Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday March 31, 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 reversed course to drop in early Asia trading as traders assess President Donald Trump’s statements on ending the war in Iran.
Trump told his aides that he was willing to end U.S. operations against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remained shut, as forcing Tehran to reopen the oil chokepoint could extend the conflict, The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday stateside.
The West Texas Intermediate futures for May delivery reversed gains, dropping 0.72% to $102.14 a barrel as of 10:31 p.m. ET. May futures for Brent crude also pulled back, declining 1% to $111.55 a barrel.
“President’s appetite for a large-scale and extensive sort of saturation bombing of Iran is pretty low,” Matt Gertken, chief geopolitical strategist at BCA Research, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday, describing Trump’s recent threats as an attempt to “retract and conclude a deal.”
Top Stories
Reuters – March 30, 2026
Giant oil tanker off Dubai hit by Iranian strike after Trump’s latest threats*
Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Monday, as President Donald Trump warned the U.S. would obliterate Iran’s energy plants and oil wells if it does not open the Strait of Hormuz. The strike on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi is the latest in a string of assaults on merchant vessels by missiles or explosive air and sea drones in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28
The month-long conflict has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands, disrupting energy supplies and threatening to send the global economy into a tailspin. Crude oil prices briefly spiked anew after the attack on the tanker, which can carry around 2 million barrels of oil worth more than $200 million at current prices. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship’s owner, said the attack happened early on Tuesday, causing a fire and hull damage, but there were no reported injuries.
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CNN – March 30, 2026
Kuwaiti tanker full of oil attacked as Trump again threatens to blow up Iran’s energy sources
Dubai authorities said Tuesday they had successfully put out the fire onboard a Kuwaiti crude carrier the Kuwaitis said was struck by an Iranian drone. The Dubai government said no injuries were reported and that all 24 crew members were safe.
Earlier, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said the very large crude carrier “Al-Salmi” had been attacked by Iranian forces while anchored off Dubai, according to state news agency KUNA. The tanker was fully loaded, the KPC said, warning of the possibility of an oil spill, according to KUNA.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 30, 2026
Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz*
President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials said, likely extending Tehran’s firm grip on the waterway and leaving a complex operation to reopen it for a later date. In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.
There are also military options the president could decide on, but they are not his immediate priority, they said. Over the past month, Trump has expressed various opinions in public on how to handle the strait, part of a larger pattern of giving conflicting goals and objectives of the war overall. He has at times threatened to bomb civilian energy infrastructure if the waterway isn’t reopened by a certain date. On other occasions, he has played down the importance of the strait to the U.S. and said its closure is a problem for other nations to solve. The longer the strait remains closed, the more it will roil the global economy and boost gas prices. Multiple countries, including U.S. allies, are reeling from the downturn in energy supply that once flowed freely through the chokepoint. Industries that rely on items such as fertilizer to grow food or helium to make computer chips are suffering from shortages.
Without a swift return to safe passages, Tehran will continue to threaten world trade until the U.S. and its partners either negotiate a deal or forcibly end the crisis, analysts say. Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington, called ending military operations before the strait is open “unbelievably irresponsible.” The U.S. and Israel started the war together and can’t walk away from the fallout, Maloney said. “Energy markets are inherently global, and there is no possibility of insulating the U.S. from the economic damage that is already occurring and will become exponentially worse if the closure of the strait continues.”
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S&P Global Platts – Marc 30, 2026
CERAWEEK: In the case for clean resources, ‘energy security’ tops ‘energy transition’
Clean hydrogen and ammonia backers are making the case that alternative fuels can lower nations’ reliance on imports of fuel from the Middle East, as public and private climate goals fall by the wayside. Green and blue hydrogen are still touted as lower-emission substitutes to conventional “gray” hydrogen — used in fertilizer production and refining — and fossil fuels. But the corporate climate case has largely been supplanted by the case for diversification, industry participants said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global Energy conference in Houston.
“Four or five years ago, it was a climate-driven conversation,” Rik Sneep, senior vice president at Spain-headquartered integrated energy and chemicals company MOEVE, said during a March 25 panel. “I think it’s now more of a security-driven conversation. But in the end, the target is the same.” The war with Iran has added to the sense of urgency.
The Latest TERse Tips
Sable Offshore Corp. on Monday announced that on March 29, Sable initiated oil sales — the Santa Ynez Pipeline System was filled from Las Flores Canyon to Pentland Station at a rate in excess of 50,000 barrels of oil per day — see the press release
Russia welcomes arrival of oil tanker in Cuba after Trump softens approach to U.S. blockade — CNBC
The San Antonio Express-News Texas Data Center Tracker: See where data centers are planned or operating near you is here
The Houston Chronicle’s map of zombie wells is here
Oil & Gas Texas
Reuters – March 30, 2026
Exxon and QatarEnergy’s joint venture Golden Pass produces first LNG at new Texas facility*
Golden Pass LNG, a joint venture between QatarEnergy and Exxon Mobil, has produced its first liquefied natural gas at its new facility in Texas, the company said on Monday, a major step toward bringing one of the largest U.S. export projects online. The plant is expected to export its first cargo in the second quarter, Exxon said on Monday.
Global gas supplies have been squeezed as the war in the Middle East disrupted output in Qatar, one of the world’s biggest LNG suppliers. Once fully operational, Golden Pass will be able to produce 18 million metric tons per annum. “Golden Pass LNG will strengthen U.S. energy production and reinforce the nation’s role as a reliable supplier to global markets, enhancing energy security and helping meet worldwide demand,” Exxon said.
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Politico – March 30, 2026
Interior disburses $460M in energy revenues to Gulf states*
Four Gulf Coast states, along with their counties and parishes, will share a record $460.9 million in energy revenue for fiscal 2025, the Interior Department said Friday. The disbursement is the first for the region after President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which boosted the annual revenue cap for states to $485 million from $375 million. The money comes from royalty revenues that companies pay the federal government for oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
“By returning offshore revenues to the Gulf region, we are supporting the infrastructure, restoration work and local economies that make continued production possible,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. The disbursement was made to Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Louisiana and nearly 20 parishes pulled in the lion’s share of the disbursement, making up roughly 44 percent of the total $460 million. Texas and its counties came in second, at more than $124 million, followed by Mississippi and Alabama.
Grist – March 26, 2026
In Texas, Corpus Christi’s water crisis may be a glimpse into the future
When Thiago Campos bought the Mr. Fancy Pants Carwash business in Corpus Christi, Texas three years ago, he wasn’t thinking about drought. He was familiar with varnishes and waxes, and enjoyed figuring out which kind of soap would best remove local dirt.
“I’m a chemical engineer, Campos said. “I felt like the carwash matched my skill set.” But Mr. Fancy Pants, with its two locations, could soon face an existential crisis. Last week, Corpus Christi’s city manager announced that it may enter a water emergency as soon as May. The city’s two main reservoirs — Choke Canyon and Lake Corpus Christi — are just 8.4 percent full, while the backup reservoir, 100 miles away, is 55 percent full. Without drastic cuts, the water supply for the more than 500,00 residents of the Corpus Christi area could run dry by early next year.
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Texas Observer – March 24, 2026
Climate Activists Confront Iran War Profiteering at Big Oil Confab in Houston
Inside the luxe conference venue at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston on Monday, oil and gas industry elites wrung their collective hands about the global oil price shock set off by the Iran war. Outside, hundreds of colorfully dressed climate justice activists from across the Gulf South marched and demonstrated to call out those profiting from the war inside.
At S&P Global’s premier energy industry confab on Monday, United States energy secretary and former fracking executive Chris Wright characterized fallout from the war, including ongoing disruptions of tanker shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, as a “short-term disruption to end a multi-decadal problem” and encouraged oil and gas leaders to ramp up domestic extraction.
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The Houston Chronicle – March 30, 2026
CERAWeek was in town last week, joined by climate activists who showed up to protest. The reality, however, is that climate activism is in retreat. The so-called “energy transition” is potholed by an unprecedented number of solar bankruptcies, electric-vehicle retreats, and corporate pullbacks from wind, hydrogen, and carbon-capture projects. A roadmap to phase out fossil fuels was defeated at the last United Nations conference on climate change, in line with a recent prediction by the International Energy Agency that oil demand will increase for decades. Texas, for its part, produced a record two billion barrels last year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency even recently reversed its earlier decision that carbon dioxide and other manmade greenhouse gases are a danger to health and human welfare. Plenty of Democrats are also rethinking their climate policies. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is moving to weaken the state’s climate regulations. Even the radical Sunrise Movement seems to have pivoted to pro-Palestinian activism over climate concerns. Yes, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other warming gases are rising. But this is hardly the “existential threat of our time,” as President Joe Biden once put it. Rather, this is an opportunity for optimism.
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Dallas Morning News – March 30, 2026
Why Texas wants to explore annexing part of New Mexico*
Texas lawmakers plan to study the possibility of annexing a chunk of its western neighbor. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows this month directed a state legislative committee to explore the legal and economic implications of adding one or more New Mexico counties to the Lone Star State. Online, the plan was quickly dubbed “New MeX-it.” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham dismissed the idea, which she called a “ridiculous proposal.” “We have every intention of keeping the great state of New Mexico fully intact,” the Democratic governor told the Albuquerque Journal.
New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martinez, also a Democrat, was a bit more blunt. “Over my dead body,” he said in a video posted to Facebook. Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News this “conversation is ultimately about culture, opportunity, and the right to choose a path that reflects the shared values of the Permian and Delaware basins.” The Legislature will meet in 2027. “Southeast New Mexico deserves a real voice in its own future, not one dictated by Santa Fe,” Burrows said. “It’s a conservative, energy-rich region with a fierce independent streak, and West Texas has shown what’s possible when you respect oil and gas, protect property rights and trust local communities.”
Oil & Gas National & International
The Wall Street Journal – March 30, 2026
Powell Says Fed Can Look Past Oil Shock, but Warns Patience Has Limits*
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday the central bank is inclined to hold rates steady and look past the energy shock from the war in Iran but cautioned that it might not be able to sit on the sidelines if rising prices shift the public’s expectations about inflation over time. Powell, speaking to students at Harvard University, laid out the textbook case for patience: Energy disruptions tend to be short-lived, and monetary policy works too slowly to counteract them in real time. He added a critical caveat, however, by noting how five years of above-target inflation made it harder to assume the public would simply shrug off another round of rising prices.
“You can have a series of these supply shocks and that can lead the public generally—businesses, price setters, households—to start expecting higher inflation over time. Why wouldn’t they?” Powell said. The dilemma for the Fed is that an energy shock can simultaneously push prices higher and drag down economic growth by squeezing household budgets and raising costs for businesses. That leaves policymakers weighing whether to give priority to fighting inflation or cushioning the economy, well aware that the standard tools for solving one problem may make the other worse.
Powell tiptoed away from saying how the Fed would answer that riddle. “We will eventually maybe face the question of what to do here. We’re not really facing it yet because we don’t know what the economic effects will be,” he said. Prices for Treasurys had rallied before Powell spoke, with investors unwinding earlier bets that higher energy costs might lead the Fed’s next move to be a rate hike. Bond yields fall when prices rise. Nothing in Powell’s remarks reversed that move.
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Financial Times/MSN – March 28, 2026
European jet fuel supplies under threat as Iran war halts flows
A drop in shipments of jet fuel from the Middle East is prompting warnings of a looming supply crunch for Europe’s aviation industry as the Iran war chokes off cargoes. European imports of jet fuel are expected to fall to about 420,000 barrels a day this week, down roughly 40 per cent from last week and the lowest level for March since 2022, according to energy data provider Vortexa.
The decline follows the near shutdown of flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global fuel shipments that accounted for roughly 40 per cent of Europe’s jet fuel supply before the war. “Fuel supplies are a major concern,” said one airline industry insider, adding that while supplies had remained “relatively stable over the past 10 days”, carriers were in “daily monitoring mode”. A senior jet fuel manager said European markets could begin to face physical shortages within weeks.
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Kuwait Times – March 26, 2026
Europe scales back climate goals to ease energy shock
The European Union may be forced to scale back its flagship climate policies and geopolitical aims as the Iran war drives up energy prices – with lasting consequences for the bloc’s energy strategy. The energy crunch sparked by the conflict, now in its fourth week, has rattled Europe, which is heavily dependent on imported oil and gas.
Around 8 percent of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) comes from the Middle East through the all-important Strait of Hormuz, which remains mostly blocked. European benchmark gas prices have jumped more than 60 percent since the conflict began, to above 50 euros per megawatt hour. That is still far below the eye-watering peak of nearly 300 euros per MWh seen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when pipeline gas supplies collapsed.
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CNBC – March 25, 2026
Oil giants raise the alarm over energy shortages as Iran war drags on
A trio of European energy CEOs has sounded a warning over energy supplies, amid the ongoing conflict in Iran and restricted access through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. Amid volatile trade, crude prices have surged around 40% in recent weeks, at one point approaching $120 a barrel as investors raised concerns over a potential lack of supply.
Those concerns have been felt particularly in Asian countries so far, with the Philippines announcing an energy emergency, while South Korea says it is preparing for “worst-case scenarios.” Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has asked the International Energy Agency to consider an additional release from global crude stockpiles, with the global energy watchdog having already coordinated the release of 400 million barrels of oil amongst member countries.
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The Telegraph (UK) – March 19, 2026
This is an energy emergency: entire countries may run out of oil: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Related: How we’re just four months from Armageddon if Iran’s oil war doesn’t end: Bread riots. Starvation. Flights and cars banned — The Daily Mail (UK)
It is hard to decide which is the bigger disaster: the unfolding car crash in the global gas market or the mounting danger that entire countries will run out of oil. The benchmark TTF contract for gas in Europe was €29 (£25) per megawatt-hour (MWh) in mid-February. Bank of America says it could reach €500 this winter if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for 10 weeks, as it may well do.
That would blow through the record high seen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amount to a full-blown economic emergency for Europe, the UK, Japan, South Korea and South Asia. The picture is dramatically worse after Israel attacked Iran’s South Pars gas field, adding upstream gas and oil infrastructure to the menu of targets on both sides of the Gulf. Iran’s missile retaliation on Qatar’s Ras Laffan has inflicted serious damage to the giant complex, which alone produces a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG).
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The Guardian – March 24, 2026
In the days after the US and Israel first bombed Iran, financial markets bet the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s “little excursion” in the Middle East would be short-lived. “There are risks from higher oil prices longer term. But this is a tail risk,” one US-based fund manager said after the airstrike killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “History has shown time and time again that geopolitical flare-ups like this tend to be short-lived. This one should prove to be no exception.’’
Goldman Sachs told clients it expected temporary disruption. “Oil prices to decline throughout the year. But risks are skewed to the upside,” its analysts wrote. UniCredit suggested crude would be capped at about $80 a barrel. “Given its struggle for survival, the Iranian regime has an incentive to keep its response measured”.
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Clean Technica – March 22, 2026
The April Oil Crisis Most Don’t Know Is Coming: Jennifer Sensiba
…[W]e need to explore the things that can easily go wrong and make things even worse. For one, human psychology is going to pour gasoline on this fire. The moment the general public realizes the ocean is empty in April and shortages are real, panic buying will trigger. It will be the Colonial Pipeline hack on steroids. People will hoard fuel, and the local pumps will physically run dry in a matter of hours.
If diesel prices are bad enough, there will be challenges getting more fuel into the tanks that feed the pumps because independent drivers might not be able to afford to drive. This will hit small towns harder than bigger cities. But the geopolitical picture is even darker. We are talking about the potential destruction of 20 percent of the global oil supply.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
The Energy Mag – March 30, 2026
Google Backs $5B Texas Data Center for Anthropic, Deepening AI Infrastructure Push
Google is reportedly preparing to provide financial backing for a multibillion-dollar data center campus in Texas tied to its expanding relationship with Anthropic, underscoring how hyperscalers are increasingly stepping in as quasi-infrastructure financiers to secure AI capacity. The project, developed by Nexus Data Centers, could exceed $5 billion in its initial phase, with Google expected to offer construction financing alongside a broader syndicate of banks competing to arrange debt by mid-year, the FT reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The involvement of Alphabet is expected to lower borrowing costs, reflecting the growing role of investment-grade tech balance sheets in underwriting power-intensive infrastructure. The Texas campus spans roughly 2,800 acres and is already under construction with early-stage debt from asset manager Eagle Point. It is expected to deliver about 500 megawatts of capacity by late 2026, with long-term expansion potential reaching 7.7 gigawatts—placing it among the largest planned AI data center developments globally.
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San Antonio Express-News – March 30, 2026
CPS Energy board approves record budget that includes a $50M deficit*
After delaying the vote a month, CPS Energy board members approved a record-breaking $2.8 billion budget that includes a $50 million deficit. The budget originally was scheduled to be voted on in February, but Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones asked for the postponed vote after members of the city-owned utility’s board said they needed more time to review the document they’d just received. This time around, CPS officials had revamped the budget presentation. Instead of presenting the capital and operating budgets separately, the new presentation combined them. It showed that the utility’s projected revenue of $5.21 billion will cover 99% of the expected $5.26 billion in expenditures, leaving a gap of $50 million.
The $2.8 billion budget doesn’t include the utility’s yearly payment to the city or its fuel-related expenses and revenue. For this fiscal year, it expects such expenses and revenue to be $2.4 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively. “There are many ways that you could go forward” to fill that $50 million gap, Chief Financial Officer Cory Kuchinsky said Monday. “That is for a future discussion that I think we will be more prepared to have once we get through most of our summer months, and we see ultimately how that revenue picture will manifest.”
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San Antonio Express-News – March 30, 2026
CPS Energy’s proposed budget is necessary investment for San Antonio’s future: Brad Beldon*
Investment is the lifeblood of any growing enterprise. Whether directed toward infrastructure, technology or talent, the strategic investment of capital is what separates enterprises that are resilient and endure from those that fade and fail. Businesses that invest for the future are positioned to adapt to change and lead. A business that fails to reinvest may appear healthy in the short term, but it is quietly eroding its foundation.
Aging infrastructure and the inability to hire or retain high-quality employees become liabilities. What’s true in the private sector is also true of public utilities such as CPS Energy. A utility that invests in the future is better positioned to deal with technological and regulatory changes in the energy sector, better able to serve its customers, and better prepared to deal with the challenges of extreme weather and cybersecurity threats. This is what CPS Energy is hoping to do with its proposed fiscal year 2027 budget of $2.87 billion.
San Antonio remains one of the fastest-growing big cities in the United States. People want to live here because of our high quality of life and affordable homeownership. Businesses want to relocate here because of our large, highly skilled talent pool and business-friendly environment. According to the U.S. census, Bexar County had a population of 2.1 million in 2024, with some projections showing as many as 1.2 million additional residents by 2050. As the former CEO of one of the largest roofing companies in San Antonio, I have witnessed this growth firsthand. Residential growth leads to commercial growth. Roofs on homes lead to roofs on businesses.
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KXXV – March 30, 2026
Grimes County residents brace for fight with possible data center at Gibbons Creek
I recently reported on a proposed data center between Iola and Bedias. But as it turns out, that is not the only one in development. Millennium Power wants to put a data center at the site of the former Gibbons Creek Steam Electric Station, and the possibility has some neighbors worried.
“They need to stand up for us. They need to be out there having public forums, bringing us in,” Jennifer Rymer said. “Locals are really concerned about the electric grid. We already know that that’s under strain,” Julie Hernandez said. Hernandez is with Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development.
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Utility Dive – March 27, 226
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Laura Swett opened the commission’s February meeting with a direct plea: she asked PJM to fix itself so that FERC wouldn’t have to intervene. She implored the troubled Mid-Atlantic grid operator to quickly file a proposal to fix the market’s mess. The chair’s urgency is warranted. PJM is facing a crisis of its own design, and the solution is hiding in plain sight: in the regulated utility states thriving in many parts of the country.
The numbers tell a stark story. In 2024, PJM’s capacity auction prices skyrocketed from $28.92/MW-day to $269.92/MWd — a nearly-tenfold increase that translated to customer rate hikes across the region. The next year, prices jumped another 22%, increasing to $329.17/MWd. Most recently, the December 2025 capacity auction price increased yet again, hitting $333.44 and reaching the market’s imposed, but temporary price cap. Despite this, the auction fell 6.6 GW short of PJM’s reliability requirements — equivalent to powering all residential customers in Maryland for a year.
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KFOX – March 27, 2026
El Paso Electric seeks to increase rates in New Mexico; about $1 a day hike
El Paso Electric is looking to increase rates in New Mexico. On Friday, officials with EP Electric announced they had filed a general rate case with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission seeking to recover the $400 million the utility said it has invested in its infrastructure. EP Electric’s Vice President of Customer and Regulatory Solutions, James A. Schichtl, said that if approved, the increase would be done in two phases.
The first phase will bring an increase of about 50 cents per day, then the second phase will add another 50 cents, bringing the total increase to about $1 per day. Regarding when these hikes could kick in, EP Electric said first the commission has to approve it, adding that it is a lengthy process that typically takes about a year, and then there’s also a point that CEO Kelly Tomblin brought up, saying that in her experience, it is rare when a commission approves the rate increase as is.
Regulatory
JD Supra – March 17, 2026
FERC Moves to Streamline Hydropower Environmental Reviews: Pillsbury Winthrop
- On February 19, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued two orders intended to streamline environmental reviews for certain actions related to hydropower facilities.
- In its first order, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to streamline its review under NEPA for terminations of hydropower licenses.
- In its second order, FERC adopted five existing Tennessee Valley Authority Categorical Exclusions from NEPA review for various construction and maintenance activities ancillary to hydropower facilities.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday March 30, 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 rose Monday as Yemen’s Houthis fired missiles at Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly wants to seize Iran’s oil, deepening concerns over escalating risks to Middle East energy flows.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 3.4% to $102.96 per barrel.
May futures for the Brent crude rose over 3.2% to $116.12 per barrel during early Asia hours, with the international benchmark heading for a record monthly jump, data from LSEG showed.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump said his preferred option in Iran would be to “take the oil,” likening it to earlier U.S. actions in Venezuela where Washington effectively gained control over the country’s oil sector after the capture of its leader Nicolás Maduro.
His remarks come as fighting between U.S.-Israel forces and Iran has entered its fifth week, with attacks spreading across the region, heightening risks to energy infrastructure and driving a sharp rally in crude prices.
Top Stories
Bloomberg – March 27, 2026
Brace for $200 Oil If War Lasts Until June, Macquarie Warns*
Oil may hit a record $200 a barrel if the Iran war drags on till June, with the Strait of Hormuz staying shut, Macquarie Group Ltd. said. A conflict that stretches through the second quarter would result in historically high real prices, analysts including Vikas Dwivedi said in a note, outlining a scenario with odds of 40%. An alternative outlook, with probability of 60%, suggested the war may finish at the end of this month, they said. Brent crude is on pace for a record monthly gain in March, as the war between the US, Israel and Iran has rocked the oil-rich Middle East. The conflict has seen Tehran oversee a near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, severely restricting flows of energy vital to the global economy.
“If the strait were to stay closed for an extended period, prices would need to move high enough to destroy an historically large amount of global oil demand,” the analysts said in the March 27 report. “The timing of the re-opening of the straits, and physical damage to energy infrastructure, is the main determinant of the longer-term impact on commodities.”
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Texas Tribune – March 27, 2026
At CPAC, Texas Railroad Commissioner candidate Bo French calls for deportation of 100 million people
Bo French, a Republican candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner, on Friday said Republicans should more openly embrace Islamophobia and called on the U.S. to deport 100 million people, nearly a third of the country’s population. French, a former Tarrant County GOP chair who has previously come under fire by his own party for his repeated use of slurs on social media, made the comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine during a panel titled, “Don’t Sharia My Texas.”
The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. reached 14 million in 2023, according to the Pew Research Center, meaning that French is calling for deporting millions of American citizens. “Since 1965, we’ve allowed immigration from lots of places in the world whose culture and values do not align with America,” French said. French’s comments — alongside those of the other panelists on stage — were remarkable for how brazenly they embraced the banner of Islamophobia. His call comes as more in the GOP are speaking out against “Sharia law” and “radical Islam.”
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Politico – March 27, 2026
Texas saddles up for data center clash
The data center boom is hitting Texas. Data center politics haven’t been far behind. The tech companies and electricity giants gathered here in the second-biggest state have heaped praise on the boom in construction of new data centers they see as the cure to everything from soaring power prices to sluggish economic growth. But the pushback in communities that began in states like Virginia, home to the nation’s densest fleet of data centers, has spread to states like Texas, where it’s been taken up by lawmakers responding to a chorus of complaints that the giant facilities will drive up energy costs once they come online, consume water supplies and blight the landscape.
“All data centers are kind of around Virginia right now,” Robert Gaudette, the incoming CEO of Houston-headquartered power provider NRG, told POLITICO in an interview. “Well, Texas is going to be the next Virginia.” For the power producers and utilities at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference here in the nation’s energy capital, the boom in AI data centers represents the first big jump in power demand in nearly two decades — and they are wary of the new political opposition. Those data center developers and the electricity companies and utilities they work with say they’re eager to set up shop in the Lone Star State, citing the state’s business-friendly mantra and independent electric grid.
