate News – January 21, 2026
Meta Wants Data Center in Sunny El Paso to Rely on Natural Gas
In October 2025, local officials celebrated the groundbreaking of a 1-gigawatt, $1.5 billion data center for the tech giant Meta. El Paso Electric had previously stated that existing infrastructure would support the data center and that Meta was looking to tap into a new solar farm. El Paso gets more than 300 days a year of sun, hence its nickname, the Sun City.
So it came as a shock to many El Pasoans that the electric utility is instead seeking approval for a 366-megawatt natural gas plant, called the McCloud facility, to power the data center. Advocates in El Paso worry that a new gas plant could drive up utility rates, worsen the region’s air pollution problem and set back efforts to transition to renewable energy.
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Austin American-Statesman – January 21, 2026
Global tech giant makes potential $1 billion data center deal in tiny Texas town*
Global semiconductor giant Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will be the first tenant in a 200-acre data center being developed on a portion of the former Alcoa Corp. smelting site near Rockdale, about 60 miles northeast of Austin. Developer Riot Platforms Inc., a Colorado-based cryptocurrency mining and data center company, announced the potential $1 billion lease and services agreement with AMD on Friday. The 10-year agreement is expected to generate $311 million in revenue and includes three five-year extension options.
The initial agreement calls for delivery of 2.5 megawatts beginning this month, with completion expected in May. The deal includes an option to expand capacity to as much as 200 megawatts. The 200-acre site represents a small portion of a planned 50-square-mile advanced manufacturing and logistics campus under development by Dallas-based Xebec Holdings LLC. Xebec purchased the 3,100-acre site in 2021 for $240 million, later unveiling plans for a large industrial campus. Part of the site will be home to Austin-based T1 Energy Inc.’s new solar cell factory, which could employ as many as 1,800 people. Another portion will be dedicated to a 1,200-megawatt, gas-fired power plant, with the remainder slated for residential, hospitality, retail and office use.
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MSN – January 21, 2026
Trump administration to offer states deals to host nuclear waste – Reuters
The Trump administration will seek interest from U.S. states as soon as this week on storing nuclear waste in return for incentives to build nuclear reactors, Reuters reported Wednesday, but the Department of Energy said no decisions have been made. Overcoming local opposition to waste storage is considered critical to achieving the administration’s ambitious nuclear expansion goals, which include quadrupling U.S. nuclear power capacity to 400 GW by 2050 to help meet surging electricity demand.
Radioactive and toxic nuclear waste currently is kept onsite at nuclear power plants, first in spent fuel pools and then in concrete and steel casks. A plan several years ago had focused on Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as a single repository for all U.S. waste, but former President Obama stopped the project due to local opposition.
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San Antonio Express-News – January 21, 2026
If you’ve noticed massive new facilities going up across Texas, you’re seeing the leading edge of a major data center build-out. These projects support cloud computing, streaming and artificial intelligence. For the construction industry, they represent a significant share of the work pipeline for the next several years, especially for crafts already in incredibly high demand. The story being told about this boom is simple: Texas is the perfect location, approvals should be automatic, incentives should flow freely. But working people and taxpayers deserve to ask, “What are we getting in return?”
The Texas Building Trades Council represents the men and women who will build these facilities. We want this work. Texans should be doing it under standards that reflect the scale, complexity and public investment involved. When public dollars are on the table, the public deserves enforceable commitments in return — good construction jobs, transparent deals and communities that benefit long after the ribbon-cutting. …
When a developer requests tax abatements or other public support, the public should receive measurable commitments in return. That includes a credible construction workforce plan that matches the project’s scale and reflects the reality that electricians and other crafts are already stretched thin.
It includes job-site standards that protect safety and quality. It includes real investment in apprenticeship and training, because Texas can’t meet rising demand without growing the workforce development pipeline. And it includes transparency about the value and duration of incentives, with verification and clawbacks if commitments are not met. Strong construction opportunities and good deals for taxpayers aren’t mutually exclusive. They just require transparency and accountability from the start.
Regulatory
Bloomberg – January 21, 2026
The Repo Market Has Started Pricing In Energy Transition Risks*
For years, climate experts have insisted that markets will naturally push companies to take climate change more seriously as risks become more apparent. Fresh research indicates that borrowers are now starting to face a financial penalty for ignoring the dangers ahead. This month, a paper published by the European Central Bank found that banks with the greatest so-called transition risks now “face significantly higher borrowing costs” in funding markets. That followed a December paper by analysts at the Central Bank of Ireland, which showed that companies facing physical climate risks are in a similar predicament, and will need to provide more collateral.
The studies examined the two main ways companies should, theoretically, feel the pain of global warming. Transition risk — the notion that companies slow to cut high-carbon activities will be punished by regulators and markets — has often seemed difficult to quantify, in part because many governments keep delaying efforts to move toward net zero emissions. But physical risk — which covers the real-world impact that extreme weather has on assets such as buildings — is getting harder to ignore as climate disasters mount. … Margherita Giuzio, a senior economist at the ECB, along with Bige Kahraman and Jasper Knyphausen of the Oxford Saïd Business School, explored how banks’ exposure to carbon-intensive borrowers affects funding costs in the European repo market. (The repo market allows banks to manage short-term cash by selling and then buying back high-quality securities such as government bonds, often overnight.).
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday January 21, 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 fell on Wednesday as an expected build-up of U.S. crude inventories outweighed a temporary halt in output at two large fields in Kazakhstan and geopolitical pressure from U.S. threats of tariffs over its bid to gain control of Greenland.
West Texas Intermediate crude contract lost 60 cents, or 1%, to trade at $59.76 a barrel.
Brent futures fell 76 cents, or 1.2%, to $64.16 a barrel at 0445 GMT.
Both contracts closed nearly $1 a barrel or 1.5% higher in the previous session after OPEC+ producer Kazakhstan halted output at the Tengiz and Korolev oilfields on Sunday due to power distribution issues. Strong China economic data was also positive.
Oil production at the two Kazakh fields could be halted for another seven to 10 days, three industry sources told Reuters.
The oil output halt at Tengiz, one of the world’s largest oil fields, and Korolev is temporary, and downward pressure from an expected rise in U.S. crude inventories along with geopolitical tension will persist, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said on Wednesday.
Top Stories
San Antonio Express-News – January 20, 2026
Even in deep red Texas, companies wanting to stay in the black are taking on President Donald Trump’s tariffs. More than a dozen companies across the state, including well-known drinkware purveyor Yeti Holdings Inc., jewelry designer and manufacturer Kendra Scott and the marketing arm of Valero Energy Corp., have challenged the president’s use of executive action to upend global trade. The broad range of companies fighting the cost-warping import taxes demonstrates how Trump’s chaotic trade war has disrupted all aspects of the economy, a Texas trade expert says.
“It’s everybody. It’s not just one sector. They’re widespread,” said Raymond Robertson, director of the Mosbacher Institute of Trade, Economics and Public Policy at Texas A&M University. “It’s incredibly widespread. And it’s really unprecedented in scope.” Despite their publicly filed lawsuits, most Texas companies reached last week either declined to comment or simply did not respond. Though many publicly traded companies have told investors and spoken privately about the fact tariffs are increasing costs, harming consumers and increasing uncertainty, few business leaders are willing to publicly speak out, Robertson said. They fear retaliation from the White House. “The president has not hesitated to target individual companies,” he said. “There was really a deafening silence from the business community.”
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Texas Tribune – January 20, 2026
Texas forecast to be top market for data centers in two years, increasing grid demand
Texas is poised to become the largest home for data centers in the country within the next two years as artificial intelligence continues to boom, according to a report published Tuesday. Bloom Energy, a California-based company that provides onsite power generation for electricity-guzzling data centers, also found that the grid demand driven by data centers in Texas is expected to exceed 40 gigawatts by 2028. The report is based on a survey of both electric utilities and data center developers that was conducted throughout much of last year.
In 2025, data centers in Texas had a maximum power demand of about 8 GW, compared to the state grid’s peak energy demand of 94 GW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the grid. One gigawatt is enough to energize about 700,000 homes for a year.
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Reuters – January 20, 2026
Google carbon capture deal paves way for greener gas plants*
Google in October signed a deal to purchase electricity from a 400 MW natural gas plant planned in Illinois that will feature carbon capture and storage (CCS) as it looks to secure a steady supply of low-carbon energy for its data centers. The Broadwing Energy Center will be developed by Low Carbon Infrastructure (LCI) at an existing industrial site operated by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) where the agribusiness company has historically injected carbon dioxide underground from ethanol production. Google will procure the electricity from Broadwing and ADM will acquire the steam.
Broadwing is the first project in a long-term collaboration between Google and LCI to develop future CCS facilities in the U.S. and demonstrate commercial-scale deployment, Michael Terrell, Head of Advanced Energy at Google, told Reuters Events. The plant will capture approximately 90% of its carbon emissions. “Our long-term goal is to accelerate the path for CCS technology to become more accessible and affordable globally, helping to increase generating capacity while enabling emission reductions,” Terrell said.
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NPR – January 20, 2026
Trump promised to cut energy bills in half. One year later, has he delivered?
On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to cut Americans’ energy bills in half — cheaper gasoline, cheaper electricity. He also said he’d “unleash” American energy production, often repeating the catchphrase “Drill, baby, drill.” One year in, the price of gasoline is down about 10%. But the U.S. oil industry is definitely not drilling, baby, drilling. The price of oil is just too low to justify more of it — although within the last year, companies have won major lobbying victories that soothe that sting. Meanwhile, electricity costs are rising and expected to rise more.
The U.S. benchmark price for oil is down about 20% from where it was a year ago, and the average retail gasoline price — the price drivers pay at the pump — is down nearly 10%. Now, presidents — whoever they are — do not get to decide the price of gasoline. The price of crude oil is the biggest factor, and crude prices are set in a complex global marketplace that responds to a number of factors.
The Latest TERse Tips
Ukrainian drone fragments ignited a fire at the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, but nobody was hurt, there was no damage, and the fire is now out, a local emergencies centre said early on Wednesday — Reuters*
Enverus releases 2026 Global Energy Outlook highlighting commodity price pressure, increasing strain on power systems and geopolitical shifts in oil markets — see the press release
New book explores how the 2021 winter storm endangered Texans with disabilities — lack of access to power, water and transportation proved to be especially dangerous for Texans with physical and cognitive limitation — Texas Standard (NPR)
Oil & Gas Texas
The Wall Street Journal – January 20, 2026
Halliburton and Its Rivals Can’t Wait to Get Back Into Venezuela*
America’s top oil producers have expressed hesitancy about rushing back to Venezuela, but the companies that provide them with equipment and expertise are raring to go. “We left only because of the U.S. sanctions that were put in place and have effectively been evaluating how to return ever since,” Halliburton Chief Executive Officer Jeff Miller said in an interview. “I see this as that moment in time where we get to execute on plans to return.”
When it comes to increasing Venezuelan oil production, investors are betting that the early returns will go to oil-field services companies such as Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and SLB, formerly known as Schlumberger. Such companies are the early movers in the oil patch, working for Texas wildcatters and national oil companies alike. Whichever producers heed President Trump’s call to open Venezuela’s spigots, it will be oil-field services companies that sell the handle and do the turning.
Trump has made increased oil production essential to his plans for Venezuela since the U.S. incursion this month deposed the strongman Nicolás Maduro. Besides saying he would wrest control of the country’s oil reserves and sell crude for the benefit of the U.S. and Venezuelans, Trump envisions Venezuelan heavy crude flooding into Gulf Coast refineries and pushing down fuel prices.
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CNBC – January 20, 2026
Natural gas prices soar as cold snap blasts across the U.S.
Natural gas prices soared Tuesday, as heating demand is expected to spike due to a blast of frigid weather across the U.S. Prices surged about 26%, or 80 cents, to $3.91 per million British thermal units. Natural gas is used primarily for heating and electricity generation. “Frigid weather is set to reshape the near-term natural gas outlook as Arctic air masses flash across the eastern US and the huge weather demand gain over the MLK weekend threatens severe market dislocation,” EBW Analytics told clients in a Tuesday note.
A big winter storm is forecast to dump heavy snow, sleet and treacherous freezing rain across the southern Rockies, the Plains and the South by Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The storm is then expected to shift toward the East Coast through the weekend.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – January 20, 2026
API: World on the precipice of a ‘demand decade’ for oil and gas*
Permian Basin residents this week celebrated the iconic oil and gas employees with an event sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute and Petroleum Strategic Partnership. The event featured food and a performance by Roger Creager. “This series kicked off in November,” related Mike Sommers, president and chief executive officer of the API, in Midland for the celebration and to moderate a question-and-answer session with Aaron Hunter, president, Permian, with ConocoPhillips, at the Midland Chamber of Commerce State of Oil & Gas luncheon.
It began with the television series “Landman,” he said. The association has formed a partnership with the television show, running ads ‘describing real landmen’ during the episodes, he said. “We were a little concerned with how the industry would be portrayed. (But) we realized it would be a positive view,” Sommers said. He said he’s pleased to bring the celebration to Midland, “the heart of oil and gas. We felt it was time to celebrate oil and gas. Everyone uses oil and gas, but only 1% work in the industry. People need to understand how important it is.”
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Trump’s embrace of oil industry is turning into an awkward grip: Ron Bousso*
President Donald Trump has lavished the U.S. oil industry with favourable policies since returning to the White House, but his twin demands for cheap oil and “energy dominance” are increasingly colliding with companies’ bottom lines. Over the past year, the Republican president has rolled out numerous pro‑fossil fuel measures and offered strong support for U.S. oil firms abroad, a sharp departure from his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden’s focus on combating climate change.
Within hours of taking office, Trump declared a national energy emergency, opening the way to relaxed environmental rules and expanded drilling permits on federal land and in Alaska. He also quickly lifted Biden’s freeze on permitting new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and sped up project approvals. The policies are set to reinforce America’s status as the world’s largest oil and gas producer. U.S. crude oil and liquids production is projected to hit a record of nearly 24 million barrels per day in 2026, accounting for 22% of global supply, according to the Energy Information Administration.
KRIS – January 15, 2026
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez sounds alarm on worsening water conditions
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, who represents the 34th Congressional District, is warning colleagues of worsening water conditions in South Texas, including water concerns in Corpus Christi. During a Member Day meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Gonzalez warned that declining lake levels pose a risk to the Port of Corpus Christi — a risk he said rises to the level of “national security.” The Port of Corpus Christi is the largest energy export gateway in the United States and the world’s third-largest crude oil export port.
“This is a major impact and a national security issue for the country,” Gonzalez told fellow committee members Wednesday. “This city (Corpus Christi), the small community cannot sustain this type of investment. We need the federal government to step in.”
Oil & Gas National & International
Associated Press/KWTX – January 20, 2026
US forces seize seventh sanctioned tanker linked to Venezuela in Trump’s effort to control its oil
U.S. military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday as the Trump administration continues its efforts to take control of the South American country’s oil. U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post that U.S. forces apprehended the Motor Vessel Sagitta “without incident” and that the tanker was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
The military command did not say whether the U.S. Coast Guard took control of the tanker as has been the case in prior seizures. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions for more details. The Sagitta is a Liberian-flagged tanker and its registration says it is owned and managed by a company in Hong Kong. The ship last transmitted its location more than two months ago when exiting the Baltic Sea in northern Europe.
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Project Syndicate – January 16, 2026
The Biggest Questions About Venezuelan Oil: Anas Alhajji
Nearly two weeks after US special forces invaded Venezuela to capture and extract Nicolás Maduro, many people believe that President Donald Trump was motivated to act by a desire to control the country’s vast oil reserves. But to what end? Does Trump want to boost profits for the US Gulf Coast refineries equipped to process Venezuela’s heavy crude? Or is the aim to flood the global market, lower oil prices for American consumers, and, as a bonus, break up OPEC? …
In any case, Venezuela will not be able to increase production meaningfully any time soon. To increase production by one million barrels per day requires roughly $20 billion in investment and will take about three years. By that point, some forecasters project that global oil demand will have grown between 2-3 million barrels per day, while depletion will have reduced production by 12-15 million barrels per day, meaning that the world will need around 15 million barrels per day of new oil. Thus, any increase in Venezuelan production will not flood the market, nor will it lower prices. In fact, it would be a welcome addition to global supplies.
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CNN – January 16, 2026
Meet the guy tracking illicit oil tankers from his rooftop
Some people watch Netflix in their spare time. Remy Osman tracks rusty tankers transporting illicit oil through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. From the roof of his Singapore apartment building, the British expat, who works as a food and beverage salesman, documents the passage of these shadow vessels, often sanctioned by the US and other Western countries, for his growing online audience.
Shadow fleets, also known as ghost or dark fleets, are ships that use murky tactics to transport oil for pariah states like Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Oil revenues from these fleets, consisting of aging tankers with opaque ownership, have become crucial sources of funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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Anchorage Daily News – January 19, 2026
Alaska’s natural gas pipeline is a long long shot: Joe Paskvan
Since the oil pipeline was completed in the 1970s, Alaskans have been begging for a gas line project. Longtime Alaskans remember the bumper sticker, “Please God Grant Us One More Pipeline, We Promise To Not Piss It Away This Time.” Alaska’s gas project would sell liquefied natural gas to Asian markets. But is the gas line more likely now than nearly 50 years ago?
Canada has a competitor project called LNG Canada Development. Kitimat, its export terminal, lies in western British Columbia, just south of Ketchikan. The project’s first-phase 420-mile pipeline currently distributes, by LNG tankers, about 1.8 billion cubic feet per day (1.8 bcf/d), with capacity of about 2.1 bcf/d, from Dawson Creek to Kitimat on North America’s West Coast. LNG tanker shipping costs from Kitimat to Asian markets are similar to those from Southcentral Alaska, especially compared to shipping to Asian markets from the U.S. Gulf Coast, Kuwait, Qatar or Saudi Arabia.
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The New York Times – January 20, 2026
Trump, Venezuela and Oil: Katrin Bennhold*
One early sign that things might not go so smoothly for the U.S. in its quest for Venezuelan oil was how American energy companies responded. In a meeting between oil executives and President Trump this month at the White House, Darren Woods, head of Exxon Mobil, called Venezuela “uninvestable.” Another oil magnate and Trump ally, Harold Hamm, was more diplomatic, but not exactly enthusiastic. Venezuela has “its challenges,” Hamm said. Trump has made it clear that he wants to move fast. At that meeting, which he called less than a week after U.S. troops captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, Trump told oil executives to “rapidly rebuild” the South American country’s oil industry.
Last week, exclusive reporting by my colleague Anatoly Kurmanaev found that the U.S. has already begun selling 50 million barrels of the Venezuelan oil that had previously been trapped by a partial U.S. blockade. There are good reasons for the U.S. administration to prioritize speed, Anatoly told me. The Venezuelan economy was days from collapsing. Oil storage was near capacity. The currency was in free fall. Officials had to get that trapped oil out and dollars in as soon as possible. “It was a race against time,” Anatoly said. “Trump has no interest in a collapsed Venezuela right now.”
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
power magazine – January 20, 2025
Five Years After Winter Storm Uri, a Texas Co-op Shares Its Lessons Learned
When Winter Storm Uri swept across Texas in February 2021, Rayburn Electric Cooperative found itself staring down a crisis that would reshape the organization’s entire operational philosophy. The generation and transmission cooperative, which serves approximately 625,000 Texans across 16 counties northeast of Dallas, incurred three years’ worth of power costs in just five days.
“Bankruptcy was certainly one of the options on the table,” David Naylor, president and CEO of Rayburn Electric Cooperative, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “We were thankful we didn’t have to go that route. We were able to come up with a solution where we paid everything we owed—and then we took a hard look in the mirror and asked ourselves what we needed to do differently.”
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KHOU – January 20, 2026
CenterPoint and ERCOT prepare for potential weekend winter storm
CenterPoint Energy and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas are monitoring weather conditions and preparing response plans as the threat of rain and ice could create localized power outages this weekend. CenterPoint told KHOU 11 News that its own meteorologists are watching the forecast and will adjust response plans as conditions evolve. The utility company has a cold-weather readiness plan in place and is ready to respond to potential impacts this weekend. The threat of ice weighing down tree limbs and power lines could create the risk of localized outages.
ERCOT, which operates the state’s electrical grid, provided reassurance about power supply. They anticipate there will be sufficient power generation to meet the demand during potential severe weather conditions this weekend, so there shouldn’t be any concerns about that.
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Houston Chronicle – January 20, 2026
Data centers could strain Texas’ grid and raise power bills. Here’s a fix for both problems.*
Data centers are demanding more electricity than ever before to train the latest artificial intelligence models. Texas policymakers have responded mostly by racing to expand the state’s power grid to accommodate them all. If new power plants aren’t built fast enough to keep up with increasing electricity demand, rates could soar for everyone. The problem is, simply building more infrastructure also increases energy bills, as all consumers across the state share in the cost of new power lines. But there’s another way to make room on the power grid for data centers, energy experts say — a solution that Texas has long overlooked.
In addition to increasing the grid’s capacity, the state could also significantly address the other side of the supply-and-demand equation: Cutting down on energy waste. “The cheapest kilowatt-hour is the one that you don’t produce,” said Matthew Boms, executive director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance, a clean energy trade group. “It’s the lowest-hanging fruit.” Millions of Texas homes run on older appliances that use more electricity than newer technologies. Many homes are also poorly insulated, which means they require more electricity to heat or cool the space to a comfortable temperature.
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News from the States – January 20, 2026
Proposal to hold AI data centers accountable to energy ratepayers clears first committee
A measure (SB 484) revising state law regarding regulation of large-scale data centers and certain other large electricity users received its first hearing in a legislative committee in Tallahassee on Tuesday. The proposal, introduced by Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Miami Springs, is the first bill in the Florida Legislature to address concerns about the intense energy demand by Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centers.
Data centers’ projected electricity demand in 2030 has been set at to up to 130 gigawatts, which would represent close to 12% of total U.S. annual demand, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Avila’s bill would require the Public Service Commission (PSC) to develop minimum large load tariff requirements for public electric utilities to reasonably ensure that big customers (such as large data centers) pay for their own cost of service and that the general body of ratepayers do not bear the risk of non-payment of such costs.
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Bloomberg – January 20, 2026
OpenAI Says It Will Pay for Energy Upgrades at Stargate Sites*
OpenAI said it will pay for the costs of developing energy-related infrastructure required by its Stargate data centers to address concerns the facilities may drive up consumers’ utility bills. The ChatGPT maker will work with communities where it’s developing the projects to ensure they don’t raise electricity costs. The company said in a blog post Tuesday that it will, for example, pay for additional infrastructure to support local energy grids or secure its own energy supply. OpenAI’s announcement follows a similar commitment from Microsoft Corp., although many of the details of both plans aren’t yet clear.
While the Trump administration has championed data center investment to fuel the artificial intelligence boom, rising energy prices are causing a backlash as residents and consumer groups fight projects and politicians express concern. Last week, President Donald Trump said in a social post that while the data centers “are key” to the AI boom, the “big Technology Companies who build them must ‘pay their own way.’” On Friday, Trump and governors of several Northeastern states called for the nation’s largest power-grid operator to hold an emergency auction that would force tech companies to cover the cost of building new power plants.
pv magazine – January 20, 2026
Solar to surge 49% as EIA forecasts 70 GW of new capacity by 2027
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Short-Term Energy Outlook of January 2026 finds that electricity generation in the United States totaled about 4,260 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2025. Additionally, EIA expects U.S. electricity generation will grow by 1.1% in 2026 and by 2.6% in 2027, reaching an annual total of 4,423 billion kWh in 2027.
While natural gas, coal and nuclear accounted for 75% of total generation in 2025, EIA expects the share of generation from these dispatchable sources to fall to about 72% in 2027, as solar and wind generation rise. The Outlook forecasts that the combined share of generation from solar and wind power to rise from about 18% in 2025 to about 21% in 2027.
Regulatory
JD Supra – November 4, 2025
Texas Court Denies Surface Owner’s Self-Help Burial of Pipeline: Gray Reed
In Byrne Oil Co. v. Walraven, a court of appeals held that a surface owner/lessor cannot bury his lessee’s pipelines and recover costs when adequate time exists to pursue judicial remedies, even after years of operator delay.
The oil and gas lease required the lessee to “bury pipeline[s] below plow depth” when requested. Walraven purchased the surface in 2016 and immediately requested burial of over 10,000 feet of above-ground flow lines. Lessee Byrne Oil (successor-in-interest of the original lessee) refused, claiming improper notice under the lease’s breach-notification provision. Byrne Oil sued for declaratory relief in 2019; Walraven counterclaimed for breach of the lease and sought an injunction.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday January 20, 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 up on Tuesday, bolstered by a weaker dollar, while markets watched President Donald Trump’s threats of higher U.S. tariffs on European nations over his desire to buy Greenland.
West Texas Intermediate crude contract for February , which expires on Tuesday, was up 14 cents, or 0.2%, to $59.58.
Brent futures rose 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $64.09 a barrel at 0430 GMT.
The more actively-traded WTI March contract gained 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $59.40. WTI contracts did not settle on Monday due to the U.S. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
“A weaker U.S. dollar provided some support to oil and the broader commodities complex,” said ING commodities strategists on Tuesday. A weaker greenback makes dollar-denominated oil contracts cheaper for holders of other currencies.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – January 19, 2026
Chevron’s Dilemma in Venezuela: Support Trump’s Vision Without Losing Money
Chevron wanted a piece of Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela so it could make significant investments when the country’s political fortunes changed. The strongman is out, but President Trump’s Venezuela doesn’t look much different. Trump is pressing U.S. oil companies to pour $100 billion into Venezuela’s dilapidated oil sector—and to do so as soon as possible—following Maduro’s dramatic ouster this month. But a rapid escalation in oil investments in Venezuela isn’t in the cards, even for Chevron, the only U.S. oil company operating in the oil-rich Latin American country, people close to the company said.
Before making a big investment there, oil executives want to see stability in the country and higher oil prices that translate to profits, some of the people said. Chevron’s caution shows how far Trump’s aspirations for a speedy Venezuelan oil revival are from what the U.S. oil industry considers to be a realistic timeline. The divide will test the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth, who will have to balance the wishes of an impetuous president with his obligation to shareholders to make prudent investments. Trump has yet to offer any public concessions that would spur investment.
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Bloomberg – January 15, 2026
US Oil’s Discount to Brent Grows Amid Regional Supply Shifts
US oil is trading at the deepest discount to the global Brent benchmark in 15 months as geopolitical developments from Venezuela to the Black Sea shake up supply flows around the world. The spread between Brent and West Texas Intermediate — or the difference in price between two of the world’s key crude markers — widened to as much as $4.68 a barrel on Wednesday. That would mark biggest relative discount on US oil since October 2024, when a series of tit—for-tat attacks between Iran and Israel threatened the oil-rich region’s energy infrastructure and shipping lanes.
The price relationship between the US and global crude benchmarks is a closely followed gauge that forms the basis for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shipments and trades every day. The sharp change in relative prices has been driven by several key factors — curtailed European exports amid disruptions at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal that loads Kazakh oil into tankers, mounting unrest in Iran and US markets bracing for an influx of Venezuelan crude. Europe’s oil market has strengthened dramatically, with reduced shipments from Kazakhstan and elsewhere tightening supply. Smaller flows of Kazakhstan’s CPC Blend, as well as disruptions in Libya and some North Sea fields, have pushed up physical prices in the North Sea and Mediterranean. At the same time, as many as 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil are set to hit the US Gulf Coast and bolster domestic stockpiles.
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RMI – January 19, 2026
After years of flat or declining electricity demand, US utilities are projecting rapid growth driven by AI, electrification, and industrial expansion. The North American Energy Reliability Corporation (NERC) expects national peak demand to increase by 150 GW over the next decade. This represents 18 percent growth over current levels — nearly the equivalent of adding a new California, Texas, and New York to the bulk power system. At the same time, more than 120 GW of existing power generation — over 10 percent of the United States’ total fleet — is expected to retire as mid-20th century coal plants reach the end of their operating lives and are replaced by cheaper and cleaner resources. While expectations will change over time, the projected 270 GW gap means that decision makers at all levels will need to act swiftly to maintain reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity.
Power providers across the country have turned to gas-fired power plants as their first-choice technology to fill the impending gap. Exhibit 1 shows that across the nation, utilities and independent power providers plan to build an average of 19 GW of new gas-fired capacity each year through the rest of the decade, double the recent rate of construction.
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Common Dreams – January 19, 2026
The first US sale of Venezuelan oil since the Trump administration illegally attacked the South American country earlier this month went to the company of a trader who donated millions to President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The roughly $250 million sale of Venezuelan crude went to Vitol, a Geneva-based energy and commodity trading firm whose US arm is headquartered in Houston. The Financial Times reported late last week that John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol, was involved in his company’s efforts to secure the deal.
The Latest TERse Tips
California headquartered Clearway Energy Group has recently announced that it had signed three long-term power purchase agreements with Google during 2025 — the agreements cover a combined 1.17 GW of carbon-free energy projects located in Missouri, Texas and West Virginia — Solarbytes
New York-based digital infrastructure company Galaxy Digital has completed a Large Load Interconnection Study and received approval from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas for an additional 830 megawatts of computing demand at its Helios data center campus in West Texas — see the press release
The Bureau of Land Management has begun paving the way for new oil and gas leases in California, concluding in draft environmental analyses that new drilling would not significantly harm public health or the environment — Politico*
This could be the year plug-in solar goes mainstream — more than a dozen states are considering legislation to support small solar energy systems that can plug directly into home outlets, after Utah lawmakers last year unanimously approved the first such law in the country — Politico*
China’s rulers appear to be working on technology platforms that could survive nuclear attack — Fast Company
US to build nuclear reactors on the moon in next 4 years, energy department says — KBMT
Oil & Gas Texas
Midland Reporter-Telegram – January 19, 2026
Henry Hub prices expect to ease in 2026, soar in 2027*
Wholesale natural gas prices in 2025 rebounded from record lows seen in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration. The EIA reported that in 2025, the wholesale U.S. natural gas spot price at the national benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana averaged $3.52 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), based on data from LSEG Data. The 2025 average Henry Hub natural gas spot price increased 56% from the 2024 annual average, which — when adjusted for inflation — was the lowest on record. On a daily basis, the Henry Hub natural gas spot price ranged from $2.65/MMBtu to $9.86/MMBtu, reflecting a narrower range of daily prices compared with the previous year.
In its January Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA analysts expect the natural gas spot price at the Henry Hub to decrease about 2% to just under $3.50 per million British thermal units in 2026 before rising sharply in 2027 to just under $4.60/MMBtu. Analysts attribute the slight 2026 decrease to annual supply growth keeping pace with demand growth over the year. For 2027, analysts forecast annual average spot prices will soar 33% as demand growth rises faster than supply growth, driven mainly by more feed gas demand from U.S. liquefied natural gas export facilities, reducing the natural gas in storage.
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Fox News – January 19, 2026
Trump’s energy dominance rewrites the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after Biden drawdowns
America’s rise as a global oil powerhouse has changed how critical the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is to U.S. security and economic stability — even after President Joe Biden’s drawdowns drove stockpiles to modern-era lows, an economist and energy expert explained to Fox News Digital.
As the Trump administration works to gradually replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve following record releases under the Biden administration, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate and Environment, told Fox News Digital that the decades-old emergency oil stockpile no longer plays the same central role it once did. President Donald Trump‘s policies of “unleashing” energy and his “drill, baby, drill” mantra are key as to why, following the U.S. as domestic supply rose and demand shifted.
Oil money flows into Texas Railroad Commission campaigns. The largest donors might surprise you*
Three elected officials lead the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency that regulates oil and gas fields, pipelines, utilities and mining operations. Oil money flows into their campaigns, but the largest oil companies weren’t the largest donors. Lesser-known oil companies and some outside the industry have contributed more over time, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis. To identify companies linked to donations during the review period (July 2000 through December 2025) we looked at contributions they made directly as well as those made by their employees and executives. The list may not be complete, which is why we used the terminology “at least.”
Midland Energy and its CEO S. Javaid Anwar have contributed at least $1.47 million to the campaigns of Railroad Commissioners. The privately held company focuses on oil and gas production in the Permian Basin. The Midland-based oil mogul has also donated millions to Gov. Greg Abbott during his re-election campaigns. Abbott reappointed Anwar in 2023 to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which aims to align the state’s higher education program with economic needs.
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Latitude Media – January 13, 2026
US emissions jumped in 2025 as more coal met power demand
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose by 2.4% in 2025 after two straight years of decline, driven in part by a surge in coal power, according to estimates by the research firm Rhodium Group. Utilities burned more coal to meet electricity demand from commercial buildings, including data centers and crypto mining operations. Demand growth was concentrated in Texas, the Mid-Atlantic, and Ohio Valley regions.
Homes and buildings also burned more fossil fuels to stay warm during cold winter temperatures, researchers said; the majority of homes in the coldest parts of the U.S. rely on natural gas and fuel oil for heat.
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The Guardian (UK) – January 13, 2026
US shale-oil producers were already contending with oil prices at four-year lows. News that they may soon face a significant competitor in their back yard probably wasn’t how frackers wanted to greet 2026. The US capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, hit the share prices of independent shale-oil producers, such as Diamondback Energy and Devon Energy, last week.
Over the last 20 years, the US fracking industry has built itself into the main driver of domestic oil production: it accounted for 64% of total US crude oil production in 2023. With average production levels of 13.6m barrels a day (BPD), the US is the world’s largest crude-oil producer.
Oil & Gas National & International
Bloomberg – January 16, 2026
Enbridge Files Regulatory Documents to Expand Part of Mainline*
Enbridge Inc. plans to expand part of its Mainline oil pipeline network running from Alberta into the US by about 10% within two years, according to regulatory documents filed by the company. The Enbridge Mainline is North America’s largest crude oil pipeline system, transporting roughly 3 million barrels-per-day of Western Canada’s oil to refineries in the Midwest, Gulf Coast, and Eastern Canada.
The Canadian company plans to use chemicals called drag reducing agents to boost the capacity of Line 93 to 837,000 barrels a day from 760,000 barrels a day by October 2027, the company said in documents filed with the Canada Energy Regulator. Construction is scheduled to start in October of this year. The announced expansion of Line 93 comes at a potential challenging time for Canadian oil producers seeking to ship more oil to the US. The possible influx of Venezuelan oil after the US overthrow of former President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month would pose competition for Canadian crude on the US Gulf Coast, lowering the price that oil sands producers receive.
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Bloomberg – January 18, 2026
Brazil’s Billionaire Batistas Poised for Venezuelan Oil Revival*
The billionaire Batista brothers are eyeing a billion-barrel Venezuelan oil project that stands to benefit from US President Donald Trump’s planned revival of the South American nation’s energy sector.
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The Batistas, who control the world’s biggest meatpacker, are discreetly positioned on the outskirts of Venezuela’s oil sector via the stake one of their business associates holds in the Petrolera Roraima project, according to people familiar with the situation. Prior to the ouster of strongman Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, a commercial representative of the Batistas obtained a stake in a cluster of oilfields formerly operated by ConocoPhillips. Fluxus, an oil company owned by the Batistas, could join that or other petroleum developments in the country once the business outlook clears up, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing non-public information. J&F SA, the Brazilian brothers’ holding company, said in response to questions that it doesn’t have any assets in Venezuela, and is closely monitoring events.
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Bloomberg – January 19, 2026
Mideast Oil Prices Diverge as Refiners Seek Cheaper Options*
Middle Eastern crude prices are diverging, with heavier grades growing cheaper relative to lighter barrels — a shift that’s encouraging Asian refiners to favor medium and sour crudes to boost margins. Spot differentials for grades such as Upper Zakum, Al Shaheen and some Saudi crudes have gained less than lighter Murban benchmark for consecutive weeks since late December. Traders said the move reflects additional sales by producers including Saudi Aramco to Asian buyers, combined with tightening supplies of lighter grades globally.
Upper Zakum is currently priced at about 10 cents a barrel above Dubai crude, according to data from General Index, after trading at a discount for much of the previous two weeks. By contrast, Murban’s premium over Dubai climbed to $2.24 a barrel at Friday’s close — more than double its level at the end of last year. Murban, the United Arab Emirates’ flagship grade, has become increasingly expensive in Asia compared with heavier and more sour crudes this month, traders said, asking not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.
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Variety – December 22, 2025
Like so many Taylor Sheridan series, “Landman” examines a unique American subculture. In this case, it’s the oil drilling ecosystem that draws workers and billionaires alike to Texas. Series co-creator Christian Wallace is the man on set who keeps things realistic. Wallace was the host of “Boomtown,” the podcast about the oil industry that “Landman” is based on. Beyond his duties as a host and journalist, the native West Texan spent time working as an oil roughneck himself, and grew up in a family with members in the fields. He spoke to Variety about how he’s able to balance accuracy on the show while making sure that juicy storylines can keep moving along.