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Bloomberg – March 29, 2026
The Strait of Hormuz Energy Shock Is About to Head to the West
The biggest oil supply shock in history has reached the one-month mark. Prices have surged, growth forecasts are being cut worldwide, and shortages are emerging across Asia, from Thailand to Pakistan. But the energy industry is warning that the crisis is only beginning. In conversations with more than three dozen oil and gas traders, executives, brokers, shippers and advisers over the last week, one message was repeated over and over: The world still hasn’t grasped the severity of the situation. Many drew parallels with the 1970s oil shock, warning the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is threatening an even bigger crisis. Fuel crunches hitting Asia will soon start spreading west, they said. Europe is likely to face surging prices to secure cargoes and is at risk of diesel shortages in the coming weeks.
If the strait stays closed, the world will have to significantly reduce its oil and gas consumption — but not before prices spike to a level that forces consumers and businesses to fly, drive and spend much less. Already, demand has begun to drop, and some countries in Asia are hoarding and rationing fuel. US government officials and Wall Street analysts are starting to consider the prospect that oil prices might surge to an unprecedented $200 a barrel. “It’s clear to me if this crisis lasts more than three or four months it becomes a systemic problem for the world,” Patrick Pouyanne, chief executive officer of TotalEnergies SE said at the CERAWeek conference in Houston. “We cannot have 20% of the crude oil, which is exported globally, stranded in the Gulf and 20% of the LNG capacity stranded, without any consequence.”
The Latest TERse Tips
Trump Weighs Military Operation to Extract Iran’s Uranium — the president hasn’t made a decision, U.S. officials said, as he considers the risk to U.S. troops — The Wall Street Journal*
Joseph “Blackstone” Dilworth Jr., a private South Texas businessman whose ventures helped shape development in north Laredo, has died at age 96 — Dilworth’s career spanned multiple industries, beginning with ranching and expanding into oil and gas, telecommunications infrastructure and real estate development — Laredo Morning Times*
A Dallas County jury has awarded $1.1 billion in a child abuse case led by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee-a verdict his firm says is the largest of its kind in U.S. history — the case involves Charles Edwin Brooks Jr., the great-grandson of Percy Turner, one of the original investors in Humble Oil, adding a high-profile Texas lineage to one of the most severe child abuse cases to reach a courtroom in recent years — Yahoo! News
Austin startup Gridraven touts AI weather tool to boost Texas transmission capacity — KEYE
Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – March 27, 2026
US DUS Drillers Pull Back As WTI Soars Past $98rillers Pull Back As WTI Soars Past $98
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US to 543, down 49 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs fell by 5 to 409 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 75 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 4, sinking to 127, which is 24 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count stayed the same at 7.
The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production fell for the fifth week in a row during week ending March 20. US crude oil production averaged 13.657 million bpd during the reporting period—a 11,000 bpd dip from the week prior, and 205,000 bpd under the all-time high.
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Inside Climate News – March 27, 2026
The Trump administration is turning to the nuclear option on endangered-species protections in the name of national security. A rarely tapped panel nicknamed the “God Squad” will meet Tuesday to discuss whether overriding Endangered Species Act regulations for all federally regulated fossil fuel operations in the Gulf of Mexico is more important than preventing the extinction of several imperiled species. That includes sea turtles and a whale species down to its last 51 individuals.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the upcoming Endangered Species Committee meeting last week, with no details on specific projects in the Gulf or the basis for what would constitute an extraordinary action. Only twice in the panel’s nearly half-century has it ever lifted restrictions.
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Baton Rouge Advocate – March 27, 2026
Louisiana Haynesville Shale close to decline, says oil, gas expert, and prices are going to rise
The future of the Haynesville Shale is easy to read, William D. DeMis told a full house of geologists and oil and gas professionals. “It looks like we’re coming to the end of the field,” said DeMis, a former senior vice president and chief geologist at Goldman Sachs, former exploration manager at Marathon Oil and current Texas-based oil and gas consultancy owner. “I’m going to be showing you how I think the Haynesville is fixing to decline.”
The Haynesville Shale includes roughly 17 parishes and counties in northwest Louisiana and east Texas. It has been called one of the largest shale plays in the U.S. As recently as 2021, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated the shale play contained roughly 56.2 trillion cubic feet of “technically recoverable” natural gas. DeMis pulled public EIA information from the north Texas Barnett and the northern Arkansas Fayetteville shale plays to chart the future of Haynesville.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 27, 2026
Vaquero nears completion of Delaware Basin expansion*
Vaquero Midstream is wrapping up two projects that will greatly expand its Delaware Basin footprint. One is a new 70-mile, 24-inch high-pressure pipeline loop that originates at the company’s processing complex near Waha in Pecos County and connects to its existing high-pressure pipeline in Loving County. It entered service at the end of last year.
The second project, entering service this week, is a 200-million-cubic-feet-per-day cryogenic processing plant, Vaquero’s third. This will bring Vaquero’s processing capacity in the Delaware Basin to 600 million cubic feet per day. The pipeline loop brought Vaquero’s gathering capacity from 400 Mmcf per day to 800 Mmcf per day. “The new loop goes to the window of the Woodford play,” said Harrison Holmes, Vaquero’s chief executive officer. The loop will extend Vaquero’s gathering and processing services on the northern end of its system in Loving, Ward and Winkler counties, he said. Vaquero is already planning further expansion and is in the early stages of planning a fourth processing plant as the company tries to stay ahead of demand, he told the Reporter-Telegram in an interview. He added the fourth plant won’t enter service before 2028, but with lead times for equipment, he said planning needs to begin now.
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Financial Post – March 28, 2026
Canadian oil and gas executives and industry veterans who gathered in Houston this week for the world’s largest energy conference said the mood was far from celebratory. This, despite oil prices surging roughly 40 per cent this month and tentative signs Canadian pipeline projects may be gaining momentum. “There’s no jumping for joy, especially because the cause of it is conflict,” said Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd. chief executive Brian Schmidt from Houston. Before the Feb. 28 attack on Iran by the U.S. and Israel, much of the oilpatch — including Tamarack — had expected prices to average around US$60 a barrel this year.
But fighting in the Middle East has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz — a critical waterway for global energy trade — sending prices briefly above US$119 last week. With no clear indication of when flows will resume, analysts warn prices could reach fresh highs in the weeks ahead, potentially exceeding US$150 per barrel. Despite broad expectations of a first-quarter windfall in profits, producers are likely to be cautious about hiking capital spending plans while the situation in the Middle East remains volatile, Schmidt said.
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Houston Chronicle – March 27, 2026
Former Exxon VP: Sorry, but Venezuela’s oil won’t save Americans at the pump: Jack Balagia*
Following his trip to Venezuela earlier this month, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum seemed to imply some reprieve from the Iran War’s impact on world energy supplies when he called the South American country “a strategic ally with the largest reserves with no threat of the chokehold like we have in the Strait of Hormuz.” In the same March 8 interview with Fox News, Burgum added that “Venezuelan oil can flow to America freely and is starting to flow, will continue to flow, and these are the kinds of things that are going to bring gas prices down in America.”
The secretary undoubtedly chose his words carefully. He did not say that Venezuelan oil would cushion the current crisis in the Middle East, and for good reason. It won’t. Chevron and other companies are moving toward expanded production agreements in Venezuela, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC that production has increased 20% in three months. But any significant increase in production will happen far in the future. Venezuela’s output recently hovered at less than 1 million barrels per day, far below its peak of 3 million in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Decades of mismanagement and corruption within the country’s oil company, PDVSA, under Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, combined with international sanctions and the deliberate exclusion of Western investment, have severely damaged the country’s energy industry. Having the world’s largest oil reserves means nothing without the infrastructure to tap and export production.
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Bloomberg – March 27, 2026
Shale Oil Drilling Growth Primed to Restart in 2026, Citi Says*
Higher oil prices driven up by the conflict in the Middle East stand to push some of America’s biggest shale producers to start adding drilling rigs in the second half of this year and more than 100,000 barrels per day of increased output by 2027, according to Citigroup Inc. When combined with an even more robust expansion from private operators and the existing growth plans from some oil majors, US shale could add about 815,000 barrels a day of crude to the global market through 2028, Scott Gruber, an analyst at Citi, wrote Friday in a note to investors.
So far, no producer has publicly said it plans to ramp up output in response to the Iran war, which has crippled supplies from the Persian Gulf. The bank’s heightened view on shale growth is largely due to the so-called forward curve, which tracks future prices of oil over the next few years. Those prices are trading at $70 a barrel and higher. Before the war, fears of a global crude glut were forcing oil prices down to about $60 and below, threatening profit levels for most shale companies.
“The prior curves had been signaling a doldrums type of environment in which the global markets were structurally oversupplied, and no additional demand was evident,” Gruber wrote. “Well, not anymore.” If the price curve holds for another few months, the bank’s “upside spending scenario” sees public producers adding about 20 drilling rigs and the private producers adding another 47 machines. But Gruber adds that Citi doesn’t expect the activity growth to be announced in the upcoming round of earnings calls, which begin next month.
Oil & Gas National & International
Associated Press – March 27, 2026
The war in Iran sparks a global fertilizer shortage and threatens food prices
Farmers around the world are feeling the squeeze of the Iran war. Gas prices have shot up and fertilizer supplies are waning due to Tehran’s near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli bombing. The fertilizer shortage is putting the livelihood of farmers in developing countries — already troubled by rising temperatures and erratic weather systems — further at risk, and could lead to people everywhere paying more for food.
The poorest farmers in the Northern Hemisphere rely on fertilizer imports from the Gulf, and the shortage comes just as planting season begins, said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program. “In the worst case, this means lower yields and crop failures next season. In the best case, higher input costs will be included in food prices next year.”
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Oil Price – March 27, 2026
The Cushion Is Gone and the Oil Market Is Now Exposed
The global oil market has been on a rollercoaster since late February, but the price reaction to the largest supply disruption in history has been relatively muted. The calm was not complacency; buffers were there to absorb the shock. But the system that held for four weeks is no longer the system we are operating in today.
The oil market did not underreact to the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz; it absorbed it.
For nearly four weeks, markets have shown remarkable resilience in the face of disruption, supported by a combination of pre-war surplus, crude-on-water, and policy barrels that provided a temporary buffer and kept prices contained.
With spare capacity largely trapped behind the Strait, and inventories already drawing down, the system has shifted from buffered to fragile.
European refiners are about to feel this directly, as they will have to increasingly compete with Asian buyers for the same Atlantic Basin barrels.
When the next disruption hits, whatever its source, there will be little left to absorb it.
Paola Rodriguez-Masiu, Chief Oil Analyst , Rystad Energy
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CNBC – March 27, 2026
The CEOs of the world’s most influential oil and gas companies delivered a sobering message this week about the impact of the Iran war on energy supplies and the long-term consequences for the global economy. The executives gathered in Houston, Texas, for S&P Global’s annual CERAWeek energy conference to take stock of the war. They warned that the market is not reflecting the scale of the disruption to oil and gas supplies.
Asia and Europe will face fuel shortages if the war drags on, the executives said. Oil prices are likely to remain high even if the conflict ends as countries restock depleted reserves, they said. “You just can’t take 8 to 10 million barrels a day of oil and 20 or so percent of the [liquefied natural gas] market off the world stage without having some significant repercussions,” ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance told CERAWeek attendees.
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CNBC – March 28, 2026
Worried about Strait of Hormuz inflation to come? The world economy has one word for you: Plastics
The price of naphtha may not keep you up at night when you think about the inflation yet to hit the economy from the U.S.-Iran war and Strait of Hormuz closure, but perhaps it should. As gas prices continue to rise alongside crude oil, costs of petroleum derivatives — petrochemicals — are also rising, and that eventually may have a far wider impact on consumers than gas prices.
The cauldron of petrochemicals sounds like a high school chemistry class study guide: benzene, butadiene, ammonia, styrene, naphtha and many other oil-based byproducts. Known as feedstocks in industry parlance, they go into everything in your life, from hospital gloves to pasta packaging. And the costs of these chemicals are rising even if consumers won’t notice for a while. But Stanislav Krykun, CEO of DST-Pack, a Poland-based packaging company, is already seeing it on the factory floor. “Our plastic suppliers in China have raised prices by roughly 15% recently, and they’ve pointed to higher raw material costs and general market uncertainty as the reason,” Krykun said.
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Edmonton Journal – March 25, 2026
New pipelines needed ‘without delay’: Premier Smith makes her case in Texas as oil prices rise
Premier Danielle Smith and her entourage have gone south to Texas with a simple message — if you can help bring Alberta oil to market, we’re open for business. “Alberta’s message at CERAWeek is clear: We want to build new pipelines east, west, north, and south — without delay, without hesitation — to supply Asian, European, and American markets with safe, reliable, and responsibly produced energy products,” Smith posted on social media from Houston, where the world’s top energy conference is being held this year.
Smith’s comments came after Israel and Iran renewed hostilities following a brief respite in the Middle East conflict that briefly eased oil prices earlier this week. As missiles hit Tel Aviv and Tehran, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude rose to nearly US$92 a barrel Tuesday. “The demand for Alberta oil has never been higher,” read a statement issued Tuesday by Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean’s office. “The world is looking for reliable and secure energy in this ever-changing geopolitical environment. Alberta has some of the largest reserves in the world and we have the most responsibly produced oil on the planet.
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Semafor – March 17, 2026
Oil majors, smaller energy firms stand to gain from the Iran war
Oil and gas majors’ share prices are surging on the expectation of a windfall from the war in Iran, and a range of smaller companies across the energy industry also look like promising buys, fund managers told Semafor. Shell’s stock hit a record high on Monday, reflecting a trend across the sector.
But while the majors have relatively low production costs, the biggest relative boost in profit could be for smaller producers that focus on more expensive barrels, for example oil sands producers in Canada like Suncor Energy. Companies that own natural-resource royalty rights, like Texas Pacific, “benefit from higher oil prices without having to spend capital expenditures to drill new wells,” Simon Wong, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, told Semafor.
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Real Clear Markets – March 5, 2026
Under the “Worst” President for “American Oil,” We Thrived: John Tamny, Parkview Institute
Ronald Reagan was a terrible president for “American oil.” He had nothing against crude, but Reagan did favor reversing the weak dollar policies embraced by Presidents Nixon and Carter in the 1970s, and that caused “oil shocks” that were really dollar shocks. The U.S. was far more “energy independent” during the 1970s under Presidents Nixon and Carter, and that was the economic problem….
A Washington Post editorial contends that a big reason oil is so plentiful now “is expanded U.S. production due to the widespread adoption of fracking and horizontal drilling.” That’s just not true. Fracking existed in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but a strong dollar that pulled oil as low as $7 (Reagan) and $10 (Clinton) rendered stateside extraction a non-starter.
The Post editorial thrills at the fact that “U.S. annual crude production increased by about 120 percent” between 2000 and 2023, but glosses over the sad fact that the price of a barrel was in the $25-30 range in 2000, while it averaged $83 in 2023. The paradoxical truth is that rising U.S. oil production is an effect of much more expensive oil. We’ll know there’s not much oil extraction in the U.S. when the price of a barrel is quite a bit lower.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Houston Chronicle – March 28, 2026
What are the downsides to the data center boom? The Texas Legislature aims to find out.*
The Texas Legislature will step up its scrutiny of data centers as a growing chorus of residents pushes back against the unprecedented influx of new facilities across the state. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who controls the Texas Senate, has directed lawmakers to “recommend ways to balance (the) economic development benefits of this growth against the impacts on landowners, private property rights, water infrastructure and community integrity.” The Texas House laid out similar priorities. Both chambers plan to probe data center water consumption in particular, as concerns mount about the industry exacerbating already-scarce water supplies in some parts of Texas.
Patrick also instructed senators to evaluate “the cost and consequences” of state sales tax exemptions for data centers. The industry’s tax breaks have ballooned from an estimated $14.6 million during the 2014-15 budget cycle to a projected $3.3 billion for the 2028-29 budget cycle, according to Patrick. In addition, senators will review whether current regulations for transmission lines are “sufficient in protecting landowner rights,” as thousands of Texans protest massive projects many believe are largely needed for data centers. “These interim charges reflect issues Texans have asked the Senate to study,” Patrick said in a statement.
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Associated Press – March 27, 2026
Microsoft takes over a Texas AI data center expansion after OpenAI backs away
Microsoft is taking over a data center construction project in Texas after OpenAI declined to pursue it, in a move that will make the two companies neighbors at one of the nation’s largest complexes for running artificial intelligence. Data center developer Crusoe said Friday it is working with Microsoft to build two new “AI factory” buildings and an on-site power plant in Abilene, Texas, right next to where Crusoe has been building an even larger computing campus for OpenAI and Oracle.
OpenAI’s existing project, the flagship of a broader initiative called Stargate, is so massive that President Donald Trump was the first to officially announce it just after his inauguration last year to signal AI investments he called a “resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential.”
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Dallas Morning News – March 27, 2026
Texas Supreme Court ends 2021 winter storm litigation against power generators
Without writing a single sentence to explain why, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday officially ended efforts by tens of thousands of Texas citizens and small businesses to sue power generators for personal injuries, wrongful deaths and property damages suffered during the 2021 winter storm. The decision is a huge victory for large power generators such as Luminant, NRG, Calpine, Exelon and Sempra Energy, who argued that the lawsuits, which sought billions of dollars in damages, should be dismissed because the unprecedented weather, not the companies’ actions, was responsible for the injuries and damages.
In denying the appeal by lawyers for the victims, the state’s highest court left intact a December 2023 ruling by the First Court of Appeals in Houston that the lawsuits against large power generators had “no basis in law or fact.” Lawyers representing the victims said Friday that they are stunned that the Texas Supreme Court rejected such a massive litigation involving so many Texans without even holding oral arguments or at least issuing a written opinion justifying its decision. Four Texas justices — John Devine, Evan Young, Rebecca Huddle and Kyle Hawkins — did not participate in the decision. The mid-February 2021 winter storm sent temperatures into single digits and deposited frozen precipitation across Texas for four days.
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Utility Dive – March 27, 2026
PJM data center colocation plan takes fire from Vistra, data center group, others
The PJM Interconnection’s proposed framework for colocating generation with large loads was panned by multiple stakeholders, including a trade group for data centers, independent power producers and the grid operator’s market monitor, according to comments filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“These proposals will not enable commercially viable arrangements,” the Data Center Coalition said in a filing Wednesday. “Instead, the proposals introduce significant operational rigidity, limit flexibility, and create disincentives that will impede the development of co-located load and associated generation,” DCC said.
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KXAN – March 27, 2026
Used Teslas Are Selling Fast as the Rest of the Market Grinds To a Halt
Used car prices have increased dramatically over the past 6 years, but consumer patience for their high cost may finally be wearing thin. The number of days the average 1- to 5-year-old used car takes to sell (days on market) has been increasing since August. Last month, the average used car took 53 days to sell – a 40.6% jump from a year earlier, and the highest days on market in over two years, since January 2024.
“Used car prices have stabilized over the past 18 months, and they actually dropped slightly in January and February,” said iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer. “But it’s still taking longer to sell these cars, as more consumers either hang on to their current vehicle or shop for older used models to save money.”
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KXAN – March 27, 2026
Over 3,100 jobs created in Texarkana thanks to new lithium plant
A major step toward strengthening America’s energy independence is here. EnergyX has officially launched its Project Lonestar Lithium Demonstration Plant at TexAmericas Center, a site once used as a defense property and military base that is now transformed into a hub for clean energy. The company invested $20 million in the 22,000-square-foot facility, which will focus on extracting lithium, a critical component used in electric vehicles and drones.
“It’s really important that we as a nation are secure and that we have a lithium plant internally to help keep us safe,” said Kellee Khalil, chief marketing officer for EnergyX. “Right now, China controls most of the lithium supply, as well as the lithium technology, so it’s a matter of defense if our grid goes offline, we don’t have lithium in the batteries to keep us stable,” said Kellee Khalil, chief marketing officer for EnergyX. The plant is expected to create over 3,100 jobs in the region, with company leaders emphasizing accessibility for local workers.
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San Antonio Express-News – March 28, 2026
Texas is on the verge of building the largest transmission line in its history, a multigenerational project with impacts that will last forever. The proposed Howard-Solstice 765-kV line will stretch more than 300 miles from South San Antonio through the Hill Country and into West Texas, past Fort Stockton. The line’s tower lattices will exceed 140 feet in height and require rights of way approaching 200 feet wide — electricity infrastructure at a scale Texas has never seen.
There is no way to build a project of this magnitude without impact. No matter which route is selected, this line will disturb land, disrupt ecosystems and permanently alter parts of Texas. It will cross working ranches, fragment wildlife habitat and change landscapes that have remained largely intact for generations. But not all routes are equal, and that is why the decision now before the Public Utility Commission of Texas, commonly known as the PUC, matters so much. As the commission considers the application from AEP Texas and CPS Energy to build this line, the focus must be on minimizing damage and preserving the most sensitive parts of our state. There is a route option in the application to do just that.
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The New York Times – March 28, 2026
How Clean Energy Firms Are Trying to Survive the Trump Era*
Clean energy isn’t dead in the Trump era. But it does look different these days. Since returning to office, President Trump has dismantled federal efforts to fight climate change and vowed to stop new wind turbines from going up. His administration has canceled billions of dollars in funding for technologies that might one day help reduce planet-warming emissions, and it has instead pushed to expand domestic oil and gas drilling. Those moves have taken a brutal toll on America’s budding clean energy industry, including canceled offshore wind farms, shuttered electric-car factories and layoffs at climate technology start-ups.
Yet many clean energy executives say they are finding ways to adapt, and some promising technologies that might help slow global warming are moving forward. Some industries, such as geothermal energy or nuclear power, still receive support from the Trump administration. Start-ups that could help cut emissions from factories are figuring out how to survive without federal support. Others, such as battery companies, are looking to pitch themselves as a solution for the artificial intelligence and data center boom.
More than 300 start-ups attended a major annual energy industry summit this week, known as CERAWeek by S&P Global, showcasing ideas for investors and policymakers like advanced batteries that can store power for multiple days and lower-emission jet fuel. “We’ve just gone through an era of radical uncertainty” for clean energy, said Alex Kizer, an executive vice president at the Energy Futures Initiative, a Washington nonprofit organization. “And for a lot of companies, there are big questions on how they’ll evolve going forward.”
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The Wall Street Journal – March 28, 2026
How Trump Media Joined the Nuclear Industry’s Quest to Create a Star on Earth*
Trump Media & Technology Group is embarking on a $6 billion foray into power generation with an unlikely partner pursuing an unlikely technology, one that has yet to produce a single watt of electricity. In a quiet office park tucked in a hillside, technicians at fusion company TAE Technologies make adjustments to a 40-foot-long tube of nickel-chromium alloy. The partially disassembled research reactor, nicknamed “Norm,” is the latest design in a decadeslong pursuit by TAE to create a star on Earth.
“My wife used to say this to me many times: ‘Are you sure you’re not chasing ghosts?’” said Chief Executive Michl Binderbauer. Trump Media, the parent company of the president’s social-media company Truth Social, agreed in December to merge with the private firm in a deal that would bring fusion investing to the public markets for the first time. The combined company plans to start construction this year on a fusion plant that would eventually increase to 50 megawatts, enough to power tens of thousands of homes, with an ambitious goal to generate electricity by 2031.
First, TAE must prove it can make fusion work. The Norm prototype has convinced TAE that it can build a commercial power project. The merger would provide capital to do so and eliminate the need for ongoing rounds of fundraising. It also lands TAE in the middle of a geopolitical race—and a thicket of potential conflicts. Fusion, the reaction that powers the sun, has long been considered the ultimate clean-energy prize: potentially limitless electricity without greenhouse gases or radioactive waste. Yet it remains elusive. No system has reliably produced more energy than it consumes. Conventional nuclear plants split heavy atoms in a process called fission. Fusion does the opposite: It combines light atomic nuclei into heavier ones, releasing enormous energy. Urgency is growing alongside the artificial-intelligence boom. The U.S. is racing China for both AI dominance and to achieve commercial fusion. Data centers are scrambling for electricity and largely turning to natural gas. Experts generally agree fusion has great potential, but many consider commercial viability at least a decade away.
Regulatory
Texas Tribune – March 27, 2026
Dan Patrick adds data centers, prediction markets and THC to Senate priorities
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday instructed state senators to study a broad range of policy issues ahead of next year’s legislative session, including prediction markets, data centers, THC and more, expanding on an initial list of priorities that included “preventing Sharia law” and investigating Medicaid fraud. Patrick’s latest list of interim charges corresponded with many of the priorities House Speaker Dustin Burrows laid out Thursday.
Data centers appeared three times on Patrick’s priorities, with the lieutenant governor — who leads the state Senate — instructing various committees to assess the water demands of “energy-intensive technologies,” including data centers; to consider how to meet electricity demands of data centers but also “balance economic development benefits of this growth against the impacts on landowners, private property rights, water infrastructure, and community integrity;” and evaluate the costs of the sales tax exemption granted to data centers.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Friday March 27, 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 Friday after President Donald Trump said Iran had allowed 10 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz this week as a “present” to the United States, signaling a tentative easing of tensions in the critical shipping chokepoint.