I’m really lucky in that I’ve been on set every day for two seasons, working with pretty much every department, our cast and crew. Taylor is writing it. I’m helping as far as bouncing ideas off him and giving him fuel stock that he can then Taylor-ize into the greatness that is the show, and the high stakes drama and the comedy of it all. He trusts me to be the guy on set to call a flag if we’re trying to hew to authenticity wherever we can. There aren’t a whole lot of West Texans who have worked on an oil rig running around the set, but I am one.
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January 4, 2026
…For these climate cases, coastal litigants focus on things ike hurricanes and rising seas, but in Boulder the 105-page complaint argues that oil companies have harmed property, safety, and health. They say that this comes from causing higher temperatures, wildfires, droughts, and a shrinking snowpack that devastates water supplies, skiing resorts, and farmers.
They want billions of dollars to compensate jurisdictions for all the damage caused by the use of oil, coal, and natural gas. Exxon and Suncor say that the Boulder climate case raises complicated national and international issues, so this is a fight that belongs in federal, not state. courts. Of course, they are correct.
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KVUE – January 13, 2026
California wants to mix hydrogen with gas to cut climate pollution. Critics say that poses risks
Alma Figueroa began to worry when she learned that her gas provider wanted to test a controversial solution to curb global warming: blend hydrogen with natural gas to power her stove and other appliances. Figueroa, who has asthma and recently learned her lung cancer is back, worries about health risks. “I don’t want to be anyone’s experiment,” said Figueroa, 60, a resident of Orange Cove in California’s Central Valley.
The Southern California Gas Co. wants to blend and inject hydrogen into the town’s gas infrastructure, after the state agency that regulates utilities directed them and other companies to launch pilot projects. Proponents see it as key to helping California reduce planet-warming pollution by curbing reliance on gas while integrating cleaner energy into existing infrastructure. It’s part of a statewide effort to create safety rules for hydrogen blending. But opponents say it poses unnecessary risks, and Orange Cove’s mostly Latino and low-income residents say processes are happening without transparency or their input. Projects in states such as Colorado and Oregon have also raised concerns.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Hoodline – January 19, 2026
Dallas Gas Shock: Atmos Wants 10.5% Hike On Home Bills
Atmos Energy is asking Dallas officials to sign off on a roughly 10.5% bump in what residents pay for natural gas delivery, a move that would add about $11.25 to the average monthly residential bill. The request, filed through the company’s annual Dallas Annual Rate Review, targets delivery charges only, not the commodity cost of natural gas itself. City staff and outside consultants will now comb through the filing and brief councilmembers before the city decides how to respond.
As reported by WFAA, the proposed adjustment comes out to about 10.5% and would translate to an average increase of roughly $11.25 per month for residential customers. The station notes that Atmos has formally submitted the request to the City of Dallas and that the filing is now moving through the city’s review process.
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ATC News – January 19, 2026
Battery-Electric Commercial Trucks Set to Launch on Texas Freight Corridor
A first-of-its-kind trucking procurement led by the Center for Green Market Activation has enabled the largest known deployment of Class 8 battery-electric trucks, with roughly 40 vehicles operating in Texas starting in 2026. Nevoya will operate the trucks on a Houston–Dallas freight corridor, with the fleet expected to travel up to 7 million miles annually and avoid an estimated 60,000 metric tonnes of CO₂e.
The pilot uses a book-and-claim model that allows corporate buyers to support zero-emission trucking through verified service attributes, even when the trucks are not directly hauling their freight. GMA and Smart Freight Centre say the procurement establishes a scalable, repeatable model for accelerating zero-emission trucking deployments in additional regions and corridors.
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Milwaukee Independent – January 15, 2026
Scrutiny intensifies as states investigate skyrocketing energy demands for proposed data centers
The forecasts are eye-popping: utilities saying they’ll need two or three times more electricity within a few years to power massive new data centers that are feeding a fast-growing AI economy. But the challenges — some say the impossibility — of building new power plants to meet that demand so quickly has set off alarm bells for lawmakers, policymakers and regulators who wonder if those utility forecasts can be trusted.
One burning question is whether the forecasts are based on data center projects that may never get built — eliciting concern that regular ratepayers could be stuck with the bill to build unnecessary power plants and grid infrastructure at a cost of billions of dollars.
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Associated Press/KSAT – January 16, 2026
Climate activist predicts high electricity prices and Trump’s attacks on green energy will hurt GOP
At a time when the Trump administration rolled back numerous environmental regulations while global temperatures and U.S. carbon pollution spiked, longtime climate activist Bill McKibben finds hope in something that didn’t seem that strong on a recent single-digit-temperature day: the sun.
That sun has provided him cheap power for 25 years, and this month he installed his fourth iteration of solar panels on his Vermont home. In an interview after he set up the new system, he said President Donald Trump’s stance against solar and other cheap green energy will hurt the GOP in this year’s elections as electricity bills rise.
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CNBC – January 17, 2026
Smaller companies are rising quickly to challenge Big Tech as AI’s best trade
Artificial intelligence is no longer a narrow technology trade. It is reshaping energy markets, infrastructure spending, and portfolio construction. Investors who focus only on chips and software risk missing where the next phase of value is occurring, according to investing experts on this week’s episode of CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”
Some of the trends and innovations driving the market, and the rapid scaling of companies, are tied to AI’s physical requirements. Power, cooling, grid stability, and data center efficiency have become binding constraints. Just look at the stock price of Bloom Energy, which for years after its 2018 IPO struggled to eke out a return above its IPO price. Since last year, when its onsite fuel cells began being ordered furiously for data centers, Bloom has seen its shares shoot up over 500% and the company reached a market cap above $30 billion.
Regulatory
JD Supra – October 27, 2025
In Texas, legal battles over the subsurface have typically focused on what comes out of the ground: oil, gas, and minerals. But as subsurface use evolves, it raises a new question: Who owns the empty space left once minerals are removed? In Myers-Woodward LLC v. Underground Services Markham LLC, the Texas Supreme Court confronted that question head-on, holding that absent contrary agreement, the surface estate, not the mineral estate, owns caverns created by salt mining.
This decision carries significant implications for property owners, operators, and infrastructure developers. In-house counsel for companies managing surface access, storage rights, or mineral leases should take note—post-extraction voids are no longer a gray area. Myers-Woodward clarifies ownership and narrows mineral estate rights. But it also opens the door to new litigation and regulatory risks.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday January 19, 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 were up slightly on Monday, after the previous session’s rise, as Iran’s deadly crackdown on protests quelled civil unrest, narrowing chances for a U.S. attack on the major Middle Eastern producer that could disrupt supplies.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate for February rose 9 cents, or 0.15%, to $59.53 a barrel. That contract expires on Tuesday and the more active March contract was at $59.39, up 5 cents, or 0.08%.
Brent crude was trading at $64.19 a barrel by 0327 GMT, up 6 cents or 0.09%.
Iran’s violent crackdown on protests spurred by economic hardship, which officials say killed 5,000 people, quelled the unrest.
U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to step back from his earlier threats of intervention, saying on social media Iran had called off mass hangings of protesters, although the country had not announced any such plans.
Top Stories
Bloomberg – January 16, 2026
Hamm to Halt Drilling in Bakken Shale on Lower Crude Prices*
Harold Hamm, the billionaire wildcatter who helped kick off the US shale oil revolution, said he’s about to shut down his company’s drilling in North Dakota’s Bakken for the first time in decades because of low crude prices. “This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” Hamm, the founder of shale driller Continental Resources Inc., said in a telephone interview Thursday. “There’s no need to drill it when margins are basically gone.”
It’s a significant milestone for the Bakken. The shale patch in North Dakota is where Hamm, 80, first proved that fracking and horizontal drilling techniques could be successfully applied to previously untouchable oil reserves. The fracking revolution ushered in a new growth era in US oil and the country went on to become the world’s top producer. Operators in the US shale patch, once the world’s leader in oil production growth, are now closely watching commodity prices as they hover near the level that makes drilling profitable for producers. If prices drop into the low $50-per-barrel range for several months, companies are expected to make more drastic cuts to drilling and fracking.
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The New York Times – January 16, 2026
The Dirty Truth About Your Clean-Energy Car*
No object is marketed with a greater sense of messianic promise than the electric vehicle. Here, we are told, is the corrective to centuries of environmental catastrophe as the price of material gain. Here is the antidote to climate change. Yet that framing has always sat uneasily alongside a troubling reality: Extracting and processing the raw materials needed to make the electric car’s central element — the batteries — entails its own environmental destruction, along with the exploitation of workers.
The journalist Nicolas Niarchos is intent on confronting us with this tension, transporting us on a world tour of its uncomfortable implications. His book, “The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth,” is a deeply reported revelation of the human costs of mining the minerals on which those batteries depend, from cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo to nickel in Indonesia.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – January 17, 2026
Independence Power becomes public-reporting company after merger*
Independence Power Holdings Inc. this week transitioned to a public-reporting company following the successful completion of its business combination with TriUnity Business Services Limited. With the transition complete, the company will focus on addressing the critical energy gap in the Permian Basin. Independence Power deploys behind-the-meter microgrids in the form of battery energy storage systems, or “BESS,” that function as private, on-site power stations.
The Permian Basin is currently outgrowing its regional power grid. According to a comprehensive demand forecast conducted by S&P Global for the Texas energy grid operator Energy Reliability Council of Texas, the Permian Basin is currently grappling with a power shortfall of 8 to 13 gigawatts. This gap creates “dirty power” — voltage sags and surges that frequently crash industrial computers and damage high-value equipment.
With 241 megawatts of energized, utility-scale batteries already under management, Independence Power’s proprietary software acts as a “shock absorber” to stabilize power. The set up is designed to ensure the near-perfect power quality needed for both upstream oil production and high-density AI data centers co-located at the source. And because they are behind-the-meter, these systems bypass the 30-month interconnection delays often seen with traditional grid power.
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The Guardian – January 13, 2026
Red-state Republicans seek climate ‘liability shield’ for fossil fuel industry
US lawmakers in two red states are attempting to shield the fossil fuel industry from climate liability. In Oklahoma, a newly introduced bill would bar most civil lawsuits against oil companies over their role in the climate crisis, unless plaintiffs allege violations of specific environmental or labor laws. A similar proposal in Utah would block lawsuits over climate-warming emissions, unless a court finds the defendant violated a statute or permit.
“I think anyone in America who breathes the air around them and also believes in corporate accountability ought to be very concerned about these types of end-runs against accountability,” said Jay Inslee, the former governor of Washington state and a former trial attorney.
The Latest TERse Tips
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro has introduced legislation aimed at blocking any unauthorized invasion in Mexico — San Antonio Express-News*
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has approved $1,909,731 in fines against 71 different entities for regulation violations — KTBC
Xcel is to participate in a proposed power line expansion along Interstate 94 from North Dakota to central Minnesota will maintain a reliable electric grid by meeting the region’s growing electricity needs, continuing to improve reliability and saving energy users’ money by accessing low-cost power — see the press release
KULR Technology Group was awarded a five-year preferred battery supply agreement from Caban Energy on Jan 14, 2026, generating an estimated $30 million in total revenue to KULR beginning in 2026, and as part of the deal, KULR took over Caban’s Plano, Texas manufacturing assets — Stock Titan
Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America LLC has filed an application with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting authorization for its Texas-Arkansas Power Project — Gas Compression
Peregrine Energy Solutions has announced it will build a battery energy storage facility on 42 acres near the intersection of FM 3251 and Fyffe Cutoff in Harrison County, a $400 million project that is one of the largest private investments in the county’s history, according to Marshall Economic Development — Marshall News Messenger
A 936-acre data center could come to the city of Lubbock after a proposal submitted by solar energy supplier Texas Solarworks LLC to rezone a land parcel southeast of East Municipal Drive and northeast of Northeast Loop 289 for uses related to power generation, transmission, and distribution was considered by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission on January 8 — Data Center Dynamics
U.S. regulators have granted a five-week extension for Tesla to respond to allegations that its vehicles have broken traffic laws while operating in what the electric automaker calls “full self-driving” mode — Associated Press/Spectrum News
Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – January 16, 2026
US Oil Drillers Add To Active Rigs
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell by 1 this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US to 543 this week, down 37 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 1 during the reporting period, according to the data. Oil rigs are now at 410, which is 68 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 to 122, which is 24 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count stayed at 11.
The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production fell by 58,000 bpd in the week ending January 9 to 13.753 million bpd on average, 110,000 bpd under the all-time high. Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells, rose by 3 during the week ending January 9, to 156. This is 39 under the same time last year.
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Rigzone – January 16, 2026
Valero to Cut 200+ Jobs as California Refinery Closes
Valero Energy Corp. plans to let go of 237 employees at its Benicia refinery as it winds down operations at one of California’s few remaining fuel-making plants. Valero expects the shutdown to be permanent and 237 jobs will be cut March 15 to July 1, the company said in a letter to California’s employment regulator and local officials.
Those losing jobs are not represented by a union and represent the bulk of the plant’s 348-person staff. “We do not plan to coordinate services with the local workforce development board or any other entity,” refinery manager Lauren Bird, whose position is being eliminated, said in the letter.
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Inside Climate News – January 18, 2026
A Small Oil Company Polluted Midland’s Water Reserve. The Cleanup Has Dragged on for Years.
Winkler County, Texas—The first sign of trouble appeared in 2003 when the water samples came back salty. This remote corner of West Texas, known as the T-Bar Ranch, had long served as the City of Midland’s insurance policy for water security. Midland purchased 20,000 acres spanning Winkler and Loving Counties in 1965, waiting for the day it would need to pump water from the property.
Extra salts in the aquifer was not part of the plan. The city’s investigation soon landed on Heritage Standard Corporation as the prime suspect. The small Dallas-based company operated oil and gas wells and a disposal well near Midland’s water source.
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Fort Worth Star Telegram – January 16, 2026
Fort Worth expects a lawsuit over millions of dollars spent on oil spill cleanup*
The city of Fort Worth is planning litigation related to the oil spill that contaminated a municipal water treatment plant last summer. In May, a 16-inch pipeline owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer broke and discharged 6,800 barrels of crude oil near Lake Arlington. Some of that oil entered a damaged sanitary sewer main and ended up in Fort Worth’s Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility, which discharges treated wastewater into the Trinity River.
According to contracts obtained by the Star-Telegram, Fort Worth authorized up to $5 million in emergency funds for the associated cleanup and repair costs. When asked in July who would cover those costs —Fort Worth taxpayers or Energy Transfer — a water department spokesperson said, “Further coordination with Energy Transfer will occur.”
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Politico – January 16, 2026
GOP plan to refill US reserves with Venezuelan oil hits roadblock*
Republican lawmakers are asking if barrels of Venezuelan crude could help refill the United States’ strategic oil stockpile, though analysts say it may be logistically impossible. President Donald Trump said Venezuela will send 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the U.S. after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro this month, leading to questions about what’s possible.
House Republicans this week called for spending $1.1 billion to refill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve “in whole or in part” with discounted Venezuelan oil as part of a proposed party-line budget bill. But stockpiling more oil by pumping Venezuelan crude into the reserve may be infeasible. “We do think that there is some possibility on the SPR, but the grade of Venezuelan crude does have a higher sulfur content than the current SPR can take,” said Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute during a media call this week. “There are some logistical issues about the SPR that make it difficult for it to take in Venezuelan crude.”
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – January 16, 2026
West Central Texas highway set for $125 million, 3-year massive upgrade*
A nine-figure overhaul is headed to West Central Texas with roughly three years of construction on the horizon. The project will expand Interstate 20 in Taylor County from FM 600 to SH 351. Alaisha Montanez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Transportation, told Chron the expansion will cost approximately $125 million.
“Within this project, we are expanding the section of IH 20 to six lanes and establishing an overpass at Judge Ely Blvd,” Montanez wrote. Construction is slated to begin in October 2026 and last through late 2029. Encompassing more than 131,000 square feet, the project includes additional improvements like the reconstruction of frontage roads, storm drain facilities, retaining walls and traffic signals, according to a filing submitted to the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration on Wednesday. San Antonio-based Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc. is listed as the project’s design firm.
A reconfiguration of the U.S. 277 and U.S. 83 interchange is also planned, according to a TxDOT fact sheet from 2024. The expansion aims to accommodate increased traffic along I-20, enhance pedestrian and cyclist accommodations, increase emergency response times, support economic development and more.
Oil & Gas National & International
The Wall Street Journal – January 17, 2026
U.S. Blockade Shuts Off China, Cuba From Venezuelan Oil*
On New Year’s Day, an oil tanker partially filled with sanctioned crude slipped out of Venezuela’s main export terminal and sailed toward Iran. The next day, another tanker escaped with Venezuelan oil, scrambling its signals to hide its course. Satellite imagery later confirmed it was headed to China. The two cargoes appear to be the last illicit oil to leave Venezuela, according to a report from shipping intelligence firm Kpler.
On Jan. 3, U.S. forces captured and ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Since then oil exports have dropped 75% from what the country was moving out every month last year, cutting off a vital supply of money to the Venezuelan regime. What little oil left ports over the next 10 days was all bound for the U.S. or earmarked to be used in Venezuela’s refineries to create fuel for people and industries there. Kpler data show cargoes en route to places like Pascagoula, Miss., where Chevron owns a large refinery, and oil-processing hubs in Corpus Christi, Texas, and St. Charles Parish in Louisiana. Ultimately, the slowdown in Venezuelan oil flows threatens China’s status as the world’s most prolific oil buyer. The country has shopped for heavily discounted crude from places like Russia, Iran and Venezuela, but as its options become more limited, it risks slowing down its buying as the global oil market anticipates a supply glut.
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Reuters – January 18, 2026
China’s mostly coal-based thermal power generation fell in 2025 for the first time in 10 years, government data showed on Monday, as growing renewable generation met growth in electricity demand even as overall power usage hit a record. The data is a positive signal for the decarbonisation of China’s power sector as China sets a course for carbon emissions to peak by 2030. Still, coal output edged up to a record high last year.
Thermal electricity, generated mostly by coal-fired capacity with a small amount from natural gas, fell 1% in 2025 to 6.29 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). It fell more sharply in December, down by 3.2%, from a year earlier, the data showed. The data reflects output from industrial enterprises with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2.87 million). The National Energy Administration announced on Saturday that China’s electricity consumption had climbed 5% to a record high, surpassing 10 trillion kWh for the first time.
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January 15, 2026
In 2019, Brazil experienced the largest oil spill in its history, affecting nearly 1,800 miles of coastline. No one knew its origin. The story doesn’t end there. A year later, Florida beach cleanup crews started finding plastic trash contaminated with oil. New research from Northeastern University has made a positive link between the two events: The oil that stained Brazilian waters black in 2019 was the same oil that polluted Florida in 2020, more than 5,000 miles away.
First, what caused all that oil to be released in Brazil? Bryan James, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, suggests that the most likely theory points to the SS Rio Grande, a German supply ship and blockade runner sunk by American vessels in 1944, off the coast of Brazil.
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Dallas Morning News – January 16, 2026
Andy Garcia on why ‘Landman’ is ‘positive for the American oil and gas industry’*
When actor Andy Garcia first agreed to play a role in Taylor Sheridan’s wildly popular West Texas oil drama Landman, he thought he’d be getting his hands dirty in the oil patch. Instead, Garcia’s character is a suit-and-tie-wearing Fort Worth-based executive with ties to all sorts of businesses. The Hollywood veteran shared more behind-the-scenes stories during an appearance Tuesday at the American Petroleum Institute’s annual State of American Energy event, joining API president and CEO Mike Sommers for a wide-ranging fireside chat.
Sommers said API first became involved with Landman because it was concerned about how Hollywood would portray the industry. API ended up producing ads featuring real-life landmen that aired during the show on Paramount+. “After about two episodes, we figured out real fast that Landman was going to be positive for the American oil and gas industry, and a key part of that has been Andy’s participation in this,” Sommers said. Turning to Garcia, Sommers asked what attracted him to the show. “Well, it was Taylor,” Garcia said, adding he was a fan of Sheridan’s writing “even before Yellowstone” for movies like Hell or High Water and Sicario.
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PolitiFact – January 6, 2026
Fact-checking Donald Trump on promised U.S. oil company investment in Venezuela
One thing President Donald Trump has consistently promised after the U.S. ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is private U.S. investment in the country’s underproductive oil fields. “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said Jan. 3 in a Mar-a-Lago press conference. …
If companies aren’t eager to spend on drilling in the U.S., with its established infrastructure and relative political stability, it’s not clear that they would go all in on Venezuela. The long-term importance of oil depends on the future of electric vehicles. “If we continue using lots of oil and oil prices stay high, then it is likely that new entrants in Venezuela would recoup their investments over time,” Gillingham said. “However, if electric vehicles continue to come down in price and really take off, in the U.S. and globally, this will keep a lid on oil prices and make it less likely that the investment costs will be recouped.”
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
El Paso Matters – January 18, 2026
El Paso Electric proposes $473 million gas plant to power Meta data center operations
El Paso Electric is seeking state approval to build a new natural gas-powered electric plant to support Meta Platform’s future data center needs – a move that is raising concerns among some city leaders though state regulators must review and approve the application before the facility can be built.
The utility is aiming to amend its certificate of convenience and necessity for a 366-megawatt natural gas generation facility. The estimated $473 million plant, if the application is approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, will be named the McCloud facility and will be used and paid for by Meta, according to El Paso Electric’s application to the utility commission.
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Dallas Morning News – January 16, 2026
A manufacturing renaissance is happening in North Texas. Some say clean energy is to thank*
Inside T1 Energy’s state-of-the-art G1_Dallas facility in Wilmer, employees are dressed in gray and yellow vests, stationed at different points along seven parallel half-mile-long manufacturing lines. The staff works alongside robots — some of which blare “The Imperial March” from Star Wars at full volume as they cruise through the crisp, bright factory — and large, boxy machinery to make 20,000 solar panels a day.
The advanced technology manufacturing facility, about 20 miles south of downtown Dallas, opened last year and employs 1,200 people. Operations have ramped up to 24 hours a day. “What can we say? We’re bullish on American solar,” Russell Gold, T1’s executive vice president for strategic communications, told The Dallas Morning News in a recent email. The company is investing $1 billion in the state of Texas and in domestic manufacturing, including G1 Dallas and its forthcoming G2_Austin, a 5-gigawatt solar cell manufacturing facility being constructed in Rockdale. The latter is expected to begin production later this year.
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Utility Dive – January 15, 2026
America’s new power barons: Who will rule the AI-grade megawatt megasector?: Emily Easley
When Rick Perry’s Fermi America rang the Nasdaq bell, Wall Street didn’t just see another initial public offering. It saw a multi billion-dollar bet that the next energy revolution will be built not around cars or climate — but around computation.
Fermi’s pitch is simple but audacious: an 11-GW “Hyper-Power Campus” in Amarillo, Texas, combining nuclear, natural gas and solar to feed hyperscale data centers. It’s a case study in the new race for “AI-grade” megawatts: power that’s clean enough for investors, cheap enough for operators and available every hour of every day.
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Associated Press – January 16, 2026
White House and governors pressure grid operator to boost power supply, slow electricity price hikes
The Trump administration and a bipartisan group of governors on Friday tried to step up pressure on the operator of the nation’s largest electric grid to take urgent steps to boost power supplies and keep electricity bills from rising even higher. Administration officials said doing so is essential to win the artificial intelligence race against China, even as voters raise concerns about the enormous amount of power data centers use and analysts warn of the growing possibility of blackouts in the mid-Atlantic grid in the coming years.
“We know that with the demands of AI and the power and the productivity that comes with that, it’s going to transform every job and every company and every industry,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told reporters at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House. “But we need to be able to power that in the race that we are in against China.”
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Engineering News Record – January 14, 2026
Are Nuclear Power Projects Finishing Faster Than in the 1970s and ’80s?
Nuclear power construction projects in England and France, years late and billions over budget, reached milestones in recent weeks. In January, a project in Somerset, U.K., took delivery of its second reactor. In December the other project, in Normandy, France, powered up fully for the first time. Instead of being examples of a bad trend, a prominent British supporter of atomic energy says those projects are outliers and nuclear power developers and contractors are building new power plants faster than in the 1970s and 1980s.
“We’re actually faster now,” writes Tim Gregory, a nuclear chemist and author of “Going Nuclear: How Atomic Energy Will Change the World” (Pegasus Books, 2025). The French state-controlled utility, Electricité de France (EdF), is developing both the English and French projects as European pressurized water-type power plants.
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The Guardian (UK) – January 17, 2026
How Trump’s promise to slash energy bills in half has failed across the US
Donald Trump has comprehensively failed to meet a key election promise to slash Americans’ energy bills in half within the first year of his presidency, with power prices instead surging across the US.
The average household electricity bill in the US was 6.7% more expensive in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to a Guardian analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Department of Energy’s statistical arm. The increases meant that, on average, US households paid nearly $116 more across 2025 than they did in 2024.
Regulatory
The Wall Street Journal – January 8, 2026
The Climate-Disaster Scores That Could Make or Break Your Home Sale*
John Simeone was sure his vacation condo, nestled in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, would sell easily. Then the listing went live in August: “It was like a bolt of lightning hit me in the head.” The three-bedroom townhouse in Lincoln, N.H., was labeled on the home-listing site Zillow as an “extreme” 9 out of 10 flood risk. Simeone was shocked. The home is around 60 feet above the nearest river, and the flood rating shown on Zillow linked to a report with a different address. He thinks the rating spooked buyers. Despite a price cut, his $769,000 home remains unsold.
Millions of home sellers and buyers are caught in the battle over how to rate a home’s exposure to natural disasters—and who gets to see that information. Until November, all the major listing platforms showcased scores from First Street, a small but influential climate-research company. It rates homes by their vulnerability to wildfire, flood, wind, heat and poor air quality. A backlash from the real-estate industry prompted Zillow in November to remove the scores from display, while still allowing buyers to click through to the data. Other listings sites still show the scores, but some will suppress them if a seller objects. The flood score for Simeone’s home no longer appears on Redfin or Realtor.com at his request. A very high flood or fire score makes a house less likely to sell, according to a Zillow analysis last year. It can also create a “disaster discount,” with high-scored homes that do sell more likely to go for under the initial list price, the analysis found.
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Dallas Morning News – January 15, 2026
Dallas greenhouse gas emissions fall below 2015 levels, city data shows*
Dallas is discharging less greenhouse gas than it did a decade ago, according to a newly released environmental report from the city. The city’s 2023 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory shows Dallas produced about 18.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, an 11% decrease from 2015, the baseline year for the city’s climate goals. Emissions increased slightly, about 1%, compared with 2019, reflecting shifts in transportation and expanded data tracking.
Greenhouse gases trap heat and make the planet warmer and are said to be the biggest contributor to changes to the Earth’s climate. Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Results from each greenhouse gas inventory are used to evaluate the city’s overall progress for climate action goals and used to identify key initiatives and progress and challenges by sector and by city department,” said Alfredo Ortiz, an environmental coordinator with the city of Dallas’ Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability. The city of Dallas has a 30-year plan to address environmental issues and develop strategies to mitigate the challenges associated with climate change. The Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan was unanimously adopted by the city in 2020.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Friday January 16, 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 were flat on Friday with both Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate moving only a few cents from their closing prices after the likelihood of a U.S. strike on Iran receded.
West Texas Intermediate was up 4 cents, or 0.07%, to $59.22 per barrel as of 0223 GMT.
Both Brent and WTI rose to multi-month highs this week after protests flared up in Iran and U.S. President Donald Trump signalled the potential for strikes on the nation.
Late on Thursday, however, President Trump said Tehran’s crackdown on the protesters was easing, allaying worries over possible military action that could disrupt oil supplies.
Top Stories
CNBC – January 16, 2026
Japan’s Mitsubishi to acquire shale gas assets in U.S. for $7.5 billion
Mitsubishi Corporation said on Friday that it will acquire shale gas assets in the U.S. in a $7.53 billion deal, including debt, as the Japanese trading house looks to build on its presence in the country’s energy market. Mitsubishi is looking to capitalize on rising power needs from data centers, manufacturing, as well as LNG exports, by expanding in the the world’s largest gas market, citing domestic consumption, production, exports, and further demand growth.
It will acquire the assets from Aethon Energy Management in Texas and Louisiana in a transaction that includes $5.2 billion in equity purchases and $2.33 billion in Aethon’s debt. Mitsubishi’s deal comes after Japan’s largest power generation company, JERA, announced a $1.5 billion investment in October in the Haynesville Shale basin on the Louisiana-Texas border, as part of Tokyo’s $550 billion investment pledge to the U.S.
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Pipeline & Gas Journal – January 15, 2026
Talen Energy to Acquire PJM Gas-Fired Power Plants for $3.45 Billion
Talen Energy Corporation has signed definitive agreements to acquire approximately 2.6 GW of natural gas–fired generation capacity in the PJM market for $3.45 billion, expanding its footprint in Ohio and Indiana. The deal includes the Waterford Energy Center and Darby Generating Station in Ohio, along with the Lawrenceburg Power Plant in Indiana, acquired from Energy Capital Partners. Talen said the acquisition significantly strengthens its presence in western PJM and adds efficient baseload capacity to its fleet.
The purchase price consists of about $2.55 billion in cash and roughly $900 million in Talen stock, valuing the transaction at an estimated 6.6x 2027E adjusted EBITDA. The company expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to adjusted free cash flow per share by more than 15% annually through 2030.
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Houston Chronicle – January 15, 2026
Congress blesses Galveston County with millions for port, Ike Dike*
A major congressional appropriations bill that includes millions for dredging the Galveston Ship Channel and the so-called Ike Dike is on the cusp of becoming law. The U.S. Senate voted 82-15 Thursday afternoon to approve H.R. 6938, which passed the House overwhelmingly Jan. 8. Both Texas senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, voted in favor of the bill, whose “short title” is the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026. It is one of 12 such yearly measures Congress uses to fund the government’s activities.
Rep. Randy Weber (R-Friendswood), who represents Texas’ 14th Congressional District, secured more than $30 million for projects in his district, including nearly $18 million to dredge Galveston’s harbor; $5 million for the Coastal Texas Project, or Ike Dike; and just over $9 million for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deepen the Sabine-Neches Waterway. The 14th includes all of Galveston and Jefferson counties, plus parts of Brazoria and Chambers counties.
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Oil Price – January 15, 2026
Shale Producers Devon and Coterra Are In Merger Talks
Coterra Energy is kicking the tires on what would be one of the biggest U.S. shale mergers in years, holding talks about a possible combination with Devon Energy, according to people familiar with the matter. Nothing is signed, nothing is guaranteed, but the market liked the idea enough to send shares of Coterra Energy sharply higher on the day.
The deal would be a classic all-stock shale mashup: two midsize operators with large footprints in the Permian Basin trying to bulk up as oil prices sit stubbornly around $60 a barrel. Coterra carries a market value of roughly $20 billion, while Devon is closer to $24 billion. A tie-up of this size would put it firmly into megadeal territory by shale standards.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 15, 2026
Trump to Push Plan for Tech Companies to Fund New Power Plants*
The Trump administration is planning to propose that the nation’s largest power grid operator hold an emergency auction in which tech companies would bid to have new power plants built, according to people familiar with the matter. The directive, expected Friday, would be an unprecedented attempt by the federal government to check rising electricity prices within PJM Interconnection, a 13-state power market spanning from New Jersey to Kentucky. The build-out of data centers there in response to the artificial-intelligence boom is straining the grid’s capacity and has resulted in substantially higher costs in several of the grid operator’s recent power auctions.
The emergency auction would allow tech companies to bid on 15-year contracts for new power plants in deals that would be worth billions of dollars, some of the people said. Bloomberg previously reported on the plans for the auction. PJM, home to the largest concentration of data centers in the U.S., has come under strain in recent years as tech companies seek to connect even more of them to the grid. Power plants there have been going out of service faster than they can be replaced, which has put a squeeze on power supplies as more electricity-hungry facilities come online.
The Latest TERse Tips
Greg Abbott enters 2026 Texas governor’s race with staggering $106 million on hand — News from the States
Trafigura Group, one of the large commodity traders tapped by US President Donald Trump to market Venezuelan oil, is preparing to discharge its first cargo after positioning a vessel off the shores of Curacao — Bloomberg*
Freeport LNG’s export plant was on track to take in more natural gas on Wednesday after flow declined on Tuesday in a sign the plant was recovering from some disruption earlier in the week, according to data from financial firm LSEG — Gas Processing News
Democrats Levin, Merkley, introduce bill to bar American tax dollars from being used for Venezuela oil infrastructure — Spectrum News
Virginia’s Apex Clean Energy Closes $2.79 Billion in Financing for Three Renewable Energy Projects including the Texas Raven Storage project — Power Magazine
Glenfarne’s Texas LNG project fully subscribed, moves focus to financing, FID, has secured a long-term offtake agreement with RWE, marking RWE’s second US LNG supply contract — Oil & Gas Journal
Exxon Shelves Major Texas Hydrogen Project as Oil Benchmarks Strengthen — Tip Ranks
Ford, China’s BYD in Talks for Hybrid-Vehicle Batteries After EV Market Flames Out — a deal, if completed, would likely involve Ford buying BYD batteries for its factories outside the U.S — The Wall Street Journal
Data center operator CyrusOne is partnering with battery energy storage provider Eolian for a campus in Fort Worth — the company is owned by KKR and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners and this week announced a collaborative infrastructure deployment with Eolian at the under-construction DFW7 facility — Data Center Dynamics
The San Antonio City Council voted to confirm the nomination of Dr. Erika Gonzalez to the CPS Energy Board of Trustees, and will begin her five-year term on Feb. 1, 2026 — see the press release
X-energy Reactor Company and SGL Carbon, LLC on Thursday announced a 10-year graphite supply agreement for X-energy’s Xe-100 small modular reactor — China provides about 96% of the world’s graphite — see the press release
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is considering a new expedited enforcement path for minor regulatory violations to more efficiently deploy agency resources and help remedy its backlog of enforcement matters — TCEQ’s new streamlined process would be limited to environmental violations that can be quickly remedied and that have no significant human health impacts — TCEQ presented its ongoing development of this “Expedited Compliance Order” or “ECO” process at public meetings held in December 2025 — Vinson & Elkins
Halliburton has appointed Casey Maxwell as president for the western hemisphere — Upstream
A federal judge Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would likely kill the project in a matter of days — Associated Press/KXAN
Xcel prepares for another Public Safety Power Shutoff in Colorado — see the press release
Oil & Gas Texas
Argus Media – January 14, 2026
Corpus Christi LNG starts train 5 commissioning
US LNG producer Cheniere has begun commissioning the fifth of seven trains at its 11.45mn t/yr (1.5bn ft³/d) Corpus Christi stage 3 expansion, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Cheniere told the regulator that emissions and flaring consistent with the start-up process could begin as early as 10am ET on 14 January. The company in a separate filing sought the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) permission to begin introducing propane to part of train 5’s equipment. Cheniere expects to complete the seven-train expansion in 2026, bringing the facility’s total capacity to 28.9mn t/yr. The first four trains entered service throughout 2025, with the fourth train completed ahead of schedule in late December.
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Argus Media – January 14, 2026
Lake Charles cancellation shifts tide in US LNG wave
US firm Energy Transfer (ET)’s decision at the end of 2025 to scrap its long-proposed 16.5mn t/yr Lake Charles LNG plant may have marked the first industry-wide reality check, casting doubt on the viability and scale of other planned projects against a looming global oversupply of the liquefied fuel.
ET was an exception among other US LNG developers — a traditional midstream firm with a vast network of crude, refined products, gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines. Its Lake Charles regasification terminal, mothballed since 2012, was prime real estate in southwest Louisiana for conversion into an export facility. But the project was marred first by the Covid-19 pandemic, which led then-partner Shell to withdraw in 2020, and then by failure to secure an extension to its export licence under former president Joe Biden’s Department of Energy.
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World Oil – January 14, 2026
Oilfield services jobs edge lower to close 2025, EWTC data shows
Energy Workforce & Technology Council said U.S. oilfield services employment edged lower in December 2025, closing out a year marked by workforce adjustment and market uncertainty. Energy services employment totaled 629,372 jobs in December, down 184 positions from November, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and EWTC analysis. The December figures cap a year in which employment peaked at just over 640,000 jobs in April before trending lower through the second half of 2025.
By year-end, oilfield services employment was roughly 11,000 jobs below its spring high, representing a year-over-year decline of about 2.3% compared with 2024.