International benchmark Brent crude futures declined 0.6% to $107.36 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures slipped 0.8% to $93.72 per barrel.
Speaking during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump described the development as a goodwill gesture from Tehran amid what he characterized as ongoing diplomatic engagement.
“They said, ‘To show you the fact that we’re real and solid and we’re there, we’re going to let you have eight boats of oil … and they’ll sail up tomorrow,’” Trump said, referring to Iran.
Top Stories
Houston Chronicle – March 26, 2026
Oxy CEO Vicki Hollub, first woman to lead a major U.S. oil company, reportedly stepping down*
Vicki Hollub, CEO of Houston oil giant Occidental Petroleum, plans to retire and is making succession plans, Reuters reported Thursday. Hollub was the first woman to lead a major American oil company when she took the role in 2016. She is among the 100 most powerful women in the world, according to Forbes, which last year named her one of two Houstonians on the list. The other was Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. Hollub has led one of Houston’s largest oil companies for more than a decade, making a name for herself as she steered the company in ways that set it apart from male-run peers.
Hollub plans to make a formal announcement about her exit later this year, according to Reuters, which cited anonymous sources in a Thursday report. The Houston Chronicle has not been able to independently verify the information. Company representatives were not immediately available for comment. Hollub laid out ambitious plans for Oxy to play a leading role in the energy transition. In 2020, it became the first major oil company to announce a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions strategy, with an emphasis on carbon capture and storage. She led Oxy’s $38 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019. Oxy won the right to acquire Anadarko by outbidding the much larger Chevron. Anadarko originally agreed to be bought by Chevron, but backed out when Oxy sweetened its offer. Chevron received a $1 billion termination fee.
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Associated Press – March 26, 2026
Trump administration seeks Endangered Species Act exemption for oil, gas projects in Gulf
As the Trump administration wages war on Iran, it’s citing national security to seek an exemption from the Endangered Species Act for expanded oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico — a move alarming environmental groups who say it could set a dangerous precedent for future fossil fuel projects. Environmentalists argue the government hasn’t followed proper procedure and they’re seeking to block the move before Interior Secretary Doug Burgum convenes the Endangered Species Committee on Tuesday. The committee, nicknamed the “God Squad” by groups who say it can determine the fate of a species, is comprised of six high-ranking federal officials plus a representative for states involved.
The administration’s exact plans for the Gulf aren’t clear, but experts say the administration must specify the military need that would endanger a specific species to make a case for the national security exemption. The environmental groups worry that a blanket exemption would open the way for the administration to proceed with oil and gas projects without regard for several species including the Rice’s whale, of which only about 50 remain in the Gulf.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 26, 2026
Wealthy Investors Are Targeting Foes of Clean Energy, and They Want Revenge*
President Trump’s sweeping tax law last year eliminated most federal support for wind and solar energy, electric vehicles and other clean technologies. Now, a group of wealthy investors is coming after its architects, trying to prove that green energy knows how to play hardball politics. Their first target is Chip Roy, a Republican representative from Texas who led the push to kill subsidies for clean tech in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The investors, who include Chris Larsen, the billionaire co-founder of the cryptocurrency platform Ripple, are pouring money into defeating Mr. Roy’s campaign for attorney general in Texas.
Clean energy backers have already bought $650,000 of TV ads bashing Roy, which helped force him into a primary runoff this month. They plan to announce this week that they’ll put another $500,000 into the runoff and develop a list of other races they’ll engage with this fall, too. Mr. Roy’s top Republican campaign rival, Mayes Middleton, is no friend to renewables: A Texas state senator, he has introduced bills to restrict wind and solar power. But the clean tech executives said they weren’t worried that they might help elect someone equally antagonistic.
They’re aiming for payback. “You’ve got to have some fear that if you vote against the clean energy industry, you may pay a political price,” said Michael Brune, a former head of the Sierra Club who now serves as chief executive of the Clean Break Fund, a climate investment group backed by Mr. Larsen, who has contributed $500,000 to the effort. Mr. Roy acknowledged in a telephone interview that the clean energy spending had an impact in the primary. But he said he took their opposition as a “badge of honor” and promised to try to hurt the industry even more. “You want to come after me? Then I’m taking two of your guys,” Mr. Roy said. “We got a good chunk of your subsidies removed last year. Just wait until the next go-round.”
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Center Square – March 26, 2026
Texas Republicans at odds with Trump AI expansion goals into rural areas
Texas Republicans are expressing growing opposition to a Trump administration plan to expand artificial intelligence, and data centers to support it, in rural communities. Data centers require large acreage, a large volume of water and electricity. Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to expand AI and data centers, which is already being implemented. Trade deals have been struck requiring energy facilities and data centers to power AI, including in rural east Texas.
The executive order says advancing AI “will promote United States national and economic security and dominance across many domains.” The order also revokes the Biden administration’s “attempt to paralyze this industry,” it says.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 26, 2026
Trump Says the Energy Shock Will Be Short-Lived. CEOs Paint a Scarier Picture.*
Standing in front of a crowd of oil-and-gas executives this week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright reiterated that the chaos in global energy markets birthed by the U.S.-Iran war would be “short term.” But on the stage and sidelines of a global energy conference in Houston, chief executives painted a much bleaker picture: Financial markets aren’t accurately reflecting the gravity of the crisis, the war is crippling the world’s fuel supplies, and the industry’s Middle East operations are at risk, they said. Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Jarrod Agen, executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council, fielded questions about the timeline for winding down the conflict in private exchanges Tuesday with oil-and-gas CEOs, according to people familiar with the matter. Weeks, not months, has been their response at recent meetings.
Among those in attendance were Toby Rice of natural gas producer EQT, Jack Fusco of LNG exporter Cheniere Energy and Venture Global’s Michael Sabel. A White House official said the meetings focused primarily on long-term domestic issues including permitting reform. Some executives are privately expressing frustration with the administration’s optimistic messaging and say officials have shared no coherent plan for withdrawing the U.S. from a deepening crisis. They say price gyrations and the uncertainty hanging over the conflict make it all but impossible to plan investments—and that the disruption is already far-reaching.
“What they fail to understand is that daily tweets driving volatility in both the commodity market and the equity market isn’t good for anybody,” said Mark Viviano, a managing partner at energy investment firm Kimmeridge. “It’s just really difficult to make any kind of intelligent decisions in that environment.” Wright delved into the subject of the war about nine minutes into his public remarks at the S&P Global’s CERAWeek energy conference in downtown Houston. He said consumers haven’t meaningfully trimmed purchases of fuel to cope with rising prices; when asked how markets were handling the disruption, he responded that “markets do what markets do.”
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International Business Times – March 26, 2026
IEA Reveals 10-Point Plan to Ease Oil Costs Amid Middle East Supply Crisis
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published a 10-point emergency plan tellinggovernments, businesses, and households how to cut oil demand as the Middle East conflict chokes off one-fifth of global supply. The report, titled ‘Sheltering From Oil Shocks’ and released on 20 March, arrives as crude oil prices have surged above $100 (£74.84) a barrel following the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Refined products like diesel, jet fuel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are climbing even faster.
The IEA said all 10 measures can be put into action within weeks and could together reduce global oil demand by 2.7 million barrels per day. The agency called the current disruption ‘the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.’ Around 20 million barrels per day of crude and refined products normally pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Those flows have slowed to what the IEA described as ‘a trickle’, forcing Gulf producers to cut output by at least 10 million barrels per day as onshore storage fills up.
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Politico – March 26, 2026
Schumer rolls out Democrats’ midterm energy pitch
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rolled out an energy and climate change agenda Wednesday as a preview of what Democrats have in store if they take the chamber’s majority in November’s elections. Schumer’s five-point plan seeks to ride the national momentum on affordability, framing Democrats as the party not just of clean energy and fighting climate change, but of lower electricity bills and more jobs.
It touches on some longtime Democratic priorities — like bringing back the Inflation Reduction Act clean energy tax incentives that President Donald Trump and Republicans rolled back last year — and easing permitting hurdles for wind, solar and other zero-emissions energy sources. “We can bring new voters and allies into the fight for a cleaner environment by showing how clean energy is affordable energy,” Schumer said.
The Latest TERse Tips
Oil prices have been gripped by volatility since the U.S.-Iran war began nearly four weeks ago, but analysts say the market has now entered a state of “backwardation,” with some suggesting a risk premium has been baked into energy prices despite traders anticipating a swift resolution to the conflict — CNBC
Employees at the Grayson Collin Electric Cooperative are set to vote on unionizing with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, seeking better working conditions — KTEN
A federal appeals court in Washington appears unlikely to block federal authorizations to construct and operate a massive liquefied natural gas terminal in southwestern Louisiana — during oral arguments Tuesday, one judge in particular was critical of arguments by advocacy groups that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should do more review of the CP2 LNG export project, which is currently under construction — E&E News By Politico*
Update: Texas may overhaul power market to handle data center boom — Politico
SWEPCO plans to relocate aging transmission line in Southeast Upshur County — Gilmer Mirror
Gulf of Mexico oil spill spread hundreds of miles, killed wildlife and polluted Mexican reserves — Mexican authorities say a March oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico spread more than 600 kilometers and reached protected areas — KVUE
Constellation exec says grid operator told company Three Mile Island can’t connect until 2031 — Reuters*
The Trans Mountain oil pipeline system is expected to operate at full capacity in April and into May as a result of energy disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East — the pipelines transport oil from Edmonton to a terminal in Burnaby, B.C. — CBC
Arizona is chasing California and Texas on grid batteries — Canary Media
‘Landman’ TV show inspires new class at TCU, teaching students the ‘real world thing’ — Dubuque Telegraph Herald
In oil-rich West Texas, a town of 1,355 is building a $21M sports complex — Houston Chronicle*
Oil & Gas Texas
Albuquerque Journal – March 26, 2026
Oil execs say war is ‘wreaking havoc’ on commodities markets
In a Dallas Federal Reserve energy survey released Wednesday, one oil and gas company executive expressed guilt for profiting off oil prices driven up by the latest Middle Eastern war. Another called volatility in commodities markets “insane” and said the U.S.-Israel conflict against Iran makes planning difficult. “It feels as though we’ve lost control of the Iran war,” said another executive. “If the (Strait of Hormuz) doesn’t open in the next two weeks, we think you’re looking at $170 per barrel and basically guaranteed recession.”
Business activity in the first quarter of this year was up in the Texas-New Mexico oil fields from the end of 2025, the Fed’s report said. The bank reported that its business activity index — a broad measure of the conditions energy firms face in the region — “turned positive,” indicating expansion. The index increased from -6.2 in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 21.0 in the first quarter of 2026. While the pumpjacks keep churning in the Permian Basin, executives expressed broad uncertainty about how the Iran war — and not to mention other conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war — will impact the global economy.
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Reuters – March 25, 2026
CERAWEEK Freeport CEO says Iran war energy disruptions could delay new US LNG projects*
Supply disruptions linked to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran could delay construction of liquefied natural gas projects slated for development in the U.S., Freeport LNG CEO Michael Smith said on Wednesday at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. The U.S. is the world’s largest LNG exporter and has more new capacity under construction than any other country. Smith said the conflict’s impact could extend beyond oil and gas supply chains, affecting key materials such as steel and components used in manufacturing equipment needed to build LNG plants.
American LNG developers were already facing inflationary pressures before the disruptions, driven in part by labor shortages and rising construction costs, Smith added. The Middle East conflict has shuttered about 20% of global LNG supply after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to export traffic. With costs escalating, Smith said Freeport LNG would not proceed with its proposed fourth liquefaction train unless it can secure liquefaction fees of $3 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Liquefaction fees are charged by LNG developers to convert natural gas into a liquid for export.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 26, 2026
Midland Sen. Kevin Sparks named chair of Texas Natural Resources committee*
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has released committee assignments, naming State Sen. Kevin Sparks chair of the Committee on Natural Resources. “It’s an honor to chair any committee, but especially the Natural Resources committee, coming from the Permian Basin, it’s especially appropriate,” said Sparks, a Republican from Midland. Speaking by phone with the Reporter-Telegram, Sparks said he had spoken with his predecessor, state Sen. Brian Birdwell, “to get his take on issues as he had chaired the committee for several sessions. I feel I’m already ready to take over.”
Even within oil and gas, he said there are issues to address, pointing to oilfield theft, for example. Another is managing old wells, including plugging wells and orphaned wells. He is a veteran of the oil and gas industry through his career with Discovery Operating. “Even in my career, I’ve seen how innovation has reenergized a 100-year-old industry,” he said. As part of his chairmanship, Sparks said he will oversee wildfire response and prevention efforts. Wildlife conservation and waste recycling will also be topics for the committee, including programs to reclaim and recycle produced water.
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San Antonio Current – March 26, 2026
San Antonio-based Valero Energy hit with lawsuit over Port Arthur refinery explosion
A worker purportedly injured in Valero Energy’s Monday-night refinery explosion in Port Arthur has sued the San San Antonio-based oil-and-gas company, alleging it failed to properly maintain its equipment, Reuters reports. The claim, filed in Jefferson County District Court in East Texas, seeks more than $1 million in damages, according to Reuters. Plaintiff Jonathan Jaimes said in the filing that he received injuries to his back, neck and spine in the blast and now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Valero officials had no comment to Reuters on the suit. However, in an earlier statement to Reuters it said all employees had been accounted for following the explosion. Jaimes was inside the Port Arthur refinery when a diesel hydrotreater blew up, shaking homes as far as 11 miles from the facility, one of 14 refinery operations Valero runs in North America and the UK.
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Oil Price – March 26, 2026
Woodside Takes Control of Texas Ammonia Plant in U.S. Expansion Push
Woodside Energy has officially taken over operations of its Beaumont New Ammonia (BNA) facility in southeast Texas, completing the final stage of its acquisition of OCI’s clean ammonia business and advancing its push into lower-carbon fuels. The Australian energy company confirmed it assumed control following the successful completion of performance testing and handover from OCI Global.
The BNA facility has a nameplate capacity of up to 1.1 million tonnes per year and is expected to significantly expand U.S. ammonia export capacity – potentially doubling current levels, according to company estimates. The milestone represents a critical component of Woodside’s broader strategy to diversify beyond LNG and oil into new energy products, particularly ammonia, which is increasingly viewed as a key hydrogen carrier and decarbonization fuel.
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Reuters – March 16, 2026
Private firms spearhead global shale push as US public operators stay home*
Private energy companies and their backers are emerging as leaders in the next phase of global shale development, taking early positions in overseas basins while publicly listed U.S. producers focus on capital discipline and their core domestic acreage. The pattern echoes the early years of the U.S. shale revolution, when independent wildcatters took the initial risks to prove drilling and completion techniques before larger, more established energy players moved in at scale.
The shale boom helped the U.S. become the world’s largest crude producer and industry analysts strongly believe many other places around the world have similar shale-oil potential. Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie forecast in late 2024 that non-U.S. shale output by 2030 would be in the range of 5-6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, close to the 6.6 million boepd currently produced in America’s Permian basin heartland. In the international market, private operators are again showing a greater willingness to move first. Continental Resources, the Harold Hamm-headed producer which helped pioneer fracking in the Bakken basin of North Dakota in the 1990s, has signed agreements in the last year to develop nascent shale plays in Turkey and Argentina. Formentera Partners, a private equity firm co-founded by former Parsley Energy head Bryan Sheffield, has amassed a position in the Beetaloo basin of northern Australia.
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Texas Tribune – March 26, 2026
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows directed lawmakers to study the secession of New Mexico counties to Texas, the development of data centers in the state, property tax relief and more in a list of his priorities for next year’s legislative session released Thursday.
The Lubbock Republican’s interim charges overlap with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s initial to-do list in their shared focuses on reducing property taxes, securing Texas from potential foreign threats and homing in on potential fraud and abuse in government spending. But Burrows’ priorities cover a broader range of policy issues for House committees to tackle in preparation for the 2027 legislative session. Burrows also created three new committees on governmental oversight, health care affordability and general aviation.
Oil & Gas National & International
The Wall Street Journal – March 26, 2026
Energy-Price Shock Hits a World Already Buried in Debt*
Bond markets have become jittery about government spending that adds to deficits. U.S. bond yields have risen sharply as investors fret over the potential for both higher inflation and spending. In Europe, hard hit by the energy crunch, borrowing costs for the U.K., France and Germany have leapt to their highest in more than a decade. Europe’s last foray into energy-price interventions, during the 2022 crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cost the continent roughly half a trillion dollars and compounded postpandemic debt problems. The European Central Bank’s Christine Lagarde has urged governments to avoid blanket policies that could strain finances and stoke demand.
But some, like Isabella Weber, a German economist who helped design the country’s price cap during the Russian energy crisis, are nonetheless pushing for aggressive action to stop the crisis from causing longer-term economic damage. The energy price surge is already starting to hurt global activity, data showed this week. “Even if the war was to stop tomorrow, it’s absolutely important to step in as soon as possible,” said Weber, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “The fiscal concern shouldn’t be the main concern right now. Preventing inflation and [economic] output losses should be the absolute priority.”
Some countries have turned to direct price controls, which limit how much energy companies—like refiners, gas stations or utilities—can charge. But in many cases, governments end up footing the bill. “Experience after experience throughout history has shown us [capping prices] is a bad idea,” said Ricardo Reis, a professor at the London School of Economics. “It creates an ever-growing hole in the government’s budget.” China this week capped a rise in retail fuel prices at 10% instead of a planned 20% increase, with state-owned refiners expected to absorb the cost through lower margins.
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Bloomberg – March 26, 2026
‘Insane’ Volatility Hurts Energy Production Planning, Fed Survey Shows*
Volatility in energy commodity prices driven by the ongoing war in the Middle East is confounding firms trying to make decisions about production in coming months. “The volatility across all the commodities is just insane and makes planning very difficult,” one anonymous respondent said in the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ quarterly energy survey, released Wednesday. Higher oil prices due to the war are driving some optimism about increased production among US oil and gas companies, but uncertainty is weighing heavily on many firms.
“In the quarter ahead, all pricing is uncertain until safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz can be achieved,” another respondent said. Half of the surveyed exploration and production companies don’t expect to increase the number of wells drilled this year, while 47% said they will drill slightly or significantly more wells. Energy company officials expect the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil to end 2026 at $74 a barrel, according to the survey. That’s up from an estimate of $62 in December.
The survey was conducted March 11–19, after the start of the Iran conflict caused oil prices to surge. WTI at around $89 a barrel Wednesday. “Volatility has increased due to geopolitical events,” said another respondent. “The second- and third-order effects of this volatility and the commodity supply and price shock have yet to be determined, but the focus on energy security over the coming years should position US producers well on the global stage.”
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Oil Price – March 26, 2026
Second Tanker Hit in Weeks as Black Sea Drone Strikes Russian Oil Cargo
A tanker carrying Russian oil was hit on Thursday by an unmanned marine vehicle in the Black Sea near Istanbul, Turkish authorities said. The Altura crude oil tanker, which is sanctioned by the EU and the UK, was hit by what Turkey believes is an unmanned vehicle, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said. The tanker, flying the flag of Sierra Leone and operated by a Turkish firm, had loaded crude oil from the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, tanker-tracking data on MarineTraffic shows.
The Altura was fully laden with about 1 million barrels of Russia’s flagship crude Urals, according to tanker-tracking data. “We believe it was not a drone attack, but an unmanned underwater vehicle,” Uraloglu told Turkish media on Thursday.
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S&P Global Platts – March 26, 2026
Venture Global-Vitol LNG deal targets upside in 2026-27 spot prices
Venture Global’s latest US LNG deal with Vitol, which Atlantic Basin traders say is priced at 119% of Henry Hub plus $2.80-$3.20/million British thermal unit, is attractive for at least the first years of the five-year term, the traders have told Platts. The LNG deal is driven by expectations of elevated spot prices and favorable spreads versus Northeast Asia and Europe.
On March 23, Venture Global announced the binding free-on-board LNG sales agreement with energy trader Vitol for about 1.5 million metric tons/year, beginning in 2026. “Quite a good deal for Vitol, in the money in the front,” a trader said.
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Reuters – March 26, 2026
Asia looks to COVID-era playbook to tackle fuel crisis*
Countries across Asia are weighing up work-from-home policies and stimulus measures enforced during the COVID pandemic, as they scramble to respond to global fuel shortages triggered by the Iran war. Asia is at the frontline of the fuel crisis, buying more than 80% of the crude that transits the Strait of Hormuz, which has been almost totally blocked by Iran since the war broke out on February 28. No country in the region has enforced work-from-home measures yet, but some have said they are on the table.
“I think it is a good idea,” South Korean Energy Minister Kim Sung-whan said on Tuesday when asked about an International Energy Agency recommendation for people to work from home. The IEA, which agreed a record release of around 400 million barrels of oil from strategic stockpiles to deal with the crisis, has outlined proposals to ease oil price pressures such as working from home and avoiding air travel.
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Houston Chronicle – March 26, 2026
Energy executives tend to be engineers, and engineers like math and models. The easiest and cheapest wells to drill are for shale oil in West Texas, and even then, it takes about 18 months to get the oil to market. We’d better hope prices aren’t still high in the summer of 2027. Ryan Lance, CEO of Houston-based ConocoPhillips, said U.S. companies have already committed to their 2026 drilling programs. “We planned for a modest amount of growth, but not a lot,” he told the conference.
Lance was more worried about Iran’s attacks on his company’s natural gas operations in Qatar and called on Trump for more protection. By Tuesday afternoon, reports emerged that the Pentagon was deploying several thousand soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Persian Gulf. Coincidentally, Trump reiterated his claims about peace talks. Compared to the cacophony coming from the Trump administration, the Big Oil CEOs’ calm and measured pitches were soothing, if you look past the total disregard for the climate or the environment. They were cautiously pessimistic. Many executives said there had been billions of dollars in damage that would require years to rebuild.
“Even if the Strait opens at some point, it will take time to rebuild inventories of the right grades and move the right types of products around the world to meet demand,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth explained. “Some of those facilities have suffered damage and in some cases, reportedly, pretty significant damage. How quickly that production can actually come back to life is an uncertainty.” The world was awash with oil before the conflict, and perhaps that is why Trump gambled on a short war with Iran. But the Iranians did not fold and played their trump card by closing the Strait of Hormuz.
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Alaska’s moment is here: Let’s finish the LNG pipeline: Mike Dunleavy, Mark Begich
In 2014, the Alaska Legislature passed a bill granting authority to the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. to secure a deal with a private developer to advance the project, recognizing it is too large and complex for the state to manage alone. That is why we have partnered with Glenfarne.
Under this agreement, Alaska maintains a 25% ownership stake, as it did when the project was being developed by producers. However, there is one significant improvement: There is no financial risk to the state. Alaska has no liability, no project costs and no obligation to provide cash or take on debt to reach a final investment decision. In addition, state entities and other in-state investors will have the option to invest directly in the project’s three core components — the liquefaction plant, gas treatment plant and the pipeline. Those investment decisions will ultimately rest with the Legislature.
The project has received its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission certificate and Department of Energy license. The necessary engineering is complete. Permits are in hand. Litigation has concluded. The right of way is secured. The gas is available. And the markets are there — Japan, South Korea and other Pacific partners have made clear they want a reliable North American supplier rather than relying on unstable regions elsewhere.
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Edmonton Journal – March 25, 2026
New pipelines needed ‘without delay’: Premier Smith makes her case in Texas as oil prices rise
Premier Danielle Smith and her entourage have gone south to Texas with a simple message — if you can help bring Alberta oil to market, we’re open for business. “Alberta’s message at CERAWeek is clear: We want to build new pipelines east, west, north, and south — without delay, without hesitation — to supply Asian, European, and American markets with safe, reliable, and responsibly produced energy products,” Smith posted on social media from Houston, where the world’s top energy conference is being held this year.
Smith’s comments came after Israel and Iran renewed hostilities following a brief respite in the Middle East conflict that briefly eased oil prices earlier this week. As missiles hit Tel Aviv and Tehran, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude rose to nearly US$92 a barrel Tuesday. “The demand for Alberta oil has never been higher,” read a statement issued Tuesday by Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean’s office. “The world is looking for reliable and secure energy in this ever-changing geopolitical environment. Alberta has some of the largest reserves in the world and we have the most responsibly produced oil on the planet.
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Kuwait Times – March 26, 2026
Europe scales back climate goals to ease energy shock
The European Union may be forced to scale back its flagship climate policies and geopolitical aims as the Iran war drives up energy prices – with lasting consequences for the bloc’s energy strategy. The energy crunch sparked by the conflict, now in its fourth week, has rattled Europe, which is heavily dependent on imported oil and gas.
Around 8 percent of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) comes from the Middle East through the all-important Strait of Hormuz, which remains mostly blocked. European benchmark gas prices have jumped more than 60 percent since the conflict began, to above 50 euros per megawatt hour. That is still far below the eye-watering peak of nearly 300 euros per MWh seen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when pipeline gas supplies collapsed.
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CNBC – March 25, 2026
Oil giants raise the alarm over energy shortages as Iran war drags on
A trio of European energy CEOs has sounded a warning over energy supplies, amid the ongoing conflict in Iran and restricted access through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. Amid volatile trade, crude prices have surged around 40% in recent weeks, at one point approaching $120 a barrel as investors raised concerns over a potential lack of supply.