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OK Energy Today – January 14, 2026
Why Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources drills in Argentina
Drilling for oil in the western reaches of Argentina, the play known as Vaca Muerta, looks much like drilling in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. The terrain is flat and dry but it is also a host for major deposits of shale oil and shale gas. Vaca Muerta is Spanish for dead cow but for the oil and gas industry, the production is anything but dead.
That’s apparently why Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm, the man who became a billionaire and confidante of President Trump with the success of his Continental Resources company, is interested in investing more in Argentina. As OK Energy Today reported, Hamm recently announced a second acquisition in the oil rich region of the country.
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San Antonio Express-News – January 12, 2026
There was no guarantee that Eric Herrera would discover anything notable while scouring the Arctic sampling water, rocks and anything else he could swab or draw up in a syringe while on an Explorers Club expedition in 2022. A test tube of an ambiguous substance collected at the magnetic North Pole contained a bacterium that’s since become the catalyst for MaverickX, the company he co-founded with Jesse Evans. Using the specimen, the San Antonio duo has found a faster, safer and more sustainable method for mining critical metals and extracting oil and gas.
The bacterium has a peptide that dissolves rock and allows it to get the iron needed for respiration. But MaverickX discovered a commercial use for the natural and nontoxic green substance. … The business uses retrofitted brewery equipment to produce bacteria rather than beer. In a glass jar, Herrera shows the yellow chemical that emits a fluorescent glow when exposed to ultraviolet light. Now, the company has optimized the bacterium and produces it at scale — an accomplishment that recently earned Herrera and Evans a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Green Energy & Technology list.
Oil & Gas National & International
CNN – January 15, 2026
On the verge of strikes in Iran, the US held off. What happens next is up to Trump
Emerging on Tuesday from a late-night Situation Room meeting to discuss options for striking Iran, some of President Donald Trump’s top national security officials were relatively sure a decision on military action was close at hand. The president, they felt, was moved by seeing videos from Iran showing past executions, grisly scenes that seemed likely to repeat themselves amid the regime’s brutal crackdown on protesters, a person familiar with the meeting said.
Trump was briefed on Iran’s planned execution of one high-profile protestor, 26-year-old Erfan Soltani, which the State Department said on Tuesday was initially planned for January 14. The president was deeply troubled about the prospect, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN.
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Bloomberg – January 15, 2026
Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc Is Said to Evaluate Investing in Venezuela Gas*
The United Arab Emirates’s state oil giant is evaluating options for a potential entry into Venezuela’s energy industry as the Middle Eastern country seeks to build out its international natural gas business, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. is watching developments in Venezuela, with interest in partnering with another international producer on gas projects, according to the people who asked not to be identified discussing confidential plans. The company’s interest is preliminary and would depend on clear legal and financial structures for investment in the South American country, the people said.
Entering Venezuela would require political coordination with the US following the stunning capture of the South American nation’s leader Nicolas Maduro by President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump has been exhorting US oil firms to return to Venezuela and increase production, but some firms including Exxon Mobil Corp. and France’s TotalEnergies SE have been skeptical about a quick ramp up.
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XBTX – January 15, 2026
US seizes sixth sanctioned tanker it says has ties to Venezuela in Trump’s effort to control its oil
U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil. The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.
U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”
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CNBC – January 15, 2026
Venezuela oil fetching 30% higher price, U.S. energy chief says, after first sale worth $500 million
The U.S. is securing about 30% higher prices for Venezuelan crude, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday, as the country has started selling oil from the Latin American nation after capturing its former President Nicolas Maduro. Washington has completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil valued at about $500 million, according to a U.S. Department of Energy spokesperson, with more expected in the coming days and weeks.
“We’re getting about a 30% higher realized price when we sell the same barrel of oil than they sold the same barrel of oil three weeks ago,” Wright said at a U.S. Energy Association event, without specifying prices. U.S. special forces captured Maduro earlier this month during an operation that Washington said was aimed at restoring political stability.
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Bloomberg – January 14, 2026
Oil Tanker Rates Jump as US Push Into Venezuela Shifts Flows*
The shipping market is being shaken up by Washington’s intervention in Venezuela, as the prospect of more oil being exported to the US boosts regional tanker rates to their highest level in almost two years. After US forces seized Nicolás Maduro and Washington asserted its control over the nation’s energy industry, more crude from the OPEC member will be available for American refiners, likely to be delivered on mid-sized tankers. In a knock-on effect, more US-produced West Texas Intermediate crude will be pushed to Europe on the same type of vessel, squeezing availability.
The global oil industry — including producers, refiners, shippers and traders — is working through the consequences of Washington’s move earlier this month, which saw special forces snatch the country’s leader and haul him to the US. President Donald Trump has put control of the nation’s oil industry at the heart of the operation, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying it plans to direct future sales of Venezuelan crude “indefinitely”.
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S&P Global Platts – January 15, 2026
New Venezuela hydrocarbons law to include production participation contracts: Rodríguez
Interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez presented legislation to the National Assembly Jan. 15 to encourage foreign and other private investment into its oil fields and infrastructure.
“This project aims to incorporate the production models included in the Anti-Blockade Law into our Hydrocarbons Law, allowing these investment flows to be channeled into new oil fields where no investment has ever been made before and fields where there is no infrastructure,” Rodríguez said during the presentation of the annual report to parliament.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 8, 2026
Trump’s Risky Fixation With Other Countries’ Oil*
A smooth-faced 41-year-old Donald Trump settled in before a live studio audience assembled for The Oprah Winfrey Show and held forth on how America should be getting a cut of Kuwaiti oil. “Kuwait is not paying us for all the oil they’re sending out,” said Trump, wearing a familiar solid red tie, as Oprah pressed him on his foreign policy views during the April 1988 interview. He complained that the Kuwaitis “live like kings” while the American military protected their tankers amid the Iraq-Iran War.
“Why aren’t they paying us 25% of what they’re making?” Trump asked. In media interviews going back to the 1980s—long before he would dominate U.S. politics—Trump outlined his interest in the U.S. seizing oil from countries where Americans intervened. Now, in his second term as U.S. president, he’s making an audacious bid to turn his decadeslong fixation into a reality. For the president, America’s oil—and now Venezuela’s—is both a geopolitical tool to use against oil-dependent Russia and Iran and a way to fight another big nemesis: inflation. Trump believes if he can get oil prices down, he can lower Americans’ cost of living ahead of the midterms, a senior administration official said.
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Reuters – January 14, 2025
Win or lose, Trump’s fossil fuel gamble crowns China the clean-energy king: Ron Bousso*
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The New York Times – January 13, 2026
Venezuela’s Oil Riches Are Years Off, but Winners and Losers Will Emerge*
President Trump’s ambitious plans for transforming Venezuela’s oil production will most likely take years to revive the country’s troubled industry — if they succeed at all. But it’s already clear that winners and losers will emerge from the changes. Among the likely winners are the oil producers already positioned in Venezuela, like Chevron, and the American refiners in the Gulf Coast that stand ready to process the kind of heavy crude produced from Venezuela’s fields.
Washington’s control of Venezuela’s resources could “mark a notable shift in global energy dynamics,” analysts at J.P. Morgan wrote in a recent note to clients. The United States could potentially “exert more control over oil market trends, helping to stabilize prices and keep them within historically lower ranges,” they added. American consumers would benefit if the Venezuelan production translates into cheaper gasoline for American drivers.
But there will also likely be losers among countries and companies that have grown close to Venezuela in the recent years or profited from its standoff with Washington. For example, Mr. Trump has said he wants to cut off Venezuela’s oil flows to Cuba, long a mainstay for the Havana government. China, the largest destination for Venezuelan crude, may see flows of heavily discounted Venezuelan oil reduced or halted, particularly for the small, independent businesses in China known as teapot refineries that are the main customers.
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Houston Chronicle – January 14, 2026
Amid all the speculation about the fate of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, now that President Nicholas Maduro has been removed from office, I was struck by an important observation from my New York University colleague Carolyn Kissane: “The constraints on Venezuelan production are not geological; they are institutional.” It’s a pithy way to summarize what regime change can mean for oil.
In recent memory, sudden changes in governments in oil-exporting countries have typically ushered in production declines at the outset, not increased supply. That seems counterintuitive: After all, oil is a relatively fungible, highly tradeable and highly valued international commodity. Get your hands on even one cargo, and you can become rich overnight. But every time oil comes up for grabs, the ease of turning it into money also invites a struggle: Everyone wants control. Amid insurgencies in failed states, or in countries torn by civil war, the fight to control oil can turn bloody. (See Libya, for example.) For companies, developing assets in the face of weak legal and security protections is a tall order. At best, it requires tricky stuff like protecting personnel from kidnappings, as in 1990s Colombia). At worst, it can be highly unprofitable, and a sudden exit might be required — as happened to the firm Talisman in Sudan in 2002.
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Bloomberg – January 13, 2026
CIBC forecasts wider discount for Alberta heavy oil in 2026 as Venezuelan supply looms
Analysts at CIBC are forecasting a wider discount on Alberta heavy crude this year as U.S. plans to rebuild Venezuela’s ailing industry dominate headlines. The bank estimates the differential between Western Canada Select, the heavy Alberta blend, and West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. light oil benchmark, will average US$14.25 a barrel in 2026.
For 2025, the price gap is estimated to have averaged US$11.30 as Canadian producers benefited from the first full year of operations of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to the West Coast, enabling exports to Asia. Venezuelan and Alberta oilsands crude both have a thick, tarry consistency and require specialized equipment to refine into products like gasoline and diesel. Refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast are set up to handle that type of oil, so any meaningful increase in Venezuelan supplies on the market would compete with imports from Alberta and could weigh on WCS prices.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Inside Climate News – January 15, 2026
As Data Centers Jostle to Get on Texas’ Grid, ERCOT Promises New Rules for ‘Batch Zero’
Texas’ grid operator is developing a new process to evaluate multiple large-load interconnection requests at the same time. The question for cryptocurrency miners and data center developers that are already in line is: who gets to go first?
That should hopefully be sorted out by month’s end. That’s when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) hopes to have criteria announced for which energy-intensive projects could be considered for “Batch Zero,” the first group to go through ERCOT’s revised planning process.
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Solar Power World – January 15, 2026
Meta signs PPA on Origis Energy’s 240-MW Texas solar project
Facebook parent company Meta has signed a long-term power purchase agreement for the Greyhound A Solar project being developed by Origis Energy in West Odessa, Texas. The 303-MWDC/240-MWAC project is scheduled to reach commercial operations by mid-2026.
“We are thrilled to partner with Origis Energy and bring an additional 240 MWAC of solar energy to the local grid. With this collaboration, we are continuing to match 100% of our electricity use with clean energy to support our data center operations,” said Urvi Parekh, Director of Global Energy, Meta.
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Power Magazine – January 15, 2026
Apex Clean Energy Closes $2.79 Billion in Financing for Three Renewable Energy Projects
Apex Clean Energy said the company has successfully financed three utility-scale renewable energy assets across Texas, Ohio, and Illinois. The Virginia-based company on January 12 announced the deals, saying it marked “a significant year-end milestone and reinforcing the company’s ability to execute at scale.”
The financings comprise Coles Wind, a MISO wind project and Apex’s largest project-level transaction to date; Emerson Creek Wind, a large-scale wind project in the PJM market; and Raven Storage, an energy storage project in ERCOT. Together, the transactions represent nearly 670 MW of capacity and about $2.79 billion in financial commitments supporting the construction and operation of the three assets, contributing to a total of $4.08 billion financed across Apex’s portfolio in 2025.
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Data Center Dynamics – January 14, 2026
Tract expands Austin data center park to 3,000 acres
Data center park developer Tract has nearly doubled the size of a planned campus in Austin, Texas. The company this week announced that it has added 1,458 acres of contiguous land to its existing 1,515-acre Caldwell Valley Technology Park in Caldwell County
The almost 3,000-acre site can reportedly support up to 4GW of data center capacity. The company first acquired a 1,515-acre land parcel in Caldwell County, located south of Austin and northeast of San Antonio, in May 2025. At the time, the site, located near the city of Uhland, would reportedly support more than 2GW at full build-out, with the initial 360MW grid connection energized in 2028 in partnership with Blue Bonnet Electric Cooperative.
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Houston Chonicle – January 15, 2026
Texas A&M has big plans for small reactors as it expands the nation’s largest nuclear engineering program and partners with six startups to develop new power plant technologies. The first experimental reactor could be running as early as July, and five other private companies have plans to build pilot projects. The new reactors are small enough to ride on the back of a truck or fit inside a grocery store.
Texas A&M’s nuclear engineering program has 550 students, 23 faculty and a 60-year-old small research reactor operating near the College Station airport. University officials say their RELLIS Research Campus will become an energy proving ground to fulfill Gov. Greg Abbott’s desire to make Texas ground zero for next-generation U.S. nuclear.
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Austin American-Statesman – January 15, 2026
Texas faces a skilled trades shortage that threatens every major sector. Electricians, pipefitters and other crafts are already stretched thin across grid buildout, industrial expansions and infrastructure projects statewide. Without serious workforce development commitments, data center projects compete for the same limited pool of skilled workers. That drives up costs, delays schedules and creates a squeeze that affects every project in the pipeline.
That is why apprenticeship investment and workforce standards matter. They are not add-ons, they are how Texas builds the capacity to sustain growth. Public approvals and incentives should come with early engagement and enforceable commitments. Early matters because once incentives are granted, zoning is locked and utilities make major allocations, the public’s leverage collapses. Early engagement means developers and communities work through the fundamentals before incentives are finalized — workforce sourcing, infrastructure capacity, water and power demand, and timeline.
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The New York Times – January 15, 2026
State and Federal Lawmakers Want Data Centers to Pay More for Energy*
Governors, senators and even some tech executives increasingly agree that the companies behind data centers need to pay more for electricity and to address the strain they are causing on the grid. But there is little consensus about how much they ought to pay. A growing body of research suggests that the rapid growth of data centers to support the development of artificial intelligence is beginning to drive up electricity costs for residents and small businesses in some places. That has prompted Republicans and Democrats from at least a dozen states — including Florida, Oklahoma, New York and California — to propose legislation and consider other steps to protect residents from higher electricity costs.
On Thursday, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a Democrat, introduced legislation that he said would ensure that technology companies paid their fair share of costs for upgrades to the electric grid that were needed to provide energy to data centers. Mr. Van Hollen’s bill cites recent analysis that indicates that by 2028, the share of all U.S. electricity used by data centers could almost double to as much as 12 percent. That, the senator asserts, will push up electricity prices for everybody.
Regulatory
Data Center Knowledge – January 15, 2026
Texas Gets Tough on Data Center Power – Who’s Next?
As AI-driven demand surges and energy bills rise, Texas is adopting a “pay your own way” approach with Senate Bill 6 (SB6), reshaping how power-intensive facilities like data centers manage their energy needs. SB6, signed in June 2025 and effective immediately in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region, shifts interconnection costs and reliability obligations onto large-load customers.
Certain requirements apply to non-critical large loads that interconnect on or after December 31, 2025. For data center operators, assured power is no longer a given, but a competitive differentiator shaped by siting, interconnection strategy, and operational flexibility.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Thursday January 15, 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 slid more than 3% on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump said killings in Iran’s crackdown on nationwide protests were stopping, tempering concern over military action against Iran and supply disruption.
West Texas Intermediate crude slipped $2.05, or 3.31%, to $59.97 a barrel.
Brent futures were down $2.21, or 3.32%, at $64.31 a barrel by 0727 GMT.
Both benchmarks settled more than 1% higher on Wednesday but gave back most gains after Trump’s remarks reduced fear of a potential U.S. attack on Iran.
Trump on Wednesday afternoon said he had been told that killings of anti-government protesters in Iran were subsiding and he believed there was no plan for large-scale executions.
“Selling pressure prevailed on expectations that the U.S. would not take military action against Iran,” said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist of Nissan Securities Investment, a unit of Nissan Securities.
Top Stories
Dallas Morning News – January 14, 2026
Oil & gas lobby: Infrastructure, permitting reform essential ahead of ‘Demand Decade’*
As the United States enters an energy inflection point, the country’s oil and gas producers indicate they are poised to meet insatiable needs. However, permitting reform will be critical them being able to do so, according to American Petroleum Institute president and CEO Mike Sommers. “Right now, America has energy in the ground and demand on the grid, but too often the connection between the two is blocked by red tape, delay and endless lawsuits,” he told a crowd of industry leaders, policymakers and market analysts at API’s annual State of American Energy event in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
In spite of relatively soft crude prices hovering at levels below $70 per barrel amid fears of a supply glut, Sommers insisted the U.S. is entering a “demand decade” that will require historic amounts of new energy. “Whether our nation can meet that demand will define its trajectory,” he said. At a moment when the world is demanding more energy than ever thanks to population growth and the surge of both artificial intelligence and digital transformation, the U.S. leads in both oil and natural gas production. The industry has also driven down emissions per barrel of oil and natural gas, while output and productivity have climbed, Sommers said. While Sommers said the state of American energy is strong, adding that no other country is positioned to lead into the next ten years, there’s still work to be done.
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Fox News – January 14, 2026
Geological survey in Texas uncovers 1.6 billion barrels of oil
A recent U.S. Geological Survey assessment of previously undiscovered gas and oil in Texas’ Permian Basin has found that there are enough resources there to fuel the entire nation for months. The gas and oil, measured in trillions of cubic feet and billions of barrels, are located in the Woodford and Barnett shale, which to date have produced only a day’s worth of U.S. oil consumption.
The assessment found that there are technically recoverable resources of 28.3 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil, the USGS said in their Wednesday release. According to the USGS, that’s enough gas to supply the United States for 10 months at the current rate of consumption, and enough oil for 10 weeks.
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Bloomberg – January 14, 2026
US Oil’s Discount to Brent Grows Amid Regional Supply Shifts*
US oil is trading at the deepest discount to the global Brent benchmark in 15 months as geopolitical developments from Venezuela to the Black Sea shake up supply flows around the world. The spread between Brent and West Texas Intermediate — or the difference in price between two of the world’s key crude markers — widened to as much as $4.68 a barrel on Wednesday. That would mark biggest relative discount on US oil since October 2024, when a series of tit—for-tat attacks between Iran and Israel threatened the oil-rich region’s energy infrastructure and shipping lanes.
The price relationship between the US and global crude benchmarks is a closely followed gauge that forms the basis for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shipments and trades every day. The sharp change in relative prices has been driven by several key factors — curtailed European exports amid disruptions at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal that loads Kazakh oil into tankers, mounting unrest in Iran and US markets bracing for an influx of Venezuelan crude. Europe’s oil market has strengthened dramatically, with reduced shipments from Kazakhstan and elsewhere tightening supply. Smaller flows of Kazakhstan’s CPC Blend, as well as disruptions in Libya and some North Sea fields, have pushed up physical prices in the North Sea and Mediterranean. At the same time, as many as 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil are set to hit the US Gulf Coast and bolster domestic stockpiles.
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Pipeline & Gas Journal – January 14, 2026
Transco Seeks Approval to Abandon 50 Miles of Texas Gas Pipeline
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company has asked federal regulators for approval to abandon roughly 50 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline in South Texas, triggering a formal environmental review process by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
In an application filed in October 2025, Transco requested authorization under Section 7(b) of the Natural Gas Act to abandon facilities associated with its North Padre Island Lateral Abandonment Project. The proposal covers approximately 50 miles of 24-inch-diameter transmission pipeline and related facilities across Brooks, Jim Wells, Kenedy and Kleberg counties, Texas.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 14, 2026
Westwood Raises $300 Million for Oil Patch Secondary Bets*
Westwood Holdings Group raised $300 million to buy stakes in private-equity funds invested in oil and gas assets, seeking to capitalize on investor desire to cash out energy bets that have overstayed their welcome. The publicly traded asset manager collected $174 million for Westwood Energy Secondaries Fund II and an additional $126 million for two parallel co-investment vehicles, or twice a $150 million initial goal for the strategy, said Gregory Reid, president of real assets and a senior portfolio manager with the firm.
Dallas-based Westwood so far has invested $200 million through the new pool, including the purchase of 28 fund stakes, he said. The firm manages or advises on assets of more than $18 billion across public and private investment strategies, including more than $3 billion tied up in energy deals. Westwood seeks to buy stakes in energy-focused funds that would-be sellers have held for seven to 12 years, Reid said. Because of the age of the investments, they typically involve mostly mature businesses with positive cash flows, he added. “We don’t have a J-curve in our funds,” Reid said, referring to the typical returns from a private-equity fund. Most primary investment funds create losses in initial years before they can generate gains.
The Latest TERse Tips
President Trump helped keep oil prices down on Wednesday by saying to reporters in the Oval Office that “we’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping. It’s stopped. It’s stopping and there’s no plan for executions,” implying the US will hold off military action against Iran after previously planning to take “very strong action” against the Islamic Republic if it executes protestors — CNBC
Personnel stationed at more than one key US military base, including in Qatar, are under evacuation advisement following a Wednesday afternoon threat from Iran, according to an unnamed Associated Press source and to Reuters — Iran closed its airspace for all commercial flights for a period on Wednesday night
A Texas environmental advocacy group lost its bid Wednesday to get a construction deadline extension rescinded for a liquefied natural gas project originally approved in 2020 — the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in its denial of the group’s petition for review that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s extension decision was supported by “substantial evidence in the record” — the South Texas Environmental Justice Network challenged the decision to issue a third construction deadline extension to Texas LNG Brownsville LLC for its LNG export terminal — Bloomberg*
Chevron plans to run Venezuelan crude oil at its Pasadena, Texas and Pascagoula, Mississippi refineries, according to people familiar with operations at the two plants — no date has been set for Venezuelan crude to arrive at the 118,750 barrel-per-day Pasadena and 356,440-bpd Pascagoula refineries, the sources said.
Hood County gives conditional approval to 2,100-acre data center development after pushback — KERA (NPR)
At the recent regularly scheduled Corpus Christi City Council meeting, the City Council approved a 30-year agreement to supply recycled water from the Greenwood Wastewater Treatment Plant to Valero Refining-Texas, L.P. — the agreement enables the city to supply up to 8 million gallons per day of Type II reclaimed water for Valero’s industrial operations, thereby supporting regional water conservation efforts and reducing demand on potable water supplies — see the press release
Some El Pasoans let officials with Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s El Paso oil refinery and the Texas environmental agency know they aren’t happy with the refinery and its application to renew its major air permit for another 10 years — “The fumes, you go get your mail, and you start coughing right off the bat, it’s horrible,” said Felipe Acuna, 68, who said he lives on Ramona Avenue, about two blocks from the refinery — El Paso Times*
Houston-based developer of a planned Galveston LNG bunkering facility Pilot LNG has changed its name to Navergy Infrastructure Partners
Lightsource bp and Toyota Motor North America have finalized a virtual power purchase agreement for energy from the 231MW Jones City 2 solar farm, part of the larger Jones City Energy Center, which began construction in spring 2025 — this 15-year, fixed-rate power contract supports Toyota’s renewable energy goals while delivering meaningful economic and workforce benefits to Jones County — see the press release
Electric automaker and Tesla rival Rivian will expand in the Austin area in building a new service and sales center in Round Rock — Spectrum News
Oil & Gas Texas
Reuters – January 14, 2026
Chevron is expected to receive an expanded Venezuela license from the U.S. government this week that could allow for increased production and exports from the South American country, three oil industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday. The U.S. oil producer is anticipated to be one of several firms to get approvals from President Donald Trump’s administration to do business in Venezuela as oil companies, traders and refiners look for access to the country’s heavy crude after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, sources said.
U.S.-based Marathon Petroleum, for example, is in discussions with the administration to receive Venezuelan crude for its refineries, according to a separate source familiar with the discussions. U.S.-based Valero Energy and global traders Mercuria and Glencore have also been in talks for licenses from Washington to do business with Venezuela, industry sources said. A Chevron spokesperson said in a statement that the company operates in compliance with all laws, regulations and sanctions frameworks. Marathon, Valero, Mercuria and Glencore did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Hydrocarbon Processing – January 14, 2026
Marathon overhauling Galveston Bay refinery, FCCU
Marathon Petroleum Corp is overhauling the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker 3 (FCC-3) and two hydrotreaters at its 631,000-bpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas (U.S.), said people familiar with plant operations. The 140,000-bpd FCC-3 is scheduled to be shut for up to eight weeks for the overhaul, the sources said. Marathon spokesperson Jamal Kheiry declined to discuss operations at the refinery.
The 115,000-bpd cat feed hydrotreater and the 60,000-bpd DDU 300 unit, which is an ultra-low sulfur diesel hydrotreater, are also shut for overhauls while FCC-3 is down, the sources said.
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The New York Times – January 14, 2026
U.S. Refiners to Profit as Trump Asserts Control Over Venezuelan Oil*
Some of the biggest early winners in the Trump administration’s efforts to assert more control over Venezuela’s energy industry are not the companies that produce oil but the ones that transform it into gasoline, diesel and other products. U.S. refining companies like Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum are poised to profit if more Venezuelan oil starts flowing to the United States. That is because these companies outfitted their facilities decades ago with that country’s oil in mind.
Much as there are different kinds of apples, not all oil is the same. Venezuela’s main type of crude is especially hard to handle — viscous and tar-like — and for that reason it generally is cheaper than the varieties found under American soil. That makes it appealing for refineries, like those in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, that have equipment to process it. And unlike oil producers such as Exxon Mobil or ConocoPhillips, which have to weigh whether the risks of operating in Venezuela are worth it, these refiners have little to lose because they don’t have to make long-term commitments or send any employees to the country. Investors have taken notice. Shares in PBF Energy, a midsize refining company, have climbed 15 percent since U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, outpacing the broader market by a wide margin. Valero and Marathon, which are much larger, have seen their stock prices rise by about 10 percent and 6 percent.
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KERA (NPR) – January 14, 2026
Benefits for Texas could be mixed as U.S. looks to tap Venezuelan oil, experts say
At a recent protest in Houston, demonstrators criticized the United States’ involvement in Venezuela. “I think it’s very obvious that this is really only about oil,” said Caleb Kurowski, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which coordinated the protest. Ezra Henderson, a Navy veteran at the protest, agreed.
“It’s all about the oil,” he said. “That’s the big part.” There’s been a renewed focus on the oil industry following the United States’ apprehension of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last weekend. President Donald Trump announced this week that Venezuela would give the U.S. up to 50 million barrels of oil.
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Ohio Capital Journal – January 14, 2026
Texas-based company approved to frack more than 170 acres of wildlife area in eastern Ohio
A Texas-based company was chosen as the highest and best bid to frack about 170 acres of Leesville Wildlife Area during Monday’s Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission meeting. Grenadier Energy III’s bid was selected among three total bids. The commission is required to pick the “highest and best bid” per Ohio law. The lease bonus is $1,029,840 and includes a 12.5% royalty, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Fracking is the process of injecting liquid into the ground at a high pressure to extract oil or gas. The commission also voted to approve more than a dozen different areas of land to move forward to bidding for fracking. Some of the areas include 4,360 acres in Egypt Valley Wildlife Area, another 366 acres in Egypt Valley Wildlife Area, and 382 acres in Jockey Hollow Wildlife Area.
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Houston Chronicle – January 14, 2026
Venezuela must maintain direct control over its oil assets, especially since it is not a U.S.-occupied territory, said Ted Borrego, a longtime attorney who teaches oil and gas contracts law at the University of Houston. “The country has laws that tell them how they can enter into agreements to have those rights exploited,” Borrego said.
Tim Meyer, a professor of international business law at Duke University, said the president of the United States does not have the authority to assign property rights or drilling rights in Venezuela. “What the President can do,” Meyer said, “is he can use tools like IEEPA – International Emergency Economic Powers Act – to basically limit who has access to, for instance, to Venezuela.”
“I think most people believe the Supreme Court will say that those tariffs are an improper use of that act that doesn’t directly answer the question of whether seizing or running Venezuelan energy infrastructure would also be outside the scope of the act,” said David Super, a professor of law and economics at Georgetown University. “But, it’s possible that in striking down the tariffs, that the Supreme Court may give us some general guidance on how broadly or narrowly the act is to be used,” Super said.
Oil & Gas National & International
CNBC – January 14, 2026
How activist investors plan to take on Big Oil at the 2026 AGM season
Dutch group Follow This on Wednesday launched a newly revised strategy to take on Big Oil at the upcoming proxy season, seeking to increase shareholder pressure on the financial sustainability of fossil fuel business models. The prominent climate activist group, which paused filing shareholder resolutions last year due to a lack of investor appetite, said it will change tack to focus on the financial risks associated with declining oil and gas demand — rather than requesting emission reduction targets.
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The Hill – January 14, 2026
US makes initial $500M Venezuelan oil deal; some proceeds headed to Qatari bank
The Trump administration has completed its first Venezuelan oil sale, valued at $500 million, an administration official confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday. The official also said additional sales are expected in the coming days and weeks.
Semafor first reported the deal, including that revenue from it is being held in bank accounts, including one in Qatar, that are controlled by the U.S. government. “President Trump brokered a historic energy deal with Venezuela, immediately following the arrest of narco terrorist Nicolás Maduro, that will benefit the American and Venezuelan people,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said.
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MSN – January 14, 2026
EIA: Low oil prices will weigh down production
Continued weakened oil prices are expected to weigh on U.S. production in 2026, according to the Energy Information Administration’s January Short-Term Energy Outlook. EIA analysts forecast West Texas Intermediate will average $52 a barrel in 2026 and $50 in 2027, down about 20% from an average of $65 in 2025.
The outlook forecasts U.S. oil production will remain close to the 2025 average on an annual basis in 2026 before falling by 340,000 barrels a day in 2027. Although there were 13% fewer rigs drilling for crude oil at the end of 2025 from the beginning of the year, the agency reports production set a new record of 13.6 million barrels a day in 2025 and will average 13.6 million barrels a day in 2026. In 2027, declines will accelerate, falling 2% to 13.3 million barrels a day. Outside of the Permian Basin, analysts expect declines in onshore production in the rest of the Lower 48 states will continue.
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Reuters – January 15, 2026
Simultaneous geopolitical flare‑ups in Venezuela, Iran and the Black Sea have pushed oil prices to a three‑month high, creating a treacherous environment for investors even as a large supply glut still looms over the market. Brent crude opened the year at $61 a barrel before slipping below $60 after U.S. President Donald Trump shocked the world by ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The decline reflected expectations that Washington would quickly restore oil output and exports in a country sitting on the world’s largest proven reserves.
However, once the scarce details surrounding U.S. plans started trickling out, oil markets became somewhat less bearish. Then came the protests in Iran and Trump’s threats to intervene in support of demonstrators facing a deadly crackdown. This situation helped push up prices 9% in a week to over $66 a barrel. While regime change in Tehran could eventually result in more crude coming onto the open market, the immediate risk is supply disruption in an already volatile and unpredictable environment. Adding to tensions in the Middle East and beyond, drones attacked two oil tankers in the Black Sea on Tuesday, including one chartered by U.S. energy major Chevron, as they approached a Russian coastal terminal that handles most of Kazakhstan’s crude exports. The perpetrators remain unconfirmed.
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The Conversation – January 13, 2026
Years of simmering tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates exploded into the open on Dec. 30, 2025. That’s when Saudi officials accused the UAE of backing separatist groups in Yemen and carried out an airstrike in the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla targeting an alleged shipment of weapons from the UAE to the Southern Transitional Council, one such separatist group.
Amid a rapidly rising war of words, Saudi-backed forces in Yemen recaptured two provinces that the STC had previously taken. Continued Saudi pressure resulted in the expulsion of the STC leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, from the Presidential Leadership Council – an eight-strong executive body that represents Yemen’s internationally recognized government. On Jan. 7, 2026, al-Zubaidi fled Yemen.
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Reuters – January 14, 2026
Saudi Aramco and Commonwealth LNG sign long-term supply deal*
Saudi Arabia and Commonwealth LNG have signed a long-term contract for the U.S. LNG developer to supply the world’s largest oil exporter with 1 million metric tonnes per annum (mtpa), three people familiar with the deal tell Reuters. The deal includes an option for Saudi Aramco to double the volume to 2 mtpa. Saudi Aramco wants to become a major liquefied natural gas player, especially in the U.S., where LNG capacity is set to almost double over the next four years. It has already signed deals with other U.S. players including NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG project.
Commonwealth LNG and Saudi Aramco were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters. Commonwealth LNG is looking to build the country’s first integrated LNG export facility in Cameron, Louisiana, with its major shareholder Kimmeridge selling gas from Eagle Ford shale production to the plant. The deal will bring the LNG developer closer to the 8 mtpa it wants to sell out from the proposed facility’s total capacity of 9.5 mtpa ahead of construction. The firm is targeting the end of the first quarter to make a positive final investment decision on the project.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Bloomberg – January 14, 2026
Key US Power Grid Cuts Demand Outlook on Overstated AI Boom*
The biggest US grid operator dialed back its forecast for power demand growth, offering a reality check to the frenzy around the artificial intelligence boom. PJM Interconnection LLC, which manages the 13-state eastern grid from the mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, cut its peak demand forecast for the summer of 2027 to about 160 gigawatts. That’s down from a previous outlook of about 164 gigawatts.
Massive electricity consumption from the data centers that run artificial intelligence has transformed the global energy landscape, but AI remains somewhat unproven as a profit-making business model. Uncertainty about the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent to build and power data centers has sparked concern about a speculative bubble surrounding the sector. Even some of AI’s biggest cheerleaders acknowledge the market is frothy, while still professing their belief in the technology’s long-term potential. PJM lowered its demand forecast because some of the projects incorporated in its previous outlook — including data centers — don’t yet have firm electric service or construction commitments. The downward revision injects some skepticism into feverish projections for AI-related consumption.
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Reuters – January 14, 2026
U.S. power consumption, which hit its second straight record high in 2025, will rise further in 2026 and 2027, the Energy Information Administration said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook on Tuesday. The EIA projected power demand will rise from a record 4,198 billion kWh in 2025 to 4,256 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2026 and 4,364 billion kWh in 2027. Demand is surging in part due to data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, and as homes and businesses use more electricity and less fossil fuel for heat and transportation.
CNBC – January 13, 2026
Big Tech is poaching energy talent to fuel its AI ambitions
Big Tech has been on an energy hiring spree. Technology companies investing heavily in artificial intelligence are bolstering their workforce with energy experts as they look to overcome the biggest bottleneck in scaling AI: access to power. Energy-related hiring jumped 34% year-on-year in 2024, according to data compiled by
Energy is increasingly important to Big Tech companies whose AI ambitions hinge on securing power for insatiable data centers. Data centers accounted for around 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024 – representing a 12% year-on-year rise over the last five years, per the International Energy Agency. Demand is widely anticipated to increase further in line with the build-out of infrastructure.
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Associated Press – January 13, 2026
Microsoft’s Brad Smith pushes Big Tech to ‘pay our way’ for AI data centers amid rising opposition
It won’t be easy for Big Tech companies to win the hearts and minds of Americans who are angered about massive artificial intelligence data centers sprouting up in their neighborhoods, straining electricity grids and drawing on local reservoirs. Microsoft is trying anyway.
The software giant’s president, Brad Smith, is meeting with federal lawmakers Tuesday to push forward an approach that calls for the industry, not taxpayers, to pay the full costs of the vast network of computing warehouses needed to power AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s own Copilot.
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Utility Dive – January 13, 2026
A new frontier in energy is emerging — and that leaves us with an important choice that will determine whether the United States continues to lead the world in energy innovation, as we have for the previous 150 years, or cedes that leadership to other countries.
Our energy system has historically represented American ingenuity and dominance. If we fail to develop and deliver clean energy technologies at scale here at home, the consequences will be significant. America’s national security, economic might and global standing will all suffer.
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Dallas Morning News – January 12, 2026
How to ensure AI data centers do not burden communities: Akhilesh Bajaj*
A decade from now, we may remember the early excitement of generative AI: the first time a machine wrote for us, analyzed data for us or created artwork in seconds. We may also remember something far more mundane: heated debates over where to build enormous data centers and who should pay the accompanying rising power and water bills.
Researchers describe two broad futures for an economy driven by artificial intelligence. In the first, automation boosts productivity and the gains are widely shared because communities have a stake in the infrastructure that makes AI possible and public institutions distribute the benefits. In the second, a small number of companies own most of the “artificial labor” (data centers, models and robots), while the rest of society relies on these entities, often through government, to fund basic services. Neither outcome is guaranteed. Both depend on choices we make now, often in places that traditionally receive little attention: zoning hearings, utility planning meetings and negotiations over hyperscale data centers. Major cloud AI companies, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Meta, Tesla and OpenAI, are rapidly building hyperscale data centers. These facilities require vast land, immense amounts of electricity and, in many regions, billions of gallons of water each year. They also power systems essential to hospitals, banks, schools and state agencies.
Regulatory
KBMT – January 14, 2026
Three Southeast Texas chemical plants fined by TCEQ
Three chemical facilities in Southeast Texas were hit with fines totaling more than $1 million this week for violating environmental regulations, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality announced Wednesday.
Natgasoline LLC received the largest penalty of $830,574 for multiple violations at its Beaumont chemical plant that occurred between January 2019 and November 2021. The company failed to test equipment on schedule, submitted inaccurate official reports, and exceeded permitted limits for harmful gas emissions, according to the TCEQ.
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The Hill – January 13, 2026
EPA denies reports it will no longer consider harm to humans in pollution regulation: ‘BS headline’
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin denied a report from The New York Times that his department will no longer consider the cost to human life incurred from two pollutants when making regulatory decisions. Times reporter Maxine Joselow, citing internal agency emails and documents, reported Monday that the EPA intends to only calculate the cost to businesses when setting limits on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone emission. Since its inception, the agency has considered the health benefits of placing caps on the pollutants.
Exposure to particulate matter and ozone is linked to lung disease, asthma and heart issues, according to the EPA. But Zeldin wrote Monday on the social platform X that the story is“another dishonest, fake news claim courtesy of the New York Times.”
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Politico – January 14, 2026
Rigs-to-Reefs hearing sparks fight over Trump energy plans*
A House hearing on a bipartisan bill promoting the use of decommissioned offshore oil rigs as artificial reefs instead devolved into a contentious partisan squabble Tuesday as lawmakers debated the merits of offshore drilling and the Trump administration’s oversight of it. The Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources hearing was intended to discuss H.R. 5745, the “Marine Fisheries Habitat Protection Act,” sponsored by Rep. Mike Ezell (R-Miss.). The bill would expand the use of old offshore oil platforms as artificial reefs by streamlining a decades-old permitting process for doing so in federal waters along the five Gulf Coast states — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
But the hearing detoured into a debate over offshore drilling, and assertions by some Democrats that the proposal amounts to a financial and regulatory giveaway for the oil and gas industry, and is an “extreme waiver of responsibilities” for their infrastructure. The bill, among other things, would allow the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, in concert with the individual states, to designate Reef Planning Areas. And it would direct BSEE to submit maps of idle offshore structures with reefs to Congress, the Interior secretary and the NOAA administrator.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday January 14, 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 slipped after four days of increases on Wednesday as Venezuela resumed exports and U.S. crude and product inventories rose, though fears of Iranian supply disruptions due to deadly civil unrest loomed over the market.
West Texas Intermediate crude was also down 38 cents, or 0.6%, at $60.77 a barrel.
Brent futures were trading down 38 cents, or 0.6%, at $65.09 a barrel at 0720 GMT.
“Oil prices have already priced in quite a bit of geopolitical risk premium over the last few days in the face of rising turmoil in Iran, compounded by drone attacks in the Black Sea,” said Suvro Sarkar, an energy analyst at DBS Bank.
Top Stories
Reuters – January 14, 2026
BP expects to book $4 billion to $5 billion in impairments in the fourth quarter, mainly related to its energy transition businesses, it said on Wednesday, while flagging weak oil trading. The company is rerouting spending from lower-carbon businesses to oil and gas in a bid to improve profitability under the new leadership of Chair Albert Manifold, who has said BP’s portfolio needed to be simplified. New CEO Meg O’Neill will replace interim chief Carol Howle in April after Murray Auchincloss’s abrupt exit last month.
BP said in its Wednesday trading statement the impairments would not impact underlying replacement cost profit, its version of net income. A spokesperson declined to give further details on which projects the impairments related to. The company expects its oil and gas output in the fourth quarter to be broadly flat compared with the 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day reported in the third quarter, in line with previous expectations. BP said it expected weaker realisations, or the money it receives for its products, in its oil business to shave off $200 million to $400 million in the last quarter from the previous quarter’s earnings.
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The New York Times – January 13, 2026
E.P.A. Moves to Limit States’ Ability to Block Pipelines*
The Trump administration on Tuesday moved to limit the ability of states to block the construction of oil and gas pipelines, coal export terminals and other energy projects that could pollute local waterways. The proposed rule from the Environmental Protection Agency would curtail a section of the Clean Water Act that states have used for decades to restrict fossil fuel development. It is expected to set up a legal battle with Democratic state officials across the country.
The proposal was the second part of a one-two punch against the Clean Water Act, which Congress passed in 1972 to protect all “waters of the United States” from harmful pollution. In November, the E.P.A. announced plans to strip federal protections from millions of acres of wetlands and streams under the landmark environmental law. The proposed rule would narrow the scope of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. This section allows states and tribes to review, and ultimately to approve or veto, federal permits for energy projects that could discharge pollutants into nearby waterways.
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Japan Times – January 13, 2026
U.S. files for warrants to seize more Venezuela-linked oil tankers: sources
The U.S. government has filed for court warrants to seize dozens more tankers linked to the Venezuelan oil trade, four sources familiar with the matter said, as Washington consolidates control of oil shipments in and out of the South American country. The U.S. military and coast guard have seized five vessels in recent weeks in international waters that were either carrying Venezuelan oil or have done so in the past.
The seizures were part of Washington’s campaign to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of power that culminated in U.S. forces capturing him on Jan. 3. Since then, the administration of President Donald Trump has said it plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely as it seeks to rebuild the country’s dilapidated oil industry.
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Financial Times – January 13, 2026
Trump’s new ‘great game’: mining, mapping and mercantilism*
History rhymes. Over the past week, we’ve seen many analogies drawn between the Monroe Doctrine and President Donald Trump’s new imperialism — and rightly so, given that the administration itself is making them (just read the recent national security strategy). But what’s happening in Venezuela today, and what may yet happen in Greenland, or in Ukraine or Taiwan (where Russia and China could well take counteraction as a response to what the White House is doing), isn’t only about the protection of America’s backyard, as in the Monroe Doctrine. It is about a messier and much more global conflict.
For this reason, the historical comparison I’ve been thinking about lately is the “great game” between Russia and Britain in the 19th century. That conflict roped in adversaries and allies alike, many of whom changed sides multiple times during a decades-long struggle for supremacy in Central Asia. This time around, it is the US and China that are locked in a new great game. There are three areas where we can see especially strong similarities between power struggles two centuries ago and those of today: mining, mapping and mercantilism. Start with the hunt for natural resources. In the 19th century, the pot of gold was India and Central Asia, rich with spices, precious metals and opium. Today, the competition is taking place in Latin America and the Arctic, and is all about fossil fuels and rare earth minerals.
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Politico – January 12, 2026
DOE kills decades-old radiation safety standard*
Energy Secretary Chris Wright killed the Department of Energy’s decades-old radiation safety standard Friday. Wright ended the department’s use of the As Low As Reasonably Achievable — or “ALARA” — principle, which has long been a staple of nuclear regulation. ALARA is rooted in the idea that any radiation exposure carries risks, but low doses can be justified by practical considerations. Critics in the nuclear power and health fields argue that the standard is overly burdensome with no real safety benefits.
The move could lower operational costs and accelerate projects using nuclear material, but it will alter an established safety-first culture. The change in safety standards may impact DOE’s ongoing advanced nuclear reactor pilot program and high-stakes radiation cleanups, like the Hanford site in Washington state that has been dubbed the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere. A person familiar with the Trump administration’s nuclear policy, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, confirmed that Wright decided to remove ALARA from DOE regulations and that there would be a subsequent process to decide replacement standards. DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Latest TERse Tips
Multiple units of Blackstone Inc. are accused of fraud for profiting from natural gas liquids that Energy Transfer says should’ve gone to them, according to a lawsuit filed in Texas state court — Blackstone directed EagleClaw, a midstream oil and gas company that it acquired in 2017, to deliver natural gas liquids to its pipeline even though it had an existing contract to first provide the gas to competitor Energy Transfer, according the suit filed in Reeves County. “EagleClaw agreed to sell the daily volumes to Energy Transfer before anyone else,” Energy Transfer alleges — Bloomberg*
U.S. shale producer Diamondback Energy on Monday flagged lower prices for its oil production in the fourth quarter, compared to the preceding three months — Energy Now
Brenham City Council voted against a tax abatement for a proposed data center on Thursday after more than 100 residents packed the meeting to voice their concerns about the project — KBTX
Valero Energy reported an emissions event at its 435,000 bpd Port Arthur refinery in Texas in the early hours on Monday following a malfunction — Quantum Commodity Intelligence*
Base Power says it has a new partnership with Farmers Electric Cooperative, Inc. to offer its residential battery backup systems to cooperative members in Northeast Texas
KBR was awarded the front-end engineering design contract for Coastal Bend LNG’s planned natural gas liquefaction and export facility on the Texas Gulf Coast on Jan. 12, 2026 — Stock Titan
Iran’s Gulf Rivals Warn U.S. Against Strike on Tehran — Saudi Arabia is leading the charge to persuade Washington not to intervene — The Wall Street Journal*
Trump replaces NRC chair as he remakes agency — Ho Nieh is an industry veteran who emphasizes his dedication to Nuclear Regulatory Commission independence — and President Donald Trump’s push to change nuclear regulation — Politico*
Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, has removed Texas International Terminal in Galveston, Texas, from being an approved loading terminal for WTI Midland crude oil in its Dated Brent and Cash BFOE Market on Close assessment process, effective immediately — Platts says Texas International Terminal has not consistently met Platts criteria for an approved US Gulf Coast crude oil terminal for WTI Midland in the Brent MOCP — S&P Global Platts
Oil & Gas Texas
E&E News By Politico – January 13, 2026
Pipeline companies can defer required work, feds say*
U.S. pipeline safety regulators rolled out a new enforcement policy Monday that allows companies to put off compliance activities if they can prove the actions would exacerbate what the Trump administration calls a “national energy emergency.” The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said the policy — issued in response to the energy “emergency” President Donald Trump declared on the first day of his second term — is meant to give relief to consumers in areas affected by the emergency.
Trump’s executive order said Biden administration policies pushed the United States into an energy emergency, with “inadequate” energy supply and an “increasingly unreliable” electric grid. A number of environmental advocates have disputed the emergency designation, saying it helps the Trump administration promote the use of fossil fuels. “PHMSA is announcing a limited exercise of enforcement discretion and statement of policy for issuing special permits in response to the national energy emergency,” the Transportation Department agency said in a three-page notice released Monday.
Source NM – January 13, 2026
Conservation group sues federal government to protect Rio Grande turtle
Conservation group Center for Biological Diversity has filed suit against the Trump administration for failing to provide endangered species protection to the Rio Grande cooter, a freshwater turtle that lives in the Pecos and Rio Grande watersheds in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico. The Jan. 8 lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that federal wildlife officials’ 2022 decision to not list the turtles puts them at risk of extinction, and contends the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ignored “mounting evidence” in order to conclude the species didn’t require protection.
“The extinction of these irreplaceable turtles would cost the Southwest a vital piece of natural heritage, so it’s shocking that federal officials failed to protect them,” said Camila Cossío, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “Rio Grande cooters are threatened by climate change, unsustainable water usage and the oil industry’s influence, but we can save them with Endangered Species Act protections.”
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Reuters – January 13, 2026
Formentera Partners considers a team to study Venezuelan shale fields, founder says*
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S&P Global Platts – January 13, 2026
PDVSA aligned with Machado’s proposals for Venezuela’s oil industry: advisor
Venezuela’s state oil company is aligned with the proposals of longtime opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, Juan Fernández, an advisor to Machado’s oil team, said Jan. 13. PDVSA is “very much aligned with our proposal, which obviously looks to the medium and long term,” said Fernández, a Miami-based analyst.
Machado’s proposal for the Venezuelan oil sector includes the downsizing of PDVSA, with assets transferred to private investors, opening all prospective acreage to exploration, and creating a regulatory agency independent of the state oil company.
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Associated Press – January 9, 2026
Mexico becomes crucial fuel supplier to Cuba after Maduro ouster
As the United States prepares to seize control of Venezuelan oil and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump hardens its stance toward Cuba, Mexico has emerged as a key fuel supplier to Havana. It’s a role that could further complicate already strained relations with the Trump administration, even though the Mexican government insists that exports to the island have not increased.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged on Wednesday that “with the current situation in Venezuela, Mexico has become an important supplier” of crude oil to Cuba, but asserted that “no more oil is being sent than has been sent historically; there is no specific shipment.” She added that those shipments are made via “contracts” or as “humanitarian aid,” but offered no concrete figures on the number of barrels exported.
Following the 1959 revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista, the U.S. imposed a trade embargo on Cuba in response to the nationalization of American-owned property. Under the embargo — long denounced by many countries, including Mexico — Cubans have suffered economic and energy crises, driving hundreds of thousands of Cubans to migrate, especially to the United States.
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San Antonio Express-News – January 9, 2026
U.S. designs on Venezuela’s oil highlights need to slow consumption: Tony Quesada*
We’ve seen a lot of commentary about the U.S. arresting former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro through military action, and the subsequent rhetoric about our country running the South American nation and determining the fate of its unextracted crude oil. The geopolitical ramifications warrant scrutiny, as does any discussion of whether it’s realistic to assume that U.S. oil companies will rush to invest in the infrastructure and equipment needed to bring this vast untapped crude to the surface.
While President Donald Trump pronounces that Big Oil is ready to go, analysts and energy journalists who speak regularly with industry leaders say the situation is far from certain. Many suggest that prudent — and previously burned — companies will wait to see whether a stable government emerges that can provide the kind of long-term security such investments demand. But putting those weighty questions aside, the situation also evokes a broader discussion about long-term supply. The estimated 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves geologists say are under Venezuelan land account for roughly one-fifth of all such reserves worldwide.
So irrespective of the uncertainty related to the billions of dollars required to extract Venezuela’s oil, if it’s not financially attractive to industry today, just wait. At some point, unless people get serious about drastically reducing our reliance on oil, the world will want what Venezuela has.
Oil & Gas National & International
Associated Press – January 13, 2026
EPA proposes limiting power of states and tribes to block major projects over water concerns
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed limiting states’ and Native American tribes’ power to wield the Clean Water Act to block major projects like natural gas pipelines, advancing the Trump administration’s goal of accelerating the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure and data centers.
The agency said new constraints on local water quality reviews for federally regulated projects will still allow states to protect their environment while preventing unnecessary delays. Successive administrations have seesawed on the scope of states’ power. President Donald Trump’s first administration reduced it, the Biden administration restored it and now the Trump administration is once again adding constraints to what’s called Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.
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Politico – January 13, 2026
Republican attack on DC climate lawsuit fizzles*
A measure that would have upended the District of Columbia’s climate lawsuit against oil and gas companies has been dropped from a congressional spending package. House Republicans last year had inserted language in a bill to prevent the District from spending money in 2026 to enforce its consumer protection law “against oil and gas companies for environmental claims.” But the language does not appear in a final version of the bill released over the weekend that is up for passage this week in the Senate.
The district is suing the fossil fuel industry under its Consumer Protection Procedures Act, claiming that oil companies misled consumers about the dangers of burning fossil fuels. A D.C. Superior Court judge last April rejected efforts by the oil and gas industry to dismiss the case, bringing it closer to trial. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) had criticized the House Appropriations Committee bill, known as the Financial Services bill, for containing an “outrageous” number of provisions that she said would violate the city’s authority to govern itself.
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BOE Report – January 13, 2026
Four oil tankers hit by drones near CPC oil terminal in Russia, sources say
Four Greek-managed oil tankers were hit by unidentified drones on Tuesday in the Black Sea on the way to load oil at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal off the Russian coast, eight sources told Reuters. It was not immediately clear who was behind the drone attack. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the recent attacks. CPC declined to comment on the attack.
A Ukrainian drone on November 29 hit one of three main CPC moorings near the port of Novorossyisk, resulting in oil exports and output in Kazakhstan to fall. Oil and gas condensate output in Kazakhstan plunged by 35% on January 1-12 from December’s average, a source familiar with the data told Reuters, mainly due to export constraints via the Black Sea’s terminal.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 13, 2026
The Battle Over Who Runs the Panama Canal Ports Is About to Be Decided*
The Supreme Court of Panama is winding up deliberations that will decide whether a Hong Kong company can run two ports at either end of the Panama Canal, a decision closely watched in Washington and Beijing. The case carries the weight of geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China. President Trump has said he wanted to take back control of the canal, which the U.S. built in the early 20th century and handed over to Panama in late 1999. China, meanwhile, has thrown up obstacles to the sale of the canal ports and other assets operated by Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison to a group led by BlackRock and Mediterranean Shipping Co. A ruling is expected soon.
For Panama’s Supreme Court justices, the political pressure is immense. Allowing Hutchison to continue running the ports risks infuriating the Trump administration and exposes the vulnerability of the tiny Central American nation that uses the U.S. dollar and owes its 1903 independence to American intervention against Colombia. Private lawyers and Panama’s comptroller filed lawsuits against Hutchison with the Supreme Court alleging the company breached Panama’s constitution by violating the interests of its government and taxpayers. A government audit showed up to $1.3 billion in lost government revenue since Hutchison’s arrival in the late 1990s, when it outbid companies such as U.S.-based Bechtel to win the 25-year license. The license was renewed for another 25 years in 2021.
“Hutchison’s relationship with Panamanian society over the past decades has been very tense and difficult,” said Felipe Chapman, Panama’s finance minister, in an interview in Panama City. Chapman and senior Panama government officials said that they are prepared to carry out the high-court ruling if justices order the termination of Hutchison’s license. A priority would be to ensure continuity of port operations by recruiting a company to manage the terminals until the government opens a new bidding process with new license terms, possibly separating the two ports to maximize value, officials said.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
KBMT – January 8, 2026
Data centers target rural communities for lower costs, not to create high-quality jobs, study finds
A turning point in the relationship between Big Tech and rural communities began in mid-2025, and has only intensified ever since. Anger over proposed hyperscale data centers has driven residents in countless communities to flood once-quiet municipal board meetings and vent their frustrations, driven largely by increasingly unaffordable electricity bills, environmental pollution concerns, and the potential loss of their community’s rural character.
Residents’ anger hasn’t been in vain either, as numerous communities have succeeded in their pushback against the power-hungry developments. Reports estimate that around $64 billion in nationwide data center developments were either blocked or delayed between 2024 and the first few months of 2025, according to data center research firm Data Center Watch. That figure ballooned to nearly $100 billion in blocked developments between late March 2025 and June 2025 alone, around two-thirds of the projects Data Center Watch was tracking during that time.
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KCEN – January 13, 2026
Data center pushback in Texas highlights tension between tech growth and rural land use
A proposed data center in McLennan County is raising concerns among residents and is now drawing attention at the state level. As rural communities across Texas push back against large tech developments, state leaders are weighing strategies to protect farmland while supporting economic growth.
At a packed meeting in Ross on Jan. 11, residents told local lawmakers they are not opposed to data centers in general — just opposed to placing one in their community. State Rep. Pat Curry said location is a key factor when evaluating potential projects. “When you’re doing economic development, it’s not just about jobs,” Curry said. “It’s also about tax base, and again, the right data center deal in the right spot for the right reasons, utilizing the right resources is not a bad thing.”
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Austin American-Statesman – January 13, 026
In Texas, we pride ourselves on being builders of the American economy. We build more, build bigger and build faster than almost every other state. Affordable energy is foundational to that advantage. That track record of innovation and know-how is why Texas should take the lead in reviving an American-made solar industry — one that further disentangles us from China.
Texas is widely known as an oil and gas powerhouse. But we are far more than that. Today, Texas is the second-largest producer of solar power in the nation, and growth is accelerating rapidly. Solar now accounts for nearly 10% of our state’s electricity generation. The success Texas has seen in building solar power facilities is a source of pride. But it is not nearly enough to compete with China across the full supply chain. The real vulnerability lies upstream. The global solar supply chain remains dominated by China — from polysilicon to wafers to the technical expertise required to assemble final modules. For an industry that will shape America’s economic and energy future, that dependence represents a serious strategic risk.
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Canary Media – January 9, 2026
How Trump’s offshore wind halt is derailing his party’s energy agenda
President Donald Trump’s sweeping freeze on offshore wind construction is starting to hurt his own party’s energy ambitions. Just days before Christmas, the Trump administration halted work on all five large-scale offshore wind farms under construction in the U.S, citing unspecified national security concerns. The order may have come as a shock to the project developers, who received letters from the Interior Department only after Fox News publicly reported on the move, as Canary Media’s Clare Fieseler reported at the time.
All but one of the targeted developers have since sued the Trump administration. Danish developer Ørsted filed two separate suits over pauses to its nearly complete Revolution Wind — which the Interior already halted for a month last fall — and to Sunrise Wind. In another lawsuit, Equinor warned that the freeze would result in the “likely termination” of its Empire Wind project off New York, which also suffered a monthlong stop-work order last spring.
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Forbes – January 12, 2026
America’s AI Boom Is Running Into An Unplanned Water Problem: Ken Silverstein
The fastest‑growing piece of America’s artificial intelligence infrastructure is colliding with one of its most finite local resources: water. As utilities, state regulators, and local governments rush to accommodate a surge in data‑center construction driven by AI and cloud computing, water is emerging as a constraint that few permitting systems were designed to manage. The issue isn’t that data centers are unexpected. It’s that they have crossed a threshold of scale—yet are still being regulated as if they were ordinary real‑estate projects rather than nationally strategic infrastructure.
The U.S. Department of Energy notes that planning for these facilities requires coordination beyond the local level. In many jurisdictions, data centers are approved under commercial real‑estate frameworks, even though their energy and water demands more closely resemble those of mission‑critical infrastructure. In 2023, U.S. data centers consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons of water, according to federal and industry analyses compiled by the Energy Department and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Hyperscale facilities alone are projected to consume between 16 billion and 33 billion gallons annually by 2028.
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The New York Times – January 13, 2026
Trump Cuts to Energy Projects in Blue States Were Unlawful, Judge Rules*
A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to terminate millions of dollars in clean-energy grants last fall was “unlawful” because the cuts primarily targeted Democratic-led states. In his ruling, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that the cancellation of seven Biden-era grants for clean-energy projects, worth some $27.5 million, violated the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws.
“The terminated grants had one glaring commonality: All the awardees (but one) were based in states whose majority of citizens casting votes did not support President Trump in the 2024 election,” Judge Mehta wrote. The Energy Department in October canceled more than $7.5 billion in clean-energy funding, largely in states run by Democrats. In November, a coalition of energy groups and the city of St. Paul, Minn., sued the administration over seven of those terminated grants, arguing that the funding cuts were a partisan maneuver. The ruling on Monday focused just on those seven grants.
The cuts were announced by the White House on the first day of a government shutdown as the two parties fought over a federal spending bill. “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being canceled,” Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, wrote in a social media post. He went on to list 16 Democratic-led states that would be affected.
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San Antonio Express-News – January 13, 2026
An EV isn’t the top pick for consumers considering their next vehicle, survey says*
A new survey suggests Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk’s electric vehicle dreams may not be coming true. A Deloitte survey found that consumers weighing options for their next auto purchase don’t have electric vehicles top of mind. And car shoppers in the U.S. are less enthused than those in some other countries about vehicles with AI and other software — a feature Musk has said is key to the Austin automaker’s future.
The survey conducted from October through November asked more than 28,500 consumers in 27 countries about their opinions surrounding electric vehicles, brand perceptions and adoption of software-driven vehicles. It found that just 7% of respondents in the U.S. listed a battery electric vehicle as the choice for their next vehicle. And just 41% saw perceived usefulness in software-driven vehicles. Globally, it found enthusiasm for software-defined vehicles is notably lower in EV-mature markets such as the U.S., United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany, a finding Deloitte says highlights “a clear divide in comfort with software-centric vehicle concepts.”
Regulatory
Utility Dive – January 13, 2026
Senate bill exempts fully isolated large loads from FERC, DOE regulation
Fully off-grid power suppliers would be exempt from Federal Power Act and U.S. Department of Energy regulations under a bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. “The DATA Act of 2026 will eliminate outdated federal regulations and enable manufacturers, data centers, and other energy-intensive industries to build customized electricity systems without impacting existing power grids,” Cotton said in a press release.
Utilities will likely oppose the bill, according to Mike Jacobs, senior manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ energy program. “The threat to utilities’ growing revenue is obvious,” he said. “Perhaps they can all make an arrangement, which would require state approval in each case, in each state.”
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Politico – January 13, 2026
Democrats target data centers’ energy, water use*
A pair of House Democrats are moving to address the impacts of data centers with two bills that would impose new restrictions on energy and water use at those facilities. Reps. Rob Menendez of New Jersey and Greg Casar of Texas introduced the “Preventing Rate Inflation in Consumer Energy (PRICE) Act,” H.R. 6983, and the “Data Center Transparency Act,” H.R. 6984, arguing the measures are needed to rein in rising electricity costs and environmental impacts associated with artificial intelligence-driven data center growth.
“While AI innovation is promising, we must ensure that our constituents are not negatively impacted by the industry’s continued expansion,” Menendez said. “New Jersey families have seen their electricity bills increase by 20 percent because of the rapid growth of energy-intensive AI data centers.” The “PRICE Act” would require data center operators to generate all of the electricity they consume, a significant shift from the current model in which most facilities draw power from the broader electric grid. While some major technology companies have explored building their own generation, self-supply remains uncommon.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday January 13, 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 extended gains on Tuesday as heightened concerns surrounding Iran and potential supply disruptions outweighed the prospect of increased crude supply from Venezuela.
West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 23 cents, or 0.4%, to $59.73.
Brent futures rose 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $64.09 a barrel by 0430 GMT, hovering near a two-month high struck in the previous session.
“The price increase comes amid intensifying protests in Iran, raising the possibility of some form of intervention by the U.S.,” ING commodities strategists said on Tuesday.
Trump is expected to meet senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options on Iran, a U.S. official told Reuters.
The U.S. president said on Monday that any country that does business with Iran will be subjected to a tariff rate of 25% on any business conducted with the United States. Iran exports much of its oil to China.
Top Stories
Nasdaq – January 12, 2026
Vistra Announces Pricing Of Private Offering Of $2.25 Bln Of Senior Secured Notes
TER Note: S&P Global Ratings today assigned its ‘BBB-’ issue-level rating to Vistra Operations Co. LLC’s $2 billion senior secured notes across different tenors. The company may raise the amount up to $2.0-$2.5 billion — S&P Global
Vistra Corp. (VST) announced the pricing of a private offering of $2.25 billion aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes, consisting of $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes due 2031 at a price to the public of 99.954% of their face value and $1.250 billion aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes due 2036 at a price to the public of 99.745% of their face value to qualified institutional buyers.
The 2031 Secured Notes will bear interest at the rate of 4.700% per annum and the 2036 Secured Notes will bear interest at the rate of 5.350% per annum.
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Oil prices are likely to drift lower this year as a wave of supply creates a market surplus, although geopolitical risks tied to Russia, Venezuela and Iran will continue to drive volatility, Goldman Sachs said in a note on Sunday. The investment bank maintained its 2026 average price forecasts of $56/$52 per barrel for Brent/WTI, and expects Brent/WTI prices to bottom at $54/50 in the last quarter as OECD inventories build up.
“Rising global oil stocks and our forecast of a 2.3mb/d surplus in 2026 suggest that rebalancing the market likely requires lower oil prices in 2026 to slow down non-OPEC supply growth and support solid demand growth, barring large supply disruptions or OPEC production cuts,” Goldman Sachs said. Brent crude futures were trading around $63 a barrel, as of 0412 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude holds ground at $59. Last year, both the benchmarks posted their worst annual performance since 2020, with an almost 20% decline.
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Data Center Dynamics – January 12, 2026
Oil & gas investors plan 1,500-acre data center and energy campus outside San Antonio, Texas
A large new data center and energy campus is being planned outside San Antonio, Texas. HC Capital Partners and Herrmann Family Companies last week announced plans for the development of Energy Ranch, a 1,500+ acre data center campus. Full details haven’t been shared, but BizJournal reports the site is about 60 miles south of San Antonio.
Full details on the potential scale and capacity of the campus, along with how it will be funded, haven’t been disclosed. The Energy Ranch property is owned by Herrmann Family Companies, a San Antonio-based family office with investments across energy, ranching, farming, real estate, and technology. The first phase of the project will require around $2 billion to $4 billion in capital, according to the developers, and will deliver initial capacity 24 to 30 months after the start of construction.
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Houston Chronicle – January 12, 2026
Trump threatens to freeze Exxon out of Venezuela for ‘playing too cute.’ Here’s why*
President Donald Trump is threatening to ice Exxon Mobil out of his Venezuelan oil play after the company called the South American country “uninvestable.” The Houston oil giant was among nearly two dozen energy companies invited to the White House Friday to “strike some deals,” with the federal government. Trump requested that the oil companies invest $100 billion toward rebuilding Venezuela’s crumbling oil industry. “I didn’t like Exxon’s response. You know we have so many that want it. I’d probably be inclined to keep Exxon out,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “They’re playing too cute.”
While the potential in Venezuela’s oil fields is unquestionable — the oil-rich South American nation sits atop nearly $3 trillion in oil reserves, according to the Energy Information Administration — Exxon is treating the venture with caution. “It’s just simply not clear at this point if any deal that gets cut in the next few months with the Trump administration or with the Venezuelan government has the power to last,” said Dan Pickering, head of Houston investment firm Pickering Energy Partners.
“That’s why being cute is important,” he said.
The Latest TERse Tips
New York’s attorney general sued the Trump administration on Friday over its decision to halt two major offshore wind projects expected to power more than 1 million homes in the state — Associated Press
Entergy Texas completes Millbend substation and transmission line project — see the press release
GM Takes $6 Billion Hit, Ties to Electric Vehicles as Demand Sinks — the automaker also expects to record non-EV related charges of about $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter — The Wall Street Journal*
The 100-Year History Behind Trump’s Push for Venezuela’s Oil Wealth — oil has been central to the topsy-turvy relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela for more than a century — The Wall Street Journal*
Why Taking Venezuela’s Oil Could Actually Lift Its Fortunes — economists say U.S. selling backlogged crude supply could help bring country out of shadows, as long as Washington keeps its promises — The Wall Street Journal*
Oil & Gas Texas
KLTV – January 12, 2026
Supreme Court hears Louisiana environmental case
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday in case that could be pivotal both for coastline communities and oil companies. Before the high court Monday, justices heard arguments from local communities in Louisiana who sued oil companies for damaging their coast. But the key issue before the justices doesn’t have to do with the lawsuits themselves, but rather where they should be argued.
Before the Supreme Court Monday, Chevron squared off against Louisiana coastal communities over a case centering on alleged damage to wetlands along the Gulf coast. It came before the justices after a state jury ruled that the oil company must pay $745 million for wetlands restoration in Plaquemines Parish, just south of New Orleans. But Chevron wants the case moved to federal court instead, which is typically friendlier for big oil. The company argued that because they had federal contracts to produce aviation fuel in Louisiana back in World War II that their case belongs in federal court.
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Claims Journal – January 12, 2026
Singer’s Elliott Sued by PE Firm in Escalating Fight Over Money
A Texas private equity firm accused Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management of withholding “tens of millions of dollars” from the sale of oil and gas assets, according to a new lawsuit in the escalating fight over their failed partnership. Stronghold Investment Management claimed Elliott “furtively” sold assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars in early 2025 and has failed to pay the Texas firm its share of the proceeds, according to a complaint unsealed Wednesday in Delaware Chancery Court. Stronghold asked a judge to order Elliott to hand over the profits.
A spokesperson for Elliott declined to comment. Elliott has denied it withheld money from Stronghold, arguing the partnership agreements gave it “sole discretion” to determine when and how much to distribute, according to a filing from a separate case it filed against Stronghold. But Stronghold claimed Elliott breached the agreements because there was no “good faith basis” for holding onto the cash.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – January 12, 2026
Carbon management roadmap could lead Texas to economic growth*
Texas, already a national leader in energy production, could lead the nation in carbon management if it follows the Texas Carbon Management Roadmap, a comprehensive framework for carbon management. “The advantage in Texas is it has the longest history of utilizing carbon dioxide,” said Ryan Kammer, research manager of carbon management with Great Plains Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping develop pragmatic energy solutions.
“For Texas, this is tying into how it’s had success and how to provide new opportunities,” he told the Reporter-Telegram. Carbon management is an emerging industry that could attract up to an estimated $150 billion in investment by 2050. Texas is uniquely poised, with its combination of the nation’s largest CO2 pipeline network, massive geological storage capacity, an energy workforce ready to scale, and industrial clusters in refining, petrochemicals, and steel, for carbon capture integration. Developing the roadmap involved talking to more than 100 stakeholders across industry, government, environmental organizations, labor, community groups and technical experts.
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Texas Tribune – January 12, 2026
Texas’ eighth-largest city has seen the water crisis coming for years, and now it’s here: Its two main reservoirs are at historic lows amid a persistent drought and city leaders have told residents they’re less than a year away from major water cuts that could force them to reduce their water use by 25% or face extra fees.
Industry associations representing companies like Valero and LyondellBasell have warned city officials they might have to reduce their local operations or shut down completely if the city fails to secure more water supply. And the city’s long-promised solution to the looming crisis — a planned desalination plant that would have turned millions of gallons of seawater into fresh water — collapsed last year under fierce criticism from environmental groups and local leaders over its ballooning price tag and its potential harm to Corpus Christi Bay’s ecosystem. Efforts to revive the project or a similar plant are underway but could take years.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 12, 2026
Here in Midland, Texas, the Last Thing Anyone Wants Is Cheap Venezuelan Oil*
For most Americans, cheap oil is good news. In Midland, Texas, it is a problem. Oil prices have mostly slumped since last spring, and the U.S. intervention in oil-rich Venezuela is stoking President Trump’s desire to push prices down further. This raises a new risk for Midland, where restaurants are already less crowded, barbers are idling around waiting for customers and a host of businesses linked to the oil field are feeling squeezed. On the local Facebook Marketplace, shiny Ford F-150 pickup trucks are listed for sale at bargain prices.
“If you want a new jet ski, right now is the best time to buy,” said Taylor Sell, chief executive at Element Petroleum, a small oil producer. Here in the heart of the Permian Basin, America’s fracking capital, economic fortunes rise and fall with energy prices. A big electronic billboard in downtown Midland shows current market rates for oil and gas and the local oil-rig count, along with motivational slogans like “broken crayons still color.”
Lately the numbers haven’t been good. Oil recently traded below $60 a barrel, a price where many operators can just barely continue to pump profitably, but starting new wells usually makes little financial sense. Trump believes his plan to exert more control over Venezuela’s oil industry could drive down oil prices to $50 a barrel, The Wall Street Journal earlier reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Meantime, tariffs have pushed up the cost of materials like chemicals and steel tubes, Midland oil executives say. As new wells get delayed, workers at oil-services firms are laid off or see their hours cut. “We’re definitely not drilling right now,” Sell said.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 12, 2026
The Speed-Obsessed Texas Wildcatter in Pole Position for Venezuela’s Energy Riches*
Texas oilman Rod Lewis has made millions drilling in places even other wildcatters find too dangerous. But when he flew to Venezuela in 2024, he encountered an opportunity that was as treacherous—and possibly as profitable—as any in the world. Lewis wasn’t daunted by the country’s political and legal landscape. A firm he backs cut a deal with the state-run oil company, making it one of the few North American companies with contracts to operate in Venezuela, but it has since been stumped by sanctions that forbid it from doing business there.
Now Nicolás Maduro is gone, and Lewis is in pole position to rush in to the Latin American country with the world’s largest oil reserves. He isn’t one to move slowly. “I have a need for speed,” he told Boat International magazine, in a feature about his 78-meter yacht called the M5, which is said to be the world’s largest single-masted vessel. He said he flies a helicopter three days a week and a plane five, with a preference for his collection of vintage World War II aircraft.
While the Trump administration is pushing deep-pocketed firms such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips to wade into Venezuela, oil executives at a White House meeting on Friday said they needed security guarantees and an overhaul of Venezuela’s legal and commercial framework to consider diving in. But fast-moving wildcatters, armed with private capital, are less cautious. “I can tell you that the independent oil companies and the individuals—wildcatters, our phone’s ringing off the hook,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at an event at the Economic Club of Minnesota. “They want to get to Venezuela yesterday.”