Those concerns have been felt particularly in Asian countries so far, with the Philippines announcing an energy emergency, while South Korea says it is preparing for “worst-case scenarios.” Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has asked the International Energy Agency to consider an additional release from global crude stockpiles, with the global energy watchdog having already coordinated the release of 400 million barrels of oil amongst member countries.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
KCEN – March 26, 2026
Oncor and LCRA seek approval for major 765kV transmission project
Related: Oncor Electric Delivery is buying land in Ellis County, Texas on Farrar Road in support of Oncor’s development of a substation and switch station as part of its new 765-kV transmission project — see the press release
Oncor and the Lower Colorado River Authority Transmission Services Corporation (LCRA TSC) have filed an application to construct a 765kV transmission line stretching from Schleicher to Bell counties. The proposed Bell County East–Big Hill 765 kV Transmission Line Project, a major infrastructure project aimed at strengthening Texas’ electric reliability amid rapid population and demand growth, is part of a broader state effort to develop a next-generation transmission network capable of moving significantly more electricity across longer distances with greater efficiency. The companies say the line is intended to help support ongoing growth in communities across Texas.
Under Texas law, new transmission projects must be approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas through a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN), a regulatory filing that outlines the need for the project, proposed routes, and environmental and routing studies.
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Associated Press/KVUE – March 26, 2026
Investigators find gas utility pipes separated before deadly Mississippi explosions
Separate natural gas explosions in January 2024 that destroyed two homes in Jackson, Mississippi resulted from underground pipes pulling loose from their fittings as spongy clay soil expanded and contracted with rainfall, according to a federal report released Thursday. The first explosion killed Clara Barbour, 82.
The National Transportation Safety Board found that the natural gas utility in the city, Dallas-based Atmos Energy Corp., had detected the leaks before the explosions, but didn’t evaluate them as severe enough for quick repair. The board also found that Atmos didn’t do enough to assess risks and make repairs to its pipeline system and didn’t do enough to educate the public or emergency officials about how to respond to natural gas leaks. It urged regulators to take a closer look at the company. “Atmos has had significant safety shortfalls in recent years,” the board wrote “Thus, Atmos’s multistate operations require broader oversight.”
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S&P Global Platts – March 26, 2026
CERAWEEK: Executives say utilities preparing for more-extreme weather
US utilities are having to prepare for extreme weather in ways they’ve never thought of before, from more devastating wildfires in the West to increased flooding and more hurricanes in the Southeast, executives said March 26. At the same time, utilities are also facing the challenge of meeting increased electrification and rapid demand on the electrical system while keeping power reliable and affordable, executives said during the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston.
“We have to think about extreme weather in ways we’ve never thought about it before,” said Chris Womack, Southern Company chairman, president and CEO. “We need to make sure we are getting ahead of it and be prepared for the most extreme conditions.”
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Utility Dive – March 26, 2026
50 GW of data centers online at end of 2025, with MISO seeing strongest growth: FERC
More than 50 GW of data center capacity was operating in the U.S. at the end of 2025, representing 24% compound annual growth since 2020, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator region, with 43% compound annual growth, saw the most rapid data center development in that period, FERC staff said in the 2025 State of the Markets report, released March 19.
The other fastest-growing regions are the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the Southwest Power Pool and the Southeast, with annual growth rates ranging from 28% to 30%, according to the report. About 5,995 MW of data center capacity was being built at the end of 2025, down from 6,350 MW in 2024, CBRE said in a Feb. 25 report.
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WFAA – March 25, 2026
Battery storage for electricity in Texas has been soaring, and much more is on the way.
In February, it may have felt like you had heated your home in January with burning piles of cash. Many Texans were confronted with soaring electric bills after our extended time encased in the January deep freeze. Compare Power notes that about 60% of Texas homes use electricity as their primary heating source. As we have discussed before, when we plunge below and well-below freezing, often the auxiliary or emergency heat kicks on.
That’s those heat strips in your air handler enhance your heating system. When they crank up, your electric consumption and your electric bill can go way up. If your frustration level is also up because of last month’s electric bill, let’s cool down a bit and just be thankful…for batteries. Lots of batteries. Cleanview Founder and CEO Michael Thomas says, “What happened in really just the last one to two years is there was this incredible buildout of solar and batteries in Texas… bigger than almost anything other than China in the world, probably. And what that did was it brought online a huge supply of energy.”
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New Orleans Times-Picayune – March 23, 2026
Gov. Jeff Landry wants Louisiana to bet big on nuclear energy. Here’s why.
Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration is pushing to embrace the nuclear power industry and proposing the state build more nuclear plants, components and fuel enrichment sites. Landry announced the state’s framework for nuclear energy Monday evening at the energy conference CERAWeek in Houston. He’s meeting there with companies and officials from President Donald Trump’s administration in hopes of landing grant funding and nuclear-related projects.
The push comes as data centers and heavy industry are popping up in Louisiana, creating a major need for new power generation. And buyers of chemical feedstocks and other products made here — particularly companies in Europe — are demanding products made using carbon-free energy.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 26, 2026
Energy Capital Partners Proceeds With Caution on Gas-Fired Power Plant Deals*
Energy Capital Partners is looking to make new investments in natural-gas-fired electricity plants but is moving cautiously as asset prices rise in a booming U.S. power sector considered somewhat insulated from war in the Middle East. “Domestic power generation is not impacted by the situation in the Middle East,” said Doug Kimmelman, founder and executive chairman at the private-equity firm also known as ECP. Summit, N.J.-based ECP invests in both gas-fired and renewable power plants, as well as businesses that help make energy infrastructure more sustainable. The firm is owned by London-listed Bridgepoint Group, a private-market investor that manages assets of about $98 billion.
If anything, America’s war with Iran could indirectly lift electricity consumption in the U.S. as more liquefied natural gas plants come online in the next few years, Kimmelman said. Domestic plants are poised to increase exports after Iranian missiles struck large LNG facilities in Qatar, one of the world’s main suppliers alongside the U.S. “LNG plants are very electricity-intensive because of the need to refrigerate and freeze the gas,” he said. “If we’re going to have more LNG export terminals in the U.S., we will need a lot more electricity for that.”
He also said robust production of gas, burned by thousands of U.S. power plants, has prevented domestic prices from rising too much. U.S. natural-gas prices climbed about 13% after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, but have fallen back to just about 2% higher than before the start of the war. Meanwhile, prices in Europe surged more than 50% and remain near that level.
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Inside Climate News – March 26, 2026
Two Wildly Different Data Centers Reveal a ‘Fork in the Road’ on How to Meet Electricity Demand
A proposed Google data center in Michigan is notable for its use of renewable energy and its ability to ramp down power use during periods of high demand. The plan, announced last week, is a partnership with the utility DTE Energy and could serve as a model for cleanly and efficiently providing electricity to a data center.
But there are many examples of data center developers going in the opposite direction, with proposals to build giant gas-fired power plants to go along with giant data centers. The largest of these, also announced last week, is a 9,200-megawatt gas plant in southern Ohio being developed by SoftBank Group Corp. of Japan and its subsidiary SB Energy.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 26, 2026
‘Renewable’ Energy Gives Us a Crisis: Brenda Shaffer*
Every major energy crisis invites finger-pointing. In 2022, the world blamed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for a spike in natural-gas prices. This time, it’s attributing the energy crisis to the war in Iran. But challenges in energy production and trade because of geopolitical tension are common. The true culprit behind recent disruptions and price volatility is global energy policy. Western countries’ abandonment of fossil fuels left the world’s energy supply vulnerable to disruptions and price increases. For years, the world’s top policymakers have heralded the move from fossil fuels to renewable energy as an inevitability. Despite trillions of dollars in renewable technology investments, fossil fuels accounted for 87% of global energy consumption in 2024, almost unchanged from the 1970s. Global oil, natural-gas and coal demand reached record levels in 2025.
Under the illusion of an imminent energy transition, Western governments and institutions stopped investing in fossil fuels. In 2019 the World Bank halted funding for upstream oil and natural-gas projects. The International Energy Agency’s “Net Zero by 2050” report in 2021 called for no new investments in fossil fuels. The same year the Group of Seven countries committed to end public financing for overseas fossil-fuel projects. The message was clear: Investment in oil, gas and coal was no longer welcome. These policies have inflicted devastating consequences particularly in Africa, where large volumes of oil and gas in multiple fields were discovered in the 2010s. Had investments continued, Africa could have become a critical energy supplier, and the increased supply outside the Middle East could have softened the effect of current energy disruptions.
While the West doubled down on the renewable-energy pivot, energy security continued to suffer. Europe chose to rely on volatile liquefied natural gas supplies from distant regions rather than making long-term commitments to more secure sources such as pipeline gas from Azerbaijan. The U.S. retreated from its traditional role of ensuring freedom of navigation on the world’s seas, a core tenet of global energy security. The Biden administration’s withdrawal from its global maritime security responsibilities—exemplified by its failure for several years to address Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and the spillover of the Russia-Ukraine war into the Black Sea since 2022—set the stage for the current challenge in the Strait of Hormuz.
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The New York Times – March 26, 2026
Local Opposition Is Slowing A.I. Data Centers. Wall Street Has Noticed.*
The torrential wave of data center construction for artificial intelligence has seemed unstoppable. Unconstrained by interest rates or labor costs, the biggest tech companies in the world are pouring trillions of dollars into land, electronics and new power plants. A.I. spending is now a meaningful share of American economic growth and the wind at the stock market’s back. But lately, zoning commissions and county councils across the country have been resisting. Unnerved by the data centers’ voracious electricity demands and sprawling footprints, they are denying permits and withdrawing tax breaks at a rate that is forcing companies like Google, Microsoft and Meta to take a different tack.
And Wall Street, which has ridden high on those valuations, is starting to raise some eyebrows. “A lot of the commitments and the build-out of data centers where it’s easy has kind of been done, so you’re getting marginally more difficult,” said Todd Castagno, a managing director at Morgan Stanley. “From a markets perspective, expectations might be, maybe not reset, but realigned with the fact that it’s hard to put a couple trillion dollars in the ground in a short time.” About 30 percent of the S&P 500 is made up of just six companies: Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon, all of which have staked their futures on the use of artificial intelligence. The building boom has also lifted equipment makers like Caterpillar and Siemens, which have enjoyed greater sales to data center projects. Much of the construction is also funded by the investors behind OpenAI and Anthropic, which are privately held.
Regulatory
Wired – March 26, 2026
Senators Demand to Know How Much Energy Data Centers Use
Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren and Republican senator Josh Hawley are urging the US’s central energy information agency to provide better information on how much electricity data centers actually use. In a joint letter sent to the Energy Information Administration Thursday morning, seen by WIRED, Hawley and Warren press the agency to publicly collect “comprehensive, annual energy-use disclosures” on data centers. This information, they write, is “essential for accurate grid planning and will support policymaking to prevent large companies from increasing electricity costs for American families.”
As the data center boom spreads across the country, there have been widespread worries from voters about how their massive energy needs may increase consumers’ electric bills; this concern helped shape some midterm elections in data-center-heavy states, including Virginia and Georgia. Last month, Hawley cosponsored a bill with Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal that would require data centers to supply their own power sources in order to protect consumers. Earlier this month, Donald Trump convened a group of executives from big tech companies at the White House to sign a nonbinding (and toothless) agreement pledging to pay for their own power for data centers.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 26, 2026
Carbon-Removal Credits Licensed by EU Get Nasdaq Backing*
Nasdaq Inc. is among a group of investors backing a carbon-capture project in Stockholm, in what is the first sale of carbon-removal credits licensed by the European Union. The EU initiative aims to spur further investment in a system potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars. EU policymakers hope a step-up in the flow of corporate cash for removals of carbon can help it achieve its ambitious goal of emissions neutrality within the coming decades. But critics warn that the removal of polluting gases already emitted shouldn’t replace efforts to cut emissions in the first place. The EU’s methodology “will facilitate investment in innovative carbon removal technologies, as well as sustainable carbon farming solutions,” it said.
The Stockholm facility, operated by energy provider Stockholm Exergi, will take carbon-laden agricultural and woody residues and produce energy for heating and electricity, in a process known as BECCS—bio energy with carbon capture and storage. The leftover carbon dioxide will be stored deep beneath the North Sea in sedimentary bedrock and will gradually mineralize over time. BECCS is one of the key methods set out by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, in its framework for removals projects. Operations for the Stockholm project are due to begin in 2028. Nasdaq, which operates the New York stock exchange, and Dutch payments provider Adyen are among the group of buyers of units in the Stockholm project. The investment should offer a “catalytic impact” to the voluntary carbon-removal market, said Ella Douglas, Adyen’s global sustainability lead.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Thursday March 26, 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 Thursday after Iran signaled it had no intention of holding direct talks with the United States, even as a U.S. proposal to end the war is under review by senior officials in Tehran, according to remarks from the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister.
West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 1.65% to $91.97 per barrel.
International benchmark Brent crude futures added 1.78% to $104.04 per barrel.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media on Wednesday that exchanges between the two countries through mediators do not mean “negotiations with the U.S.,” Reuters reported.
Iranian state media reported that Tehran would reject a U.S. ceasefire offer and had instead laid out its own conditions for ending the conflict.′
The latest comments came as Washington and Tehran continued to offer differing accounts of the status of talks.
Trump said Tuesday the U.S. and Iran are “in negotiations right now” and suggested Tehran is eager to make a deal, even as the Islamic Republic has denied any direct talks. Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said he had backed off from earlier threats to strike Iranian energy infrastructure “based on the fact we’re negotiating.”
Top Stories
CBC – March 25, 2026
Canada is pitching its energy ambitions in Texas — can the oil and gas industry be convinced?
In Texas this week for a global energy conference, the federal natural resources minister is proclaiming “Canada is back” and ready to bolster its energy sector and grow exports. The message by Tim Hodgson comes at a time when the world is confronting an energy crisis caused by the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, which is raising fears of a spike in inflation and a possible global recession.
Though industry executives welcomed Hodgson’s enthusiasm at the CERAWeek conference in Houston and the overall direction of the government under Prime Minister Mark Carney, they still say they want to see considerable action before they’ll be convinced the federal government is serious — both about becoming an energy superpower and changing the country’s reputation as being reluctant to expand energy supply and exports, especially oil and natural gas.
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OK Energy Today – March 25, 2026
Federal Lawmakers Push to Connect Texas Power Grid to Nation
Another effort is underway in Congress to force Texas to join the nation’s major electric grids, targeting the state’s largely independent system operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Three members of Congress recently reintroduced the Connect the Grid Act, which would require ERCOT to connect to other U.S. power grids. While the bill does not specify which grid, it could involve the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which manages electricity transmission across Oklahoma and more than a dozen other states.
Democrats in Washington introduced the measure, including U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They argue that connecting ERCOT to a broader grid would improve electric grid reliability, reduce power outages, and lower electricity costs during extreme weather events.
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The Hill – Marc 25, 2026
Chevron threatening to leave California
Chevron said it is threatening to close its oil refineries in California due to overregulation, which the oil company said is contributing to price spikes amid the war in Iran. Due to California’s taxes, emissions rules and other regulations, which hit gas costs harder than in many other states, the price per gallon is well over the national average. Tehran’s decision to effectively shut off the Strait of Hormuz has left millions of barrels of crude oil stationary, hurting economies in Asian countries, which heavily rely on oil from the Middle East.
In turn, Chevron, which imports fuel from China, South Korea and Singapore, is facing the brunt of the blockade. Amid the energy crisis, Beijing has banned fuel exports. Andy Walz, who heads Chevron’s oil refining efforts, said leaders in California should be worried about the possibility of a fuel deficit in the Golden State.
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Bloomberg – March 25, 2026
Trump Team Examines What Oil as High as $200 a Barrel Would Mean*
Trump administration officials are examining what a potential spike in oil prices as high as $200 a barrel would mean for the economy, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign senior officials are studying the possible fallout from extreme scenarios for the Iran war. Modeling of how damaging a bigger jump in oil prices could be to growth prospects is part of regular assessment done during times of strain and is not a prediction, according to the people, who asked not to be identified commenting on matters that aren’t public. The effort is aimed at making sure the administration is prepared for all contingencies, including a prolonged conflict, they said.
Even before the war began, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed concern that the conflict would boost oil prices and damage economic growth, the people said. Senior Treasury officials have communicated worries to the White House about swings in oil and gasoline prices for several weeks, some of the people said. White House spokesman Kush Desai called that account “false,” saying, “While the administration is always evaluating various pricing scenarios and economic impacts, officials are not examining the possibility of oil reaching $200 per barrel and Secretary Bessent has not been ‘worried’ about the short term disruptions from Operation Epic Fury.” Bessent, he said, has repeatedly “conveyed both his and the administration’s continued confidence in the long-term trajectory of the American economy and global energy markets.”
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NBC News – March 25, 2026
At least 40% of Russia’s oil export capacity halted, Reuters calculations show
At least 40% of Russia‘s oil export capacity is at a halt following Ukrainian drone attacks, a disputed attack on a major pipeline and the seizure of tankers, according to Reuters calculations based on market data. The shutdown is the most severe oil supply disruption in the modern history of Russia, the world’s second largest oil exporter, and has hit Moscow just as oil prices exceeded $100 a barrel due to the Iran war.
Russia’s oil output is one of the main sources of revenue for the national budget and is central to the $2.6 trillion economy. Ukraine intensified drone attacks on Russia‘s oil and fuel export infrastructure this month, hitting all three of Russia‘s major western oil export ports, including Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and Primorsk and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea. According to Reuters calculations, about 40% of Russia‘s crude oil export capabilities — or around 2 million barrels per day, were shut as of Wednesday after the most recent attack.
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X – March 25, 2026
Qatar’s Real Problem Isn’t the War. It’s the Machines: Veron Wickamasinghe
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Houston Chronicle – March 25, 2026
AccuWeather’s 2026 hurricane season forecast is out. Here’s what it means for Texas.*
With hurricane season a little more than two months away, weather media outlet AccuWeather calls for a slightly less active 2026 season than last year, but Texas and the Gulf Coast remain at risk. AccuWeather is forecasting 11 to 16 named storms, including 4 to 8 hurricanes. Of those, one to three are expected to become major hurricanes, Category 3 or stronger with winds of at least 111 mph. Three to six storms could directly impact the United States, including one to three along the Gulf Coast, putting Texas and neighboring states at risk.
Rapid intensification remains a key concern, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, where storms can strengthen quickly before landfall, sometimes within a day. That kind of last-minute strengthening has become an increasing concern for local emergency managers along the Texas coast. … Accuweather expects a near-normal hurricane season, but the Atlantic basin has experienced multiple hyperactive seasons in recent years, driven in part by shifting global weather patterns that influence storm activity. A key factor shaping this year’s outlook is the potential development of El Niño, a climate pattern tied to warming waters in the eastern Pacific along the equator. El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of a temperature cycle in the tropical Pacific, driven by shifting trade winds near the equator. La Niña, which helped bring Texas a warmer and drier winter, is now fading. El Niño is likely to emerge by late summer.
The Latest TERse Tips
Trump Tells Aides He Wants Speedy End to Iran War — President has said he wants to wrap up the conflict in the coming weeks — The Wall Street Journal*
Galveston County residents to weigh in on proposed desalination plant in Texas City — KUHF (NPR)
Platts updates California and Texas battery storage energy systems’ regional capacities — S&P Global Platts
Global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus has launched the first assessed daily price for Brazil’s natural gas spot market — see the press release
As drought continues, Austin Energy says it’s using more than a dozen 360-degree cameras and artificial intelligence technology to detect smoke along it’s assets, so it can quickly flag its partners at Austin Fire and get crews to a potential fire — KXAN
How Americans Are Navigating Higher Energy Costs on Every Front — borrowed Costco memberships, fewer nights out and skipped road trips. ‘You better watch your account to the penny — The Wall Street Journal*
State documents give a clear picture of a crude oil pipeline leak near Spur 136 in Port Neches reported March 9th showing how much oil spilled, where it went, and how crews contained it — RRC records show about 100 barrels of crude oil, roughly 4,200 gallons, released from a pipeline operated by TotalEnergies Gas Pipeline USA — the spill was first reported by Shell Pipeline — KBMT
Lake Dallas explosion victim sues Atmos Energy over alleged gas leak, says her home had no gas appliances — Fox4
Madrid-headquartered renewable energy developer Zelestra has secured a $600 million green financing credit facility from Société Générale and HSBC to support the construction and delivery of two utility-scale solar projects currently under active development in northeast Texas — the 253 MWdc Echols Grove Solar Project in Lamar County and the 188 MWdc Cedar Range Solar Project in Hopkins County — Construction Review
Japan’s largest power provider has proposed a new gas plant on Oahu to help transition the Hawaiian island away from oil-based power, despite concerns from environmentalists who say liquid natural gas is too expensive and unreliable — E&E News By Politico*
Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., says he supports economic opportunity but also wants careful environmental planning and public accountability for any big industrial project — Rio Grande Guardian
Oil & Gas Texas
Reuters – March 25, 2026
Exxon says its team is in Venezuela evaluating oil opportunities*
Exxon Mobil has a team in Venezuela this week evaluating the country’s oil and gas resources and infrastructure, upstream head Dan Ammann said Wednesday at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston. In January, Exxon CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela “uninvestable” without durable protections for new investment, comments that landed him in hot water with U.S. President Donald Trump. The top U.S. oil producer exited Venezuela in 2007 after its assets were expropriated.
“What we’re looking to assess is the state of the resource that’s there, but more importantly, what’s the state of the infrastructure on the ground?” Ammann said. There are short-term actions that can be taken to incrementally increase oil production, he said, but fully rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry would likely take a long time and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
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Oil Price – March 25, 2026
Valero Prepares to Restart Massive Texas Refinery After Explosion
Related: No evidence Valero Texas refinery blast caused by intentional act, sheriff’s office — Reuters*
Valero Energy is set to restart later this week its major oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, after an explosion and a fire forced a shutdown earlier this week, sources with knowledge of the refinery’s operations told Reuters on Wednesday. Valero on Tuesday shut down its Port Arthur refinery after an explosion late on Monday set a diesel processing unit on fire.
The refinery capable of processing 380,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude is one of the largest in the United States and the U.S. Gulf Coast. The refinery’s diesel hydrotreater, where the explosion occurred, has a capacity of 47,000 barrels per day. All personnel were accounted for after the explosion early this week, with no injuries reported. However, authorities issued a shelter-in-place order immediately following the blast, which was felt as far as 11 miles from the refinery on the Texas border with Louisiana.
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Pipeline & Gas Journal – March 25, 2026
Energy Transfer’s 17.7-Mile Gas Pipeline for AI Data Center in New Mexico Under FERC Review
Energy Transfer’s Transwestern Pipeline Company has filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a 17.7-mile natural gas pipeline in New Mexico designed to supply fuel to a large-scale AI data center development. According to the company’s Jan. 29 prior notice filing, the proposed Green Chile Project would include a 24-inch-diameter pipeline and associated facilities in Doña Ana County, capable of transporting up to 400,000 dekatherms per day.
The pipeline would connect to the El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) system and deliver gas to Green Chile Ventures, the sole shipper on the line, which plans to use the supply to fuel natural gas-fired turbines supporting an AI data center campus.
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KXAS – March 25, 2026
Fed survey finds Texas oil and gas activity rebounds, uncertainty remains high
Oil and gas activity across Texas and the broader region is picking up again, according to a new survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. However, industry leaders say uncertainty remains. The increase reflects a broad improvement across the sector, particularly among oilfield services firms, survey officials said during a briefing on Wednesday.
The survey says the business activity index, the agency’s broadest measure of energy conditions for firms, rose 27 points to 21 in the first quarter, signaling a return to growth after months of contraction in 2025. “Activity rose for the first time in almost a year,” said Michael Plante, an assistant vice president at the Dallas Fed, in a statement. “The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, however, has generated substantial uncertainty for firms about the near-term outlook.”
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Reuters – March 25, 2026
US shale firms unlikely to drill at $100 a barrel unless high prices last longer, executives say*
Oil prices above $100 a barrel would not trigger a meaningful production increase in the U.S. unless they stay elevated for more than a quarter, shale executives said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, troubling news for consumers slammed by the energy crisis during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. … ConocoPhillips is not currently considering increasing production, said Nick Olds, executive vice president of the company’s U.S. onshore lower 48 operations, adding that ConocoPhillips would need to see sustained higher prices.
Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel along its coast, has stopped the passage of 20% of the world’s oil, triggering global price increases of around 50%. Still, many U.S. operators have locked in drilling plans and budgets for the year, and prices for future months will need to rise for companies to update those, executives said. Even then, they said, it would take at least half a year to get the barrels out of the ground. “The cycle from the time you begin to when you make a decision that you’re going to add rigs to then ultimately drilling and producing and getting to market, that can be a year-long process, even in the U.S., which is a short-cycle market. Nine months would be the very best-case scenario,” said Steve Gassen, SLB’s executive vice president of geographies, on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference.
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Bloomberg – March 25, 2026
Oil Theft Is Burning a Billion-Dollar Hole in the West Texas Economy*
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office sits along Interstate 20 in West Texas, a stretch of dusty plains and sunbaked highways that could almost be the setting for a Mad Max movie. It’s sparse—oil wells outnumber people—but that doesn’t mean it’s quiet for Sheriff Randy Cozart. At least once a week, someone calls to say their oil field has been robbed: trailers missing, copper wire yanked and, most of all, crude stolen. In total, some 500 barrels’ worth of oil go missing in Martin County every week, Cozart estimates. At last year’s average of $65 a barrel, that’s an annual loss of roughly $1.7 million. At today’s war-heightened prices, it would be far more.
A similar scene is playing out in dozens of other counties across the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, the world’s most prolific shale oil patch. Law enforcement officials, legislators, trade groups and energy producers say people are stealing more crude than ever, often laundering it into local supply chains or driving it to Mexico to offload it. “Where there’s money, there’s crime,” says Cozart, who, like many in the region, once worked in the oil industry himself. “And there’s lots of money in oil right now.”
More than 40% of oil executives surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas this past fall said their operations had been affected by theft during the previous year, with several dozen petroleum-product arrests now made annually, up from perhaps a single arrest per year a decade ago, Texas Department of Public Safety records show. Some estimate annual oil theft in Texas at around $1 billion. Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, an industry advocacy group based in Austin, calculates it’s more than double that—and that $2 billion figure doesn’t cover thefts in the New Mexico portion of the Permian, a smaller but rapidly expanding corner of the basin. As the situation worsens, state lawmakers, regulators and even the FBI have taken notice.
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San Antonio Express-News – March 24, 2026
Looming water crisis sparks clash between two South Texas cities
Related: How Corpus Christi’s water crisis became a warning for all of Texas — KBTX
Corpus Christi has responded to inflammatory allegations from officials in Three Rivers, who blame the Coastal Bend’s largest city for a hastening of its water crisis that could leave Three Rivers without access to water a year earlier than anticipated. On Monday, March 23, the city of Three Rivers issued a public notice announcing that it would “soon” be unable to draw water from Choke Canyon Reservoir, which serves as the primary fresh water source for the tiny town of about 1,800 people.
Three Rivers directly attributed the impending water crisis — which comes as the entire Coastal Bend grapples with worsening water scarcity fueled by years of drought — on alleged incompetence by Corpus Christi. Three Rivers claims that as recently as January, Corpus Christi made “inaccurate” projections about the water supply that wrongly led them to believe they would have continued access to Choke Canyon water through next spring.
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Houston Chronicle – March 25, 2026
Chevron plans to buy oil from Houston-based Sable Offshore. Here’s why*
Chevron plans to buy oil from Sable Offshore, a Houston company whose pipeline and platform offshore Santa Barbara have been caught in a power struggle between the Trump administration and environmentalists and regulators in California. Chevron said the decision to buy from the embattled Sable was the result of a severe supply shortage stemming from the war in Iran and California’s tough restrictions on oil production. With the closure of the Strait of Hormuz cutting off the shipping route for 20% of the world’s petroleum trade, companies in Asia that typically supply Chevron’s California refineries with crude are now unable to do so, Chevron said.
“California just doesn’t have enough fuel and it doesn’t have enough product over the next few months,” said Ross Allen, a Chevron spokesman. News of Chevron’s interest in Sable’s production follows a wartime intervention earlier this month from the Trump administration that directed Sable to restart production — in spite of California’s regulatory proceedings. Energy Sec. Chris Wright issued the order under emergency powers provided under the Defense Production Act.
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Houston Chronicle – March 25, 2026
Authorities struggle to contain multiple oil spills on Mexico’s Gulf Coast*
For almost all of March, the Mexican government has been unable to determine the source of multiple oil spills that continue to affect beaches in Tabasco and Veracruz. According to multiple reports, the spills have affected nearly 40 communities in those Gulf Coast states and contaminated plant and animal life, including mangrove trees, fish, dolphins, sea turtles and manatees. The Mexican news outlet El Pais reported March 13 that fishermen in the Gulf began noticing oil in their nets on March 2, and that more than 140 miles of coastline had since been contaminated. The publication criticized Mexican authorities for what it called a lack of transparency in the days after the spill, noting that Veracruz Gov. Rocío Nahle had initially attributed the oil on her state’s beaches to a “natural seep.”
That same day, Mexico’s state-controlled oil company, Pemex, denied any responsibility for the spills but said it was working with multiple government agencies to coordinate cleanup efforts through the Veracruz Unified Command Center. Technical staffers from Mexico’s Agency for Safety, Energy, and the Environment had not detected any leaks during their inspection of terminals and other energy infrastructure along the coast, the company added. “According to the oceanic models currently being analyzed, it appears that the oil is flowing from the sea toward the coast,” Pemex said in a news release, adding that beach cleanup brigades had been activated across the region.
Oil & Gas National & International
CNBC – March 25, 2026
Trump administration waives gasoline regulations to address surging fuel prices
The Trump administration on Wednesday temporarily waived regulations on the types of gasoline that are sold during the summer in an effort to ease surging fuel prices during the Iran war. The Environmental Protection Agency lifted restrictions on the sale of E15 gas, a fuel blended with 15% ethanol. The sale of E15 is restricted in about half the U.S. from June through September due to regulations designed to reduce air pollution.
The EPA said it also issued a waiver to remove all federal impediments to selling E10 gas, which is blended with 10% ethanol. E10 is widely available throughout the year. The agency is suspending federal enforcement of certain state fuel requirements as well, allowing the production and distribution of gasoline with 9% to 15% ethanol content.
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S&P Global Platts – March 25, 2026
WPC 2026: Iran war prompts nations, companies to reconsider supply chain strategies: panel
Global supply shocks caused by the war in Iran have prompted producers and governments to bolster the resilience of their supply chains, with restricted flows of ethylene, methanol, and other petrochemical feedstocks wreaking havoc on global derivatives pricing, S&P Global Energy CERA panelists said at the WPC on March 25. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has reduced crude oil flows out of the Persian Gulf from an estimated 21 million b/d to 2 million b/d, said Jim Burkhard, Global Head of Crude Oil Market Research for S&P Global Energy CERA, widening the spread between regional benchmarks.
Should the war persist, western benchmarks like Dated Brent or WTI will “gravitate more toward Asia” and Dubai pricing due to extreme supply pressures, Burkhard said, whereas an end to the conflict would cause Middle East benchmarks to “drift down” closer to those in the Atlantic Basin.
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Bloomberg – March 25, 2026
Russian Baltic Port Halts Crude Loading as Drones Cause Fire*
Russia’s Ust-Luga port on the Baltic Sea has halted crude loadings as Ukraine carried out the most intense air strike on its foe in more than a year, setting some of the port facilities on fire. Authorities paused oil loading operations Wednesday morning due to the strikes, two people familiar with the situation said, asking not to be named because they’re not authorized to comment. Ukraine’s General Staff said in a Telegram statement that drones hit Novatek PJSC’s oil-product facilities at the port, setting ablaze storage tanks and loading equipment.
The fire at the port was being contained, local governor Alexander Drozdenko said in a Telegram statement early Wednesday, without specifying which facility was affected. Novatek did not immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for a comment. Ust-Luga is a key Russian oil-export outlet, shipping some 450,000 barrels of crude per day last month. Novatek’s facilities there process stable gas condensate into a range of oil products for export, such as naphtha, jet fuel and gasoil. The port also contains a crude terminal operated by Transneft PJSC and terminals for shipping coal, fertilizers and general cargoes.
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Bloomberg – March 25, 2026
Trump Is Winning the Oil-Price Jawboning Battle: Javier Blas*
Give credit where it’s due. Despite all the setbacks, Donald Trump is right that the US-Israeli war in Iran war hasn’t triggered the oil price super-spike many feared — at least not yet. “I thought it would be worse, much worse,” the American president said last week, and it’s hard to disagree. Trump, wearing his social media poster-in-chief hat, is a key reason why crude isn’t much higher. Call it the art of oil-market jawboning. The White House is, so far, winning the fight over the oil market’s narrative — periodically raising the prospect of an end to the conflict even as the bombing carries on unabated. Three and a half weeks into the war, prices remain well within historical ranges, and far away from the thresholds associated with a full-blown “energy crisis.” But verbal volleys don’t keep refineries running, no matter how well timed. Jawboning will soon lose its potency in a longer war.
Since the US attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran has tried to impose an intolerable economic cost on Trump by shutting the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit point for crude oil, and attacking energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf. The US has responded by tapping its own Strategic Petroleum Reserve and easing oil sanctions on Russia and Iran. But the most successful tool has been Trump’s interventions via his own Truth Social website. It helps, of course, that the president has a history of flip-flopping. If markets believe that “Trump always chickens out,” it’s because he has done so many times before. TACO is a lesson Wall Street learned the hard way in 2025 when he regularly announced punitive trade tariffs, only to backtrack later.
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Bloomberg – March 24, 2026
Shell Boss Warns Europe Is Next After Asia Suffers Fuel Squeeze*
Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan said that Europe will soon begin to experience the same kind of disruption to fuel supplies that Asia has faced due to the war in Iran in recent weeks. Sawan said the effects of the conflict continue to ripple out across global fuel markets, first in South Asia, then Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, and increasingly in Europe as April approaches.
“We are trying to work with governments to just alert them to the various levers they will need to pull, including on the demand side, including what they need to do around storage,” he said Tuesday at CERAWeek by S&P Global. Sawan also said the UK company may decide on whether to invest in one or two Venezuelan natural gas projects by the year-end.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 25, 2026
The World’s Energy Safety Net Is Buckling*
For decades, liquefied natural gas acted as the global economy’s reliable escape valve during energy crises, keeping factories humming and homes warm. Now, LNG has become the battlefield itself. The war in Iran has fractured every node of the regional LNG supply chain. Iranian strikes on Qatar, one of the world’s top LNG producers, have damaged its Ras Laffan facility, knocking out some 17% of its capacity for up to five years, and delayed the country’s massive expansion plans. On Tuesday, QatarEnergy declared force majeure on some of its LNG supply contracts, including customers in China, South Korea, Italy and Belgium.
Meanwhile, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which usually carries around a fifth of global LNG, is paralyzed. Buyer confidence in Gulf supply has also been undermined. Even if the Trump administration and Iran agree to end the war soon, the consequences for the LNG market will be long-lasting—and even more profound than for oil, experts say. Unlike crude, the world has no major strategic gas reserve to tap in an emergency. While some Middle Eastern oil can bypass the Strait of Hormuz through overland pipelines, Qatari LNG lacks alternative exits. Liquefaction facilities, meanwhile, are highly specialized engineering megaprojects that take years to construct and significantly longer to repair than conventional oil fields.
“Even if the war ends overnight, it will take the gas market much longer to return to normal than oil,” said Adi Imsirovic, a former energy-trading executive and lecturer at the University of Oxford. “A lot of the slack in the system used to be picked up by LNG, so the knock-on effects are massive.” The LNG crunch threatens wealthy nations with a prolonged wave of energy-driven inflation, while simultaneously forcing fragile emerging economies to ration fuel and shutter factory floors. It also jeopardizes global crop yields—gas is a vital fertilizer feedstock—and could cripple semiconductor production by slashing helium supply, a natural gas byproduct.
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Politico – March 24, 2026
The Russian oil tanker playing chicken with Trump over Cuba
The Anatoly Kolodkin is steaming toward the Caribbean. The Russian oil tanker’s official destination, according to one of its public broadcasts: “Atlantis, USA.” More probably, it’s the Cuban port of Matanzas. Ferrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of crude oil across the Atlantic, the tanker is flying a Russian flag. A Russian warship escorted it through the English Channel, where it was tracked by the Royal Navy for 48 hours, only to turn back as soon as the tanker was clear.
While the Kremlin declined to confirm reports of Russian oil heading to Cuba, it also has made little effort to conceal its hand. That’s because the tanker was never really about Cuba at all, people close to the White House, former ambassadors and Russia observers told POLITICO. It’s a message, they said — a negotiating chit, a provocation designed to force a disproportionate American response while Washington is consumed elsewhere.
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Politico – March 25, 2026
Iran standoff puts Taiwan chips at risk
Taiwan is scrambling to prevent its semiconductor sector from becoming a casualty of the Iran war. Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off Taiwan from Qatari exporters, which provide more than one-third of its total liquefied natural gas. Taiwan’s grid relies on LNG for up to 40 percent of its power generation, and its overdependence on Qatar makes it even more vulnerable to Persian Gulf supply shocks. Any major supply chain shifts could squeeze some of Taiwan’s largest industrial sectors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company — which produces around 90 percent of the world’s most advanced chips — consumes around nine percent of the island’s total electricity output. Those chips are used for everything from missile targeting systems to smartphones and medical diagnostic equipment.
And Taiwan’s semiconductor sector contributes to around 20 percent of the island’s total annual gross domestic product and has become the linchpin of its economy. Prolonged paralysis of the strait may force Taipei to choose between rationing power to consumers and public services or reducing electricity to its valuable industrial sector, including TSMC. Power cuts “could ripple directly into global chip supply chains that underpin everything from AI servers to autos,” CRAIG SINGLETON, senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told NatSec Daily. Delayed chip deliveries would also have knock-on impacts globally, including potential pauses in production for both civilian and military manufacturers, as well as shortages of the products that semiconductors are an essential component of.
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Alaska Beacon – March 25, 2026
Alaska Senate pushes for increase in oil tax revenue, amid war-driven oil boom
The Alaska Senate approved a measure to boost state taxes on oil and gas production on Wednesday. Lawmakers tacked it on to what would have been a routine renewal of a state oil royalty agreement. Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, sponsored the amendment to House Bill 194, saying it would close a corporate income tax loophole and potentially capture more than $100 million in new state revenues each year — at a time when Alaska is in dire need of revenue to pay for state services.
“Can we afford this loophole while we close schools? Can we afford this tax subsidy while we slash the permanent fund dividend? Can we afford this tax subsidy while our infrastructure languishes, while we struggle to recruit and retain state troopers and firefighters and maintenance crews?” Dunbar said. “The answer is no.” The provision would impose the state’s corporate tax rate on oil and gas companies doing business in the state, at a maximum rate of 9.4% for companies whose net profits are more than $5 million per year.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Argus Media – March 25, 2026
Texas power sector seeks ‘real’ load behind AI hype
Texas’ power industry is scrambling to determine how much electricity data center growth will actually require, warning that without credible forecasts the state risks wasting billions of dollars on unnecessary infrastructure and saddling customers with sharply higher bills. “I don’t think there’s a lot of confidence in the numbers that are out there now,” Thomas Gleeson, chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), told a panel at CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, Texas, Wednesday.
“When you don’t know what is real, you really don’t know how to build the infrastructure for it,” he said Texas grid operator ERCOT has forecasted up to 250GW of peak demand by 2030, but industry officials on the panel said those figures are widely understood to be inflated by speculative interconnection requests that obscure the amount of load that will materialize. Developers and utilities described queues crowded with “ghost” applications from land speculators seeking free options on power, making it difficult for system planners to separate genuine demand from noise.
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KLBK – March 25, 2026
South Plains data centers could be the first test of new utility regulations
The $3.5 billion dollar data center expansion in Dickens County may be one of the first tests of the Texas Legislature’s new regulations on large load electricity use. Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 6 in 2025, which requires the Public Utility Commission of Texas to create new rules for entities that demand 75 megawatts or more of electricity “in a manner designed to support business development” while minimizing the risk for grid failure.
In January, ERCOT approved the Galaxy facility in Dickens County to use up to 1.6 gigawatts or 1,600 megawatts– of electricity. “I would be shocked if half of these companies wanting power would get that kind of allocation,” said State Senator Charles Perry. “But most of these companies, they’re going to have a gigawatt back on the meter, meaning on-site.”
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KUT (NPR Austin) – March 25, 2026
Austin Energy quadruples shutoffs for nonpayment as the city gets hotter
As Austin keeps getting hotter, Austin Energy shutoffs for nonpayment have increased by more than four-fold over the last four years. Data from the publicly owned utility shows shutoffs skyrocketed from 7,777 in 2022 to more than 35,000 last year. But the increase in shutoffs comes as the utility has made big strides helping struggling customers pay their bills. Part of the reason that the number of shutoffs are increasing is because it’s more expensive to get energy to customers, so bills are going up.
For years, the utility has been operating at a loss. It hasn’t had adequate operating revenue since 2019. Then, the pandemic hit and Austin Energy lowered rates and paused shutoffs and offered deferred payments to help struggling residents. Natural gas prices spiked in 2022, putting the utility further in the hole. On top of that, costs for things like transformers — those big, trash can-looking things on power lines that help wire electricity from the grid into your home — have gone up.
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Latitude Media – March 25, 2026
Google, Fermi executives debate off-grid data centers
Fermi CEO Toby Neugebauer, during a panel at CERAWeek in Houston, argued that only gas and nuclear can provide enough power at scale for AI computing. He added that building an off-grid site shields residential customers from the costs at a time when affordability is a major concern for Americans — and a major focus at the conference. Google’s global head of data center energy Amanda Peterson disagreed, touting the hyperscaler’s recent deal with Xcel Energy to power a data center with a mix of wind, solar, and long-duration battery storage. She warned, in stark contrast, that islanded data centers could actually lead to “unintended consequences” including higher costs for ratepayers.
“When you’re building islands, you have to overbuild the system for the same amount of reliability,” she said. “That’s a lot of investment in gas that is used just a few hours a year and otherwise is sitting idle. That generation could be fed back into the grid at a cost completely paid for by data centers. That’s a missed opportunity.”
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KPRC – March 25, 2026
Texas power grid faces surge in demand — what it could mean for your electricity bill
Texas energy leaders say the state’s electric market is in a strong position, but major decisions ahead could affect both reliability and what people pay each month. At a recent panel during CERAWeek in Houston titled “Powering Texas,” Thomas Gleeson, chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, spoke about the state of the grid. “I think the state of the energy industry of electricity in Texas is really healthy,” Gleeson said. “We have a lot of really important policy debates going on right now.”
Rapid growth in data centers, population increases, and industrial expansion are driving the state’s rising energy demand. Cully Cavness, president and COO of Crusoe Energy, said Texas has become a key destination for large-scale energy projects. “Texas has quickly become the number one state in which we do business, in large part because of the dynamics about [the] ERCOT market system that is flexible,” Cavness adds. “It is relatively smoother here than many other states.”
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Austin American-Statesman – March 25, 2026
EV maker Rivian expects Austin to be a ‘really large market’*
Rivian Automotive Inc. is gearing up to launch its new R2 electric SUV — and betting Austin will be a major market for it. The R2 is a five-seat, midsize electric SUV the California electric vehicle maker is positioning as a mass market vehicle aiming to compete with Tesla Inc. Rivan was the headline sponsor of this month’s South by Southwest Conference and Festival where it showcased the vehicle, underscoring a major push to expand its customer base.
Company executives say Austin is key to that strategy. Denise Cherry, Rivian’s vice president of marketing, called the city a “priority market” as the automaker looks to deepen its footprint in Texas. “We anticipate Austin being a really large market for us, and we want as much coverage here in this market as possible, so we continue to explore coverage across the larger Austin metro,” Cherry said.
Regulatory
Associated Press – March 25, 2026
Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez push bill to impose AI data center moratorium
Two high-profile progressive lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would pause new data centers in the United States until national safeguards are in place to protect workers and consumers and ensure the technologies don’t harm the environment. The legislation by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is unlikely to advance in either the House or Senate, but it shows the deep concerns many progressives share about the growing impact of data centers and artificial intelligence.
Communities across the country have seen a backlash against data centers over fears about rising electricity prices and concerns about pollution and water consumption. Opposition to rising power prices was also a key factor in Democratic wins last year in elections in states including Georgia, Virginia and New Jersey.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday March 25, 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 after U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington and Tehran are “in negotiations right now” and indicated Iran is keen to reach a peace agreement, despite the Islamic Republic denying any direct talks with the U.S.
West Texas Intermediate futures were also down 3.22% at $89.39 per barrel.
International benchmark Brent crude futures declined 3.83% to $100.5 per barrel.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said he had pulled back from his earlier threat to launch strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure “based on the fact we’re negotiating.”
“They’re talking to us, and they’re talking sense,” Trump said when asked to elaborate on the shift.
Later Tuesday, The New York Times reported, citing two unnamed officials, that the U.S. had sent Iran a 15-point proposal aimed at ending the war.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – March 24, 2026
The Oil Supply Crunch Is Spreading From the Gulf to the Rest of the World*
For a glimpse of how much higher energy prices could still soar, look beyond the prices Wall Street analysts normally track for West Texas Intermediate in the U.S. and Brent in Europe. At the center of the supply squeeze in the Middle East, traders are paying an eye-watering $160 a barrel for the Emirati oil that can dodge the Strait of Hormuz, far above those global benchmarks. Those sky-high prices, traders say, are a harbinger of where the rest of the market could be heading if the Persian Gulf isn’t reopened soon. That is because Asian customers are scouring the world for similar varieties of crude to keep churning out diesel and jet fuel.
Benchmark oil prices sank after President Trump postponed strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure and said the U.S. had held “productive” talks with Tehran, raising the prospect he might be searching for a way to end the war. But traders warn that the talk might be another false start toward peace. They also worry that Iran must agree to an end of hostilities before oil tankers can sail freely through the strait. Unless peace talks pan out fast, record high prices for specific grades of Middle Eastern crude cargoes will soon cascade to the U.S. and elsewhere
“The disruption is so massive, we will turn into full panic mode if this situation is not resolved rather quickly,” said Helge Andre Martinsen, an energy analyst at Norwegian investment bank DNB Carnegie. A resolution means oil flowing through the strait again. Even then, for prices to fall toward prewar levels, traders want to see Persian Gulf producers reverse output cuts from the early days of the war. It would also require long-term sanctions relief on Iran and Russia, Martinsen said. The U.S. has relaxed sanctions on both to soothe markets but only for a month.
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Reuters – March 24, 2026
China is mapping the ocean floor as it prepares for submarine warfare with the U.S.*
China is conducting a vast undersea mapping and monitoring operation across the Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans, building detailed knowledge of marine conditions that naval experts say would be crucial for waging submarine warfare against the United States and its allies. In one example, the Dong Fang Hong 3, a research vessel operated by Ocean University of China, spent 2024 and 2025 sailing back and forth in the seas near Taiwan and the U.S. stronghold of Guam, and around strategic stretches of the Indian Ocean, ship-tracking data reviewed by Reuters shows. In October 2024, it checked on a set of powerful Chinese ocean sensors capable of identifying undersea objects near Japan, according to Ocean University, and visited the same area again last May. And in March 2025, it criss-crossed the waters between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, covering approaches to the Malacca Strait, a critical chokepoint for maritime commerce.
According to the university, the ship was carrying out mud surveys and climate research. But a scientific paper co-written by Ocean University academics shows it has also conducted extensive deep-sea mapping. Naval-warfare experts and U.S. Navy officials say the type of deep-sea data being collected by the Dong Fang Hong 3 – via mapping and placement of sensors in the ocean – is giving China a picture of the subsea conditions it would need to deploy its submarines more effectively and hunt down those of its adversaries.
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Yahoo! News – March 24, 2026
Related: US-Iran war damaged global oil markets more than Russia-Ukraine war, Chevron CEO says — Politico
Oil and natural gas futures prices—despite trading 60% higher since before the Iran war—remain well below the physical supply shortages facing Asia and spreading around the world that will take many months to replenish, the chairman and CEO of Chevron said March 23.
The large CERAWeek by S&P Global conference is attracting many of the world’s energy leaders from around the world in Houston this week and a top theme is the potential disconnect between energy markets and the greatest global energy supply shock ever with the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which typically funnels nearly 20% of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas each day.
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Bloomberg – March 24, 2026
Chevron Warns California Risks Fuel Crisis Unless Iran War Eases*
Chevron Corp. is warning that California is careening toward an energy crisis because of the Iran war and that the company may quit refining oil in the state unless officials roll back taxes and regulations. California, the most populous US state, is highly exposed to the disruption rippling across commodity markets because it imports about 20% of its refined fuels from Asia. Now shipments from China, South Korea, Singapore and elsewhere are at risk of slowing significantly as Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, leaving Asian nations struggling to meet their own demand at home. Chevron’s oil refining head Andy Walz said the potential for fuel shortages in California is his “worst fear.”
“We have refineries in Asia that are having to cut crude, and so they’re going to make less products,” Walz said in an interview Tuesday. “What if San Francisco doesn’t have the jet fuel it needs? Or Los Angeles? Or maybe gasoline?” California is disconnected from the US fuel-making centers of Texas and Louisiana, essentially making it an energy island. That’s compounded by multiple refinery closures in recent years due to increased costs driven by regulations designed to fight climate change and cap oil industry profits.
As a result, California consumers are more exposed than most other Americans to surging energy prices because of the Iran war. They already pay nearly $6 for a gallon of gasoline, compared with a national average of close to $4. It’s a growing political problem for Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is expected to run for president in 2028. “California has decided that they’re going to rely on imports,” Walz said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston. “It’s a dangerous game.”