Oil & Gas National & International
Bloomberg – January 10, 2026
The Commodities Hoarding Era Has Arrived (blog)
China is stockpiling oil. All in, says Michael Haigh, global head of FIC and commodities research at Société Générale, the country probably has some 1.4 billion barrels stashed away. That’s “gigantic,” he says, covering its needs for “hundreds of days” should something go wrong with the global supply chain. Ninety days is more the international norm. But China isn’t stopping there: some think it could keep going until supplies clear 2 billion barrels.
This isn’t a cheap business. You’ve not only got to buy the stuff, you have to store it. The US has natural salt caverns, but in China, it’s all about huge, metal-intensive, purpose-built facilities. However, it also makes obvious sense. In the old days you hoarded US Treasuries, collected interest and felt happy in the knowledge you could transform those holdings into commodities any time you felt like it.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 9, 2026
Trump’s $50 Oil Price Goal Is Doable, but Painful*
President Trump wants to drive down oil prices to $50 a barrel. Getting to that price appears doable with Venezuela, though keeping it there comes with risks. The good news for the administration is that, if the real goal is to lower gasoline prices for U.S. consumers, global oil prices might not need to come down that much. Oil was already trading below $60 before news emerged last weekend of the U.S. capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, with the front-month futures price for the U.S. benchmark oil around $57 a barrel. On Thursday, the price settled at $57.76 a barrel.
The oil price was already headed toward the $50 level even without the potential addition of barrels from Venezuela, notes Dan Pickering, chief investment officer of Pickering Energy Partners. Production from OPEC and others such as Brazil, Guyana and Canada has been strong and there were already expectations of an oil glut, he said. In a December forecast, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expected global oil inventory to rise by more than 2 million barrels a day in 2026.
Before Maduro’s capture, Goldman Sachs estimated that the U.S. benchmark crude price would average $52 a barrel in 2026. The investment bank estimates that prices could average $50 a barrel this year if production from Venezuela increased by 400,000 barrels a day. Venezuela produces around 900,000 today. The increase could be possible with relatively shorter-term fixes, such as making available more diluent—the light crude that needs to be mixed with Venezuela’s heavy crude to make transportation easier—repairing wells, reactivating damaged crude-upgrading facilities and removing sanctions, according to Goldman.
Venezuela’s share of global oil production is small—at less than 1%—but adding a few hundred thousand barrels a day can “materially push prices downward,” notes Robert Auers, analyst at energy consulting firm RBN Energy. For example, 400,000 barrels represents roughly half of the global oil demand increase that the International Energy Agency expects to see in 2026.
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S&P Global Platts – January 12, 2026
Factbox: Venezuela’s oil output growth hinges on security, investment
US and international oil executives have offered differing pledges on investing in Venezuela’s oil industry following the US seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. “We’re going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in, that we’re going to allow to go in, going to cut a deal with the companies,” US President Donald Trump said Jan. 9 during a meeting with oil executives.
Trump pledged security guarantees to the companies without offering details or committing to stationing US troops in the country to secure the projects.
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Houston Chronicle – Januay 7, 2026
When the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to repeal most of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program last year, the intent was clear: to reduce administrative burden and save businesses money. The aim is laudable. Cutting unnecessary regulation and empowering American industry are core principles of good governance. But in this case, a seemingly deregulatory action will actually create a greater administrative burden, higher costs and capital flight — and in Texas alone, the EPA’s plans could jeopardize billions in private investment.
The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program requires major industrial facilities and energy suppliers to report standardized, facility-level emissions data on greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, that contribute to climate change. The EPA reasoned that repealing the program would save companies money — on the order of $2.4 billion over the next decade. That may be true, but recent analysis finds that, since states would likely impose their own reporting requirements, repealing the program is likely to end up costing companies substantially more money than they would save. Businesses that currently comply with one federal standard would instead face a chaotic, inconsistent and significantly more expensive patchwork of state-by-state regulations. Instead of cutting red tape, the EPA would be scattering it across 50 state capitals, ensuring businesses face increased regulatory compliance headaches and costs.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
KETA (NPR) – January 12, 2026
Experts warn TCEQ is not equipped to enforce regulations on rapidly emerging AI data centers
Shannon Watts worries that AI data centers are a threat to public health. Jacob Herbold has concerns about noise and pollution. And Carolyn Reeves doesn’t like how much water and electricity could be drained by having a data center nearby. As Texas aggressively recruits AI data centers in a broader push to attract tech investment, critics warn that regulation has not kept pace with growth — and Texans will suffer the consequences.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is responsible for permitting and enforcing environmental regulations data centers are required to adhere to, including air emissions, wastewater discharge, hazardous material storage and water use.
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Politico – January 12, 2026
Supreme Court rejects nuclear-waste, electric utility cases*
The Supreme Court rejected Monday a pair of energy cases that had asked the justices to overturn authorization of a nuclear waste storage facility and reverse a ruling that an electric utility engaged in anti-competitive practices. In a long list of orders, the justices rebuffed a petition from an anti-nuclear group that had asked the court to address how the nation should temporarily store spent nuclear fuel in the absence of a permanent waste repository.
Beyond Nuclear’s challenge focused on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 2020 approval of a conditional license for Holtec International’s planned above-ground facility in southeastern New Mexico. Once completed, the project is slated to store up to 173,600 metric tons of privately and federally owned spent nuclear fuel. The facility is part of an interim storage solution after the failure of plans to stash spent nuclear fuel in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. Nuclear energy opponents say interim storage poses environmental risks, both from the transport of waste from far-away plants to Holtec’s facility and from the method of storing the fuel.
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Nuclear News Wire – January 12, 2026
The Meta-Vistra deal: A closer look
With last Friday’s announcement regarding its vision for nuclear energy, Meta has entered into 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) for more than 2,600 MW of electricity from a combination of three Vistra-owned nuclear plants to support the tech behemoth’s planned operations in the PJM region.
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Utility Dive – January 12, 2026
5 takeaways from Xcel CEO Bob Frenzel’s talk at the Minneapolis Fed
The growth of data centers can help reduce residential electricity rates, but power equipment supply chains remain stretched and there are labor shortages in specialized fields needed to build out the grid, Xcel Energy Chairman, President and CEO Bob Frenzel said Friday in a discussion at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. “We’re at a major inflection point in the United States’ history, as it pertains to the next wave of important infrastructure,” Frenzel said. “That’s going to be artificial intelligence infrastructure.”
Xcel is headquartered in Minneapolis and serves power and gas customers across eight states: Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. In October, the utility company raised its five-year capital spending plan to $60 billion, to include 7.5 GW of new renewable generation, 3 GW of new gas generation, 1.9 GW of energy storage, 1,500 miles of high-voltage transmission and $5 billion for wildfire mitigation.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 12, 2026
America’s Biggest Power Grid Operator Has an AI Problem—Too Many Data Centers*
America’s AI boom is pushing the nation’s largest power-grid operator to the brink of a supply crisis. Sixty-seven million people in a 13-state region stretching from New Jersey to Kentucky get their power from a market operated by nonprofit PJM. So, too, do the many AI data centers springing up in Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” which have a bottomless appetite for electricity.
Rates are going up for consumers. Older power plants are going out of service faster than new ones can be built. And the grid’s capacity is in danger of maxing out during periods of high demand, which could force PJM to call for rolling blackouts during heat waves or deep freezes to avoid damaging grid infrastructure. Mark Christie, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said that a few years ago he considered the PJM blackout threat to be on the horizon. “Now I’m saying that the reliability risk is across the street,” he said.
PJM expects power demand to grow by 4.8% a year, on average, for the next decade—an astonishing pace for a system that hasn’t had substantial demand growth in years. Consumers are furious about the rate increases. And tech companies, including Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft, have fought against proposed rules that would require data centers to build their own power sources or go dark during demand surges. Potential solutions to PJM’s problems are complex, controversial and nearly impossible to implement quickly. Adding to the challenge: The organization’s longtime chief executive, Manu Asthana, stepped down at the end of 2025 with no successor yet in place. PJM board chairman David Mills will serve as interim CEO until a replacement is chosen.
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OK Energy Today – January 12, 2026
200 wind turbines being demolished in Texas
Hundreds of aging wind turbines are coming down across West Texas — not because of opposition to renewable energy, but as part of a major Texas wind farm turbine replacement project aimed at modernizing generation capacity near Abilene. Wind energy company AES has begun decommissioning more than 200 older wind turbines at a wind farm in Taylor County, using controlled explosive demolitions to remove outdated infrastructure.
The turbines will be replaced with approximately 117 next-generation turbines, which AES says will deliver greater efficiency, enhanced safety features, and improved reliability for the regional power grid. According to KTAB Big Country, the demolition effort marks one of the larger wind repowering projects currently underway in the region.
Regulatory
Politico – January 8, 2026
The scrappy attempt to save US climate data
A cadre of researchers and academics is trying to preserve national climate data as the Trump administration disappears thousands of federal datasets and reports. Rescuing and building on that data — from national climate assessments to Climate.gov — could prove key to combating the administration’s dissemination of climate misinformation, writes Chelsea Harvey. It’s also a herculean lift.
“The federal government has the biggest megaphone,” Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, told Chelsea. “They can really control the narrative. And if they really want to say climate change is not real … it’s extremely difficult for everybody else to push back against it.” Groups such as the American Geophysical Union and the nonprofit Data Foundation are helping preserve the data, reports and resources that President Donald Trump has been removing since he returned to office. That could be crucial in mounting a legal counter to the administration’s attempt to ax the scientific underpinning of most climate regulations — namely, that planet-warming pollution endangers human health.
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The New York Times – January 12, 2026
Under Trump, U.S. Adds Fuel to a Heating Planet*
By pulling the United States out of the main international climate treaty, seizing Venezuelan crude oil and using government power to resuscitate the domestic coal industry while choking off clean energy, the Trump administration is not just ignoring climate change, it is likely making the problem worse. President Trump has never been shy about rejecting the scientific reality of global warming: It’s a “hoax,” he has said, a “scam,” and a “con job.”
In recent days his administration has slammed the door on every possible avenue of global cooperation on the environment. At the same time, it is sending the message that it wants the world to be awash in fossil fuels sold by America, no matter the consequences. The moves follow one of the hottest years on record, during which scientists say climate change supercharged raging wildfires in Los Angeles, deadly flooding in Texas, and a Category 5 hurricane that ravaged Caribbean islands.
The planet is on course to heat up more than 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which scientists say the risks of catastrophic storms, droughts, wildfires and heat waves, as well as species extinction, increase significantly. The Earth has already warmed by between 1.3 and 1.4 degrees Celsius. Under President Trump, the United States has become the only nation to renege on a pledge to try to keep warming to 1.5 degrees. Its actions will make the global fight harder, scientists said.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday January 12, 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 on Monday as escalating protests in Iran sparked concerns about supplies from the OPEC producer, while efforts to resume oil exports from Venezuela and expectations the market will be oversupplied this year limited gains.
West Texas Intermediate crude was at $59.16 a barrel, up 4 cents.
Brent crude futures climbed 5 cents to $63.39 a barrel by 0433 GMT
Both contracts rose more than 3% last week to clinch their biggest weekly rise since October as Iran’s clerical establishment intensified its crackdown on the biggest demonstrations since 2022.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – January 11, 2026
Trump ‘Inclined’ to Keep Exxon Out of Venezuela*
President Trump said he might block Exxon Mobil from drilling in Venezuela after the company’s top executive publicly acknowledged the barriers involved in doing business in the country. “I’ll probably be inclined to keep Exxon out,” Trump said Sunday evening, speaking to reporters traveling with him aboard Air Force One.
During a meeting with oil-company executives at the White House on Friday, Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods said that Venezuela is currently “uninvestable” without significant changes to the country’s commercial frameworks, legal system and hydrocarbon laws. He expressed confidence those changes could be put in place with the Trump administration and Venezuelan government working together.
“I didn’t like their response. They’re playing too cute,” Trump said Sunday of Woods’s comments, adding that other companies want to invest in Venezuela. Exxon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has been pushing U.S. energy companies to invest in Venezuela following the capture of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. But some companies have expressed concerns about entering the volatile country. At the White House on Friday, Trump told the oil-industry executives that the U.S. would provide unspecified security guarantees to companies that go into Venezuela and invest in the country’s ailing energy infrastructure.
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Bloomberg – January 10, 2026
Investors Turn Most Bearish on Oil in Almost 10 Years, Goldman Finds*
Geopolitical factors are helping push institutional investors close to their most bearish view on oil over the past 10 years as the global market stares down a glut, a survey by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. finds. More than 59% of over 1,100 Goldman clients across asset classes are bearish or slightly bearish on crude, according to the survey released Thursday. That places sentiment just off record lows in a monthly dataset dating back to January 2016. The only time investors were slightly more negative on crude was last April, when President Donald Trump threatened sky-high tariffs on many US trading partners. Adding to broader bearish sentiment, a record number of institutional investors said oil was their favorite short, according to the survey, which was conducted Jan. 5-7 by Goldman’s Marquee MarketView.
Oil posted its worst performance since 2020 last year after OPEC+ raised output, the US pumped at record levels and countries including Brazil and Guyana boosted supply. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, traded above $61 a barrel on Thursday, off recent lows but still down considerably from a year ago. The glut is expected to grow even larger this year. That’s before factoring in a potential end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which would likely eliminate supply disruptions and sanctions on Russian crude.
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WFOX – January 9, 2026
Supreme Court to hear case seeking to hold oil companies accountable for damaging Louisiana coast
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in a legal dispute that is attempting to hold oil companies accountable for damaging Louisiana’s coastline. The case involves the oil company, Chevron and several Louisiana parishes. The parishes were previously awarded a $745 million verdict in state court, but the plaintiffs have appealed and are seeking to move the case to federal court.
“So the issue before the Supreme Court is whether some of these cases, 11 to be specific, should be removed and handled in federal court,” said Liz Murrill, Louisiana Attorney General (R-La.), who is also arguing with the parishes. The Louisiana parishes would prefer to have the cases handled in state court where they have already been awarded millions. But the oil companies would prefer to have them in federal court and are arguing that they should be handled there because of a law called the federal-officer removal statute.
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Anchorage Daily News – January 11, 2026
Hilcorp chairman: We’re going to Venezuela
Two titans of Alaska’s oil industry both told President Donald Trump on Friday that they intend to expand into post-Maduro Venezuela. The public comments, Alaska-based oil industry players said, raise questions about how new drilling opportunities in the South American country could create competition for investment in Alaska’s petroleum-based economy.
Texas-based Hilcorp operates Alaska’s largest oil deposit, Prudhoe Bay, where it’s ramped up investment in recent years after buying its stake in the field from oil giant BP. It also produces the vast majority of natural gas that urban Alaskans use for heat. Hilcorp’s chairman, Jeff Hildebrand, participated in the White House meeting, which Trump convened with oil executives to discuss opportunities in Venezuela. He told the president that “Hilcorp is fully committed and ready to go, to rebuild the infrastructure in Venezuela.”
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CNBC – January 11, 2026
World’s most vital oil chokepoint back in focus amid possible U.S. intervention in Iran
The Strait of Hormuz is once again back in focus as a possible U.S. intervention in Iran raises the risk of Tehran disrupting one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints. U.S. President Donald Trump is considering a range of options against Iran, according to multiple media reports on Sunday, as it cracks down on domestic protests.
Industry experts cautioned that a military confrontation could provoke Iran to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that that connects the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea and through which nearly a third of the world’s seaborne crude flows. “A disruption through the Strait of Hormuz could cause a global oil and gas crisis” especially when considering the “desperate and ill advised lengths the current Iranian regime may go to” should they find themselves increasingly backed into a corner with their power and lives at stake, said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee.
The Latest TERse Tips
Ukrainian drones set fire to Russian oil depot after Moscow launches new hypersonic missile — NPR
President Trump said Sunday the U.S. military is considering “strong options” on Iran as the country’s regime cracks down on growing nationwide protests and when asked on Air Force One whether Iran is crossing a red line, the president told reporters “they’re starting to, it looks like.” — The Hill
With Cuban ally Maduro ousted, Trump warns Havana to make a ‘deal’ before it’s too late — Associated Press/KVUE
President Donald Trump’s new executive order on Venezuelan oil revenue is meant to ensure that the money remains protected from being used in judicial proceedings — the executive order, made public on Saturday, says that if the funds were to be seized for such use, it could “undermine critical U.S. efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela.” — Associated Press/KETK
Fitch Ratings has assigned a ‘BBB’ rating to The Williams Companies, Inc.’s proposed offering of senior unsecured notes — the Rating Outlook for WMB is Positive — Fitch
Silver Hill Energy Partners, LP says it has closed the acquisition of 100 percent of 1776 Energy’s interest in oil and gas properties, rights, and related assets primarily in Karnes and Gonzales Counties, Texas — the acquisition includes approximately 17,500 net acres and 550 gross locations in the Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk formations — see the press release
OPENAI and SoftBank Group will invest $500 million each in SB Energy to expand data center and power infrastructure for their Stargate initiative in Milam County, SB Energy said on Friday — Manila Times
Wallstreet Sand Co. has reached a significant milestone at its Kermit frac sand facility — the company has launched dry sand operations at the facility, allowing it to support the evolving completion needs of operators and service companies — Midland Reporter-Telegram*
President Donald Trump designated Republican Commissioner Ho Nieh as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday evening, a move that was long expected by nuclear observers — Politico *
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Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – January 9, 2026
New Year Starts With Fewer U.S. Oil and Gas Rigs
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell by 4 this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published earlier this week, bringing the total rig count in the US to 544 this week, down 40 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs fell by 3 in the reporting period, according to the data. Oil rigs are now at 409, which is 71 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 1 to 124, which is 24 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count rose by 2.
The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production fell by 16,000 bpd in the week ending January 2 to 13.811 million bpd on average, 42,000 bpd under the all-time high reached a month ago. Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells, fell again during the week ending December 30, sinking to 153. There are now 48 fewer active completion crews than there were at the beginning of this year.
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Center Square – January 9, 2026
Texas oil and gas jobs decline in October and November
The Texas oil and natural gas industry reported job losses in October and November, according to the latest employment data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS’ latest Current Employment Statistics report was released Friday after delays caused by the federal government shutdown late last year.
While Texas reported another month of job gains in November, breaking records in some industries and categories, that job growth didn’t translate to the oil and gas industry. An analysis of the data by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association shows that the upstream sector saw losses coinciding with less rig counts online.
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Oil Price – January 9, 2026
Texas LNG Developer Starts Search for Project Funders
Glenfarne Group has started its search for companies to finance its Texas LNG project, Bloomberg has reported, citing the company. Mizuho Financial Group and Canada’s Imperial Bank of Commerce are advising it.
The news follows the signing of a 20-year LNG offtake deal between Glenfarne and Australia’s Macquarie Group, announced in early December. The deal was for a modest 500,000 tons of liquefied gas annually. The Texas LNG facility will have a total annual capacity of 4 million tons of the superchilled fuel. Earlier in the year, Glenfarne also inked a long-term supply deal with Gunvor, also for half a million tons of LNG annually.
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National Review – January 6, 2026
There are few greater disincentives to investment than political and economic turbulence, political interference or, for that matter, all three. Sanctions have not helped, but the record of Venezuela’s oil production speaks for itself. In 2000, shortly after Hugo Chávez became president, the country was producing over 3 million barrels of oil a day, a figure that has since fallen by two thirds. We will have to see what happens now.
Further to the south, Argentina’s Javier Milei is well aware of the effect that politics and economics have played in discouraging investment in Argentina and has been working to transform international perceptions of his country. Memories of the past don’t fade overnight, nor do more tangible legacies such as the country’s capital controls, which, although greatly eased under Milei, still linger on in residual form. And there is also the fear, reduced perhaps after the success of Milei’s LLA in recent midterm elections, that the next presidential election will signal a return to the bad old days.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – January 10, 2026
Shale lessons for 2026: Price matters less as efficiency rises*
Unconventional shale has been revolutionizing the Permian Basin — and the U.S. — for over two decades but continues to school operators. As 2025 came to an end, Primary Vision detailed three key takeaways from shale during the year.
- First, longer and larger frac jobs are becoming more common.
- Second, production trends are shaped by far more than oil prices alone, with technology, automation, and AI improving planning, execution, and recovery rates.
- Third, U.S. shale has focused on unlocking more oil through improved consumables and more efficient deployment of horsepower capacity, weakening the traditional linkage between price signals and short-term activity.
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Center Square – January 5, 2026
Louisiana regulators mull Venture Global dredge permit change
Louisiana regulators are considering a revision to an existing coastal use permit that would allow LNG export terminal operator Venture Global to expand dredging along the Calcasieu Ship Channel near the mouth of the Gulf of America, an area commercial fishermen and shrimpers contend is vulnerable to adverse impacts on water quality, according to a recent filing at the Office of Coastal Management.
At a site on Monkey Island between the Calcasieu Ship Channel and Calcasieu Pass, Venture Global plans to build its second LNG export facility in Cameron Parish, named CP2 LNG, subject to government approval. The Arlington, Virginia-based company seeks to create two berths for loading ships at the terminal, which would be located adjacent and to the north of the company’s existing Calcasieu Pass plant. Venture Global plans to move the dredged materials about 9.7 miles along an established pipeline route for beneficial placement in the Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge.
Oil & Gas National & International
Reuters – January 9, 2026
Trafigura, Vitol agree to help sell Venezuelan oil on US government request*
Commodities trade houses Trafigura and Vitol have agreed to provide logistical and marketing services for the sale of Venezuelan oil at the request of the U.S. government, a Trafigura spokesperson told Reuters by email. Reuters first reported on Thursday that the two companies were in talks with the U.S. government for such deals, citing sources familiar with the talks.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 10, 2026
Trump’s Oil Grab Is a Big Problem for the OPEC Cartel*
OPEC members struggling to preserve their market share amid a sinking price for oil now have an unexpected new variable to contend with: President Trump’s move to dominate Venezuela’s oil supply and push the market in a direction that would benefit American consumers. Trump, who has long championed increased oil production and a target price of $50 a barrel, is planning a sweeping initiative to rehabilitate Venezuela’s oil fields and market its output, people familiar with the matter said. That would reshape the global oil map—putting the U.S. in charge of the output of one of the founding members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and, along with America’s own prodigious production, give it a potentially disruptive role in a market already struggling with oversupply.
While analysts expect that reviving Venezuela’s dilapidated oil industry will take huge investments and a lot of time, they say even a small near-term output increase—followed by a larger rise over the longer run—could exacerbate the global imbalance and push prices further down. OPEC members now face the difficult question of whether to try to prop up prices by cutting supply at the risk of hurting their revenue and market share—and potentially their relationships with the unpredictable U.S. president.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 10, 2026
Trump Presses Oil Executives to Invest in Venezuela—but Gets Lukewarm Reception*
President Trump pressed executives from nearly two dozen oil companies Friday to plant flags in Venezuela and drill into one of the world’s largest oil bounties. Most of those executives stopped short of making public pledges to quickly invest. Gathering at the White House less than a week after the U.S. incursion in Venezuela, executives from Chevron —the only U.S. oil company active there—Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and other companies signaled a willingness to examine new prospects in the Latin American country. However, they indicated they need security guarantees and an overhaul of Venezuela’s legal and commercial framework to consider diving in.
Trump said the U.S. government would provide the companies with security guarantees, but it was clear he wanted companies to push into the country. At the start of the meeting, Trump said he intends American oil companies to spend at least $100 billion in Venezuela boosting oil production. “If you don’t want to go in, just let me know because I’ve got 25 people that aren’t here today who are willing to take your place,” Trump told the executives. He also said the U.S. and Venezuela are “working well together” to rebuild the country’s oil-and-gas infrastructure.
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The Atlantic – January 10, 2026
Big Oil Knows That Trump’s Venezuela Plans Are Delusional: Roge Karma*
So, about all that Venezuelan oil. Although President Trump has declared that America’s oil companies will soon “go in” to Venezuela and “spend billions of dollars” to rebuild that country’s petroleum industry, the administration is making two huge assumptions. First, that unleashing Venezuelan oil would yield lower energy prices for American consumers and giant profits for American companies. Second, that unlike previous administrations, which got bogged down for decades in failed nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump can simply let great American companies do what they do best—drill, baby, drill.
But my conversations with several oil-industry veterans and energy analysts indicate that the administration has the situation precisely backwards: Restoring Venezuela’s oil industry is completely unrealistic in the short term, and might not be in America’s economic and geopolitical interests at all. “Trump seems locked in the world of the 1980s and ’90s, when the U.S. imported most of its oil from a handful of foreign sources,” Arnab Datta, a lawyer who specializes in energy markets, told me. “But today, America is the world’s biggest oil producer. The play for Venezuelan oil doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the new world we’re in.”
The Wall Street Journal – January 10, 2026
Maduro’s Crypto-Backed Oil Deals Put Tether at Center of Venezuela Money Drama*
Nicolás Maduro helped make tether the world’s dominant stablecoin. And with the former Venezuelan leader now sitting in a Brooklyn jail, the cryptocurrency’s central role in his nation’s economy is back in the spotlight. Tether emerged as a vital tool for the state-run oil company to sidestep sanctions, serving as the currency for settling oil transactions. It also has offered a financial lifeline to everyday Venezuelans racked by the tumbling value of their home currency, the bolivar. Like most popular stablecoins, tether maintains a one-to-one peg to the U.S. dollar.
Maduro’s arrest and removal as Venezuela’s president is unlikely to diminish tether’s presence in Venezuela, where hyperinflation remains a problem, according to crypto analysts. Tether’s financial ties to Venezuela put the cryptocurrency company in prime position to aid U.S. authorities as they seek to track down what happened to funds allegedly stolen by the Maduro regime.
“Crypto use in Venezuela will persist and likely expand in the short term,” said Adam Zarazinski, chief executive officer of the crypto-intelligence firm Inca Digital. “For everyday users, it’s a coping mechanism for economic dysfunction and failing institutions. But those same governance failures also enable sanctions evasion, an outcome that won’t change without credible improvements in governance.”
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Temple Daily Telegram – January 11, 2026
Oncor planning to move forward with transmission line project
Oncor, a Texas-based electric transmission and utility company, is planning to request approval this spring from the Public Utility Commission of Texas for a transmission line project. If approved, the line would span more than 200 miles and would run through several communities in Bell County.
During June of 2025, Oncor held meetings in Salado, Menard and Lampasas in order to present information, receive ideas and comments, and answer questions about the project. Oncor published materials from these meetings that included information about the proposal as well as the preliminary map.
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Oil Price – January 10, 2026
Lithium Has Become a National Security Priority for the United States
As the world races to mine and refine more lithium, the United States has big production plans to boost self-sufficiency and reduce its reliance on China. President Trump aims to rapidly expand the United States’ mining sector during his second term in office, to begin developing a wide array of new metals and minerals projects, aimed at enhancing both energy and national security over the coming decades.
Since President Trump came into office in January 2025, he has raced ahead with plans to expand the United States minerals and metals industry through a greater openness to mining and a push to develop the country’s manufacturing capacity. In addition, the introduction of U.S. tariffs on a wide number of countries and products is encouraging companies to invest in U.S.-based projects and resources. Several advances have been made in the U.S. lithium industry over the last year, with several more expected to come in 2026.
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Cryptorank – January 10, 2026
BlackRock warns crypto’s love affair with AI is over as an energy war with Bitcoin miners begins
BlackRock is telling clients to stop looking at artificial intelligence as software and start treating it as energy. In its 2026 Global Outlook, the BlackRock Investment Institute argued that the AI buildout is pushing against physical limits and highlighted electricity as the constraint investors are underpricing.
The report’s headline-grabber is its warning that AI-driven data centers could consume as much as 24% of US electricity by 2030, a scale that would reorder everything from utility capex to industrial siting. That kind of forecast lands with an obvious follow-on question in crypto: if grid access becomes the scarce asset, what happens to the industry that built a business model around turning cheap, interruptible power into Bitcoin? In 2025, narratives arrived around the potential synergy of crypto and AI due to the theory that AI agents will want to use crypto for payments over traditional finance. However, a power war may tarnish this relationship going forward.
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Utility Dive – January 8, 2026
Utilities under pressure: 6 power sector trends to watch in 2026
2026 will be a year of reckoning for the electric power industry. Major policy changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which axed most subsidies for clean energy and electric vehicles, are forcing utilities, manufacturers, developers and others to pivot fast. The impacts of those changes will become more pronounced over the coming months. Market forces will also have their say. Demand for power has never been greater. But some of the most aggressive predictions driving resource planning may not come to pass, leading some to fear the possibility of another tech bubble.
At the same time, each passing day brings more distributed energy resources onto the grid, increasing the opportunities — and expectations — for utilities to harness those resources into a more dynamic, flexible and resilient system.
Regulatory
Politico – January 8, 2026
Congress preserves BLM renewable energy, conservation lands funding*
Congressional appropriators this week rejected President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts for the Bureau of Land Management that called for zeroing out funding for the bureau’s renewable energy office and cultural resource protection. The fiscal 2026 funding blueprint for the Interior Department, EPA and related agencies that lawmakers rolled out Monday would also allocate full funding for BLM’s wild horse and burro program, which stands at $144 million.
Trump’s budget request to Congress in May proposed slashing the wild horse funding to $106 million — a nearly 25 percent cut compared to fiscal 2025 enacted levels, raising concerns among some lawmakers about whether the bureau could still properly manage thousands of horses and burros on overcrowded rangelands across the West. Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal requested cutting overall BLM funding by 33 percent — to $936 million from $1.4 billion. The bipartisan funding package lawmakers released this week would allocate $1.3 billion for BLM.
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Politico – January 8, 2026
Congress tosses IGs a life preserver*
Inspectors general at energy and environmental agencies should keep their funding after a tumultuous year of the Trump administration. The internal watchdogs that root out waste and fraud at EPA as well as at the departments of Energy and the Interior maintain relatively level spending for fiscal 2026 in a minibus package that is moving through Congress. Escaping severe budget cuts is a welcome turn for the IG offices, which have seen top-level firings, staff departures and even going offline temporarily over the past year.
Under the appropriations measure, EPA’s Office of Inspector General will receive almost $43.3 million along with an additional roughly $11.3 million transfer from a Superfund account for this fiscal year. That was the same funding slated for the watchdog in fiscal 2025. It also matches the Trump administration’s latest budget request for the office. “The OIG is well-positioned to continue our oversight work at pace,” EPA OIG spokesperson Kim Wheeler told POLITICO’s E&E News. “In parallel, we are developing hiring plans and assessing our processes and technology to identify opportunities for greater efficiency.”
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Friday January 9, 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 rose for a second day on Friday, up more than 1% and set for their third weekly gain, on uncertainty about the future of supply from Venezuela and as Iranian unrest increases concerns about output there.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed 76 cents, or 1.3%, to $58.52.
Brent futures gained 83 cents, or 1.3%, to $62.82 per barrel at 0730 GMT.
Both benchmark prices climbed more than 3% on Thursday, following two straight days of declines, and Brent is set to climb 2.7% for the week, while WTI has gained 1.4% for the week.
“Bottlenecks in the flow of sanctioned barrels and steady demand signals appear to counter the backdrop of an oversupplied 2026, at least for now,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova. “Escalation in geopolitical stress adds to the current momentum in oil prices.”
Civil unrest in major Middle Eastern producer Iran and concerns about the spread of the Russia-Ukraine war to target Russian oil exports have also increased supply concerns.
Top Stories
Houston Chronicle – January 6, 2026
How much did Exxon and Chevron know before Trump’s strike in Venezuela? Senators want to find out*
Houston’s largest oil companies face a congressional investigation launched Wednesday into what they knew before the Trump administration removed Venezuela’s president and seized control of the country’s oil industry. Five Senate Democrats sent letters to chief executives asking them to disclose all meetings with administration officials in which the Venezuelan operation was discussed. They also requested information about the nature of these discussions and to what extent they discussed Venezuelan oil assets and potential U.S. investment. The senators said they sent letters to executives at Houston-based Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Citgo Petroleum, Halliburton, SLB, Weatherford International and Baker Hughes.
The American heads of Shell, Continental Resources, and BP — companies that are not headquartered in Houston — also received letters. “We would like to know the extent to which U.S. oil and gas companies such as yours had either advance knowledge of or the ability to shape American foreign policy decisions,” the letter read. “Especially given that Congress was kept in the dark concerning the use of force until after the strikes occurred.” A day after the Jan. 3 incursion, President Donald Trump told reporters he had spoken with American oil companies “before and after” the ouster of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
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Texas Tribune – January 8, 2026
Why a Panhandle businessman wants to take over the region’s electric utility
Canadian — Salem Abraham may not have memorized every utility pole in the Texas Panhandle, but he knows precisely which ones shouldn’t be there. He’s mapped them across more than 300 miles in this region of treeless grassland, plateaus and canyons. These structures have been marked as defective or dangerous by their owner, Xcel Energy, the Minnesota-based electric utility that powers much of the Panhandle. They are evidence, Abraham said, of Xcel’s failure to upkeep its infrastructure. And as long as they remain that way, tagged and unreplaced, each one of them is another wildfire waiting to happen, Abraham said.
“I think there are more fires in our future,” said Abraham, a business mogul who has taken a sharp interest in Xcel’s inspection operations. “And we’re going to keep having fires until we get the poles fixed.”
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Politico – January 8, 2026
Russia bombs 2 Ukrainian regions into darkness while freezing weather closes in
The Russian army attacked Ukraine with more than 90 killer drones in the early hours of Thursday morning, causing complete blackouts in the key industrial regions of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv’s energy ministry reported.
“While energy workers managed to restore power in the Zaporizhzhia region in the morning, some 800,000 households in the nearby Dnipro region were still without electricity and heating on Thursday morning,” Artem Nekrasov, acting energy minister of Ukraine, said during a morning briefing. In Dnipro, eight coal mines stopped working because of a power outage. All the miners were safely evacuated to the surface, Nekrasov added. Power outages were also reported in Chernihiv, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava and other regions.
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Financial Times – January 8, 2026
Shale chiefs warn Trump that Venezuelan oil will hobble US drillers*
US shale bosses have warned Donald Trump that his mission to seize Venezuela’s oil sector and drive down crude prices will put American output on the chopping block. Trump is set to meet US Big Oil chiefs on Friday, but executives at large independent drillers — who are not on the attendee list — are seething over the president’s plan to flood America with Venezuelan crude. “We’re talking about this administration screwing us over again,” said a top executive at one of the country’s leading shale groups, describing the plans as “against American producers”.
“If the US government starts providing guarantees to oil companies to produce or grow oil production in Venezuela I’m going to be . . . pissed.” Trump’s drive to open up Venezuela’s oil riches, potentially subsidising investors, has further strained relations with oil executives in Texas, who have been angered by his dogged pursuit of ever-lower crude prices. The ire in the shale industry — where many executives bankrolled the president’s return to office — echoes a frustration in the Maga movement that Trump is neglecting his “America First” mantra. But problems in Texas’s oil industry are mounting, as cheaper oil forces producers to idle rigs needed to keep production ticking higher.
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ESG Dive – January 8, 2026
Blackstone buys environmental services platform ATG from Morgan Stanley
The energy transition arm of private equity firm Blackstone has acquired environmental testing and compliance services provider Alliance Technical Group from Morgan Stanley, Blackstone announced Tuesday. The sale was made through Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, the bank’s North America-focused middle-market private equity group operating under its alternative investment arm, Morgan Stanley said in a separate Jan. 6 release. Neither Blackstone or Morgan Stanley disclosed financial terms of the transaction.
ATG helps companies achieve sustainability goals and navigate the evolving regulatory landscape by providing services like environmental consulting. The company also offers compliance, auditing and reporting guidance and on-site testing and emissions monitoring, according to its website.