The Latest TERse Tips
HSBC analyst Kim Fustier raised the firm’s price target on Exxon Mobil to $158 from $135 and keeps a Hold rating on the shares — Tipranks
Dow is announcing prices increases for chemicals used in plastics — Green Chemical Industries
Iran’s Houthi Allies Lie in Wait on Another Key Oil Route: the Red Sea — The Wall Street Journal*
Ukraine hits major Russian oil port near Finland — the satellite images appeared to show fires and smoke rising from several cylindrical fuel tanks at the site, and appear to be as far north as Ukraine has ever attacked — Euractiv
Berkshire Hathaway has disclosed in a 13F SEC filing that it purchased 8,091,570 shares of Chevron during Q4 2025 — the purchase brought Berkshire’s total Chevron stake to approximately 130 million shares, one of Berkshire’s top five holdings — Motley Fool
Texas judge issues restraining order against utility district involved with Islamic development — Fox 14
Baker Hughes Company Monday announced that it has been selected by ST LNG, LLC to supply critical gas compression, power generation equipment, and project development support for the latter’s proposed 8.4 million tonnes per annum liquefied natural gas export terminal offshore of Matagorda — RTT News
Higher tax refunds are likely to be swallowed up by surging gas prices, economists say — KFOX
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman calls it ‘treason’: $580 million in suspicious oil futures traded minutes before Trump’s Iran reversal — Fortune
Former uranium site in Ohio to house 10-gigawatt data center — Associated Press/CBS News
Tesla Powerwall, the home energy storage system designed to provide backup power and improve energy efficiency, will be installed across all 50 states by partner Charge Home Solutions, a nationwide platform connecting homeowners with licensed electricians — see the press release
Oil & Gas Texas
S&P Global Platts – March 24, 2026
CERAWEEK: Technology to be integral part of shale development in US
Technology will continue to play a pivotal role in the US’ multibillion-dollar shale plays, as operators focus on increasing efficiencies and lowering well-drilling and completion costs — rather than adding new barrels — even as output starts to plateau, operators said late March 24. “If you look back at history, even in the Permian Basin, drilling and completion efficiencies have been 50% across the industry in the last five years,” Nick Olds, executive vice president for the Lower 48 states at ConocoPhillips, said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston.
ConocoPhillips has achieved some 15% efficiency improvements in 2024 and 2025, with “more feet/day and more stages/day” and drilling longer laterals, Olds said. As a rule of thumb, longer laterals — along with multi-stage fracking — significantly increase recoveries of tight shale resources, with multiple producers in the Permian Basin in southern Texas drilling over 4-mile laterals, operators said.
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S&P Global Platts – March 24, 2026
CERAWEEK: Williams to use modular gas units in early data center power projects
Midstream company Williams sees modularization of smaller natural gas-fired power generating units as a solution to the reliability and speed requirements of data centers, its head of power innovation, Jaclyn Presnal, said March 24. Williams announced Feb. 10 a 6 gigawatt backlog of its ‘power innovation’ projects for data centers by the early 2030s, in addition to the roughly 1.4 GW of capacity already under development.
“That 6GW is what we think we can reasonably achieve between now and the early 2030s,” Presnal said in an interview on the sidelines of CERAWeek by S&P Global Energy conference in Houston. The initial power innovation projects in development will use small open-cycle turbines to ensure speed to market and reliability. “We have multiple generation units that are all tied together from an electrical infrastructure perspective, and that’s what’s able to deliver the full load of the plant,” Presnal said.
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KHOU – March 24, 2026
Could gas hit $8 a gallon? What Houston’s biggest energy conference is saying about Iran
Thousands of energy industry professionals gathered in Houston this week for the world’s largest energy conference, where officials and experts warned that the ongoing conflict in Iran could send gas prices soaring to $8 a gallon across the United States. CERAWeek by S&P Global, held at the Hilton Americas and the adjoining George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, drew participants from nearly 90 countries, with roughly 10,000 attendees expected to hear from more than 1,400 speakers over the course of the week.
KHOU 11 energy expert Ed Hirs agreed that Iran needed to be neutralized, but cautioned that the ripple effects on global energy infrastructure could last far longer than many expect. “The damage that’s been done to energy facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, that’s long lasting,” Hirs said. Hirs warned that American consumers could face a painful reality at the gas pump. “If the market continues to get tight, we could see $8 a gallon gasoline across America. It’s already at that level in California,” he said.
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Reuters – March 24, 2026
Valero shuts Texas refinery after explosion, sources say*
Related: Fluid release ignited blast, fire at Valero refinery, filing shows — Reuters*
Valero Energy Corp has shut its 380,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, following an explosion and fire at a diesel hydrotreater unit, people familiar with the plant operations said on Monday. The fire has since been extinguished, and a shelter-in-place order lifted, according to the Southeast Texas Alerting Network. The cause of the explosion at the 47,000-bpd 243-diesel hydrotreater unit was not clear. The blast could be heard as far as 11 miles (18 km) away, the sources said.
In an emailed response to Reuters, Valero confirmed a fire in a unit at its Port Arthur refinery and said all personnel had been accounted for…. Shutting the refinery was seen as necessary to contain the blaze and the refinery lost water supply and steam as firefighters worked to put it out, sources said.
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Bloomberg – March 20, 2026
Exxon Says Second Gas Pipeline in Guyana Would Cost $2 Billion
A new pipeline to haul natural gas from Exxon Mobil’s offshore platforms in Guyana to shore would cost about $2 billion, country manager Alistair Routledge said Thursday.
- Several companies have expressed interest in using the gas for a power plant, data centers and a facility to manufacture alumina from bauxite: Routledge
- The projects will be evaluated to determine if there is sufficient demand for gas from the southeast area of the Stabroek Block: Routledge
- Hammerhead, Exxon’s seventh Guyana project, will produce 80 million to 90 million standard cubic feet of gas per day at its peak
S&P Global Platts – March 17, 2026
Permian Resources Corp. Upgraded To ‘BBB-‘ On Increased Scale And Strong Credit Metrics
- Midland, Texas-based oil, gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) exploration and production (E&P) company Permian Resources Corp. continues to expand its scale and improve its operational performance while maintaining strong financial measures.
- Therefore, S&P Global Ratings raised its issuer credit rating on the company to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BB+’ and the issue-level rating on its unsecured debt to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BB+’.
- The stable outlook on Permian Resources reflects our expectation that its financial measures will continue improving as the company reduces debt, grows production in line with higher-rated peers, and maintains conservative financial policies. We expect funds from operations (FFO) to debt well above 60% over the next 24 months.
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Texas Tribune – March 24, 2026
Six months after scrapping their own seawater desalination plant project, Corpus Christi City Council voted Tuesday to consider an agreement with a private company to purchase water from its desalination plant to help stave off an impending water emergency. The council voted 7-1 to begin negotiations to acquire water from a desalination plant that’s under construction and owned by Corpus Christi Polymers, a plastic manufacturer. The plant will filter salt and other minerals out from seawater or salty groundwater to make it drinkable.
The city is in the grips of a historic drought and two of its main reservoirs have fallen to 8.4% capacity, sparking fears that the city within months may have to declare a water emergency — signaling that the city has just 180 days’ supply of water left. City manager Peter Zanoni has called desalination a drought-resistant, long-term solution to providing water to the 500,000 people across seven counties who depend on the water system.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – March 24, 2026
CERAWEEK: Shell CEO warns road fuel crunch to follow jet squeeze over Hormuz blockade
Shell’s chief executive warned March 24 that tightening global jet fuel supplies could usher in a broader refined products supply crunch during peak summer driving season in the Northern Hemisphere if the Middle East crisis continues to hit oil flows. “Jet fuel is already being impacted. Diesel will be next to come after that will be gasoline,” Wael Sawan told the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston. “Of course, you’re moving into summer season, which is typically driving season in the northern hemisphere.”
Global jet fuel prices have been some of the hardest hit by almost a month of war in the Middle East, which has shut off roughly 14 million b/d of oil products and mostly medium sour crude, according to analysts at S&P Global Energy CERA. In Europe, jet cargo prices more than doubled to hit an all-time high on March 19, while US Gulf Coast prices hit a premium of 30 cent/gal on March 23, up from a 12 cent/gal discount on Feb 27.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 22, 2026
$5 Diesel is Crushing Truckers. It Will Soon Be Felt Across the Economy.*
Long-haul trucker Miguel Caveda recently spent around $1,800 on diesel fuel during a week on the road, about 40% more than he typically paid before the Iran war began. The sudden surge in diesel prices has eroded Caveda’s profit and upended his business in other ways, too. He has started searching out lighter hauls and avoiding hilly routes that guzzle fuel. He is also keenly aware that the steeper fuel costs will eventually trickle into the prices consumers pay for goods he is carrying—from tires to watermelon—assuming his business survives.
“Any major repair, like, god forbid an engine failure or anything like that, I’m out of the business,” the Tampa, Fla.-based trucker said in an interview from a rest-stop in Charlotte, N.C., where he was transporting a load of empty bottles. “I’m out.” The average gallon of diesel crossed $5.20 nationwide on Saturday, up around 40% from a month ago, according to the AAA. Eight of the 10 states where diesel prices have shot up most compared with a month ago are in the Southeast—led by South Carolina, where prices have risen 51% since Feb. 21 and where Caveda paid $853 alone for 161 gallons at a station in Columbia on Monday.
Caveda and other small truck drivers—many who own their rigs and foot their fuel bill themselves—are feeling some of the first economic effects of the rapid surge in the cost of diesel, which is primarily produced from oil and generally more expensive than gasoline. Higher diesel prices for a sustained period would, however, ripple throughout the broader supply chain and could lead companies to eventually increase the price of consumer goods, economists say.
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CNBC – March 24, 2026
Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado calls for full privatization of oil industry
Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado called Tuesday for the full privatization of the South American nation’s oil industry in an address that laid out her vision to energy executives and investors. “The Venezuelan state will get out of the way and pave the way to give the conditions so that the oil and gas sector in Venezuela will go fully private,” Machado said at S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas.
Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was blocked in 2024 from running for president by the regime of former President Nicolás Maduro. She previously served in the National Assembly. Machado leads the opposition movement that seeks a transition to democracy and a market economy in Venezuela. The U.S. captured Maduro in a military raid in January, but has left the rest of the regime in place. The Trump administration has praised its cooperation with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who served as vice president under Maduro.
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BBC – March 24, 2026
Philippines declares energy emergency over Iran conflict*
The Philippines has become the first country in the world to declare a state of national energy emergency in response to the war in Iran. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he had signed an executive order to safeguard energy security, citing the “imminent danger posed upon the availability and stability” of the country’s energy supply.
The US-Israel war with Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz – a key shipping route – have sent shock waves through global energy markets, causing shortages and price rises. The Philippines imports 98% of its oil from the Gulf, and the price of diesel and petrol has more than doubled in the country since the war broke out on 28 February.
The New York Times – March 20, 2026
The U.S. Economy Is Insulated From High Oil Prices. Americans Aren’t.*
The defining narrative for the U.S. economy over the past several years has been one of remarkable resilience in the face of inflation, tariffs and all manner of uncertainty. For individual Americans, however, the same period has often been defined by frustration, insecurity and, in many cases, real hardship. The war with Iran looks set to repeat that pattern. The jump in oil prices to over $100 a barrel in recent weeks will push nearly every major economic variable in the wrong direction. Inflation will be faster. Growth will be slower. Unemployment will most likely be higher. If the war were to last longer than expected, or energy prices were to go higher — as they have in recent days — the damage would grow.
Still, unless the situation takes a significant turn for the worse, the impact will most likely be modest, measured in tenths of a percentage point of economic growth. Federal Reserve policymakers, at their first meeting since the war began, made only small adjustments to their economic forecasts for the year and left interest rates unchanged. In a news conference after this week’s meeting, Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said it was too soon to predict how the war would affect the economy. But he noted that the economy had repeatedly exceeded expectations in recent years, including by defying the near-consensus view among forecasters that the Fed’s efforts to control inflation would lead to a recession.
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KWBU (NPR- Waco) – March 20, 2026
How the Iran war threatens global food supply
About a third of all fertilizer shipped globally goes through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Now, shipping traffic has been reduced to a trickle because of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, and the prices of goods like oil, natural gas, and fertilizer have been rising. “Fertilizer prices are way up. They’re up around 30 percent more in some parts of the world, and that’s significant,” says Noah Gordon, fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iran are big global producers of fertilizer, and they export the raw ingredients other countries use to make their own fertilizers, like natural gas and minerals.
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Associated Press – March 20, 2026
Iran war halts Qatar helium output, threatening global tech supply chains
Iran’s attack this week on Qatar’s natural gas export facility threatens to disrupt not just world energy markets but also global technology supply chains because the helium it produces is crucial for a range of advanced industries. Best known as the gas that makes party balloons float, helium is also a key input in chipmaking, space rockets and medical imaging.
Qatar supplies a third of the world’s helium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but the nation had to halt production shortly after the war erupted three weeks ago. The latest Iranian strikes against the region’s energy producing infrastructure have added to supply worries, with Qatar’s state-owned gas company saying it would crimp helium exports by 14%.
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The New York Times – March 20, 2026
The Strait of Hormuz Was Supposed to Be Too Big to Fail*
The Strait of Hormuz is usually an idyllic place for a vacation. Expats stationed in Dubai travel by road to Musandam, the part of Oman that juts into the strait at its narrowest point. There they fish, snorkel in the turquoise waters and sleep on dhows. Mohamad el Khatib, who has organized tours to Musandam for 22 years, said that when the moon is not shining, it is “the best place to watch the stars.”
After all, for decades, the safety of the strait was considered more or less a sure thing, by everyone from vacationers to oil executives and gleaming, cosmopolitan Dubai. It was so strategically important to the world’s energy supply that the United States policed it for over 75 years. But when the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, tanker operators stopped sending their vessels through the strait. The halt has cut off a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply, causing oil and fuel prices to soar in what is turning into a global energy crisis.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Houston Chronicle – March 24, 2026
Texas grid expansion splinters conservatives as data center backlash grows*
A proposed network of power lines for Houston’s oil and gas industry is sparking a backlash from thousands of residents in the Dallas region and the Hill Country who oppose the massive project as an intrusion on private property and natural areas. Grid officials say the $14 billion project, which would be paid for over many years via charges on everybody’s electricity bill, is critical to keep the lights on as the state’s economy booms. It’s primarily meant to support electrification of oil-and-gas operations in the Permian Basin.
But controversy around the power-grid “superhighway” project is splintering Texas Republicans. Many don’t want to seem anti-growth, especially as the Trump administration promotes fossil fuels and artificial intelligence. At the same time, they’re facing growing wrath about the power lines from their rural constituents, who are also upset about the rapid influx of data centers. State Rep. Wes Virdell, R-Brady, one of the most vocal critics of the transmission lines, has joined angry residents in rallying four other lawmakers to call for the power lines to be delayed and re-evaluated. Many are leery that the new transmission lines will power the artificial intelligence boom, not just the oil and gas industry.
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Sierra Club – March 19, 2026
Even as large loads consume space in the discussion, Texans are also facing gigantic transmission proposals to add Texas’s first 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines. Unlike some other states, Texas has never invested in such high voltage lines before. Last year, the PUCT approved an ERCOT proposal to build a series of high voltage transmission lines in response to legislation heavily supported by the oil and gas industry known as the Permian Basin Reliability Study.
As oil and gas has electrified their exploration and production, and as the population has also expanded their energy demand, bottlenecks in transmission have meant that generation is not reaching all areas of the state, including the Permian Basin. The PUCT approved plan would create three new 765 kV lines between east and west Texas as well as two more 765 lines in the future in the east (see map).
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Spectrum News – March 23, 2026
Amarillo data center project gets approval from environmental agency, despite community pushback
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) just gave the largest data center campus in the world the green light to move forward just outside of Amarillo. The nearly 6,000-acre campus has received pushback from the community, and the commission’s decision was met with disappointment from those against the project. The people of Amarillo have several reservations about Fermi America’s data center campus, called Project Matador, which include concerns about the air and water in that region. However, at the end of February, the TCEQ gave its final approval on America’s second-largest clean air permit.
Many Amarillo residents have opposed the project from the start. “It adds a whole other level of anxieties that I didn’t have a couple of years ago,” said Kendra Seawright, a longtime resident of Amarillo. “That wasn’t even on my radar.”
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Houston Chronicle – March 23, 2026
Texas could soon have more data centers than anywhere in the world: What residents should know*
Traditional data centers use about one to 20 megawatts of power to run the computer servers inside — roughly the amount used by a few thousand Texas homes on a hot summer day. AI data centers use much more power, from dozens of megawatts to more than 1,000 megawatts. At the upper end of that range, that’s as much power as large cities and even some states. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main grid operator, forecasts peak electricity demand could jump 70% by 2031 as data center development increases — sparking concerns that the data center boom could lead to a higher risk of blackouts.
In an attempt to avoid grid issues, the Texas legislature passed a law that allows ERCOT to direct data centers to stop drawing power from the grid and use their own backup generators in times of strain. ERCOT’s CEO says this ensures that data centers won’t exacerbate grid emergencies. However, environmentalists note that many data centers rely on large diesel generators, which are noisy and highly polluting, for backup power. Those units could be an inconvenience or even a health hazard to nearby residents.
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Talk Business & Politics – March 20, 2026
Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. breaks ground on 850MW facility in Texas
The Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. (AECC) held a ceremonial groundbreaking for an 850-megawatt (MW) natural gas-based generation facility in Morris County, Texas, near Naples. Construction of the Naples Power Plant is scheduled to begin in summer 2026.
The plant is part of AECC’s plan to address wholesale generation needs. AECC plans to have the dispatchable generation resource in commercial operation by 2029. The two-turbine, simple cycle generation facility will encompass approximately 100 acres. The facility is located within the Southwest Power Pool regional transmission organization (RTO) footprint and will assist with reliability within the RTO.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 24, 2026
The Chinese Billionaire Who Says America’s EV Market Is Doomed Without Him*
NINGDE, China—Inside a headquarters shaped like a giant battery cell, the billionaire who runs the world’s largest battery company is confident the Americans will eventually come calling. Washington has spent the past few years ghosting Robin Zeng, China’s fourth-richest man. To the U.S. government, Chinese battery maker CATL is a geopolitical threat to be warded off with tariffs and national-security curbs. Yet CATL has grown to become the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery manufacturer thanks to its technology and low costs. It posted record profit of more than $10 billion last year, and an estimated one in three EVs sold around the world carries its batteries.
That is even without the U.S. market, where electric adoption lags behind that in China and Europe and where CATL’s presence is limited. Zeng sees that as temporary. The EV market in the U.S. will remain small “for several years. But after that, it’ll have to be booming, because it is the trend. It is the future,” said Zeng, who turned 58 on Friday, in an interview. And building that future without CATL, he said, “is difficult and the cost [is] too high.” There is evidence for that even in America’s EV winter. Ford recently ditched South Korea’s SK Group as its joint-venture partner for battery projects, focusing instead on its plan to build CATL-designed batteries at a $3 billion factory in Michigan. Ford is paying to license the Chinese company’s intellectual property, a workaround the U.S. allows while it puts up legal and political barriers to prevent CATL from building its own plants.
General Motors GM 1.12%increase; green up pointing triangle is set to import China-made batteries from CATL and put them in its new Chevrolet Bolt—also legal, albeit only by swallowing a 60% tariff. GM is selling the Bolt for only one model year while it makes longer-term plans. Meanwhile, the two U.S. battery plants GM spent billions of dollars to build are idle, unable to make the cheaper batteries that the automaker needs for the $30,000 vehicle. And Tesla is using CATL technology for a battery plant in Nevada producing energy-storage systems, a business that is growing strongly while Tesla’s core EV business has stalled.
Regulatory
KIII – March 20, 2026
Governor Abbott’s office invokes disaster authority to fast-track Corpus Christi water permits
A letter from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shows the state is taking extraordinary steps to accelerate emergency water access for Corpus Christi as reservoir levels continue to decline. 3NEWS obtained the letter, sent March 13, which directs regulators to suspend key permitting limits and procedures that would normally slow down emergency water approvals.
In the letter, the governor invokes his disaster authority to suspend restrictions on temporary water permits, including a cap that typically limits emergency permits to 10 acre-feet. The order also waives notice and hearing requirements to speed up the process. “Unfortunately, disaster is on the doorstep of the City of Corpus Christi,” the letter states, noting the city relies on reservoirs that are now below 10% capacity and could be depleted as soon as May.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday March 24, 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 gained in Asia trading Tuesday after clocking steep declines overnight, as traders assess developments related to the Middle East conflict.
West Texas Intermediate futures for May jumped 3.6% to $91.27 per barrel.
Brent crude futures for May rose over 3% to $102.96 per barrel.
The uptick follows a sharp sell-off on Monday, with Brent crude falling about 11% to around $99 per barrel on Monday after topping $112 on Friday.
“Despite the exuberance on Wall Street, ladies and gentlemen, oil is well off its lows after Tehran denied conducting any weekend negotiations with Washington,” said José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, who added that the risk of an extended war remains at the top of the mind for the market.
Torres noted that repeated attacks on critical energy infrastructure in the Middle East are fueling continued concerns over potential disruptions to production and transportation.
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Top Stories
Oil Price – March 23, 2026
Chinese Publication Claims U.S. Has Two Months of Rare Earths Left
The U.S. has already launched hundreds of missiles and precision-guided weapons in the escalating conflict with Iran, an air campaign that has consumed billions of dollars in advanced military hardware in just weeks. But a new warning circulating in Chinese and Western media suggests the materials needed to keep producing those weapons may be running dangerously low.
Reports from the South China Morning Post and Reuters indicate Washington could have only weeks or months of certain rare-earth inventories available for defense manufacturing if supply disruptions deepen. Rare earth elements are embedded throughout modern military systems—from missile guidance and drone propulsion to radar systems and fighter aircraft electronics.
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Politico – March 23, 2026
Why Texas isn’t cheering oil price spike
Oil prices are higher than they’ve been in years, but Houston isn’t celebrating. In decades past, Texas’ largest city and the broader state economy would get a sugar rush from $100-a-barrel oil, even if the rest of the country was struggling with higher costs. The war in Iran has changed that dynamic, and Texas has changed, too.
U.S. oil companies haven’t announced major plans to increase their production, which means there won’t be a big jump in employment or investment from the price spike. And higher fuel prices could serve as a drag on the economy. While AAA showed Texas gasoline prices about 32 cents below the national average Sunday, they were still up more than 30 percent from a year earlier. “The war would have to look like it’s gonna go for a long time before it would stimulate the local economy,” Steven Craig, an economist at the University of Houston who studies the Texas business climate, said in an interview. Meanwhile, he said, “higher gasoline prices are taking money out of people’s pockets.”
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CNBC – March 23, 2026
The oil futures market has not fully priced in the scale of the supply disruption triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, CEO Mike Wirth said Monday. “There are very real, physical manifestations of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz that are working their way around the world and through the system that I don’t think are fully priced into the futures curves on oil,” Wirth said at S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference here.
Oil prices plunged more than 10% on Monday after President Donald Trump told CNBC that he is “very intent on making a deal with Iran.” Trump postponed strikes on Iran’s power plants for five days after talks with Iran that he described as productive. The U.S. crude oil contract for May delivery closed at $88.13 per barrel. Brent prices, the international benchmark, settled at $99.94 per barrel.
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The New York Times – March 23, 2026
Despite Spiking Oil Prices, There’s No Talk of a Boom in Texas Oil Country*
Drill rigs towered in dormant clusters along the main highway through Odessa, Texas. The bartender at a popular oil country bar complained of a noticeable slowdown. Workers in stained shirts from the nearby oil fields winced at the high price of diesel. “I’m not feeling good about $5.39,” said Wesley Stacey, who works for a drill pipe rental company, as he filled his pickup and three red gasoline canisters on Thursday morning. A surge in oil prices, amid the war in the Middle East, has rattled world markets and driven up the cost of gas. But in the Permian Basin, the heart of Texas oil country, few believe that the boom times will return any time soon. Mr. Stacey, 37, said he had heard from friends, including those who left in recent years given low oil prices and fewer jobs, asking if now was a good time to look for work in the Permian again. He tells them to think twice.
“I’m saying, ‘Don’t come back right now,’” he said. “No one knows what’s going to happen.” In interviews this week in the twin oil cities of Odessa and Midland, local officials, company executives and oil field workers said that the sudden price surge, the slow and expensive process of drilling new wells and the Trump administration’s promise to push down oil prices in the future had tempered discussions of ramping up production. For now, caution is winning out over expansion. On Friday, a closely watched count of drilling rigs compiled by Baker Hughes, a global oil field services company, showed that the number of drilling rigs in Texas had dropped by one over the past week.