The Latest TERse Tips
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he has canceled a fresh military attack on Venezuela, saying the two countries “are working well together,” on rebuilding the nation’s oil and gas infrastructure — writing on Truth Social on Friday, Trump also noted Venezuela’s release of “large numbers of political prisoners” which he called “a very important and smart gesture.” — CNBC
Millions of barrels of crude oil stored in a Texas county are exempt from local property taxes because they are constitutionally protected exports, a state appeals court held Thursday — the Texas Thirteenth Court of Appeals sided with two international trading companies, Gunvor USA LLC and Devon Gas Services LP, an agent for Glencore Ltd. The court held that crude oil stored at coastal tank farms for overseas shipment was being transported, so the oil has “bright-line immunity” from state taxation under the US Constitution’s Import-Export Clause — Bloomberg*
NRG Energy’s Board of Directors this week appointed Robert J. Gaudette as Chief Executive Officer, effective April 30, the date of the company’s 2026 annual stockholders meeting — see the press release
Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, TX ‘A’ Issuer Credit Rating And ‘A’ Revenue Bond Rating Affirmed — S&P Global Platts
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Caturus Energy, LLC’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating at ‘B-‘ — Caturus is a small Eagle Ford operator with 3Q25 production of 616 MMcfepd (10% liquids) — Fitch
A tractor-trailer transporting compressed natural gas caught fire Tuesday morning on the New York State Thruway, prompting evacuations and a large multi-agency emergency response, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office — WRGB New York
UK-based energy giant BP and its partners expect cargo liftings at the 2.7 mtpa FLNG Gimi, which serves the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim LNG project offshore Mauritania and Senegal, to nearly double in 2026, according to US-based Kosmos Energy — LNG Prime*
Texas developer secures 10 GWh+ of BESS capacity to supply data centers — Greenflash said its newly secured more than 10 GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity will be added to the over 1 GWh of battery storage already ready for near-term deployment, as well as an additional 2 GWh scheduled for delivery in March 2026 — pv magazine
Amplify Energy Corp. has closed its previously announced amended revolving credit facility.with Citizens Bank, N.A. as the administrative agent, amends the Company’s existing senior secured reserve-based revolving credit facility and extends the maturity to December 31, 2028 — see the press release
Energy storage specialist Energy Vault Holdings Inc says it has broken ground on a 150-MW/300-MWh battery energy storage system in Madison County — Renewables Now
Goldman Helps Lead Financing for 5-Gigawatt Texas AI Power Sites — Financial Post
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Oil & Gas Texas
Bloomberg – January 8, 2026
US Developer Glenfarne Launches Financing for Texas LNG Project*
Privately-held US developer Glenfarne Group LLC said it’s in the process of financing its planned liquefied natural gas export project in Texas. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc. are serving as advisors, Glenfarne spokesperson Tim Fitzpatrick said in an email on Thursday.
The plant in Brownsville, Texas, has been designed for 4 million tons of annual capacity. The company hasn’t said when a final investment decision will be taken, after which construction of the project can begin. The US is the top supplier of the cleaner-burning fuel, and the push to complete financing of new projects is expected to contribute to a wave of global supply through the end of the decade.
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Reuters – January 8, 2026
Chevron in talks with US for expanded Venezuela oil license, sources say*
Oil producer Chevron is in talks with the U.S. government to expand a key license to operate in Venezuela so it can increase crude exports to its own refineries and sell to other buyers, four sources close to the negotiations said on Wednesday.
The talks come as Washington and Caracas progress in talks to supply up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the United States and President Donald Trump presses American oil companies to invest in the South American country’s energy sector.
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Politico – January 7, 2026
Chevron’s Venezuela gamble could soon pay off*
Chevron’s decision to remain the only U.S. oil major operating in Venezuela could be a boon for the company after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday. In the days since the military raid, President Donald Trump pledged that U.S. oil companies would soon flood into Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the world. And Trump told NBC News on Monday that U.S. oil companies could have expanded operations “up and running” in the country within 18 months.
Analysts have questioned the feasibility of Trump’s timeline, but say Chevron’s consistent presence in Venezuela gives the Texas-based company an edge in boosting production and tapping assets there. As of early last year, Chevron produced about a fifth of all Venezuela’s oil, according to analysts with Rystad Energy. “They’ve got on-the-ground networks that are active and ready to go,” said Schreiner Parker, head of emerging markets at Rystad. “They’re already engaging with suppliers who can provide the services that are needed to do the work.”
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Forbes – January 7, 2026
How An American Oil Billionaire Is Working To Leave A Legacy In Ireland—Using Whiskey
American oil billionaire Kelcy Warren has been revealed as the mysterious benefactor behind a $35 million expansion to a small regional airport in Ireland, local sources recently reported, weeks after his proposal to build a private whiskey distillery on his sprawling Irish estate was approved by local leaders despite opposition from neighbors.
Warren, who cofounded pipeline company Energy Transfer in 1996 and now has a net worth of $7 billion, was revealed by anonymous sources to be the man bankrolling a project to lengthen the runway of Waterford Airport in southeast Ireland. The expansion, which the public had long fought to find funding for, will allow the small airport to attract commercial airliners like Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s. Local officials in Waterford approved the airport investment in October without knowing who was behind the money, and the deal involved the county council selling $2.7 million worth of public land to Warren, then an unnamed U.S. businessman for just $58,000 (€50,000), according to the Irish Times.
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The Street – January 6, 2026
Another big name Chapter 11 closes out challenging trucking year
Unlike some of the other bankruptcies filed this year by trucking companies, Texas International Enterprises did not leave drivers stranded or unpaid. “In court filings, the company has sought permission to use cash collateral to continue paying employees and vendors while it restructures operations. Creditors, including Commercial Credit Group Inc. and RTS Financial Services Inc., have filed objections to those motions, signaling potential disputes over financing and collateral,” LMT Online reported.
The carrier operates about 280 power units and employs roughly 600 drivers, according to federal transportation records. Drivers could face layoffs, depending on how the restructuring unfolds; however, no layoffs have been confirmed in court filings, according to PacerMonitor.
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Houston Chronicle – January 6, 2026
Houston’s biggest energy layoffs of 2025: How Exxon, Chevron and others survived a rough year*
As 2025 drew to a close, oil and gas workers grumbled in social media threads about leaving the industry behind. When hopeful newcomers asked if they should still join the ranks, the answer was often a resounding: “don’t bother.” That’s because Houston’s oil and gas industry faced a rough market this year. The price of Texas crude fell to its lowest since the pandemic. Tariffs, market consolidation, increasing geopolitical tensions and rising production costs hit companies hard. The result was a wave of layoffs announced across the industry, including from some of Houston’s energy giants.
The hard times are also likely to keep coming, according to a recent analysis from the Greater Houston Partnership. It warned that declining crude prices could lead to a loss of about 3,200 jobs in the city’s oil and gas sector in 2026. Chevron in February announced sweeping plans to cut roughly 20% of its global workforce as part of a structural reorganization. Those reductions have since affected some 1,200 Chevron employees in Houston. Roughly 200 cuts affected the oil major’s West Texas operations, the company said in February. Chevron also later announced 575 jobs would be lost from Hess Corp.’s Houston workforce after it closed the blockbuster acquisition in July.
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Houston Chronicle – January 8, 2026
President Donald Trump has a habit of overpromising and underdelivering, and he’s doing it again with Venezuela. After Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture, Trump declared he was running the country and controlling its oil reserves, the world’s largest. On Wednesday, the White House announced it will market all Venezuelan oil exports going forward. The United States may have Maduro in custody, but his socialist Bolivarian revolutionary party still controls the government. His defense, justice and interior ministers, who allegedly ran the narcotrafficking, remain in command of the security forces.
The Trump administration routinely makes bold promises, from building a border wall to trimming the budget, but rarely does it deliver. Success in Venezuela will be no different. In 2024, Trump promised oil and gas executives his full support if they gave his campaign and allied political action committees $1 billion. He promised fossil fuel workers bright futures if they voted for him. Once president, Trump declared climate change a hoax, rolled back environmental regulations, boosted tax incentives, slackened merger reviews and slowed renewable energy projects. The results are at best mixed. Investors and executives benefited from higher corporate profits but Trump also kept a campaign promise to lower energy prices. American workers are losing their jobs.
Oil & Gas National & International
Reuters – January 8, 2026
US oil companies say they need guarantees to invest in Venezuela, FT reports*
U.S. oil companies want “serious guarantees” from Washington before they make large investments in Venezuela, as President Donald Trump urges them to back his bid to reshape energy markets, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. U.S. officials held talks with top energy executives in Miami on Wednesday, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Wall Street Journal – January 8, 2026
The Economics of Taking Venezuela’s Oil: Low Risk, Low Reward*
President Trump spent the past year taking economic stakes in private companies. To start the new year, he’s done that with an entire country. This week the Trump administration said it would control sales of Venezuela’s oil, of which the U.S. will get 30 million to 50 million barrels. That effectively grafts Trump’s mercantile approach to domestic policy onto foreign policy. The cash-flow-obsessed Trump should like the numbers so far: Given the low cost, and absence of American casualties, to date, toppling Nicolás Maduro might prove to be profitable.
Whether this is a logical basis for American policy is another matter. To be sure, past American intervention often had economic motives, such as keeping the global oil supply out of hostile hands. The threat of the oil weapon was pervasive from the 1970s through the early 1990s, when Donald Trump formed his worldview. But the world has changed, and controlling Venezuela’s oil now has only modest and uncertain benefits. The U.S. became a net oil exporter in 2020. Because of efficiency, natural gas and renewables, and the falling share of energy-intensive sectors, global consumption of oil per unit of economic output has fallen by more than half since 1979, according to the World Bank.
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Politico – January 8, 2026
Investors are buying pollution permits on secondary market*
Twelve states run or participate in carbon markets that aim to slow climate change by forcing polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions with government pollution permits.But government permit auctions, held every quarter, aren’t the only places permits are sold. There’s a secondary market akin to a stock exchange where the pollution permits are publicly traded by polluters and by investors betting that permit prices will rise or fall. The market fills an information void left by the quarterly auctions, signaling on a daily basis the strength of a state or regional carbon market.
Strong activity in the secondary market “shows that there’s confidence in that market,” said Luke Sideropoulos, carbon market analyst at Veyt, a Norway-based firm. It shows “more of the real-time supply and demand … [and] how people are reacting to policy expectations or news.” After a 2024 ballot measure proposed eliminating the Washington state carbon market, for example, prices of Washington permits plunged in the secondary market as businesses and investors unloaded and stopped buying certificates, fearful they could lose all their value. After voters rejected the ballot measure, there was a steady increase in prices of permits, which are also known as carbon credits and pollution allowances.
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Oil Price – January 6, 2026
Iraq Moves to Take Over Operations at West Qurna 2
The Iraqi government has approved a move to take over operations at the West Qurna 2 oilfield under provisions in its technical service contract with Russia’s Lukoil, following the company’s declaration of force majeure in November, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The step allows Iraq to ensure continued production after Lukoil cited operational constraints linked to Western sanctions on Russia. West Qurna 2, one of Iraq’s largest producing fields at around 470,000 barrels per day, is state-owned and operated under a service contract, with the government now assuming day-to-day operational responsibilities, including the payment of staff salaries.
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Grist – January 8, 2026
Trump invaded Venezuela to restore an oil industry he helped destroy
The middle-of-the-night kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro shocked the world on Saturday. Military helicopters bombed Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, as U.S. special forces breached Maduro’s residence, captured him, and flew him to New York to stand trial on unproven charges of narcoterrorism. President Donald Trump has offered several justifications for Maduro’s ouster, including the collapse of Venezuela’s oil industry. But the very conditions Trump has been pointing to were exacerbated by the actions of past U.S. presidents — including Trump himself. If the Venezuelan oil industry is in tatters, it’s at least partially because of U.S. policies dating back at least a decade.
On Wednesday, Trump’s Department of Energy put out a “fact sheet” stipulating that the U.S. is “selectively rolling back sanctions to enable the transport and sale of Venezuelan crude and oil products to global markets.” This outcome is doubly ironic because U.S. sanctions are one of the reasons the Venezuelan oil industry is diminished in the first place. The announcement also states that the U.S. will market Venezuelan oil, bank the proceeds, and disburse the revenue “for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the U.S. government.”
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The Wall Street Journal – January 7, 2026
Consumers Love Cheap Gas, but the Oil Patch Will Pay the Price*
Lower prices represent mostly good news for businesses that consume oil, such as fuel makers and airlines. But U.S. consumers are among the biggest winners. Low- and middle-income Americans, who have been squeezed particularly hard by rising prices generally over the past year, are now paying an average of around $2.80 at the pump, the lowest level since early 2021, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Lower-income Americans also tend to spend a larger share of their income on fuel than their wealthier peers, so spending less on gas means they can spend more on everything else, boosting growth.
“Having consumers with a little more money to spend is a plus,” said James Hamilton, an economist at the University of California, San Diego. The boost to consumers represents only part of the economic picture. As recently as the mid-2000s, a drop in gasoline prices represented virtually all upside for the U.S. But that was before the fracking boom helped elevate the country into a major oil producer and exporter. The U.S. is now a net exporter of oil, and oil-and-gas investment is a significant contributor to the economy. Research by economists at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan found that falling oil prices in 2014 did little to boost economic growth, as rising consumer spending was offset by falling business investment in the oil industry.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 8, 2026
U.S. Targets Shadow Fleet as Warning to Adversaries to Stay Out of Venezuela*
The Trump administration’s seizure of tankers under a growing oil embargo is meant to warn adversaries attempting to gain a foothold in the Western Hemisphere and boost Washington’s influence in Latin America, according to U.S. officials. The seizure Wednesday of two oil tankers linked to Venezuela, bringing the total to four in recent weeks, gives the U.S. leverage over Venezuela’s interim government, administration officials said. It is also meant to signal to Russia, China and Iran that they shouldn’t ally themselves with Caracas or flout U.S. sanctions, escalating the Trump administration’s “Donroe Doctrine,” aimed at making America the region’s dominant power.
By stopping certain ships from delivering Venezuelan oil, President Trump aims to starve its customers of needed resources and revenue, weakening them as they rethink their relations with Caracas. The U.S. has delivered the message to Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, that her government must now side with Washington and wind down relations with Russia, China and Iran, officials said. Some U.S. officials and analysts are skeptical that seizing a handful of ships will cause Moscow, Beijing or Tehran to alter their Latin American policies or significantly dent their coffers. One State Department official said the damage to those capitals was a side effect of targeting the tankers, as the real goal remains coercing Caracas to do Washington’s bidding, namely allowing American companies to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and profit from its vast oil reserves.
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Houston Chronicle – January 8, 2026
Oil execs are meeting at the White House to talk Venezuela. It’s a trap: Ed Hirs*
Oilpatch economics aren’t the only reason that energy executives should be wary of getting involved in Venezuela. As the Trump administration showed colleges and universities, if you accept money from the federal government, the federal government can demand a say in what you do. Do corporate boards and shareholders really want to find themselves following federal orders rather than the bottom line? Things are bad enough as is: The U.S. oil sector has been one of the worst performing sectors in the S&P 500 for the past dozen years.
Beyond pure economics, oil companies also need to consider the safety of their employees. It will take hundreds if not thousands of oil and gas professionals to rebuild Venezuela’s deteriorated oil industry, which now produces less than one-third of its output in the late 1960s. As the civilian population struggles to find food and other necessities, kidnappings will be a real threat. Equipment will likely be stolen and ransomed or sold as scrap.
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Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Houston Chronicle – January 8, 2026
Solar supplied more power than coal to the ERCOT grid in 2025 for the first year ever, data shows*
In 2025 — for the first year ever — solar arrays provided more electricity to Texas’ main power grid than coal-fired power plants. Solar farms contributed 67,800 gigawatt-hours of electricity from January to December, according to newly released data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the power grid operator for most of the state. In comparison, power plants burning coal supplied 63,000 gigawatt-hours of power to the ERCOT grid last year, according to the grid operator’s data.
Annual power generation from solar usurping coal reflects the momentum of Texas’ ongoing energy transition — even as the Trump administration and some Texas Republicans try to throw up roadblocks against renewable energy’s rapid rise. Solar, in particular, has grown at a breakneck pace: In 2019, solar supplied such a negligible amount of power to Texas’ grid that ERCOT didn’t even include it as a separate category in its annual pie chart of power generation resources. Now, solar power is the third-largest contributor to the ERCOT system — only behind second-place wind and first-place natural gas. Coal, meanwhile, has been bumped to number four.
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San Antonio Express-News – January 8, 2026
CPS Energy investigating outage in San Antonio that affected nearly 2,000*
Thousands of CPS Energy customers are without power on San Antonio’s Northeast Side on Thursday, January 8. A CPS Energy outage map shows 1,988 customers impacted across seven active outages in the city as of 3:46 p.m. Two of those active outages are between Highway 281 and IH-35 near Natural Bridge Caverns, rendering at least 1,982 customers without power. Other outages across the city are minor, impacting fewer than five customers each, according to the map.
So, when will folks have power restored? The map estimates the largest outage near Natural Bridge Caverns will be restored by 5:15 p.m. on January 8. The map says the cause of the outage is that it was “disconnected for safety.” A spokesperson for CPS told MySA the reason for the outage still under investigation at the time of this writing.
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KVII – January 8, 2026
Texas coalition demands Xcel Energy replace dangerous electric poles
The Lone Star Eleven Coalition is urging Xcel Energy to address the fire risks posed by deteriorating electric poles in the Texas Panhandle. Salem Abraham, a consultant for the coalition, highlighted the issue, stating, “This red tag means a dangerous pole. And do not climb the arrow points toward the problem.”
Abraham emphasized the urgency, noting that Xcel had identified these as “priority one” poles and promised replacements following inspections in 2020. The coalition claims there are approximately 100,000 compromised poles across the region. “We see them all over the Panhandle,” Abraham said. “We believe there’s 100,000 rotten poles. And as long as we don’t go look, Xcel can tell that story that everything’s fine.”
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S&P Global Platts – January 8, 2026
Copper supply gap to widen 24% by 2040 as electrification accelerates: study
Copper supply is expected to fall 10 million metric tons short of demand by 2040, creating a “systemic risk” for global industries as artificial intelligence, defense spending and electrification drive unprecedented consumption of the critical metal, a new study released Jan. 8 by S&P Global Energy and S&P Global Market Intelligence finds. The shortage would be 23.8% shy of the projected demand of 42 million mt by 2040, even as recycled copper scrap more than doubles to 10 million mt, according to the “Copper in the Age of AI: The Challenges of Electrification” study.
The supply gap threatens to constrain technological advancement and economic growth as copper becomes increasingly essential for AI data centers, electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure and defense systems, the report said.
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S&P Global Platts – January 8, 2026
Battery storage to drive lithium demand growth globally
Grid-scale battery energy storage systems will become a growing part of lithium consumption in 2026, underpinned by an increasing emphasis on grid stability amid the transition to renewable energy sources and expanding electrification, analysts and lithium producers said.
Energy storage serves as a crucial link between variability and reliability by storing surplus renewable energy during periods of overproduction and delivering when demand peaks. Batteries enable intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to be integrated more effectively and practically at scale, enhancing overall grid resiliency and sustainability.
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Daily Reporter – January 7, 2026
The data center rebellion is here, and it’s reshaping the political landscape
One float stood out among the tinsel and holiday cheer at the annual Christmas parade here: an unsightly data center with blinding industrial lights and smoke pouring out of its roof, towering menacingly over a helpless gingerbread house. This city bordering Tulsa is a battleground, one of many across the country where companies seeking to build massive data centers to win the AI race with China are coming up against the reality of local politics.
Sand Springs leaders were besieged with community anger after annexing an 827-acre agricultural property miles outside of town and launching into secret talks with a tech giant looking to use it for a sprawling data center. Hundreds of aggrieved voters showed up at community meetings. Swarms of protest signs are taking root along the rural roads.
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Clean Technica – January 1, 2026
A Green Hydrogen Innovator In Oklahoma Has A Message For Texas: Hold My Beer
Texas has emerged as a hotbed of green hydrogen activity in the US, supported in part by know-how borrowed from the oil and gas industry. Now another iconic fossil fuel state, Oklahoma, is jockeying for a piece of the action. A case in point is the Oklahoma City startup Tobe Energy, which has earned an investment from the home state fund Hurricane Ventures, along with a $1.8 million seed haul in September. So, what’s all the fuss about?
The main attraction is Tobe’s membrane-free electrolysis system for extracting hydrogen gas from water. Membrane-free is an atypical technology in the electrolysis circle, which is largely dependent on specialized membranes, so let’s take a brief look at the big picture.
Plain water could provide the hydrogen users of the world — of which there are many — with a more sustainable alternative to the standard method for procuring hydrogen, which involves squeezing it from natural gas or coal.
Regulatory
Politico – January 8, 2026
GOP reckons with support for foreign oil amid Venezuela tensions
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans spent the last year touting the importance of American energy independence and drilling domestically. But now the Trump administration is setting their sights on Venezuelan oil — forcing Republicans to either back foreign production or split with the White House. In the days since the administration arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, GOP lawmakers have by and large backed the operation — including Trump’s plans to control Venezuela’s oil exports and encourage American oil companies to renew their presence in the country.
But some Republicans have begun sounding the alarm about what an influx of foreign oil could mean for American oil producers. “I’ve certainly heard from our small producers in North Dakota that they are worried,” Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-N.D.) said Wednesday. “It’s important to our state, and the states like North Dakota really suffer when prices get too low. We definitely like to see … a higher price per barrel. And importing more doesn’t get us there.”
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Politico – January 8, 2026
House ready to vote on energy, environment spending bills*
The House is on track to pass bipartisan spending bills for the Department of Energy, the Interior Department, EPA and other agencies Thursday after GOP leaders suppressed a conservative rebellion. Republicans narrowly advanced the package of three fiscal 2026 appropriations bills on a 214-212 procedural vote Wednesday. If the House passes the “minibus” Thursday, the Senate could take it up as soon as next week.
Passage of the Interior-Environment, Energy-Water and Commerce-Justice-Science bills would be a significant step for congressional appropriators, who are racing to finalize and pass the remaining fiscal 2026 spending measures to avoid a partial government shutdown after Jan. 30. House leaders secured the support necessary to advance the minibus Wednesday after granting a number of concessions to conservatives who had criticized provisions in the legislation and demanded greater involvement in future funding negotiations. As part of the deal to keep the package alive, GOP leaders and appropriators agreed to remove an earmark that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Minnesota’s Democratic senators secured in the CJS measure that would have provided about $1.03 million for a Minnesota nonprofit dedicated to job training, housing support and other services. The organization is among many in Minnesota that has come under fire amid allegations of potential fraud.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Thursday January 8, 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 steadied on Thursday after their recent slide, while stocks retreated as investors assessed the implications of deepening geopolitical tensions and mixed U.S. labour market data.
U.S. crude rose 0.54% to $56.29 a barrel, while Brent crude futures advanced 0.55% to $60.29 per barrel.
That came as the U.S. seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean the same day, one sailing under Russia’s flag, as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas.
Developments in Venezuela continue to dominate headlines following the toppling of Nicolas Maduro, with most of the market reaction thus far playing out in commodities.
Oil prices have slid this week on the prospect of higher Venezuelan crude output, though they recovered on Thursday, with U.S. crude rising 0.54% to $56.29 a barrel, while Brent crude futures advanced 0.55% to $60.29 per barrel.
Top Stories
Bloomberg – January 7, 2026
Shell Signals Weak Oil Trading Result to Cap Rocky Year*
Shell Plc said its oil trading performance significantly worsened in the fourth quarter as crude prices slumped. Oil trading results for the fourth quarter are “expected to be significantly lower” compared with the previous three months, Shell said in a trading update on Thursday, ahead of an earnings report due early next month. Shell’s massive in-house trading business deals in oil, gas, fuels, chemicals, renewable power and carbon credits — trading both the company’s own production as well as supply from third parties. The energy major doesn’t disclose separate results for its traders, but the performance is closely watched as it can be a key driver of earnings.
Shell’s traders reduced risk taking in the first half of 2025 as tensions in the Middle East ratcheted up with Israel’s bombing of Iran and concern that Tehran might retaliate by harassing shipping in the vital Strait of Hormuz corridor. Last quarter, volatility eased as the oil market is widely seen heading to a supply glut, buffering the impact of global tensions. The Brent crude benchmark traded mostly within a narrow range between $60 and $65 a barrel in the quarter as production rose from and outside the OPEC+ alliance. After an 18% slide in 2025, prices are broadly forecast to decline further this year.
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pv magazine – January 7, 2026
ERCOT outperformed on interconnection in 2024 likely due to “connect and manage”
The ERCOT transmission grid operator in Texas outperformed other regional grid operators in executing interconnection agreements in 2024, as shown in the featured image above, according to an analysis by Berkeley Lab. ERCOT’s “connect and manage” approach to generator interconnection “does not require network upgrades for interconnections,” the analysis said, “instead managing grid congestion through redispatch and curtailment.” Generators may deliver energy through the transmission system on an “as available” basis.
“This approach differs from other balancing areas, and is likely one reason for the higher interconnection agreement rates seen in ERCOT.” ERCOT also reached more interconnection agreements than other grid operators as a percentage of its peak load in 2024, as shown below.
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Yahoo! News – January 7, 2026
Even with layoffs, Texas oil and gas poured billions into public budgets last year
The Texas oil and gas industry paid a near-record $27 billion in state and local taxes last year, the Texas Oil and Gas Association said Wednesday in its annual tax impact report. The tax impact, down 1% from the record-breaking $27.3 billion the previous year, amounts to roughly $74 million per day toward state and local services including public schools, roads and emergency response.
“Texas energy remains productive, reliable and the cornerstone of the Texas economy, and is globally essential, even in volatile markets,” TXOGA President Todd Staples said Wednesday during a media call.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 7, 2026
Trump and Oil Executives to Meet Friday to Talk About Venezuela*
President Trump intends to meet representatives of the three largest U.S. oil companies and other domestic producers at the White House on Friday to discuss making significant investments in Venezuela’s oil sector, according to people familiar with the matter.
The president said Saturday that American oil companies would pour billions of dollars into Venezuela after the U.S. incursion that culminated in the capture of strongman Nicolás Maduro. Representatives of Chevron, the only U.S. oil company active in Venezuela; ConocoPhillips; and Exxon Mobil are expected to attend the meeting, alongside other American oil executives, these people said.
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Politico – January 7, 2026
New Mexico, Oklahoma lease sale nets nearly $327M, BLM says*
The Bureau of Land Management pulled in almost $327 million from a lease sale on Tuesday, which included the highest oil and gas bid for an acre of land recorded since at least 1987. BLM, which is part of the Interior Department, leased 31 parcels in New Mexico and Oklahoma for more than $326.8 million.
The Latest TERse Tips
A high-profile member of the Russian Duma issued a chilling threat to the States following the seizure of two oil tankers believed to be part of a so-called “ghost fleet” as Aleksey Zhuravlyov, the first deputy head of the defence committee, went as far as to suggest nuclear weapons could be deployed in response, as per the “military doctrine” of the country — The Express (UK)
Cubans brace for even more economic devastation amid threat of no Venezuelan oil — Cuba’s economy, already in a deep crisis, will likely spiral even further — NBC News
At least two buyers, including MidOcean Energy LLC, have been lined up to purchase Energy Transfer LP’s Lake Charles LNG project after it suspended development last month — the sales and purchase agreements that ET has already signed would be transferred to those buyers along with the site and other assets held by ET subsidiaries, sources with knowledge of the matter told Natural Gas Intelligence*
About 70% of U.S. refining capacity runs most efficiently with heavier crude, according to the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade group. Those plants are concentrated on the Gulf Coast, where nine of the country’s 10 largest refineries are located. In recent years, Venezuela’s oil output has plunged and what little it produces has mostly been redirected to countries such as Cuba and China — The Wall Street Journal*
Favorable FERC Environmental Assessment Clears Path for Enhanced Southeast NatGas Transport, Reliability — see the FERC report here
Constellation has completed its acquisition of Calpine from Energy Capital Partners — see the press release
Lawsuit claims worker suffered ‘chemical exposure’ from sulfuric acid leak in Houston Ship Channel — KUHF (NPR Houston)
EOG Resources said on Wednesday that oversupply from Venezuela is driving oil prices down and it would last for several more quarters — Energy Now
Fitch Ratings has assigned a ‘AA-‘ rating to the following electric and gas system variable rate junior lien revenue refunding bonds to be issued by the city of San Antonio on behalf of San Antonio City Public Service (CPS Energy) — Fitch
As the heart of winter nears, experts are warning that your home heating costs could increase by more than $100 this season — WSMV
Noble Environmental has placed three new landfill renewable natural gas facilities into commercial service, expanding its pipeline-quality RNG production and methane capture operations — Pipeline & Gas Journal
This $8.5M Texas ranch went off-grid—and somehow got more luxurious — Houston Chronicle*
Oil & Gas Texas
CNBC – January 7, 2026
The debts that Venezuela owes ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil are not an immediate priority for the Trump administration after the overthrow of President Nicolás Maduro, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Wednesday. “The huge debts that are owed Conoco and Exxon, those are very real and need to be recompensed in the future,” Wright told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan. “But that’s a longer-term issue. That’s not a short-term issue.”
Conoco and Exxon filed arbitration cases against Venezuela after former President Hugo Chavez nationalized the oil industry in 2007. Venezuela owes Conoco about $10 billion and Exxon about $2 billion, according to a JPMorgan note published on Monday. The Trump administration’s immediate priority is stabilizing Venezuela, Wright said.
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San Francisco Examiner – January 7, 2026
Oil giant to continue supplying fuel after planned shutdown of major Bay Area refinery
Valero will idle its Benicia refinery beginning in 2026 while continuing to supply Northern California with gasoline through imports and existing inventories, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. In a statement released on Jan. 6, Newsom said Valero’s revised approach marked a shift from an earlier announcement that included the possibility of a full closure and exit from the Northern California market as early as this year.
“This marked a constructive development from an earlier announcement that included the possibility of full closure and exit from the Northern California market in early 2026,” Newsom’s office said. Under the updated plan, the Benicia refinery is set to continue producing gasoline through April 2026. After that, Valero plans to fully shut down the facility while importing gasoline to meet the demand in Northern California. State officials said the strategy is intended to maintain price stability and a steady supply as discussions about the refinery’s long-term future continue.
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Pipeline & Gas Journal – January 7, 2026
Enbridge Proposes Texas Eastern Line 31 Expansion to Add Mississippi Gas Capacity
Texas Eastern Transmission, LP has proposed an expansion of its interstate natural gas pipeline system in Mississippi aimed at supporting rising regional demand for reliable, lower-emissions energy supply. The Texas Eastern Line 31 Expansion Project would add up to 125,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of transportation capacity through a combination of new pipeline looping, a delivery lateral, and a new compressor station in Madison County, Mississippi.
The proposed scope includes the installation of approximately 10.2 miles of 36-inch-diameter pipeline looping an existing Texas Eastern line, along with a 1.7-mile, 16-inch delivery lateral designed to connect with Entergy’s planned Ridgeland Advanced Power Station. Texas Eastern also plans to construct a new Ridgeland Compressor Station in Madison County as part of the project.
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Center Square – December 31, 2025
Constitution Pipeline revives application with federal regulators
Developers of the long-contested Constitution Pipeline have reactivated an application with federal regulators that could allow for the delivery of natural gas produced in Pennsylvania to power up to 3 million homes in New York and New England. The status of a state-level environmental permit remains unclear. Developers are seeking a waiver for a permit in New York, where the project has met resistance.
Constitution, a subsidiary of Oklahoma-based Williams Companies, wants to build a 124-mile pipeline that would transport 650 million cubic feet natural gas per day produced in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus supply basin to a hub near Albany, New York. The gas would be transported from there to users in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine via other pipelines.
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Grist – January 7, 2026
Texas clears the way for petrochemical expansion as experts warn of health risks
Texas is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than Saudi Arabia or the global maritime industry. Its oil, gas, and petrochemical operations discharge tens of millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into the air each year, comprising almost one-fifth of such releases in the United States. It is the nation’s top emitter of the carcinogens benzene, ethylene oxide, and 1,3-butadiene.
It accounts for 75 percent of the petrochemicals made in the U.S. It is an engine of the world’s plastics industry, whose products clog oceans and landfills and, upon breaking down, infuse human bodies with potentially dangerous microplastics.
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Texas Observer – January 7, 2026
Why Houston Oil Majors Are Hesitant to Go All In on Venezuela
Related: It’s not just oil: How else Wall Street might benefit from Trump’s Venezuela actions — KUHF (NPR Houston)
President Donald Trump’s deadly invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president could be an unusually clear example of “blood for oil.” The president has nearly said as much himself. But one hitch is that Houston’s oil giants don’t immediately appear eager to buy what Trump is selling.
Following the administration’s military coup, Trump suggested he may go so far as to use U.S. tax dollars to directly reimburse the nation’s largest oil firms for the billions they’d need to invest to repair and modernize the South American country’s dilapidated oil and gas infrastructure. The offer ups the ante on officials’ previous pledge, made in the days running up to the seizure of Nicolás Maduro, to compensate Big Oil firms for assets previously nationalized by the Venezuelan state in exchange for the companies’ investment.
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Houston Chronicle – January 7, 2026
Trump, ‘piracy’ and a ‘dark fleet’: Why a Venezuelan oil tanker sits offshore Galveston*
The United States seized two additional oil tankers Wednesday in what the Trump administration describes as sanctions enforcement related to its offensive in Venezuela. The Venezuelan government calls it “piracy.” The two latest vessels join a third parked offshore Galveston, and another that was seized and released. The Trump administration continues to hunt down more than a dozen other vessels that it says violated sanctions for carrying allegedly illicit oil for terrorist groups or other sanctioned countries.
Caught in a limbo governed by geopolitics and conflicting laws, the prolonged presence of at least one tanker offshore Galveston raises the question: what will happen to the oil? The first vessel, seized Dec. 10, has loomed off the coast of Galveston for weeks. Named Skipper, it sits near refineries capable of processing Venezuelan crude. Some reports have suggested that the administration might send smaller vessels to offload the oil from the Skipper and bring it ashore. Experts say, however, that is unlikely.
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Texas Tribune – January 7, 2026
Trump says the U.S. will fix Venezuela’s oil industry. Texas experts say the idea faces hurdles.
“The Permian has been the best place … to do business for years and we had a surrounding infrastructure that made that attractive,” said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association. Getting U.S. companies to produce Venezuelan oil is going to require “a massive infusion of capital and that has to be acquired from willing investors,” Staples said. “Considering the circumstances globally … that tells me it’s going to be years in the making.”
U.S. and Texas oil companies have largely been silent regarding Trump’s insistence that they would fund the rebirth of Venezuela’s oil industry. Chevron, headquartered in Houston, is the only U.S. company still operating in Venezuela after former President Hugo Chávez in 2007 nationalized assets belonging to U.S. and other Western companies. The company has seen its share price rise in the aftermath of the U.S. military operation that brought Maduro and his wife to New York, where they face federal charges related to drug smuggling and weapons violations.
Oil & Gas National & International
Oil Price – January 7, 2026
The UAE’s $150 Billion Gas Bet Could Upend Global LNG Markets
There is a lot more to the UAE’s recently announced US$150 billion turbo-boost to its gas sector than meets the eye. It is true that it should deliver multiple economic benefits for the Middle Eastern country on a scale disproportionately larger than its small geographical size. One is gas self-sufficiency by 2030; another is increased feedstock for high-value petrochemicals production; and a third is powering a dramatic expansion in its artificial intelligence capabilities.
However, it is also true that such major buildout of its gas sector will push the UAE rapidly up the ranks of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers — and with that comes a host of geopolitical ramifications. So, what exactly does the gas expansion look like, and what precisely is the UAE planning?
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AFP/My Texas Daily – January 7, 2026
US oil giant Chevron interested in Russian Lukoil’s foreign assets: report
US oil giant Chevron and private equity firm Quantum Capital Group have partnered on a bid for sanctioned Russian oil company Lukoil’s international assets, valued at $22 billion, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. The offer targets Lukoil’s entire non-Russian portfolio, including oil and gas production, refining facilities and over 2,000 filling stations spanning Europe, Asia and the Middle East, according to people familiar with the matter cited by the FT.
If successful, Chevron and Quantum would divide the assets between them and commit to long-term ownership and operation, a pledge expected to appeal to the administration of US President Donald Trump, the report said. The bid is led by Quantum, working with its London-based portfolio company Artemis Energy. The offer price was not immediately available, the FT reported.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 7, 2026
U.S. Escalates Venezuela Oil Embargo With Two Tanker Seizures*
The U.S. accelerated its campaign against a shadow fleet of tankers that ship Venezuelan oil, with the military forcibly boarding a ship being escorted by the Russian navy and seizing another tanker near the Caribbean Sea. The confiscation of the two tankers extended an extraordinary string of actions on the high seas by U.S. Defense Department and Coast Guard personnel, which are targeting vessels around Venezuela that the administration says are engaging in deceptive practices and carrying illicit oil shipments. Four vessels are now in U.S. custody, and the quasi-embargo in the Caribbean has crippled Venezuelan oil exports.
The Justice Department is monitoring several more tankers for similar enforcement action, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X. The seizures mark another escalation in President Trump’s pledge to take control of the Venezuelan oil industry, coming in the days after the U.S. deposed the country’s leader Nicolás Maduro and said Venezuela would give the U.S. 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil—as much as 15% of the country’s output. One broker estimated the value at between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion.