The Latest TERse Tips
Slovenia becomes first EU country to introduce fuel rationing — BBC
China sees long lines at the gas pump as Mideast turmoil hits — CNBC
Russia’s largest oil port crippled in huge Ukrainian drone attack — New York Post
Gulf States Edge Toward Joining Fight Against Iran — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates get tougher on basing and finances — The Wall Street Journal*
‘Largest chip manufacturing facility ever’: Elon Musk to build part of Terafab in Austin — the Tesla and SpaceX CEO talks a big game for the plant, saying it would be 100 million square feet. That’d be 12 times the size of Samsung’s plant in Taylor — San Antonio Express-News*
Stocks surge, oil plunges by double-digits on Monday as Trump hints at Iran talks — a ‘headline-driven market’ is whipsawing asset prices and raising the stakes for the global economy – Dallas Morning News*
State Rep. Caroline Fairly has been appointed to the Texas Energy Fund Advisory Committee, the group tasked with helping guide investments aimed at strengthening the state’s electric grid — KVII
Protestors march in downtown Houston to oppose CERAWeek on first day of 2026 energy conference — KUHF (NPR)
TotalEnergies starts CERAWeek by saying it will end offshore wind projects, reinvest in oil and gas — the French company, with a U.S. headquarters in Houston, made the announcement on the first day of the global energy conference being held this week at the George R. Brown Convention Center — KUHF (NPR)
Texas farms, already struggling, taking a hit from Iran war prices — San Antonio Express-News*
Volume in stock and oil futures surged minutes before Trump’s market-turning post — CNBC
Oil & Gas Texas
Politico – March 23, 2026
The Trump administration is sending its top energy officials to Houston this week to meet with oil industry executives and foreign dignitaries — and they can expect to get an earful as its war in Iran has sent their industry into upheaval. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, National Energy Dominance Council Executive Director Jarrod Agen, FERC Chair Laura Swett and other administration officials will be in the midst of the largest gathering of energy industry officials in the world this week.
The annual CERAWeek confab comes nearly a month into the U.S.-Israel-Iran war and the all-but-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s main thoroughfares for Middle East oil, fuel shortages in Asia and the destruction of huge parts of the region’s natural gas fields and export plants.
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Houston Chronicle – March 23, 2026
Trump’s energy chief kicks off Houston’s ‘Super Bowl of energy’*
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright kicked off the Houston conference known as the “superbowl of energy” on Monday by touting the administration’s efforts to establish U.S. energy dominance at home and overseas in Venezuela and Iran. … “When I stood here last year, the world was in a very different place, ” Wright said, taking the stage to whoops of excitement from U.S. Interior Sec. Doug Burgum, who sat in the front row. “You might assume that I’m talking about geopolitics. Yes, a lot has changed. What I’m thinking about is how people think and talk about energy.” …
With Venezuela, “I think we are aligned,” Wright said. Since the change in leadership, the South American country has amended its petroleum trade laws and is working with companies such as Houston’s hometown giant Chevron to increase production and rebuild its oil and gas infrastructure. … The administration has also already made “swap deals” to replace the reserves, Wright said. For every barrel the administration released, it will be getting back 1.2 barrels, he said. The opportunity to replenish the nation’s reserves could be lucrative for Texas oil and gas companies, who are located not far from the salt caverns containing the reserves in Louisiana and Texas. Wright gave no details about which companies, or even countries, the swap deals were with.
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March 20, 2026
For much of its history, success in the Eagle Ford was largely defined by what you owned. Acreage quality, early entry, and inventory depth played an outsized role in determining outcomes. Today, that dynamic has shifted. The basin continues to offer opportunity, but the data shows how differences in development design choices and redevelopment approaches are influencing economic outcomes in the Eagle Ford.
EIR’s latest Eagle Ford Play Fundamentals report (available to subscribers here) describes a mature play where high‑quality primary inventory is finite, development choices are more interconnected, and small differences in design and spacing can meaningfully affect economics. For asset teams, this places greater emphasis on planning discipline and flexibility rather than simply maintaining activity. Before diving deeper, here are the key takeaways that frame this shift.
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Yahoo! News – March 22, 2026
A quirk in global energy markets has created a stark geographic divide between the haves and the have nots, as a glut of natural gas in West Texas has produced negative prices while shortages loom over Europe and Asia amid the U.S. war on Iran. Over the past week, spot prices at the Waha gas trading hub in the Permian Basin fell as low as -$9.75 per million British thermal units, with expectations that it could hit -$10 when pipeline capacity tightens as operators perform seasonal maintenance later this year, traders told Bloomberg.
That’s because drilling in the prolific Permian Basin yields both oil and natural gas. But while an extensive network of pipelines exists to bring crude to market, there’s less infrastructure to transport natural gas, creating bottlenecks and localized surpluses.
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KUHF (NPR Houston) – March 19, 2026
Half the nation’s oil reserve is in Texas. Here’s what a reserve release means for the state
Currently, the reserve stores 415 million barrels, or about 57% of its total capacity. That’s enough to sustain U.S. petroleum consumption for about 20 days. The last time the U.S. drew from the reserve was in 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The administration of President Donald Trump has promised to add 200 million barrels to the reserve within the next year.
While the administration hopes to drive down energy prices through the release, it may not have much of an impact on oil costs in the long term, said Robert Weiner, an international business professor at George Washington University. “In the longer run, there is no substitute for reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. Meanwhile, in Texas, oil producers may be hesitant to ramp up their production right now, Weiner said.
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Texas Tribune – March 23, 2026
Dead gardens, dusty cars: Frustrated Corpus Christi residents take precautions as water crisis nears
Not too long ago, Tamala Alejandro said her backyard was lush with a vegetable garden. On the ground, she had watermelons, cantaloupes and potatoes. She loved her herb garden, and her prized possession was her beloved peach tree. But then, she learned about the looming water emergency in Corpus Christi: the city is edging towards a historic shortage.
A yearslong drought and a recent boom of refineries settling along Corpus Christi Bay has nearly drained the city’s water supply. Two of the city’s three main reservoirs have shrunk below 10% capacity. Now the city is depending on a patchwork of temporary sources for water, which may run dry by July. Residents have been asked by the city to conserve water, with nonessential, outdoor watering prohibited. The city plans to limit how many days splash pads are open over summer break. A local high school canceled its annual car wash fundraiser.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – March 23, 2026
CERAWEEK: US crude export system nears capacity as Asia demand surges
The US crude export system is approaching its physical capacity limits as a widening US discount to international benchmarks is driving increased flows to Asia following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, experts said March 23 at CERAWeek by S&P Global Energy.
WTI crude is trading at a $12-$15/barrel discount to Brent and an even wider discount to Asian prices, creating what Karim Fawaz, director of global refining and products markets at S&P Global Energy CERA, described as a “very wide arbitrage window” for US crude exports to Asia. The discount is sufficient to cover elevated freight costs. “Over the next few weeks, we’re likely to see the export system of the US push toward physical limits in terms of the maximum export volumes we’re able to accommodate,” Fawaz said.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 23, 2026
Goldman Lifts Oil Price Forecast on Longer Hormuz Disruption*
Goldman Sachs raised its oil price forecast for this year due to a prolonged disruption of energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz and what it defined as the “largest oil supply shock ever.” Brent crude is now expected to average $85 a barrel in 2026, up from a previous forecast of $77. The U.S. oil gauge West Texas Intermediate is seen at $79 a barrel from $72 earlier. The U.S. bank assumes that flows through Hormuz would remain at only 5% compared to normal levels through April 10, before gradually recovering over one month.
In physical markets, the disruption remains largely regional, sharply reducing shipments and tightening supply in Asia—which typically receives the bulk of Hormuz imports, particularly for heavier fuels such as jet fuel. Goldman estimates crude output losses in the Middle East will increase from around 11 million barrels a day to a peak of 17 million barrels a day, before fully recovering over four weeks once production resumes, leaving total losses just above 800 million barrels. The bank estimates Brent at an average of $110 a barrel in March and April, up from a prior $98 estimate and roughly 62% above the 2025 annual average.
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Fortune – March 23, 2026
The U.S.-Israel war on Iran has delivered the biggest disruption to the airline industry since the COVID-19 pandemic, and United is bracing for a future where oil prices remain high through 2027. Not only has the price of oil soared, air traffic to key Middle East airport hubs has been disrupted, forcing planes to take alternate routes that burn more. In a letter to employees posted on Friday, CEO Scott Kirby pointed out that jet fuel prices have more than doubled in the last three weeks, representing an additional $11 billion in annual costs if prices stay at that level.
Oil Price – March 23, 2026
Are Markets Underestimating the Risk of a Prolonged Energy Crisis?
Shortly before the war with Iran began, I wrote that the seeming complacency among government officials and financial market participants was based on two assumptions which I argued were unlikely to turn out to be true: 1) President Donald Trump would make a last-minute deal with the Iranians and declare victory and 2) even if Trump didn’t make such a deal, the Iranians would not do all the things which they threatened to do if attacked.
Here we are, three weeks into the conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran. There was, of course, no last-minute deal, and the Iranians have done exactly what they threatened to do. Here is what I reported before the war regarding Iran’s threats:
Those threats include attacking U.S. bases in the region, attacking any country that assists the U.S. and Israeli war effort, attacking U.S. naval vessels, and, most importantly, closing the Strait of Hormuz through which passes 20 percent of the world’s exported oil and liquefied natural gas.
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Spectrum News – March 20, 2026
Cuba readies for first Russian oil shipment of year as energy crisis deepens
Related: Cuba refuses to let U.S. Embassy in Havana import diesel for its generators — Spectrum News
Cuba is preparing to receive its first shipment of Russian oil this year, just days after the government announced it was operating on natural gas, solar power and thermoelectric plants as severe power outages continue to hit an island whose power grid is crumbling. The Russian-flagged Anatoly Kolodkin is some 3,000 nautical miles from Cuba in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to reach the island in a little over a week, Jorge Piñón, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute, told The Associated Press.
If so, that would mark the first time any oil shipment from any country reaches Cuba in the past three months given a U.S. energy blockade. The tanker is carrying 730,000 barrels of fuel and is on the list of vessels of its type sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom following the war in Ukraine, Piñón said. He added that it’s hard to determine how long that amount of fuel could sustain Cuba: “We’re talking about crude oil that has to be refined into liquid fuels. … Each product has its specific demand.”
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Realtor.com – March 20, 2026
Moody’s Top Economist Warns Recession Will Be ‘Difficult To Avoid’ if Oil Prices Remain High
Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi has upgraded the odds of a recession, saying an economic downturn will be “difficult to avoid” if oil prices remain elevated. “Recession is once again a serious threat,” Zandi wrote in a post on X this week, revealing that Moody’s forecast model now projects a 49% chance of a recession in the next 12 months.
That assessment, which takes recession odds to near their highest of the post-pandemic era, was made before the U.S. and Israel launched their war with Iran, rattling markets and sending oil prices soaring. “It isn’t a stretch to expect the indicator to cross the key 50% threshold amid the Iranian conflict and the resulting surge in oil prices,” wrote Zandi. “Oil prices are an important variable in the model, and with good reason: every recession since WWII, save the pandemic recession, has been preceded by a spike in oil prices”
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Houston Chronicle – March 23, 2026
How Texas became ground zero for AI data centers reshaping the energy industry*
A California-based company is planning a new type of ranch in the heart of West Texas, measured not in herds of cattle, but in gigawatts of electricity. At the site in Fort Stockton, Pacifico Energy wants to construct a private grid — roughly the size of Ireland’s — exclusively for data centers that train artificial intelligence models. Few other states could accommodate a country-sized grid. But Texas boasts open land and ample natural gas. This makes the state attractive to a growing number of companies like Pacifico that are sidestepping yearslong grid connections by building their own power plants — one of the quickest ways for data centers to get online.
This speed is crucial to tech companies as they compete against each other to develop the most cutting-edge AI. According to Cleanview, a company that tracks data center projects, Texas has more proposals to circumvent the power grid than any other state. “You see a massive movement of these big data center campuses, all coming towards Texas,” said Aman Joshi, chief commercial officer of Bloom Energy, which provides on-site power generation to data centers. Most data centers, even the ones building their own power plants, still want to ultimately connect to the Texas power grid, where it’s faster to get online than grids elsewhere. But an unprecedented data center backlog is forcing even Texas to slow new grid hookups. So, more companies like Pacifico are turning toward developing self-sufficient power islands as they wait for the grid to catch up.
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Houston Chronicle – March 20, 2026
Harris County joins legal fight against the EPA’s decision to upend basis of U.S. climate policy*
Harris County joined local and state governments in urging an appellate court to reconsider whether the federal government had a right to dismantle the foundation of U.S. climate rules in a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for the Houston region. Their petition, filed Thursday, asked a U.S. appeals court to check the legality of the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent decision to kill the greenhouse gas “endangerment finding.” The 2009 finding confirmed that the government had to regulate climate-warming emissions because they endanger public health and welfare.
“Ignoring science does not eliminate risk,” Harris County Attorney Jonathan Fombonne said. “Rolling back the federal government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions disregards both established science and the real-world consequences of climate change. It also undermines critical protections that help reduce asthma attacks, heart and lung disease, and other serious health impacts,” he said.
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The New York Times – March 23, 2026
Trump Administration to Pay $1 Billion to Energy Giant to Cancel Wind Farms*
The Trump administration will pay the French energy giant TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion to abandon its plans to build wind farms off the East Coast, the Interior Department said on Monday at an energy conference in Houston. Under the unusual deal, TotalEnergies would forfeit its leases in federal waters for two wind farms, which would have been built off New York and North Carolina. The Justice Department would then reimburse TotalEnergies $928 million, the amount it paid for the leases during the Biden administration.
In exchange, TotalEnergies would invest that money in oil and gas projects in the United States, including a facility in Texas that would export liquefied natural gas to global markets. The company would also commit to producing more oil in the Gulf of Mexico and said it was developing some additional gas-burning power plants to meet rising electricity demand from data centers. The deal is an extraordinary transfer of taxpayer dollars to a foreign company for the purposes of boosting the production of fossil fuels, a main driver of climate change, while throttling offshore wind power. It comes as the war in the Middle East has shocked global oil markets, prompting concerns about energy supplies.
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Forbes – March 22, 2026
Americans can feel the affordability crisis spiraling out of control. Electricity bills rose 13% last year, forcing families to pay $110 more in 2025 compared to 2024, with 14 million people – one in 14 households – facing utility debt so severe they will be sent or soon will be sent to collections. Several apparent factors are fueling this crisis: volatile natural gas prices pushed by record LNG exports, expensive coal plants being forced to stay online, the data center boom, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act repealing federal tax credits designed to protect consumers.
But new analysis reveals a hidden reason America’s electricity bills are skyrocketing – utilities are pocketing hundreds of billions in profits from consumers. The Energy & Policy Institute estimates electric utilities raked in $244 billion in profit from household bills between 2021-2025 – roughly 13% of total consumer bills went to corporate profits over that time. In an era of inflation, when prices are rising across our economy, Americans just can’t afford to foot the bill for outsized corporate profits. Fortunately, government officials have options available to protect their constituents – if they choose to act.
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Inside Climate News – March 20, 2026
Yes, Venezuela Has a Ton of Oil—But Its Biggest Opportunity Is Offshore Wind
Since the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro in early January, there has been a lot of discussion about Venezuela’s massive oil reserves. But when it comes to the energy sector, it turns out that Venezuela is ideally positioned to harness abundant clean, renewable energy, particularly from wind.
Paasha Mahdavi is an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where his research focuses on the impact of oil and gas resources on governance and environmental politics, and a consultant for the Natural Resources Governance Institute. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Utility Dive – March 23, 2026
Better grid utilization could save customers $170B: Brattle report
Improved grid utilization could save customers of vertically integrated U.S. utilities $110 billion to $170 billion over the next 10 years, according to a new analysis prepared by the Brattle Group for GridLab and the Utilize Coalition. A 10% boost to annual system utilization translates to an average 3.4% decline in customer rates in 2030, assuming an increase in electricity sales between 20% and 30% over the same period, the report said. In a “status quo” scenario with the same load growth and no utilization increase, customer rates rise 1.4% by 2030, Brattle said.
Ian Magruder, executive director of the Utilize Coalition, said on a Wednesday webinar detailing the report that with the grid running at half-capacity “at any given hour,” getting more out of existing infrastructure is a cost-effective solution for affordability concerns. “Our view is that … grid utilization is one of the only near-term solutions that can reduce the cost of electricity at scale in short order,” he said.
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Regulatory
E&E News By Politico – March 20, 2026
Carbon removal hubs languish as DOE audits drag on
The world’s largest carbon dioxide removal project was scheduled to break ground in Louisiana in 2025 and begin pulling climate pollution from the sky next year. But preliminary work on the $1 billion development known as Project Cypress has stalled and the companies collaborating on it have gone quiet amid uncertainty about the status of up to $550 million that the Biden-era Department of Energy awarded to the initiative.
It’s been over 500 days since an update has been posted about the project by direct air capture startups Climeworks and Heirloom Carbon Technology and the scientific nonprofit Battelle. The team’s last announcement came before the November 2024 election of President Donald Trump, who claims global warming is a “hoax” and rejects efforts to address the problem as a “scam.”
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World Oil – March 19, 2026
American energy faces attacks by European activist courts: Wayne Christian, RRC
American energy works, because it’s reliable, but when reliability erodes, investment slows, infrastructure suffers, and consumers pay more. Unfortunately, energy reliability is once again in jeopardy, as a European court oversteps its bounds to work around an American judicial ruling and attempts to charge an American energy company millions of dollars.
Case background: The case revolves around Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access Pipeline (Fig. 1) and the violent protests against it in 2016. The protesters, largely rallied by the activist organization Greenpeace, created a makeshift encampment outside the construction site. From there, protests escalated into organized lawlessness and a national smear campaign. Protesters threw rocks and burning logs at law enforcement, locked themselves to equipment, set fires to bridges and barricades, and openly tried to halt a lawfully permitted infrastructure project through intimidation.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday March 23, 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 swung between gains and losses on Monday as investors weighed rising U.S. and Iranian threats over energy facilities against the release of millions of barrels of seaborne Iranian oil after Washington temporarily removed sanctions.
West Texas Intermediate was at $98.75 a barrel, up 84 cents. Both contracts were down more than $1 earlier in the session.
Brent crude futures rose 65 cents to $112.84 a barrel by 0446 GMT.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – March 22, 2026
Iranian Missile Strikes Are Costing Big Oil Billions in Lost Revenue*
When Iranian missiles struck the Pearl gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar, they knocked out one of Shell’s crown jewels, a giant plant that is among the most sophisticated and profitable businesses in the company’s sprawling global operations. The plant was so heavily damaged that one of its two production lines is expected to be shut for at least a year, Qatar said. Some of the Western oil industry’s most important investments have become targets for Iran in its war with the U.S. and Israel. Exxon Mobil , which has more at stake in Qatar than any other big oil company, gets roughly one-fifth of its oil-and-gas production from the Middle East, analysts estimate.
Chevron operates big gas assets off the coast of Israel that it has shut off, while ConocoPhillips has stakes in Qatari gas assets. About 17% of TotalEnergies’ annual operating income comes from oil and gas stuck behind the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to global markets, according to Goldman Sachs. “This has been a cash cow for the U.S. international oil companies,” said Jim Krane, an energy specialist at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston. “It’s got to be intensely frustrating. They’re going to have to rebuild in some cases, at an insanely high expense.” The damage to Pearl hits a facility that is personal for Shell Chief Executive Wael Sawan, who oversaw its planning, construction and operation in previous roles at the company. The plant, which cost nearly $20 billion, is the largest in the world that turns gas into liquid petroleum products and is considered one of the U.K. oil company’s top-performing assets.
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Financial Review – March 22, 2026
Supply cliff edge looms as Gulf’s final LNG shipments approach ports
Countries around the world are facing a cliff edge as the flow of liquefied natural gas from the Gulf ends abruptly in the next 10 days, when a handful of final tankers from the region reach their destinations. Qatar, which produces a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, had to stop exports after Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, in the first few days of the conflict. It has since suffered enormous damage to its giant Ras Laffan LNG plant, which was attacked by Iranian missiles this week, sending gas prices in Asia and Europe soaring.
But many LNG carriers that loaded at Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were already on their way to destinations before the war started, according to analysis by independent ship broker Affinity, meaning that some customers are only now about to feel the pain of lost supply. Countries reliant on imports to power their economies will have to pay sky-high prices to compete for LNG supplies from the US and elsewhere, switch to other fuels or force households and businesses to use less.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 22, 2026
The New Weapons of Global Power Are Oil, Rare Earths and Microchips*
Iran’s move to choke off the Strait of Hormuz and turn crude oil into a weapon of war marks a new phase in the 21st-century competition for global power—one that will be defined by the control of critical raw materials and energy. In the face of a withering campaign of airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel, Tehran has launched an asymmetric counterattack, using energy supplies as a cudgel on a scale unseen in decades. Iran has effectively paralyzed the Strait of Hormuz, a passageway where a fifth of global oil supplies usually transits. On Wednesday, it struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan, the site of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant, in retaliation for a strike on an Iranian gas field. On Saturday, President Trump vowed to “hit and obliterate” Iran’s power plants if the country doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz in the next 48 hours.
The escalation threatens to send new shock waves through global markets, which are already reeling from a 50% spike in oil prices since the start of the conflict. European natural-gas prices have roughly doubled. It is a stunning reminder of the centrality of energy to the global economy, and further evidence that the roots of military and economic power are shifting from software and information back to hard, physical resources—from oil to rare-earth metals and industrial capacity. The risk for nations that don’t have them span from soaring inflation and economic downturns to hampering the build-out of artificial intelligence and the militaries of the future. Last year, China used its control of roughly 90% of the world’s supplies of rare-earth magnets to checkmate the U.S. in trade negotiations. By cutting off access to metals used in cars, weapons and electronics, Beijing forced U.S. factories to idle and Washington to soften its demands.
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Politico – March 20, 2026
The states where higher gas prices could shape the midterms
President Donald Trump stood in front of Congress less than a month ago and boasted about low gas prices. Now he’s presiding over a 30 percent price spike that’s put his party on the defensive. Gasoline prices are up in every state since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran at the end of February, according to AAA’s average fuel prices. Those with particularly competitive races like Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan have seen price jumps of at least $1 per gallon.
After a suite of state and local elections last year steered the bulk of campaign rhetoric toward affordability for both parties, the president’s decisions risk muddling GOP messaging for weeks, if not months. And with primaries underway, the rise in prices may drive a wedge between Trump and down-ballot Republicans.
“[Republican candidates] have to acknowledge what’s going on, and they have to make sure that they’re not seen as out of touch with voters on this,” said Texas-based GOP consultant Brendan Steinhauser, whose clients have included Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw. “Some of them are moving with some trepidation about not talking about the war, and they don’t want to be seen as necessarily opposing the president or being critical of him. So I think a lot of the conversations have been more quiet.”
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Bloomberg – March 20, 2026
Iran War Premium Pushes Some Oil Products to Over $200 a Barrel*
Three weeks into the Iran war, there’s an ever-growing gap between the price of oil futures and supplies that determine costs for consumers in the real world. The global Brent benchmark has jumped more than 50% to around $112 a barrel as the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on Middle East energy facilities choke supplies. But the cost of almost every physical barrel is surging even more, as tight supplies boost prices of products that consumers actually use, like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Refiners in Asia, the top consuming region, are buying cargoes from thousands of miles away at eye-watering premiums to Brent as they try and secure whatever supplies are available. Trucking companies are starting to feel the impact of higher fuel costs and some parts of the world are crimping purchases of fuels that power ships. With jet fuel prices above $200 a barrel, major European airlines say passengers will have to bear the extra costs.
The disconnect between futures — which are underpinned by hundreds of billions of dollars of daily transactions — and physical oil is partly due to aggressive US attempts to keep a lid on prices, including through releasing emergency supplies. The reality is that the global economy is suffering from a bigger inflationary hit than futures suggest, something that’s piling pressure on central bankers and the Trump administration before the November midterm elections.
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KSAT – March 20, 2026
Corpus Christi’s crucial refineries look for alternate water supplies amid looming water crisis
Companies that own refineries in Corpus Christi say they are working to secure alternative water sources to maintain operations and prevent a shortage of gasoline and jet fuel in Texas and beyond as the city scrambles to delay or avoid a rapidly-escalating water crisis. The city earlier this week said it could enter a water emergency in as soon as two months; at that point the city would have roughly six months before supply could no longer meet demand.
With gasoline prices rising amid the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, water limitations in the Coastal Bend — a growing fuel and chemical hub — could further drive up prices, industry officials said. “If water limits force changes, facilities might have to slow production, take units offline or run at lower rates,” said Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, an oil and natural gas industry trade group. “That would hit local jobs, reduce economic activity and cut into revenue that flows through the Port of Corpus Christi, which is one of the country’s leading crude oil export points.”
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March 20, 2026
What the closure of the Strait of Hormuz means for the global economy: Dallas Fed
In this article, we adapt our earlier analysis to study the effects of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. While our model does not account for all features of the current oil crisis (for example, we do not model the disruption of natural gas and fertilizer exports from the Persian Gulf), it captures the key economic mechanisms related to oil. Suppose the Strait of Hormuz shuts down in second quarter 2026 for the duration of the quarter, which is the closest our quarterly model can get to mirroring the actual shutdown that occurred late in the first quarter. Market participants in the model understand that the probability of a closure in the second quarter is 100 percent. Beyond this quarter, however, the probability that the Strait remains closed steadily declines.
How fast this probability declines depends on the expected duration of the closure. For example, if the closure persists in expectation for three quarters, corresponding to the length of the 1973 oil supply disruption, there is only a 58 percent probability of the Strait remaining closed in third quarter 2026. In fourth quarter 2026, that probability further declines to 35 percent, and so forth (Chart 1, panel A). Larger or lower expected durations would push these probabilities up or down.