Early on Wednesday, a special-operations force boarded a ship called the Marinera, a tanker formerly known as the Bella 1. The Coast Guard had been pursuing the vessel for two weeks on an odyssey that began near Venezuela and ended south of Iceland, U.S. officials said. Over that time, the ship—which wasn’t carrying any oil—changed its name and claimed Russian protection.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 7, 2026
Cuba Is Already on the Brink. Maduro’s Ouster Brings It Closer to Collapse.*
Elderly Cubans are digging through garbage for scraps of food in Havana. In the country’s second city, Santiago, crowds have gathered, blaring music by Cuban exiles such as Gloria Estefan and Willy Chirino, who sings “Our day is coming soon.” The U.S. ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has jolted this country of fewer than 10 million people, which has long relied on Venezuela for oil imports that have barely kept its tiny economy from collapsing.
It opens a new and perilous chapter for the island’s Communist regime during an economic implosion that already rivals the crisis suffered by Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago. In poorer cities, people are openly speculating about whether the U.S. will topple the government of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the successor to Raúl and Fidel Castro, the siblings who led the Cuban Revolution in 1959 that sent shock waves across Latin America.
“They are nervous,” Manuel Cuesta Morúa, a Havana-based political activist, said of the government. “Repression will increase, it’s the typical response.” Cuba’s state security apparatus has long had a tight grip on all levels of society, from workplaces to schools or concert halls. But Maduro’s capture risks upending the government’s control of every street, its deep surveillance system and its vast network of snitches, say Cuban dissidents and former officials.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 7, 2026
Trump Team Works Up Sweeping Plan to Control Venezuelan Oil for Years to Come*
President Trump and his advisers are planning a sweeping initiative to dominate the Venezuelan oil industry for years to come, and the president has told aides he believes his efforts could help lower oil prices to his favored level of $50 a barrel, according to people familiar with the matter. A plan under consideration envisions the U.S. exerting some control over Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, including acquiring and marketing the bulk of the company’s oil production, people familiar with the matter said.
If successful, the plan could effectively give the U.S. stewardship of most of the oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere, when factoring in deposits in the U.S. and other countries where U.S. companies control production. It could also fulfill two of the administrations’ primary goals: to box Russia and China out of Venezuela and to push energy prices lower for U.S. consumers. Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of lowering oil prices to $50 a barrel, his preferred level, two senior administration officials said.
But oil prices are already low, with the U.S. benchmark hovering around $56 a barrel Wednesday, and Trump has struggled to persuade U.S. oil-and-gas producers to crank out more crude and help him accomplish his political goals. Many companies see $50 a barrel as a threshold below which it becomes unprofitable to drill, and a sustained period of low oil prices could decimate the U.S. shale industry, which has been a key backer of the president.
“The American energy industry and most importantly the American people and the Venezuelan people are going to hugely benefit from the president’s control of Venezuela’s oil, which was previously used to fund Maduro’s illegitimate narcoterrorism regime,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. PdVSA didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment. The company confirmed in a statement posted on social media that the U.S. and PdVSA have been holding negotiations for the sale of crude oil volumes, with those talks based on a commercial transaction.
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S&P Global Platts – January 7, 2026
US plans to lift oil blockade on Venezuela with oil proceeds controlled by US: Wright
The US is planning to lift its oil embargo on Venezuela and control the proceeds from the sales of Venezuelan oil, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Jan. 7. The oil will be sold to US refineries and to buyers around the world, but the sales will be done by the US government and deposited into accounts controlled by the US government, Wright said at the Goldman Sachs Energy, CleanTech & Utilities Conference in Miami.
“From there, those funds can flow back into Venezuela to benefit the Venezuelan people, but we need to have that leverage and that control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela,” Wright said. In the short term, the US had a blockade to pinch cash flow to Venezuela and remove the heads of the regime, Wright said.
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Bloomberg – January 7, 2026
With Maduro Out, Wall Street Chases After Venezuela’s Riches*
Bond traders talked up the potential. Energy investors had a glint in their eyes. Few foresaw the US’s brazen overnight capture of Nicolás Maduro. But the wealth that could be unleashed by regime change in Venezuela was on many Wall Street minds in the months leading up to the Trump administration’s shocking move. Weeks before his removal, analysts at Citigroup Inc. predicted gains of as much as 60% on the nation’s bonds if the president were replaced. At packed conferences and seminars, other strategists opined on the potential profit a new regime could offer to the holders of some of the country’s $60 billion of bonds. As pressure on Maduro mounted, traders piled into the debt, sparking a rebound.
Investors including American energy and shipping businessman Harry Sargeant III pressed the Trump administration to create a more favorable business environment in Venezuela, and touted the upside for the US. Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management had already spent years fighting over Venezuela’s most valuable foreign asset alongside a consortium of other investors. As Maduro pleaded not guilty on Monday to US charges in a narco-terrorism case against him, the rewards were evident. In public markets, bondholders grabbed a one-day gain of some $4 billion and saw hope for a restructuring that would unlock more profit. And for private capital firms and energy investors, Donald Trump was dangling an even bigger prize, pledging the US would spend billions to fix Venezuela’s failing oil infrastructure.
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Bloomberg – January 7, 2026
China’s Top Oil Firms Turn to Beijing for Guidance on Venezuela*
Leading Chinese oil companies with interests in Venezuela have asked Beijing for guidance on how to protect their investments as Washington cranks up pressure on the Latin American country to increase its economic ties with the US. State-owned firms led by China National Petroleum Corp. raised concerns this week with government agencies and sought advice from officials, in an effort to align their responses with Beijing’s diplomatic strategy and to salvage existing claims to some of the world’s largest oil reserves, according to people familiar with the situation. They asked not to be identified as the discussions are private.
The companies, closely monitoring developments even before the US seized President Nicolas Maduro at the weekend, are also conducting their own assessments of the situation on the ground, the people said. Top Beijing officials are separately reviewing events and trying to better understand corporate exposure, while planning for scenarios including a worst case where China’s investments would go to zero, they added.
While it is typical for government-backed firms to maintain close ties with officials in Beijing, the emergency consultations underscore the stakes for Chinese majors, caught off-guard by Washington’s raid and by the rapid escalation of efforts to establish a US sphere of influence in the Americas. Beyond the immediate impact of US actions, all are concerned about long-term prospects, the people said.
Houston Chronicle – January 6, 2026
Trump says the U.S. will fix Venezuela’s oil industry. But remember what happened with Iraq?*
On Saturday, after the U.S. struck Venezuela and removed its president, President Donald Trump vowed that U.S. oil companies would fix Venezuela’s “broken” petroleum industry. For me, the news provoked déjà vu. I know, from experience, that this won’t be easy. More than two decades ago, I was invited to Washington to explain to policy makers how hard it would be to restore Iraq’s damaged oil fields in the aftermath of a war with the United States.
Years of sanctions, a war-damaged electrical grid and pipeline system, and a poor practice of disposing of unwanted refined heavy fuel oil by injecting it into oil field reservoirs had taken a huge toll on Iraq’s oil industry. Iraq’s oil production was limping along at 1.5 million barrels a day in 2003 when the U.S. militarily removed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power.
In the end, it took more than 10 years and billions of dollars of foreign direct investment before Iraq was able could restore its oil production to 3.5 million barrels per day — the level at which it had been producing before Iraq invaded Kuwait. Looking out to the future of Venezuela, my opinion is that restoring Venezuelan oil production could be even more difficult and complex than Iraq.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
pv magazine – January 7, 2026
Big Tech turns to solar and storage to bypass grid bottlenecks
Hyperscale data center developers are co-locating generation and storage to avoid interconnection queues. The traditional grid is failing to meet the power requirements of generative AI, said Wood Mackenzie. Developers added 45 GW to U.S. project pipelines in the third quarter of 2025, according to a Wood Mackenzie Q3 data center report. The industry is shifting toward energy parks that integrate solar and battery storage on site.
The U.S. planned solar and storage pipeline reached 245 GW of planned capacity as of mid-October. The growth is driven by speculative projects and renewable deals signed by hyperscalers, said the report. Texas accounts for more than a quarter of pipeline capacity. The pipeline in the state nearly doubled from 35 GW in the first quarter to 67 GW in the third quarter.
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RTO Insider – January 7, 2026
FERC Defends Order 1920’s Tx Planning Changes Against Appeals*
FERC is defending its landmark Order 1920 against appeals, arguing the rule for long-term transmission planning and cost allocation is a necessary update within its authority, building on past orders like 888 and 1000, and essential for grid reliability and accommodating the energy transition, despite criticism that it oversteps state roles and promotes renewables. The January 5 brief, filed in response to rehearing requests, emphasized that the rule ensures just and reasonable rates by having planners consider long-term needs, benefits (like reliability, congestion, and cost savings), and states’ input on cost allocation
Key Aspects of Order 1920: Long-Term Planning: Mandates 20-year regional transmission planning, using multiple scenarios, with reassessments every five years. Cost Allocation: Requires costs to be assigned roughly based on benefits, with states involved in proposing allocation methods. Benefit Evaluation: Uses seven specific benefits (e.g., avoided reliability costs, production cost savings, congestion relief) to evaluate projects. State Involvement: Enhanced the role of state regulators in the planning and cost allocation process through Order 1920-A.
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Power Technology – January 7, 2026
SolarMax and Navboot Holdco sign EPC deal for Texas battery project
SolarMax Technology’s subsidiary SolarMax Renewable Energy Provider has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement with Navboot Holdco for a utility-scale battery storage project in Corpus Christi, Texas, US. The battery storage EPC contract is valued at nearly $258.1m and covers full-scope EPC services for a 600 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy storage system (BESS) and related high-voltage interconnection infrastructure.
Under the terms of the contract, SolarMax will provide design, engineering, procurement, installation, construction, testing, start-up and commissioning services for the new BESS project.
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KTXS – January 7, 2026
Windmills dismantled in Taylor County as AES shifts to safer, efficient technology
Hundreds of windmills are being dismantled across Taylor County as a wind energy company transitions to more energy-efficient alternatives. According to the AES Wind Energy Company the demolition is part of a broader effort, to make improvements to existing structures, incorporating new technologies for safety and energy efficiency.
Earlier this year, the company presented a plan to the Taylor County Commissioners Court to replace some of its aging turbines with the improved equipment in exchange for a long-term tax abatement. However, county leaders opposed the request due to the company’s history of limited support for local emergency services, despite posing fire safety dangers that require those services.
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Review Energy – January 7, 2026
U.S. forecasts renewable energy boom: 1.06 TW by 2035
The United States is set to more than double its renewable energy capacity, reaching approximately 1.06 TW by 2035, up from around 414.5 GW in 2024, according to GlobalData, a leading provider of data and analytics. Renewable energy remains the primary driver of new capacity additions in the U.S., supported by state-level clean energy standards, long-term utility procurement programs, and sustained corporate power purchase agreements.
Solar power is expected to see the largest expansion, with installed capacity projected to grow from roughly 231.4 GW in 2024 to about 737.8 GW by 2035. Growth will be driven by state-level public procurement targets, distributed generation policies, net metering frameworks, and large-scale utility contracts in key markets such as Texas, California, and the Midwest. Onshore wind capacity is also expected to increase from approximately 156 GW in 2024 to nearly 269 GW by 2035, supported by long-term utility contracts and state clean energy standards in high-resource regions.
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KAVU (Victoria) – January 7, 2026
Major transmission upgrade coming to Wharton County area
A major transmission infrastructure upgrade is coming to the Crossroads. The upgrade is focused on addressing thermal overload, congestion and aging infrastructure challenges in the Southwest Houston area. Since 2018, significant renewable energy generation (solar, storage, wind) has developed near the 345 kV transmission lines in Fort Bend and Wharton Counties along the Hillje to W.A. Parish corridor.
The project includes modifications to an existing substation, as well as the construction of a new substation, both located in Hillje. The project involves conductor upgrades, substation equipment upgrades, and some line relocations at a significant investment level, with completion targeted before 2028 summer peak demand.
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Associated Press/ABC News – January 7, 2026
Trump’s offshore wind project freeze draws lawsuits from states and developers
Offshore wind developers and states are suing the Trump administration over its order to suspend work for at least 90 days on five large-scale projects under construction off the East Coast. The Norwegian company Equinor and the Danish energy company Orsted are the latest to challenge the suspension order, with the limited liability companies for their projects filing civil suits late Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Connecticut and Rhode Island filed their own request at that federal court on Monday seeking a preliminary injunction.
The administration announced Dec. 22 it was suspending leases for five offshore wind projects because of national security concerns. Its announcement did not reveal specifics about those concerns. President Donald Trump has been hostile to renewable energy technologies that produce electricity cleanly, particularly offshore wind, and has instead prioritized oil, coal and natural gas that emit carbon pollution when burned.
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KUHF (NPR Houston) – December 30, 2025
Clean energy is surging despite political attacks. But a slowdown may be looming
Over the past year, the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans have waged a sweeping campaign against renewable energy, throwing a fast-growing industry into turmoil. The administration has used federal agencies to try to slow or stop the development of wind and solar projects. And this summer, the GOP-controlled Congress voted to get rid of tax credits for renewable energy, threatening to drive up the cost of projects.
As a result of those moves, the United States is forecast to add a lot less power from renewables in the coming years than analysts previously expected, according to the International Energy Agency.
Regulatory
Politico – January 7, 2026
Senate Dems’ demands on permitting go beyond offshore wind
Top Senate Democrats are pressing the Trump administration on more than just offshore wind as a condition for resuming permitting talks. Last month, Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) halted bipartisan negotiations because of the Interior Department’s decision to stop construction of several offshore wind projects in the Atlantic.
On Tuesday, Heinrich said he would also continue the pause on permitting talks until Interior Secretary Doug Burgum lifts what Democrats describe as a “shadow ban” on solar energy that has stalled projects nationwide. “There are these very pedestrian things, like rights of way, that are all landing on the secretary’s desk, and none of it’s moving,” Heinrich said. “All these electrons that we potentially could add to the grid and bring down prices are tied up on the secretary’s desk, and that is not an acceptable way of doing business.”
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday January 7, 2026
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
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Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Oil prices declined on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said Venezuela will be “turning over” 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) fell 78 cents, or 1.37%, to $56.35 a barrel by 0200 GMT.
Brent crude futures fell 61 cents, or 1%, to $60.09 a barrel.
Both benchmark prices fell more than $1 in the previous trading session as the market weighed expectations of ample global supply this year against uncertainty around Venezuelan crude output after the U.S. capture of the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro.
Top Stories
Pipeline & Gas Journal – January 6, 2026
Energy Transfer Expects Capex of $5.5 Billion in 2026
Pipeline company Energy Transfer said on Jan. 6 it expects to invest $5 billion to $5.5 billion in capital in 2026, primarily on its natural gas network projects. This follows the company’s announcement last month to prioritize natural gas pipeline projects for their superior risk and return profiles and move away from liquefied natural gas due to concerns of global oversupply.
The company had said it is suspending the development of its Lake Charles LNG export facility in Louisiana, while increasing the transportation capacity of its Transwestern pipeline’s planned expansion project in the Desert Southwest region to meet increased customer demand. Energy Transfer on Jan. 6 said it expects several natural gas pipeline projects to ramp up or come online in 2026, including the Nederland Flexport NGL, Mustang Draw I and Mustang Draw II processing plants in the Permian Basin as well as natural gas pipeline projects serving data center facilities in Texas.
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World Oil – January 6, 2026
Continental Resources expands Vaca Muerta position through Pan American Energy agreement
Continental Resources has signed an asset sale and purchase agreement with Pan American Energy to acquire non-operated interests in four blocks within Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale play, further strengthening its footprint in one of the world’s most prolific unconventional basins. The assets are located in the Neuquén basin and will remain operated by Pan American Energy. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The agreement builds on Continental’s recent expansion efforts in Argentina. In November, the company signed a separate sale and purchase agreement—subject to closing conditions—to acquire operated interests in the Los Toldos II Oeste block, signaling a broader strategy to establish a long-term position in Vaca Muerta through both operated and non-operated investments.
“Vaca Muerta is one of the most compelling shale plays in the world, and we’re thrilled to continue to invest in Argentina and build Continental’s position through this agreement with Pan American Energy,” said Doug Lawler, president and CEO of Continental Resources. He added that Pan American Energy’s deep basin experience creates opportunities for technical collaboration as development activity advances.
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Reuters – January 7, 2026
Trump announces plan to sell Venezuelan oil as US signals it is in talks with Caracas*
President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled a plan to refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stuck in Venezuela under U.S. blockade, in a further sign that Washington is coordinating with the Venezuelan government since capturing President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro is in a New York jail awaiting drug charges after the Saturday morning raid that the U.S. estimates killed about 75 people, according to a Washington Post report citing officials familiar with the matter.
The Latest TERse Tips
Targa Resources Corp.said Tuesday it’s closed the previously announced acquisition of Stakeholder Midstream, LLC for $1.25 billion in cash, effective date of January 1, 2026 — see the press release
Mexico overtook Venezuela to become Cuba’s top oil supplier in 2025, according to industry data, helping support the communist island as Trump renewed his vow to strike Mexican cartels after capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro — Financial Times*
Iran Protests Swell in Tehran’s Bazaar — Iran arrests hundreds, disrupts internet as currency falls to new low and protests enter a second week — The Wall Street Journal*
Longtime climate advocate Sen. Ed Markey is demanding answers from President Donald Trump over the role that oil companies might have played in his decision to attack Venezuela and arrest its president — Politico*
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego wants Congress to forestall a U.S. takeover of Greenland, requiring President Donald Trump to get lawmakers’ approval for any such action after this weekend’s military incursion into Venezuela — Politico*
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management earned as much as $1 million last year from a business often associated with oil and gas development and owned interests in oil leases in two states — Politico*
George David Banks, who served as a senior White House adviser on energy and climate during the first Trump administration, has a new job leading a business advocacy group — he took over on Jan. 1 as president and CEO of the Washington-based American Council for Capital Formation, a center-right business advocacy group with an affiliated think tank — Politico*
A large number of customers of Rusk County Electric Cooperative (RCEO) were without power due to an issue with the company’s transmission line Tuesday — KYTX
Oil & Gas Texas
Houston Chronicle – January 6, 2026
A Houston company faces a record $9.6 million in federal fines for its role in a major oil spill that mystified experts and environmentalists for months following the November 2023 incident. The release of 1.1 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico was believed to be among the 10 largest to affect American waters in 40 years of tracking, according to the environmental group Healthy Gulf. But years passed without information about what caused the spill.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, which regulates pipelines, offered clarity Monday. It said in a statement that Houston-based Panther Operating Co. faces the “largest civil penalty ever” for alleged failures leading up to and during the incident involving its pipeline offshore Louisiana, Main Pass Oil Gathering. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a June report that the Houston pipeline operator failed to act promptly during the incident and also failed to assess the impact of a series of major hurricanes on the pipeline. Hurricanes move sand and mud along the sea floor, rattling attached pipelines in ways that can cause damage, it said.
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Pipeline & Gas Journal – January 6, 2026
Phillips 66 Says Gulf Coast Refineries Can Process 100,000 bpd of Venezuelan Crude
Related: ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge refinery in Louisiana and its Beaumont refinery in Texas are together capable of processing 1.15 million barrels heavy crude oil per day — Center Square
Refiner Phillips 66 can run Venezuelan crude at two U.S. Gulf Coast refineries as supplies become available, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Mitchell said on a conference call on Jan. 6. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Energy, CleanTech & Utilities Conference, Mitchell said its Lake Charles and Sweeny refineries in Texas have the capacity to process 100,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crudes.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. would “take control” of Venezuela after U.S. forces arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, a step that could open the door for U.S. energy companies to seek access to the country’s vast oil reserves.
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Inside Climate News – January 6, 2026
Venezuelan Oil Brought to the U.S. Would Be Refined in Black Gulf Communities
On Saturday morning, John Beard woke up to news that he’d been dreading, but preparing for: A global oil crisis could hit closer to home in Texas. The southeastern part of the state is home to more than a dozen oil refineries, and he’d spent decades working at one of them. But after attending more funerals than he could count for loved ones who died from cancer, he began to feel differently about the job.
Beard has spent the past year doing “extensive work” in Europe, warning allies about the dangers of expanding fossil fuels and urging them to prepare to “stand up and push back” against U.S. and industry plans under the Trump administration. He has also been coordinating with local advocates to scrutinize new industrial proposals in Port Arthur, his hometown in southeast Texas, which is home to several oil refineries.
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Spectrum News – January 6, 2026
Venezuela military operation will not impact TX oil market, economist says
During a press conference, Trump said large U.S. oil companies will go into Venezuela and “spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, and start making money for the country.” However, Hirs says that’s not feasible. “Producers, especially those in Texas, are really getting squeezed right now, and I don’t think they’re gonna take very kindly to, you know, ‘Here, go down to Venezuela and spend billions of dollars,’” he said, adding it could take up to five years for those producers to see a return on investment.
He says U.S. consumers have bigger issues to worry about. “Stable economic policies are required. That is something the Trump administration needs to place at the top of the list,” he said. However, in the meantime, some Texans remain optimistic.
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East Daley – January 6, 2026
Chevron to Build Data-Center Power Campus in Permian, Supporting New Basin Demand
Chevron (CVX) is emerging as a player in AI power generation. The major plans to build its first natural gas-fired power complex for a data center in West Texas, part of a trend East Daley Analytics anticipates to take advantage of abundant Permian Basin gas.
Chevron aims to make a final investment decision on the project by early 2026 and begin generating power in 2027, the company announced in November, starting with 2.5 GW of capacity and possibly expanding to 5 GW for a single data-center client. The facility is designed to operate behind the meter, delivering electricity directly to the colocated data center. The project supports CVX’s transition from a conventional fuel supplier, to directly selling electrons to hyperscale consumers.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – December 30, 2025
Haynes Boone: ‘Banks still view hydrocarbons as investable’*
Banks have lowered their near-term oil and gas price forecasts but are a bit more bullish in the long term, according to a recent survey of lenders. Law firm Haynes Boone surveys banks that lend to the oil and gas industry twice per year, and its responses from 29 lenders for fall 2025 show a slight souring on 2026 oil prices.
“A favorable production environment fueled by OPEC and Trump administration policies has increased production to record highs in recent months,” Haynes Boone explained. “But the downward pricing pressure generated by this supply has possibly been kept from sinking oil prices lower by the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Venezuela on the supply side, as well as Trump’s rollback of fuel economy standards and continued Federal Reserve rate cuts on the demand side.” Banks also are predicting lower natural gas prices in 2026.
Oil & Gas National & International
The Hill – January 6, 2026
Trump: Venezuela to turn over 30-50M barrels of oil to US
President Trump said late Tuesday that Venezuela is going to turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S., an announcement that follows the recent operation in which U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
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S&P Global Platts – January 6, 2026
Venezuelan crude could displace Mexican fuel oil amid USGC supply glut: market sources
A potential increase in Venezuelan crude flows to the US Gulf Coast could place downward pressure on fuel oil prices in the region, amid strong competition that might displace product currently arriving from Mexico, according to US-based fuel oil sources. Mexico and Venezuela both produce heavy crudes with plenty of residual fuel oil, the base for high sulfur fuel oil.
“If refiners are able to purchase sufficient quantities of Venezuelan crude oil to process in their refineries and fill up their cokers, that really means that Mexico would probably have to look at markets outside of this hemisphere to place their oil,” a US-based fuel oil trader said.
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Energies Media – December 30, 2025
Saudi Aramco inks $11 billion lease-back agreement for Jafurah gas field infrastructure
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has long been the epicenter of the global energy market. With vast amounts of natural gas and oil, the Kingdom has a welcome reputation as a leader in the advancement of the sector globally. With the new year only a few short weeks away and the inevitable end of Russia’s dominance in the energy sector, the world is fostering new partnerships that aim to strengthen the sector for years to come. The new lease-back agreement is an exemplar of the Kingdom’s ability to develop new projects across many energy sectors.
Aramco, a Saudi-owned energy company with vast resources, has announced a new $11 billion lease and leaseback deal involving its Jafurah gas processing facilities. The new deal allows the leasing of the site to a consortium of investors led by the Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a division of BlackRock. The Jafurah site is the Kingdom’s largest non-associated gas development.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
San Antonio Express-News – January 6, 2026
Major Texas city weighs pros, cons behind $1.5B data center
It didn’t pass. It didn’t fail. And now it’s back. A massive data center proposal that once stalled at San Marcos City Hall is now reentering the city’s approval process, months after a divided City Council vote and sustained neighborhood opposition left its future uncertain. The $1.5 billion project, planned for nearly 200 acres off Francis Harris Lane, could reshape the area if developers ultimately secure the necessary approvals.
City staff did not provide a comment ahead of publication but directed MySA to the December 16 City Council recap. On December 16, 2025, San Marcos City Council received a discussion-only briefing on a request from Fort Worth-based Highlander SM One LLC and landowners Donald and Germaine Tuff. They are seeking to amend the city’s Preferred Scenario Map, a component of San Marcos’ Comprehensive Plan, to reclassify roughly 199.5 acres from conservation/cluster to commercial/employment low, according to city records. This designation change would clear the way for construction of a multi-building data center campus.
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Utility Dive – January 6, 2026
ERCOT’s large load queue jumped almost 300% last year
Data centers are driving a rapid increase in the number and capacity of large load interconnection requests in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas region, according to a December report from the grid operator. The state is exploring a slate of resources — including transmission, solar, storage and gas generation — to meet the growing demand. Grid planners in Texas are assessing more than 233 GW of large load interconnection requests, with more than 70% coming from data centers, an official said at a Dec. 9, 2025, ERCOT board of directors meeting.
The total capacity exploring grid interconnection near the end of 2025 increased almost 300% over the 2024 year-end total, ERCOT Vice President of System Planning and Weatherization Kristi Hobbs said. She presented totals to the board that were slightly updated from those in the report. “We continue to see, week after week, more interest in connecting to the ERCOT grid,” Hobbs said at the meeting. “We have outgrown the process that was established for reviewing these large loads.”
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pv magazine – January 3, 2026
Nofar USA wins bid to acquire solar assets of bankrupt Pine Gate Renewables
Nofar USA has emerged as the successful bidder for 979 MW of utility-scale solar assets posted for auction as part of developer Pine Gate Renewables bankruptcy-driven restructuring. The $285 million cash transaction marks a consolidation of assets as Pine Gate proceeds through a court-supervised restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
The portfolio consists of nine solar projects across North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Alabama. According to court filings, the deal carries an implied enterprise value of approximately $575 million, which includes the assumption of $260 million in project-level debt and an additional $30 million in committed investments.
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Austin American-Statesman – December 31, 2025
At this year’s Texas Energy Summit in Austin, one topic dominated every hallway conversation: the strain that large power users — especially data centers — are putting on the grid. We focused on a different question that’s starting to capture the attention of policymakers across the country: What if households were part of the solution? What if the electric utility of the future didn’t just serve homes, but was built around them?
Texas stands at a crossroads. The promise of the data center boom is undeniable: new jobs, local investment and tax revenue. With nearly 400 data centers already operating across the state and more on the way, Texas is becoming a global hub for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. But this growth is accompanied by surging electricity demand that threatens to overwhelm the grid and drive up prices for Texans. For decades, utilities have treated homes as passive consumers. But in the energy system of the future, homes will be active participants. When equipped with a heat pump, rooftop solar and battery storage, the home of the future won’t just consume energy; it will generate, store and dispatch its own clean energy, reducing peak demand, increasing flexibility and stabilizing the grid. That’s the vision behind Rewiring America’s Homegrown Energy framework.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 6, 2026
The Fight Over Making Data Centers Power Down to Avoid Blackouts*
Power-hungry data centers risk pushing parts of the U.S. power grid toward failure. Some technology companies are fighting a potential solution: disconnecting the data centers from the grid when electricity is in short supply. Across the U.S., tensions are mounting as companies including Google, Amazon.com and Microsoft debate with utility executives whether their electricity needs can be met without causing blackouts during times of extreme demand.
Power officials have been raising concerns that the grid isn’t equipped to handle the sheer number of data centers tech companies are seeking to build. They say it will take many years to build new transmission lines and power plants needed to support the surge in demand while keeping the lights on for other customers. Meanwhile, they are working to find ways to connect data centers to the grid sooner without jeopardizing the reliability of the system. Some have proposed either requiring or encouraging data centers to stop using it when there is a risk of blackouts, either by powering down or switching to backup electricity supplies.
“It’s a high-stakes fight, because hundreds of billions of dollars or trillions of dollars of capital are on the line,” said Michael Webber, an engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin and former chief technology officer at investment firm Energy Impact Partners. “Power is the critical bottleneck.” The problem is most acute within PJM Interconnection, the organization responsible for overseeing a power market spanning 13 states in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region. A surge in data-center development there already has pushed electricity prices higher and made the threat of blackouts more likely.
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OK Energy Today – January 5, 2026
SPP moves to add 298-MW Texas solar project near Oklahoma line
The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) has taken formal steps to add a large utility-scale solar project near the Oklahoma–Texas border to its regional transmission grid. SPP recently filed a Generator Interconnection Agreement (GIA) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to allow Rabbit’s Foot Solar, LLC to connect to the SPP system, with Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) designated as the transmission owner.
The proposed Rabbit’s Foot Solar project would be built in Bowie County, Texas, immediately adjacent to southeast Oklahoma, placing it near the edge of SPP’s 14-state footprint.
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Santa Fe New Mexican – January 4, 2026
Utility regulators side with private equity firm in disclosure debate
As state utility regulators are poised to consider whether to allow Bernhard Capital Partners to purchase New Mexico’s largest natural gas utility, they declined to give weight to some issues raised by advocates regarding violations and other concerns related to the firm’s other investments.
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission recently sided with the Louisiana-based private equity firm in a recent decision rejecting an appeal by advocacy group New Energy Economy requesting to force the firm to disclose records of violations by affiliate companies. While such evidence has factored heavily into some past regulatory proceedings, attorneys for Bernhard Capital have resisted providing such records, citing the firm’s structure.
Regulatory
Politico – January 5, 2026
EPA nears finish line on key power sector regs*
The Trump administration is closing in on completion of two top Clean Air Act priorities: repeal of stronger air toxics regulations for existing coal- and oil-fired power plants as well as emissions standards for hundreds of natural-gas-fueled electricity-generating facilities expected to be built in the future. EPA shipped prepublication drafts of the two rules to the White House regulations shop for a routine review just before Christmas, according to a government tracking website. Both are set to be made final this month, court papers indicate.
One would scrap the tightened limits on mercury, a neurotoxin particularly dangerous to children, and other hazardous air pollutants issued two years ago during President Joe Biden’s term. That update reversed EPA’s decision during President Donald Trump’s first term that no significant changes were needed to what are formally known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. Under Biden, the strengthened regulations closed a loophole on mercury pollution for about 10 plants that burn a low-grade form of coal known as lignite. They also slashed a soot emissions rate for all coal-fired plants that serves as a regulatory stand-in for releases of arsenic, nickel and other hazardous metals.
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Politico – January 5, 2026
Congress looks to increase funding for key trade agencies*
Key trade agencies are set to receive a funding boost thanks to the minibus spending package congressional Republicans aim to pass this month. Top appropriators in the House and Senate on Monday released details of the bipartisan bill to fund the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Interior and Justice, as well as water programs, the EPA and federal science initiatives through the end of the current fiscal year. Congress aims to pass the package ahead of the Jan. 30 government shutdown deadline.
It includes an 18 percent increase in funding for the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, which has taken center stage in President Donald Trump’s effort to negotiate new trade deals. as well as a 23 percent boost for the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which is responsible for designing and enforcing export controls used to target China and other countries. Bipartisan supporters of export controls have long complained that BIS enforcement operations are underfunded. House Republican appropriators had proposed appropriating $303 million for the bureau, but the new spending package sets funding at $235 million.
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Politico – January 6, 2026
Appropriators spare EPA energy and conservation programs*
Congressional appropriators are rising to the defense of the embattled Energy Star program and a similar initiative aimed at conserving water in a newly released EPA funding bill. The measure, which represents a deal between members of the House and Senate appropriations committees that still needs full congressional approval, would set aside about $33 million this fiscal year for Energy Star, the energy efficiency rating program for appliances that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has voiced interest in privatizing.
That sum is slightly less than the $36 million allotted last year. The threat to Energy Star spurred opposition from a broad swath of advocacy groups in both the business and environmental communities. Despite surviving an EPA reorganization late last year, its long-term future remains shaky. “No final decision has been made at this time,” said EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch in an emailed response to questions Tuesday about the program’s status. “As the Administrator has consistently stated, he will follow the law as enacted by Congress, and EPA will follow all statutory requirements.”
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday January 6, 2026
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
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Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Oil prices fell on Tuesday on expectations of ample global supply amid weak demand, and as the market weighed the prospect of higher Venezuelan crude output following the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
West Texas Intermediate crude was at $58.13 a barrel, down 0.3% or 19 cents.
Brent crude futures fell 0.2%, or 14 cents, to $61.62 a barrel by 0450 GMT.
Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at brokerage Phillip Nova, noted the oil price response to major geopolitical events, such as the U.S. military action in Venezuela and ongoing strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, had been surprisingly muted, suggesting fundamental demand-supply factors remained the key concern.
“From a supply perspective, the oil complex remains packed with barrels. According to the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) and U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, global crude supply continues to outpace consumption growth, pushing inventories higher and keeping downward pressure on prices,” she said.
Market participants polled by Reuters in December said they expected oil prices to be under pressure in 2026 due to growing supply and weak demand.
Top Stories
MSN – January 5, 2025
Trump Reveals He Gave US Oil Companies a Heads Up ‘Before and After’ Maduro Raid
President Donald Trump revealed that American oil companies were informed in advance of the U.S. military raid in Venezuela that led to the capture of the country’s president. The raid on Saturday saw Nicolás Maduro and his wife arrested and brought to the U.S. in a Delta Force operation. Venezuela has since recognized Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, as acting president On Sunday, reporters aboard Air Force One pressed Trump on the future governance of the country and whether he would push for elections that would give opposition leaders a chance to “return.”
“We haven’t gotten to that. Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country, bring the country back, and then have elections,” Trump replied, adding later: “We need total access. We need access to oil and to other things in their country that will allow us to rebuild their country.” When asked by another reporter about whether he “tipped” off major oil companies “before the operation took place,” Trump replied: “Yeah.” He continued: “Before and after. They want to go in and they’re going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela and they’re going to represent us.”
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CNN – January 5, 2025
Big Oil doesn’t share Trump’s dream of making Venezuelan oil great again
President Donald Trump may have made a major miscalculation about Venezuela’s oil. Trump has expressed excitement over the prospect of US oil companies getting their hands on Venezuela’s vast oil resources. But industry sources tell CNN that American oil executives are unlikely to dive headfirst into Venezuela for multiple reasons: The situation on the ground remains very uncertain, Venezuela’s oil industry is in shambles and Caracas has a history of seizing US oil assets.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that oil prices are too low today to justify spending the gobs of money – possibly tens of billions of dollars – that would be required to revive Venezuela’s decaying oil industry. “The appetite for jumping into Venezuela right now is pretty low. We have no idea what the government there will look like,” one well-placed industry source told CNN on Monday. “The president’s desire is different than the industry’s. And the White House would have known that if they had communicated with the industry prior to the operation on Saturday.”
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Politico – January 5, 2026
House sets vote on bills to roll back efficiency standards*
House lawmakers will vote this week on legislation that would codify a Trump executive order redefining showerheads and roll back Biden-era energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes. The upcoming floor votes on Rep. Russell Fry’s (R-S.C.) “Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing (SHOWER) Act,” H.R. 4593, and Rep. Erin Houchin’s (R-Ind.) “Affordable HOMES Act,” H.R. 5184, is part of House Republicans’ campaign against federal efficiency regulations.
“Energy efficiency is important as a general matter, but it’s a major problem when regulations are drafted to meet arbitrary standards despite diminishing returns on actual, house-effective gains in efficiency,” Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said during a December markup. Republicans argue that Biden-era efficiency rules for manufactured homes, showerheads, refrigerators and other appliances are “burdensome.” They say the standards limit appliance options and force consumers to spend more when buying new products. Fry’s bill would reinstate a 2016 regulation from the first Trump administration clarifying that each nozzle in a multi-head shower system could be treated as a separate showerhead, allowing each nozzle to flow at up to 2.5 gallons per minute.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 5, 2026
Maduro’s Capture Threatens China’s Ambitions in Latin America*
For two decades, China has been building close ties in Latin America. The U.S. removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro suddenly shifts the playing field in the Western Hemisphere for Chinese leader Xi Jinping. A special envoy for Xi was in Venezuela’s presidential palace on Friday afternoon, enjoying a laugh with Maduro as the South American leader was trying out a few words in Mandarin, just hours before U.S. Special Forces backed by 150 military aircraft flew into Caracas to snatch the strongman. The business-as-usual atmosphere indicated Beijing had no idea what was about to unfold for Xi’s “all-weather strategic partnership” with Venezuela.
“China is deeply shocked and strongly condemns the U.S.’s blatant use of force against a sovereign state and its attack on its president,” Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said in its first official reaction to the U.S. action. The language indicated surprise at a situation that was out of its control. The Foreign Ministry has used “deeply shocked” terminology in response to terrorist attacks and perhaps not for a decade, said Sabine Mokry, a researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at Germany’s University of Hamburg.
“The strong language could be interpreted as a sign of support for a fellow authoritarian regime,” Mokry said. The efficient removal of a longtime nemesis dents a philosophy Xi has promoted that American power is waning, as “changes unseen in a century are accelerating” global shifts in China’s favor.
The Latest TERse Tips
Marathon Petroleum Co.‘s crude oil “is not merely passing through Texas” when it’s stored in a Corpus Christi export terminal on its way to markets abroad, meaning it’s subject to property tax, a county appraisal district told a state appeals court — Marathon has maintained hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil constantly at the South Texas Gateway Terminal since it opened in 2020, the San Patricio County Appraisal District told the Texas Court of Appeals, Thirteenth Judicial District — Bloomberg*
The FERC approved a settlement where Texas Reliability Entity (Texas RE) determined Luminant would not face monetary penalties for violating a regional frequency response standard (NP26-2) at its facilities, requiring only corrective action for future compliance — RTO Insider*
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright plans to talk this week with oil-industry executives about reviving Venezuela’s energy sector following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, according to people familiar with the matter — Wright will attend the Goldman Sachs Energy, Clean Tech & Utilities Conference in Miami this week that executives from Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips and other companies are scheduled to attend. Chevron is the only oil supermajor still operating in Venezuela — Bloomberg*
Colombia president rages ‘come get me, I’m waiting’ in huge taunt to Trump — Colombian President Gustavo Petro issued a stark warning to Donald Trump after the capture of Nicolas Maduro sent shockwaves around the world — The Express (UK)
Surprise interim leader Delcy Rodriguez emerges in Venezuela after Maduro’s capture — KWTX
Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – January 5, 2026
Ex-Chevron Chief Launches $2 Billion Push to Revive Venezuela’s Oil Fields
The former chief of Latin American operations at U.S. supermajor Chevron is in discussions with investors to raise $2 billion to invest in opportunities in Venezuela, the executive, Ali Moshiri, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Monday.
Moshiri is a former head of Latin American operations at Chevron. Now his company, Amos Global Energy Management, is in talks with institutional investors to raise money for several investment opportunities the firm has identified in Venezuela.
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KPRC – January 5, 2026
Houston oil companies react as Venezuela turmoil raises questions about energy markets
As Venezuela’s political crisis reaches a U.S. courtroom this week, Houston oil giants say they are monitoring the situation but stopping short of predicting how it could affect energy prices. KPRC 2 has reached out to major oil companies with Houston ties following fast-moving developments in Venezuela and the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro.
Chevron, now headquartered in Houston, released the following statement to KPRC 2: “Chevron remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets. We continue to operate uninterrupted and in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.” The company did not directly address operations or future plans in Venezuela.
ConocoPhillips also responded to KPRC 2, saying: “ConocoPhillips is monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability. It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments.”
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Dallas Morning News – January 1, 2026
Texas lawmakers, voters approved historic water investments in 2025. What happens now?*
Texas is poised to make historic investments in water supplies and infrastructure in the next few decades, but some of the funding won’t be immediate. During the November election, more than 70% of Texas voters approved Proposition 4, creating a constitutional amendment to dedicate up to the first $1 billion in sales tax revenue — exceeding $46.5 billion annually — to the Texas Water Fund from 2027 to 2047. This potential $20 billion marks the largest investment in water supply in Texas history, and comes as the state’s booming economy sees a massive influx in new businesses and residents. …
So what happens now? The constitutional dedication of funds begins when the fiscal year starts on Sept. 1, 2027. The Legislature has to appropriate the funds from the Texas Water Fund to the state’s Water Development Board in order for them to be used. Because of this timing, the 91st Texas Legislature, which convenes in January 2029, is the first scheduled session for the lawmakers to appropriate the funds dedicated to the Texas Water Fund because of the Proposition 4 passage.
After the legislative session concludes, the water board will receive the funding, evaluate applications and award project funds in accordance with statutory and legislative guidelines. Money from the Texas Water Fund must be used on water, wastewater and flood infrastructure projects and strategies, and at least half of this newly dedicated funding is required by law to be directed to the State Water Implementation Fund of Texas and New Water Supply for Texas Fund.
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Financial Review – January 4, 2026
Woodside’s ammonia plans face uncertain future under new leadership
Woodside Energy’s search for a new chief executive is fuelling expectations the company will scale back its $7.5 billion plan to push further into the cleaner fuels market, despite the oil and gas producer’s imminent entry into the global ammonia supply chain.
Former chief executive Meg O’Neill, who resigned on December 18 after being poached by global major BP, led the oil and gas producer’s biggest investment into low carbon fuels, a $US2.35 billion ($3.5 billion) acquisition of an ammonia project in Texas.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – January 5, 2026
Venezuela’s oil industry is operating after US seizes Maduro
Venezuela’s oil industry continued to operate without major disruptions on Jan. 5 after the US launched an attack on the country and removed its president, Nicolas Maduro, on Jan. 3. However, oil export flows from Venezuela have slowed since mid-December, and production has declined, as the US began ramping up enforcement on sanctioned tankers.
“We are going to run the country,” US President Donald Trump said at a Jan. 3 press conference, until there is a “safe, proper and judicious transition.” The news has had little impact on crude prices so far, as growth in Venezuelan output would require billions of dollars in investment.
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ABC (Australia) – January 5, 2026
Donald Trump claimed Venezuela stole US oil assets but the issue is more complicated than that
As part of his justification for the US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump claimed that Venezuela had “unilaterally seized and stole American oil, American assets and American platforms”. But is that claim from the US president true?
“I would say it’s false, completely,” says Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist now based at the University of Denver. He says that under Venezuelan law, the state has always owned its underground oil reserves. “This is different in the Venezuelan legal regime from what it would be in Texas,” Dr Rodríguez told 7.30.
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Associated Press – January 5, 2026
Rubio says U.S. won’t govern Venezuela, only enforce oil sanctions
Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country, a turnaround after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the U.S. would be running Venezuela following its ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro.
Rubio’s statements on TV talk shows seemed designed to temper concerns about whether the assertive American action to achieve regime change might again produce a prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building. They stood in contrast to Trump’s broad but vague claims that the U.S. would at least temporarily “run” the oil-rich nation, comments that suggested some sort of governing structure under which Caracas would be controlled by Washington.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 5, 2026
Not Your Father’s Oil Market: Geopolitical Shocks Lack Impact*
Don’t adjust your screen—the oil price you’re seeing is correct. The headlines from Venezuela and Iran alone, much less combined, used to be the sort of thing that sent crude prices skyrocketing. Today’s market is different, and that could make a miserable stretch for energy investors even worse. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s arrest by U.S. forces over the weekend is the biggest threat to the regime since an attempted coup and general strike nearly forced out his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, 23 years ago. Oil prices rose nearly 40% in a matter of months then as thousands of local oil workers were fired and output collapsed.
But Venezuela still produced more than 3% of the world’s oil then, and during a time of no excess supply. Today it is about 900,000 barrels a day, or less than 1%, in a glutted market. Meanwhile, violent antigovernment protests in Iran conjure up hazy memories of that country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Crude production collapsed, erasing 7% of world supply and sending prices up 150%. Venezuela and Iran are among the five founding members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and they still matter, but far less than at the time of those upheavals. Crude prices have just fallen for an unprecedented third year in a row, and the market remains seriously oversupplied as OPEC unwinds voluntary supply cuts.
What is more, there are really two oil markets—the transparent one and the “don’t ask, don’t tell” barrels sold by countries like Russia, Iran and Venezuela operating under sanctions. Many follow convoluted routes via shadow tankers and are snapped up by countries like Turkey, India and China at bargain prices. For now, the authorities in Caracas and Tehran are hanging on. Unless things become extremely violent, regime change might even be negative for crude prices, making trade more rational too.
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Oil Price – December 31, 2025
Big Oil Prepares for Leaner Prices and Harder Choices in 2026: Tsvetana Paraskova
Several trends emerged in the energy markets in 2025 and are set to continue shaping the global oil, gas, and energy equities markets into 2026. Sure, there will be many wild cards in 2026, especially concerning geopolitics and tensions flaring up from the Caribbean to Yemen. These, while impossible to predict, will also impact global energy markets and investor sentiment.
Of those trends that can be predicted, supply-demand balances in the oil and gas markets, and the challenges and opportunities facing Big Oil and other oil and gas firms, will be key to watch in 2026. The oil market oversupply is here, evident in the price swings in both directions in recent weeks. Geopolitical developments have moved oil up or down, but the hikes and dips have been short-lived and smaller than they would have been if the market were tight or balanced. The market is headed to as much as 3.84 million barrels per day (bpd) of supply exceeding demand in 2026, the IEA said in its latest monthly report for December.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Dallas Morning News – January 5, 2025
Dallas-based Vistra to buy Cogentrix Energy in $4.7 billion deal amid surging power demand*
Utility Vistra said on Monday it has agreed to buy Cogentrix Energy, comprising 10 natural gas-fired power plants, from Quantum Capital Group for about $4.7 billion, as it looks to meet growing power demand. Shares of the company rose nearly 5% in extended trading. The deal includes about $2.3 billion in cash, $900 million in Vistra stock and the assumption of $1.5 billion in debt, partly offset by expected tax benefits, the Texas-based electricity producer said.
This acquisition follows Vistra’s $1.9 billion deal in May 2025 for seven gas-fired plants with nearly 2,600 megawatts of combined capacity from Lotus Infrastructure Partners. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates electricity consumption in the country to reach record highs in 2026, driven by surging demand from data centers racing to support Big Tech’s growing AI ambitions.
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Politico – January 5, 2025
Coal over wind: How Trump used emergency powers to help a favored fuel*
President Donald Trump closed out 2025 by flexing emergency powers to alter the country’s electricity markets. Coal plants slated for closure were ordered to continue running in the name of grid reliability, while the construction of wind projects was halted because of national security. The moves infuriated the president’s critics, who claimed Trump is using his emergency authority to aid his favored fuel (coal) and hurt technologies he dislikes (wind). But Trump and administration officials defiantly argued the measures were needed to correct policy interventions by the Biden administration that helped renewables, jeopardized reliability and sent power prices climbing.
The debate underscores how much has changed during Trump’s first year in office. While presidents of both parties have expanded executive power in recent decades, Trump has taken the exercise to new limits. The result is a fundamentally changed energy landscape. Plodding rules and regulations that governed the country’s collection of electricity markets have taken a backseat to Trump’s sweeping executive orders that determine which power plants get built and which ones will shut down. The implications for grid reliability, electricity prices and the planet remain uncertain.
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Real Clear Markets – January 5, 2026
The AI Boom Is Tailor-Made for the Texas Economy: Garrett Fulce
Recent multi-billion-dollar infrastructure investments like Meta’s plan for another gigawatt AI data center in El Paso, Texas, signal that the Lone Star State plans to defend its 20th-century dominance of the energy industry and convert it into the 21st-century nexus of tech and computing.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. In fact, using its massive size and geography to position itself at the intersection of revolutionary tech seems to be as Texan as beanless chili. Before the world associated it with cattle drives or Permian crude, Texas sat at the crossroads of both east-west and north-south railroads. Those lines didn’t just move cows and cotton; they moved people to Texas. They industrialized the state. They carried black gold from Spindletop to refineries back East and brought back folks looking to strike it rich. They made oil profitable, then indispensable.
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Renewables Now – January 5, 2026
Energy Vault breaks ground on 150-MW battery in Texas
Energy storage specialist Energy Vault Holdings Inc today said it has broken ground on a 150-MW/300-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Madison County, Texas. The SOSA Energy Center project, originally developed by Shell subsidiary Savion and recently acquired by Energy Vault, is expected to come online by the second quarter of 2027. A six- to eight-year offtake agreement with an investment-grade counterparty is in advanced negotiations.
This is the first project to begin construction under Energy Vault’s Asset Vault investment platform, which is backed by the USD 300 million (EUR 256m) preferred equity investment from Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC). Construction was launched in the fourth quarter of 2025, when Asset Vault also started off-site construction of three additional projects in its near-term pipeline.
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Power Magazine – August 21, 2025
Why Grid Hardening Is No Longer Option: Khalid Mandri
In the past decade, we have seen “once in a century storms” almost every year, flash floods wiping out entire towns, and extreme heat that melts shoes on pavement. Our climate is becoming more extreme, and we need to be proactive in preparing our infrastructure for more to come. The annual average for U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters has more than doubled over the past five years, surging from nine events each year to a staggering 23 events annually.
In addition to preparing for more intense and frequent weather events in the coming years, our energy mix continues to evolve with the integration of renewables. Our aging energy grids are not built to meet growing energy demands in an increasingly dynamic and volatile environment.
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Politico – January 5, 2026
Energy Department awards $2.7B for domestic uranium enrichment*
The Energy Department announced Monday it is awarding $2.7 billion to three companies for domestic uranium enrichment services that would support the Trump administration’s nuclear fuel priorities over the next decade. The funding lands as part of the administration’s broader effort to create a domestic supply chain and eliminate reliance on Russia. The investment would help expand U.S. capacity for low-enriched uranium for current traditional reactors, as well as support new supply chains for the high-assay low-enriched uranium required for most U.S. advanced reactors.
The funding, initiated under the Biden administration, builds on previous signed contracts with companies for uranium enrichment. Three of those companies — American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter and Orano Federal Services — would receive $900 million each through task order awards, the department announced Monday. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement that Monday’s announcement shows the Trump administration’s commitment to “restoring a secure domestic nuclear fuel supply chain capable of producing the nuclear fuels needed to power the reactors of today and the advanced reactors of tomorrow.”
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Regulatory
Politico – January 5, 2026
Supreme Court books arguments in energy cases*
The nation’s highest bench will hear arguments in late February over the continued operation of an oil pipeline in the Great Lakes and an energy giant’s fight over assets it lost during the Cuban Revolution. With the support of the Trump administration behind them, lawyers for Exxon Mobil will appear before the Supreme Court on Feb. 23 to argue that the Cuban government did not properly compensate the oil company for $70 million (in 1960 dollars) of assets seized by Fidel Castro’s government.
The case, Exxon v. Corporación Cimex, centers on the Helms-Burton Act, which allows legal challenges against the alleged “trafficking” of property confiscated during the Cuban Revolution. The statute does, however, allow the president to find that blocking such lawsuits is in the national interest. Since the passage of the law in 1996, every president has reached such a finding — until President Donald Trump allowed the litigation suspension to lapse in 2019.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday January 5, 2026
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
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Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Oil prices drifted lower on Monday, as adequate global supplies offset concerns about supply disruptions after the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid over the weekend.
West Texas Intermediate crude was 28 cents, or 0.5% lower, at $57.04 a barrel.
Brent crude futures fell 21 cents, or 0.4%, to $60.54 a barrel by 0452 GMT.
The key oil benchmarks were volatile in early Asian trade, opening lower but inching up shortly after, only to pare gains and turn red again as investors assessed the political upheaval in the OPEC member nation and the impact on oil supply.
“We see ambiguous but modest risks to oil prices in the short-run from Venezuela depending on how U.S. sanctions policy evolves,” Goldman Sachs analysts led by Daan Struyven said in a January 4 note, keeping its 2026 oil price forecasts unchanged.
Top Stories
Bloomberg – December 30, 2025
Oil Posts Deepest Annual Loss Since 2020 on Surplus Concerns*
Oil closed out the year with its steepest annual loss since 2020 as the market confronts wide-ranging geopolitical risks and steadily rising supplies across the globe. A punishing surplus is expected to weigh on prices in 2026. West Texas Intermediate fell 0.9% to settle at $57.42, completing a 20% decline for the year. In the short-term, traders are focused on an upcoming OPEC+ meeting and President Donald Trump’s policies toward major producers Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
But the long-term narrative has remained consistent: Oil markets are oversupplied. Both the International Energy Agency and the US government see production exceeding consumption by just over 2 million barrels a day in 2025 and that surplus worsening in the coming year. OPEC+ roiled markets earlier this year when it raised output, reversing its longstanding policy of defending prices in an apparent effort to reclaim market share. This came as countries including Brazil and Guyana were boosting supply and the US pumped at record levels. The producer group is expected to hold off on output hikes during talks this weekend.
The drop in crude has helped to reduce inflationary pressures, helping central bankers as they seek to contain price gains. The US Federal Reserve cut rates three times in 2025, and minutes from policymakers’ last meeting showed most officials saw more reductions as appropriate. Still, it also threatens to reshape the budgets of major oil-producing nations and companies.
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Houston Chronicle – January 3, 2026
What role will Houston’s oil companies play in rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry?*
Related: Rubio sends warning to Cuba’s leaders after Maduro’s removal: ‘I’d be concerned’ — The Hill/KFOR
The U.S. carried out a lightning-strike incursion on Venezuela early Saturday, capturing the country’s president and promising that America’s biggest oil companies would fix Venezuela’s “broken” petroleum industry. In a Saturday news conference, President Donald Trump said America, its largest oil companies and Venezuela would reap the profits as a result. “We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground, and that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela ….” he said. “It goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country.” …
Houston-based Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp. are the largest American oil companies, but Chevron is more likely to see an immediate operational impact from the regime change, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University who specializes in Latin American studies. It is the only U.S. oil major currently operating in the country and the country’s largest oil investor. Chevron said it produces about 150,000 barrels per day of oil in Venezuela, or about 17% of the country’s overall output, according to the latest figures available from the International Energy Agency.
The company’s longstanding experience in the country and its active operations there place it in a prime position to ramp up production, Jones said. “It should be able to scale up much more rapidly than, say, an Exxon Mobil or a BP, which would have to sort of reinvest in Venezuela,” Jones said, “and it’s not entirely clear that they would want to.”
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Politico – January 4, 2026
Trump, atoms, AI and the Texas data center gusher
On a 5,800-acre swath of dusty plains outside the barbed-wire fence of the Pantex nuclear weapons plant, crews are piling up mounds of dirt for a colossal monument to Donald Trump’s presidency — possibly the biggest he won’t own.
It’s here that Fermi America — a startup led by former Texas governor and U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Dallas billionaire Toby Neugebauer — is developing what would be the world’s largest private energy grid and AI campus. It includes the most ambitious build-out of legacy nuclear reactors in half a century. Canals for power lines and chain-link fences for an electricity substation are the first tangible signs of Fermi’s Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus.
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Fortune/Yahoo! News – January 2, 2026
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is getting into the AI and data center race with his new startup, and he’s betting on rural West Texas and a failed railroad turned oil giant to help him build enough power to light up 7 million homes. Schmidt’s new Bolt Data & Energy is taking the one-stop shop approach for hyperscalers’ land, power, and water needs for their data center campuses.
Bolt has teamed up with Texas Pacific Land, a little-known oil and gas player with a long history and a $20 billion market cap that happens to offer 882,000 acres of West Texas land—more acreage than Rhode Island—with easy access to natural gas and renewable energy resources. Oh, and the company just so happens to have its own water services business for oil and gas that can translate to help for thirsty data centers as well.
The Latest TERse Tips
Trump says further strikes in Venezuela possible — Reuters*
Remembering John Olson: Houston energy analyst and Enron skeptic — Houston Chronicle*
Mark Evarts is newly promoted to Director of the Oversight and Safety Division at the RRC — Midland Times
Baker Hughes has a Full Notice To Proceed from Technip Energies on behalf of Commonwealth LNG to supply primary liquefaction equipment — see the press release
Wallstreet Sand Co. has launched dry frac sand operations at its Kermit, Texas facility, expanding in-basin proppant supply for Permian basin completion activity — World Oil
Russia reportedly has asked the White House to end the U.S. Coast Guard’s efforts to seize an oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean after the crew of the vessel painted a Russian flag on the side of the ship — News Nation
Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – January 2, 2026
US Oil Drilling Activity Ends Down for 2025, But Production Still Near Highs
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose by 1 this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published earlier this week, bringing the total rig count in the US to 546 this week, down 43 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 3 in the reporting period for the second week in a row, according to the data. Oil rigs are now at 412, which is 70 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 to 125, which is 22 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count stayed the same at 9.
The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production rose slightly by 2,000 bpd in the week ending December 26 to 13.827 million bpd on average, just 26,000 bpd under the all-time high reached just three weeks ago.
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Politico – January 3, 2026
Trump admin sends tough private message to oil companies on Venezuela*
American oil companies have long hoped to recover the assets that Venezuela’s authoritarian regime ripped from them decades ago. Now the Trump administration is offering to help them achieve that aim — with one major condition. Administration officials have told oil executives in recent weeks that if they want compensation for their rigs, pipelines and other seized property, then they must be prepared to go back into Venezuela now and invest heavily in reviving its shattered petroleum industry, two people familiar with the administration’s outreach told POLITICO on Saturday. The outlook for Venezuela’s shattered oil infrastructure is one of the major questions following the U.S. military action that captured leader Nicolás Maduro.
But people in the industry said the administration’s message has left them still leery about the difficulty of rebuilding decayed oil fields in a country where it’s not even clear who will lead the country for the foreseeable future.
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Santa Fe New Mexican – January 4, 2026
New Mexico AG claims oil and gas producers colluded to dump cleanup costs on state
New Mexico is hoping to force an oil and gas company to clean up its act. Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit Dec. 23 against three men and a variety of companies associated with them, claiming they colluded to dump cleanup costs on the state, using a web of shell corporations and bankruptcy proceedings.
“New Mexicans are suffering from adverse health risks and bear the brunt of environmental harms caused by these companies failing to uphold their agreed-upon duty to responsibly plug oil and gas wells when they are no longer in production,” Torrez said in a statement. “I will not stand by while bad actors take advantage of the system — avoiding responsibility, burdening the state with costly remediation, and recklessly endangering the health of New Mexicans.”
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Inside Climate News – December 19, 2025
U.S. Company Releasing Unauthorized Emissions From Peru LNG Terminal
U.S.-based Hunt Oil Co. has been emitting large volumes of greenhouse gases from the major gas export terminal that it operates in Peru without authorization for at least 12 years, according to the findings of an investigation by Peru’s Convoca in partnership with the research group Point Source. The findings have raised significant concerns about oversight and regulation of energy companies in Peru, which exports liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries that include Japan, the U.K., the Netherlands and South Korea.
The facility is owned by the joint venture company Peru LNG, which Hunt Oil Co. holds a 35 percent stake in. Between Jan. 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2024, the facility burned off an estimated 55.5 million cubic meters of unused gas, according to satellite data gathered by the Colorado School of Mines and analysed by Point Source.
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Peak Oil Barrel – January 4, 2026
Record US October Oil Production
U.S. October oil production increased by 31 kb/d to 13,870 kb/d, another new record high. The largest increases came from the GOM and New Mexico offset by a Texas drop. November production is expected to drop by 9 kb/d to 13,861 kb/d according to the December STEO. The dark blue graph, taken from the December 2025 STEO, is the U.S. oil production forecast from November 2025 to December 2026. Output for December 2026 is expected to drop to 13,513 kb/d. From October 2025 to December 2026 U.S. oil production is expected to drop by 357 kb/d.
Note the almost flat production in the Onshore L48 from July 2025 to December 2025, 11,436 kb/d to 11,420 kb/d, respectively, red/blue graph. The October Onshore L48 oil production dropped by 25 kb/d from September’s 11,436 kb/d to 11,411 kb/d. The difference between the 31 kb/d increase in the overall US production vs the 25 kb/d production drop in the Onshore L48 is largely due to the 46 kb/d increase from the GOM.
Oil & Gas National & International
Oil Price – January 2, 2026
U.S. LNG Exports Break 100 Million Tons in Record 2025
U.S. liquefied natural gas exports set new records in 2025 as new capacity came online and existing terminals ran at high utilization, pushing annual shipments past levels previously thought years away. Preliminary data from LSEG show the United States exported 111 million metric tons of LNG last year, making it the first country to surpass the 100-million-ton threshold in a single year. That volume puts U.S. exports nearly 20 million tons ahead of Qatar and about 23 million tons above 2024 levels, reinforcing the country’s position as the world’s largest LNG supplier.
The growth was driven primarily by new projects entering service and a rapid ramp-up at recently commissioned facilities. Plaquemines LNG shipped 16.4 million tons in 2025 after starting exports at the end of last year, according to LSEG data. U.S. export terminals remained highly utilized through most of the year, with December exports reaching a record 11.5 million tons.
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CNBC – January 5, 2025
Who controls Venezuela’s oil now? What Maduro’s arrest means for energy markets
For now, the answer may seem straightforward. “Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state-owned oil company, controls the majority of the oil production and reserves,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. Chevron operates in the country through its own production and a joint venture with PDVSA, while Russian and Chinese firms also participate through partnerships, though “majority control is still with PDVSA,” Lipow said.
Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s, which led to the creation of PDVSA. Oil output peaked at about 3.5 million barrels per day in 1997, but has since plunged to an estimated 950,000 barrels per day, with around 550,000 barrels per day exported, data provided by Lipow Oil Associates showed. If a more pro-U.S. and pro-investment government takes shape in Venezuela, Chevron would be “best placed” to expand its role, said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Financial. European companies like Repsol and Eni could also benefit, given their existing positions in Venezuela, he said.
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The Hill – January 3, 2026
Trump says the US will be ‘very strongly involved’ in Venezuelan oil
The U.S. will be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry, President Trump said Saturday after the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Asked about the future of the country’s oil industry on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends”, Trump said, “Well, I see that we’re going to be very strongly involved in it.”
“We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it,” he added. He did not elaborate on what exactly this involvement would entail in the Fox Interview. Asked later during a press conference about the interests of China, Russia and Iran in Venezuela, Trump said the U.S. would be selling oil to those nations.
“We’ll be selling oil, probably in much larger doses, because they couldn’t produce very much because their infrastructure was so bad,” Trump said.
“We’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now, but I would say many more will come,” he added.
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Associated Press – January 4, 2025
Rubio says US will press change in Venezuela with oil embargo, while Trump insists ‘we’re in charge’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not govern Venezuela day-to-day other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country, even as President Donald Trump again insisted that the U.S. would be in control following its ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro. Rubio’s statements seemed designed to temper concerns that the assertive action to achieve regime change in Venezuela might lead the U.S. into another prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building.
They stood in contrast to Trump’s broad but vague claims that the U.S. would at least temporarily “run” the oil-rich nation, comments that suggested some sort of governing structure under which Caracas would be controlled by Washington.
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The Wall Street Journal – January 3, 2026
Trump Wants to Unlock Venezuela’s Oil Reserves. A Huge Challenge Awaits.*
For months, the U.S. sold its pressure campaign against Venezuela as a way to curtail drug trafficking. Now, it’s about getting American energy companies access to one of the world’s largest oil bounties. The Trump administration’s move to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro in a surprise military operation early Saturday will pave the way for U.S. oil companies to regain a foothold in the South American nation, President Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said. But getting foreign companies to flock back to Venezuela will be a massive challenge. Chevron is the only major U.S. oil company there and is the country’s largest foreign investor. Other oil executives will be forced to gauge the stability on the ground in a country where the industry has fallen into disarray after more than two decades of mismanagement and corruption.
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Bloomberg – January 4, 2026
Goldman Says Venezuela Oil Output May Rise in the Long Term*
The scope for higher Venezuelan oil output in the long run after the US’s capture of the nation’s leader may eventually pressure global crude prices, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. At the weekend, the US stunned the world by attacking the South American nation, seizing Nicolás Maduro, and saying that it was going to “run” the country. While Venezuela was once an oil-producing powerhouse, output has declined precipitously over the past two decades.
Any recovery “would likely be gradual and partial as the infrastructure is degraded and would require strong incentives for substantial upstream investment,” analysts including Daan Struyven said in a note on Sunday. The bank left average-price forecasts for this year unchanged at $56 a barrel for Brent and $52 for West Texas Intermediate. Futures declined at the open on Monday, with Brent trading slightly lower near $61 a barrel. “Along with recent Russia and US production beats, potentially higher long-run Venezuela production further increases the downside risks to our oil price forecast for 2027 and beyond,” they said.
CNN – January 3, 2026
Trump says US is taking control of Venezuela’s oil reserves. Here’s what it means
President Donald Trump on Saturday said the US would take control of Venezuela’s massive oil reserves and recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars to refurbish the country’s gutted oil industry. Venezuela is sitting on a massive 303 billion barrels worth of crude — about a fifth of the world’s global reserves, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). That trove of crude will play a central role in the country’s future. …
A US-led revamp could eventually make Venezuela a much bigger supplier of oil and could create opportunities for Western oil companies and could serve as a new source of production. It could also keep broader prices in check, although lower prices might disincentivize some US companies from producing oil. Even if international access were fully restored tomorrow, it could take years and incredible expense to bring Venezuelan oil production fully back online. Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA says its pipelines haven’t been updated in 50 years, and the cost to update the infrastructure to return to peak production levels would cost $58 billion.
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Oil Price – January 2, 2026
OPEC+ Set to Keep Oil Production Policy Despite Saudi-UAE Spat
Despite the public spat between two of OPEC’s top producers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the wider OPEC+ group is expected to confirm at a Sunday meeting that it would hold output steady through the first quarter of 2026, delegates from the alliance told Reuters on Friday. In recent days, OPEC’s top producer and de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, and the cartel’s large producer and influential member, the UAE, had a very public rift regarding their backing of opposing sides in Yemen.
Saudi forces intercepted earlier this week what they said was an unauthorized UAE-linked shipment of weapons and military equipment destined for southern Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition dished out an airstrike on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla after Riyadh framed it as a security breach. Abu Dhabi claimed that the equipment was intended for its own counterterrorism forces and denied that it was arming separatist groups.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Houston Chronicle – December 31, 2025
Texas energy company proposes nuclear power for data center*
This was the year of the data center, with handfuls of these energy-hungry facilities popping up throughout Texas and nationwide, most with a mission of getting us all closer to a more AI-powered planet. Now, as 2025 comes to a close and some of us wonder what’s next in our techno-evolution, one Texas developer is proposing something that has to be out of a prestige television series: using nuclear reactors to power a data center. HGP Intelligent Energy out of Dallas says on its website that it “finances projects that retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations.” It also has submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy proposing to connect two retired nuclear reactors to a Tennessee data center project. Bloomberg first reported the news Dec. 24.
The proposal calls for the two reactors, formerly used for U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, to provide between 420 and 520 megawatts (MW) of power for a data center in Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Eastern Tennessee. It would reportedly cost between $1 million and $4 million per megawatt to do the job, and HGP is anticipating it would cost around $2 billion in private capital to make it happen. The company is expected to file for a loan guarantee from the Energy Department, according to Bloomberg. HGP Intelligent Energy CEO Gregory Forero told Chron the proposal is aligned with multiple executive orders issued in 2025 by President Donald Trump, in that it leverages “federal land assets to quickly deploy data centers and energy generation projects.”
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The Wall Street Journal – January 3, 2026
Tesla Falls Behind China’s BYD as Vehicle Sales Drop for Second Year*
Tesla, once the top seller of electric vehicles, lost first place to China’s BYD after reporting annual vehicle-delivery declines for the second year in a row. Tesla sales were down 9% for all of 2025 and dropped 16% for the fourth quarter compared with a year prior. The EV maker is adjusting to a shopping landscape disrupted by the end of federal subsidies. The company saw a surprise sales boost in the third quarter as U.S. buyers rushed to take advantage of the expiring $7,500 tax rebate. For the fourth quarter there was no special incentive.
Tesla shares slumped 2.59% Friday, marking seven straight sessions of declines—the company’s longest losing streak since April 2024. Tesla stock is down more than 10% over those seven sessions. Chinese carmaker BYD, which doesn’t sell vehicles in the U.S., said late Thursday that it sold 2.26 million battery electric vehicles last year, up 28% from the year before. Tesla meanwhile said it sold 1.64 million vehicles in 2025. For BYD, the milestone is significant and its shares, traded in Hong Kong, closed up 3.6%. It was only a few years ago that the Chinese auto company’s founder worried that BYD might not survive. The company still faces increasing competition from companies such as Geely and Leapmotor in China’s budget-car market. Geely increased EV production by 39% last year. Leapmotor, once a smaller player in China’s EV market, hit its 500,000-unit target for 2025 ahead of schedule and set an ambitious goal of one million cars for 2026.
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Austin American-Statesman – January 1, 2026
Austin braces for AI-driven data center boom that could strain grid, raise rates*
As the surge in artificial intelligence and data centers continues across the state, Austin officials say the technology’s rapid expansion could drive up utility rates, overwhelm the power grid and strain resources — unless it is tightly regulated. In a Dec. 23 staff report, City Manager T.C. Broadnax and staff laid out a framework for the city to govern artificial intelligence, manage its environmental footprint, identify gaps in infrastructure and ensure transparency.
“Utilities in Central Texas have been able to keep up with traditional high growth for decades, however AI is challenging the definition of high growth,” the report said. “There is currently an AI race ongoing where speed to deployment is everything with little regard to cost.” The report was prepared in response to a City Council resolution that directed Broadnax to provide current and projected environmental impact and resource usage of local data centers over the next 10 years and identify gaps in local infrastructure and resources. Developed across multiple city departments, the report covers impacts to Austin Energy and Austin Water, digital literacy and equity initiatives and recommendations for minimizing environmental impacts.
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Austin American-Statesman – January 1, 2026
A 320-acre data center campus may be coming to Caldwell County, adding to the growing Central Texas cluster of server-filled buildings needed to support the future of artificial intelligence. The facility — about 40 miles south of Austin in Martindale — would be one in a rapidly increasing number of such centers in the region, which make up what most people know as “the cloud.” The vast facilities are filled with servers that store and distribute information for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and universities. They provide the computing power that supports everyday digital activity as well as emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced computing.
They must run 24/7 and require large amounts of power and water to run and cool servers. The segment is growing rapidly enough in the region that the city of Austin last month began considering a framework to govern artificial intelligence, manage its environmental footprint, identify gaps in infrastructure and ensure transparency in development. The proposed Caldwell County project, which was presented last week to county commissioners by Jordan Schaefer, a civil engineer with Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., would include a pair of 1 million-square-foot buildings and not rely on water-based cooling. Schaefer told commissioners water would be used only for administrative spaces and bathrooms and that the developer plans to construct its own sewer system for wastewater disposal.
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CoinGeek – December 30, 2025
ERCOT’s queue creates challenges for Texas BTC miners
ERCOT just released figures that have Texas BTC miners double-checking their power deals and wondering what’s next. The queue for new large-load connections has exploded to around 226 gigawatts, targeting connections by 2030, with the vast majority coming from hyperscale data centers built for nonstop AI training rather than mining rigs.
Texas became a mining haven for solid reasons. West Texas winds crank out cheap power most nights, regulations allow quick builds, and the state welcomes the economic boost. Miners set up shop close to the sources and perfected the art of curtailing operations fast when the grid needs it, helping keep residential and industrial users happy while often earning credits in return. That setup worked like a charm for years. ERCOT appreciated having loads that could drop off instantly during tight spots like wind lulls or brutal heat waves. Miners enjoyed rock-bottom rates for hours at a time and raked in profits when BTC prices soared.
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News from the States – December 30, 2025
Dominion Energy sues Trump administration over delay to $11.2B offshore wind project
A hearing on Dominion Energy’s request to block the Trump administration’s stop-work order on all offshore wind projects will be held in mid-January, a federal judge ruled. The administration announced on Dec. 22 it was pausing leases and halting work on five major offshore wind projects under construction along the east coast, citing national security concerns identified by the Pentagon. These include complaints that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers that support them can interfere with radar used to locate security threats.
The Richmond-based utility’s Dec. 23 lawsuit seeks to block the order for its $11.2 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project. It’s the largest of the five affected projects, all of which were expected to enter commercial operation over the next two years.
Regulatory
JD Supra – December 23, 2025
SB 6 Implementation Shaping Data Center Future in Texas: Perkins Coie
Texas’ SB 6, signed earlier this year, establishes a statutory framework for managing the growth of large loads in the state. While the law took effect immediately, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) was tasked with implementing the statute’s directives into regulations.
Following the implementation roadmap published by PUCT staff in August, the PUCT is now carrying out SB 6 through multiple active dockets related to interconnection standards, net‑metering, forecasting criteria, large‑load reliability/demand reduction, and transmission cost‑allocation review. The rulemaking projects are on various timelines, with final adoptions planned throughout 2026.