The Latest TERse Tips
U.S. and Iran trade threats of expanding war after strikes near sites tied to nuclear programs — Associated Press/Spectrum News
Atmos Energy crews were at the scene into the weekend where on Friday a home exploded in Lake Dallas, with Atmos now conducting tests throughout the area as part of an ongoing investigation — officials said natural gas service in the area has been shut off. Crews from the Texas Railroad Commission were also on scene — WFAA
The Bureau of Land Management today announced an oil and gas lease sale scheduled for May 20, 2026, to offer 74 oil and gas parcels totaling 33,530 acres in New Mexico and Texas — see the press release
Hanwha Energy has agreed to acquire a 324-MW natural gas-fired power plant in Texas, expanding its presence in the ERCOT market as electricity demand continues to rise — Pipeline and Gas Journal
CERAWeek energy conference returns to Houston as Iran conflict rocks global energy markets — At this year’s CERAWeek conference, over 10,000 attendees from more than 80 countries will also focus on Venezuela after the U.S. captured President Nicolas Maduro in January and eased sanctions on the South American OPEC member nation in an effort to kickstart its oil industry and boost investment — Reuters*
Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – March 20, 2026
US Drillers Add Oil Rigs For Second Week In A Row As Prices Soar
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US to 552 this week, down 41 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 2 to 414 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 72 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2, sinking to 131, which is 29 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count fell to 7.
The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production fell this week, by 10,000 bpd in the week ending March 13, to 13.668 million bpd on average, 194,000 bpd under the all-time high. Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells, rose again during the week ending March 13 by 2 after gaining 3 crews in the week prior.
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Texas Tribune – March 20, 2026
Texas has taken over issuing permits to store carbon underground. Here’s what to know.
The Texas Railroad Commission spent two years working to secure the authority to issue the permits energy companies need to inject and store carbon dioxide underground, a power previously held by the federal government. Last November, the Environmental Protection Agency approved that request, a development experts said will make it easier for energy companies to apply for such permits, called Class VI.
Both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations have approved generous tax incentives to energy companies to encourage carbon capture. While the effectiveness of the practice and benefits to the environment have been debated for years, the oil and gas industry has embraced it as a climate-friendly solution to pollution driven by industrial-scale fossil fuel production.
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KIII – March 20, 2026
Corpus Christi’s water shortage threatens billions in investment, city leaders say
Corpus Christi’s water crisis is no longer just about drought restrictions or conservation, city leaders have said it is now threatening the region’s economic future and is costing the Coastal Bend billions of dollars in lost investment. Major companies that once showed interest in building in Corpus Christi are now putting projects on hold or walking away because the city cannot guarantee a long term water supply. City officials said the economic impact is enormous.
Corpus Christi City Councilman Roland Barrera said the city has already missed out on massive projects tied to industries that require large volumes of water. “I have heard numbers as high as $20 billion,” Barrera said. Many of the successful projects secured by the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation were landed before 2020 when the city still had excess water capacity to offer new industry.
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Texas Tribune – March 20, 2026
Corpus Christi says two new developments will buy it more time before reaching water crisis
Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni announced two new developments on Friday that he said will help buy the city at least two more months before reaching a potential water emergency that would trigger limits for residents and businesses. The city got approval from the state earlier this week to continue pulling around 40 million gallons of water a day from Lake Texana, one of the city’s three main reservoirs, even if it falls below 50% — a level that normally triggers an automatic 10% reduction in the amount the city can pump.
The special approval, Zanoni said, is critical for the city to continue providing water for its more than 317,000 residents. Additionally, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality gave the city a permit to pull water from wells in Nueces County. The city had already drilled four wells that were ready to pump as soon as they secured the permit. On Thursday, a day after securing the permit, it began pumping out 4.5 million gallons a day from them.
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Alaska News Source – March 20, 2026
Spurred in part by momentum around ConocoPhillips’ Willow project, oil companies poured record-setting money into federal leases on Alaska’s North Slope, with a National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska sale bringing in a record $163.7 million, the Bureau of Land Management said. The agency said 11 companies bid in the March 18 sale on 187 tracts covering about 1.33 million acres. The agency offered 625 tracts across roughly 5.5 million acres in the first NPR-A lease sale since 2019.
Hilcorp won 78 tracts, and ConocoPhillips bid successfully on 30. A Repsol/Shell partnership was awarded 42, with Exxon gaining 24 tracts. Officials and industry groups praised the results. North Slope leaders and conservation groups stressed that leasing is not approval to drill and pointed to ongoing legal challenges involving the Teshekpuk Lake area and other protected lands.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 21, 2026
Vision Oil & Gas acquisition expands its reach beyond Permian Basin*
Vision Oil & Gas has made an acquisition that not only expands its Permian Basin portfolio but gives the company entry into the Mid-Continent and Anadarko Basin. Vision has just acquired 320 gas wells in the Anadarko Basin and 114 oil wells across Reagan, Reeves, Ward, Mitchell and Cochran counties, along with two bonded operator licenses.
“This will put a lot of new wind in the sails of operators with great rock but who have exhausted ways to make wells work and are out of options,” said Josh Cohen, chief executive officer. Speaking with the Reporter-Telegram, Cohen said the acquisitions let the company move north into the Panhandle and Mitchell and Kent counties and towards Big Lake and Sutton County.
The wells that have been acquired by the company in the Mid-Continent and Anadarko Basin are spread across Lipscomb, Roberts, Hansford and Ochiltree counties and mark the first substantial move for Vision outside of the Permian Basin. More than 90% of these wells were shut in by BP or Range Resources, and the group anticipates stabilized production of 10,000 to 15,000 MCFE a day once the entire field is reactivated.
Oil & Gas National & International
CNBC – March 22, 2026
The economy has a Strait of Hormuz deadline for Trump: Two weeks
For now, the C-suite has its own view of the matter: it’s roughly two weeks and counting for the Trump administration and any allies that join the effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, or corporate executives have to assume that the conflict will drag on until at least mid-year, with all of the negative consequences that come with that for the global economy. That was the conclusion on a call among members of the CNBC CFO Council earlier this week with energy and commodities market expert John Kilduff of Again Capital, who joined CFOs to share his view of the oil price outlook from inside the trader and investor community.
Among sectors, it is energy that can be said to be truly in the war, and an energy CFO on the Tuesday morning call — CFOs are granted anonymity on the call to speak freely about the discussions inside their firms — said their company is scenario planning for the future with three distinct potentials: a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz by the end of March, one that is closer to the middle of the year, or in the worst-case scenario, a closure that extends through the end of the year.
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CBS News/60 Minutes – March 22, 2026
With the U.S. military on high alert amid the Iran war, there’s a national security crisis closer to home: the state of the American shipbuilding industry. The nation’s naval shipbuilding program is bloated and slow, and commercial shipbuilding is near non-existent. Hanwha, which owns one of the only U.S. shipyards still building large commercial cargo ships, has its main shipyard in South Korea. While the Hanwha in Philadelphia rolls out around one ship a year, a South Korean Hanwha shipyard makes one a week.
Michael Coulter, Hanwha’s top executive in charge of U.S. operations, says there’s a reason the U.S. shouldn’t just buy all of its ships from Korea. “That doesn’t solve the problem. At the end of the day, shipbuilding is a national security necessity,” Coulter said. “The U.S. needs to be able to secure our own commerce. We need to be able to export our own energy.”
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New Statesman – March 21, 2026
The world energy shock is coming
TER note: New Statesman is a leftist progressive journal founded more than 100 years ago by members of the socialist Fabian Society
Profits do not distribute equally across the population. In the US, the richest 10 per cent of households own 87 per cent of US equities. Stock market valuations for fossil fuel and fertiliser producers, for example, are shooting up and are being celebrated by market commentators as a wonderful investment opportunity. The current price spikes in oil, gas, fertilizer and other inputs are poised to deliver massive windfall profits for shareholders of companies not affected by the blockage – their costs of production haven’t increased but the prices of the stuff they produce are through the roof.
Our research shows that the hundreds of billions of excess profits reaped by oil and gas companies in 2022 compensated the richest 1 per cent of US Americans on average for several percentage points of inflation that year through their shareholdings in these companies. Meanwhile, the least wealthy half of Americans, and most of the rest of the world, saw nearly none of these benefits while carrying much higher inflation burdens. Newspapers already calculate billions of excess profits for the energy industry this year – risking even higher inequality if left unchecked by excess profit taxes.
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S&P Global Platts – March 22, 2026
Chinese state-run firms compete for Iranian crude under US exemption: sources
Chinese state-owned refineries are competing for Iranian crude oil allowed under the US exemption, while barrels remaining in Southeast Asia following ship-to-ship operations are expected to continue to be acquired by China’s independent refiners, according to four sources from the state-owned and independent sectors. On March 20, the Trump administration temporarily lifted sanctions for 30 days on the purchase of Iranian oil at sea, aiming to reduce elevated oil prices resulting from the war in the Middle East.
“The process is already being pushed forward intensively, and we are working hard to compete on price,” a Beijing-based trade source with a state-owned oil company told Platts on March 21 in response to Trump’s exemption. According to S&P Global Commodities at Sea, about 69.28 million barrels of Iranian crude and condensate were on the water as of March 20. Of this, about 25.9 million barrels were in the Persian Gulf, 6 million barrels in the Arabian Sea, 5 million barrels in the eastern Indian Ocean, 28 million barrels in Southeast Asia and the remaining 3.3 million barrels in the Far East.
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Pipeline & Gas Journal – March 19, 2026
Update: UAE Shuts Major Gas Facilities After Missile Intercepts Hit ADNOC Hub
Qatar’s state oil giant QatarEnergy said on March 18 that Iranian missile attacks on Ras Laffan, the site of the country’s core LNG processing operations, caused “extensive damage”, while the UAE shut gas facilities after intercepting missiles early on March 19. The attacks, which drew a furious response from U.S. President Donald Trump, came hours after Iran issued evacuation warnings for several oil facilities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, following strikes on its own energy infrastructure in South Pars and Asaluyeh.
QatarEnergy, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, said in a statement that its emergency response team was deployed immediately to contain fires caused by the attack. By early Thursday, all fires at Ras Laffan had been brought under control, with no injuries reported, Qatar’s interior ministry said.
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Mexico News Daily – March 19, 2026
Sheinbaum targets natural gas production as next step in energy sovereignty push
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has identified increasing domestic natural gas production as the next key step to strengthening national energy sovereignty, aiming to reduce the country’s 75% reliance on U.S. imports. Her strategy includes raising production to 5 billion cubic feet per day by 2030, reducing gas flaring, and exploring unconventional, potentially “sustainable” fracking methods to achieve these targets
- Production Targets: The government aims to boost Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) natural gas output from roughly 3.3—3.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) to 5 Bcf/d by 2030.
- Targeted Investments: Over 220 billion pesos (approx. $10.7 billion) is planned for exploring and drilling 269 new wells, primarily in the Mexican southeast and the Gulf of Mexico.
- Addressing Imports: Sheinbaum emphasizes that the current high reliance on U.S. pipelines threatens energy independence, making increased local production a national priority.
- Unconventional Methods: The plan includes focusing on “complex geological formations,” widely interpreted as a return to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale gas extraction, under a “sustainable” framework.
- Supportive Infrastructure: Reducing natural gas flaring at Pemex sites is part of the plan to increase available supply, aiming to re-inject or market the trapped gas
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Reuters – March 20, 2026
US lends oil companies 45.2 mln barrels from reserve, first batch of Iran war*
The Trump administration said on Friday it has lent 45.2 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to oil companies, in an attempt to control prices that have spiked to four-year highs due to the war on Iran. The initial batch covers 52% of the up to 86 million barrels the administration announced last week it planned to lend. Ultimately the U.S. aims to lend 172 million barrels for delivery throughout this year and into next.
Companies awarded the initial SPR loans include BP Products North America, Gunvor USA, Marathon Petroleum and Shell Trading, the Energy Department said in a statement. The loans are part of an agreement with 32 countries in the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels of oil from reserves. The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 has pushed crude prices to their highest since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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KTXS – March 20, 2026
Poll: Majority of Americans financially impacted by Iran war oil shock
Before beginning his scripted remarks during an event with the Navy football team in the East Room of the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump said, “I want to start by saying we’re doing extremely well in Iran.” When Americans are asked how well they’re doing with the economic fallout of the war, “extremely well” isn’t the answer for most, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Fifty-five percent of Americans said the war’s effect on gas prices has impacted their overall finances.
Nearly nine in 10 believe gas prices will rise even higher over the next month – a likely scenario as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed and critical energy infrastructure in Iran and Arab nations was casualties this week of Israeli and Iranian strikes, respectively. Between Thursday and Friday, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose another four cents to $3.91, according to AAA. One month ago, the average price was $2.93.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Argus Media – March 20, 2026
Texas grid rethinks rules as data centers surge
Texas grid planners are overhauling how the state handles enormous new power demands from data centers, crypto mines and other electricity-hungry industries, as state grid operator ERCOT warns that the traditional interconnection system cannot keep pace with the number of large-load requests. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is replacing its old approach of studying each project that requests an interconnection with a new process, known as Batch Zero, that will lump requests that are 75MW or larger into groups for evaluation.
“ERCOT is experiencing significant and rapid growth in large data-center load, often concentrated in specific regions and on similar development timelines,” the grid operator said in an e-mail to Argus. “This accelerated activity places added pressure on the traditional interconnection study process.”
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Politico – March 20, 2026
A confrontation between a Dallas billionaire and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at a Silicon Valley conference has exposed simmering tensions over an effort to secure financing for a sprawling campus of data centers powered by a private energy grid. Toby Neugebauer, the CEO and co-founder of Fermi America, became “loud and belligerent” with Lutnick at the Nvidia GTC conference in San Jose, California, on Tuesday as he raised the issue of investment from South Korea in the data center project, according to a witness. Two other people familiar with the dispute agreed with that characterization. All three were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
Neugebauer, who has an established relationship with Lutnick and has done business with the secretary’s sons, disputes the description of the encounter as heated but concedes he had a “direct conversation” about what he sees as Lutnick’s interference in Fermi’s planned Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus in West Texas.
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Business Insurance – March 20, 2o026
Insurers denied $105 million in collateral from Texas oil driller
A Texas federal judge on Thursday denied a bid by two surety insurers for some $105 million in collateral from a Houston-based oil driller. U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen ruled that U.S. Fire Insurance, a unit of Crum & Forster, and Pennsylvania Insurance, a unit of Applied Underwriters, aren’t entitled to a preliminary injunction demanding the collateral in the case W&T Offshore Inc. and W&T Energy IV vs Endurance Assurance Corp. and Lexon Insurance Co. Judge Hanen approved a magistrate report saying that the insurers’ allegations of imminent financial harm are “speculation.”
Federal regulators require drillers to provide financial assurance that taxpayers won’t be responsible for decommissioning and cleaning up their wells at the end of their life cycle. W&T acquired $450 million in surety bonds from a group of insurers who demanded $250 million in collateral, “far more than W&T’s cash reserves,” according to a filing by W&T.
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Source NM – March 20, 2026
Southern NM lawmakers seek public hearing on Project Jupiter permits
Two New Mexico lawmakers representing Doña Ana County sent a letter this week to the state’s top environmental official requesting a public hearing on air quality permit applications for controversial proposed data center Project Jupiter. Last year, Doña Ana County officials approved spending $165 billion in bonds to build the data center to train OpenAI and Oracle, even as the air permit applications to the state show the private power plants may emit as many greenhouse gases as New Mexico’s two largest cities combined.
The New Mexico Environment Department is still reviewing Project Jupiter’s application for the permits to build twin on-site natural gas generating stations to power the data center complex, and has until April 22 to make the decision. The public comment period on the permits closed in early March, and received more than 7,000 submissions, according to NMED.
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KTEN – March 21, 2026
Many voters blame AI data centers for rising electricity costs
A significant number of American voters are blaming AI data centers for rising energy costs across the country, a new poll reveals. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found 15% of registered voters blame AI data centers for rising electricity costs across the country. Additionally, 22% of voters said companies are using AI data centers as an excuse to raise profits. Combine the two responses and 37% of voters blame rising electricity costs on data centers. That’s compared to 27% of voters who blame general inflation.
The Voters’ Voice Poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights between March 2-5, 2026. The poll sample included 2,569 registered voters, comprising 1,177 Republicans, 1,270 Democrats and 773 independents, of which 330 do not lean toward either major party. It is one of the most comprehensive tracking polls in the U.S.
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Reuters – March 20, 2026
NextEra secures Trump’s approval for up to 10 GW gas power projects*
NextEra Energy said on Friday U.S. President Donald Trump has approved the development of up to 10 gigawatts of natural gas-fired power generation in Texas and Pennsylvania, as part of a broader U.S.-Japan trade agreement. The company said it will build and operate the Texas and Pennsylvania projects, which are expected to be jointly owned by U.S. and Japanese stakeholders.
The approval is tied to Japan’s $550 billion investment commitment to the U.S. The two countries announced expanded cooperation at a summit on Thursday, including Japanese investment of up to $73 billion in U.S. energy projects and an action plan to develop alternatives to China for critical minerals and rare earths. The plants are aimed at meeting rising electricity demand from large users such as data centers and advanced manufacturing without increasing household power bills, the company said. The approved developments include the company’s previously disclosed Texas hub, which it is developing with Comstock Resources.
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ESG Today – March 19, 2026
Fervo Secures $421 Million to Build U.S. Geothermal Energy Plant
Geothermal energy project developer Fervo Energy announced today that it has secured $421 million in financing to fund the construction costs of the first phase of its large-scale geothermal project in Utah. Founded in 2017, Houston, Texas-based Fervo Energy focuses on the development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) projects to deliver carbon-free energy. The company uses techniques such as horizontal drilling and distributed fiber optic sensing to transform reservoirs of hot rock beneath the earth’s surface into clean energy sources.
The company said that the new funding will support the first phase of its flagship Cape Station development in Beaver County, Utah. The project is expected to begin delivering first power to the grid in 2026, reaching approximately 100 MW of capacity by early 2027, with plans to scale to 500 MW. The development is fully contracted through power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison, Shell Energy, and community choice aggregators.
Regulatory
ProPublica – March 18, 2026
Transportation Lobbyists Have Donated Thousands to Sean Duffy’s Son-in-Law as He Runs for Congress
The $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project, under construction between Manhattan and New Jersey, will improve passenger rail service, an important issue for New York City commuters. It would seem to have nothing to do with what’s happening in northern Wisconsin. But after the White House froze federal grant funding for the project in the fall, citing concerns about diversity and equity measures, lobbyists with an interest in the tunnel donated $2,500 to a political novice running in the Republican primary in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District.
The young candidate, Michael Alfonso, has no sway over the matter. However, his father-in-law does: Sean Duffy is secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The contributions are among dozens to Alfonso’s campaign from lobbyists, business executives and political action committees tied to industries — from rails and highways to shipping and air travel — that Duffy’s department funds and regulates. His department also oversees the Federal Aviation Administration.
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The Guardian (UK) – March 17, 2026
Revealed: the world’s worst mega-leaks of methane driving global heating
The world’s worst mega-leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane in 2025 have been revealed by an analysis of satellite data. The super-polluting plumes from oil and gas facilities have a colossal heating impact on the climate but often result from poor maintenance and can be simple to fix. The assessment found dozens of mega-leaks, each having the same global heating impact as a coal-fired power station.
The researchers said it was “maddening” that such easy action to fight the climate crisis was not being taken, and said people should be angry. Stopping the leaks can even be free, given that captured gas can be sold – methane is the “natural gas” that fires power stations.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Friday March 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
U.S. oil prices extended their decline Friday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington may soon lift sanctions on Iranian crude stored aboard tankers, a move aimed at easing price pressures following Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
WTI prices slid 1.89% to $94.32 per barrel as of 1:49 a.m. ET.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, lost 1.62% to $106.89 per barrel. U.S. oil
“In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that’s on the water, about 140 million barrels,” Bessent told Fox Business Network.
He said bringing the sanctioned Iranian crude back into global markets would help cap prices over the next 10 to 14 days.
Dubai crude oil prices surpassed $166 a barrel to a new record high on Thursday, according to market data provider Platts.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – March 19, 2026
U.S. War Planes and Helicopters Kick Off Battle to Reopen Hormuz*
The U.S. and its allies have intensified the battle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, sending low-flying attack jets over the sea lanes to blast Iranian naval vessels and Apache helicopters to shoot down Iran’s deadly drones, American military officials said. The stepped-up operation is part of a multistage Pentagon plan to reduce the danger from Iranian armed boats, mines and cruise missiles, which have halted ship traffic through the waterway since early March. If the danger can be reduced, the U.S. could send U.S. warships through the strait and eventually escort vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf.
But it will still likely take weeks for the U.S. to clear out Iran’s web of assets that have harassed traffic through a chokepoint for 20% of the world’s oil exports and a large amount of commercial shipping traffic. The strait’s effective closure has sent Brent oil prices soaring above $100 a barrel—briefly touching $119 before closing at $108.65, up 1.2%, on Thursday—and forced the Trump administration to grapple with the economic implications of the war it launched alongside Israel on Feb. 28.
Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed the operation in a Pentagon news conference Thursday, saying heavily armed A-10 warplanes, known as the Warthog, along with Apache attack helicopters, were flying missions over the strait or off the southern coast of Iran. “The A-10 Warthog is now engaged across the southern flank, targeting fast-attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz,” he told reporters at the Pentagon. He added that the Apaches “have joined the fight on the southern flank.”
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Reuters – March 19, 2026
Shell’s Pearl GTL facility in Qatar stops production after attacks*
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Fox News – March 19, 2026
Iranian strikes cut 17% of Qatar LNG output, threatening global supply
Iranian strikes have cut about 17% of Doha’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, QatarEnergy’s CEO told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Saad al-Kaabi said the disruption could result in an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue and threaten supplies to Europe and Asia. The CEO of the state-owned energy company, who is also Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs, told Reuters that damage to two LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids facilities will sideline roughly 12.8 million tons per year of output for three to five years.
“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that Qatar would be — Qatar and the region — in such an attack, especially from a brotherly Muslim country in the month of Ramadan, attacking us in this way,” said al-Kaabi.
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Reuters – March 19, 2026
Saudi Aramco-Exxon refinery SAMREF in Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu targeted, source says*
Related: The Saudi port of Yanbu, one of two major remaining export routes for Gulf Arab oil after Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, has stopped oil loadings, two sources told Reuters on Thursday, after the Saudi defence ministry said it intercepted a ballistic missile over the city — Energy Now
The ministry said earlier that a drone crashed at the SAMREF refinery, with damage assessment underway.
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Politico – March 19, 2026
Trump officials rule out oil export ban in meeting with industry execs
The Trump administration told oil industry executives Thursday it has ruled out banning oil exports as a way to bring down energy prices amid the escalating war in Iran, according to a senior administration official who participated in the meeting. Vice President JD Vance, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum tamped down the rumor at a meeting with the board of the American Petroleum Institute, the top trade association for the oil industry. The White House has been searching for ways to reverse the steep climb in oil and gasoline prices that has resulted from Iranian attacks on oil and gas fields in the region, as well as from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil tankers in the Middle East.
Industry leaders asked officials at the meeting directly about whether the administration was weighing limits on crude exports amid rising prices, a move the industry vehemently opposes. Burgum responded definitively that such a policy is not under consideration, according to the senior administration official, whom POLITICO granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
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Houston Chronicle – March 19, 2026
Corpus Christi Water Shortage Caused by Greg Abbott and Big Oil: Chris Tomlinson*
Public works is already spending $1 billion to bolster water supplies, mostly by drilling for more groundwater. But Abbott and the fossil fuel industry want taxpayers to pay for a $1 billion seawater desalination plant that the city cannot afford. Corpus Christi’s argument over who should pay for corporate water needs reflects a growing debate across the country about how much taxpayers should subsidize big business. Texans are equally angry about higher electricity bills to support data centers or higher property taxes to cover incentives to attract big business. … City officials insist the emergency is not as dire as some claim, even though Lake Corpus Christi has dropped below 10% of capacity. The water department expects to add 17 million gallons a day to the water supply in May, but without a hurricane or two of rain, it might not be enough. Corporate leaders, who’ve invested $7 billion in the Corpus Christi area over the last decade, are worried. Flint Hills Resources, Valero Energy Corp. and Citgo need water to make fuels….
Republican attitudes, though, are changing. President Donald Trump promised to force big tech companies to pay for the electricity and transmission equipment they need for new data centers. While details are still unclear, Trump recognizes that big businesses saddling taxpayers with higher prices is bad politics. Abbott has not gotten the memo. He cut off state funding to Corpus Christi and demanded that the council reconsider its September vote. His appointees on the Texas Water Development Board have offered $700 million in low-interest loans to the city. But, again, taxpayers would have to repay those loans through higher bills or property taxes.
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The Latest TERse Tips
Exxon, BP, Vitol ship most US fuels to Australia for a single month in three decades, traders say — Yahoo! News
Chevron on Thursday said the Isomax unit at its 269,000 b/d El Segundo, Calif., refinery has resumed operations after a pipe failure led to a five-month shutdown — MarketWatch
Chevron has been fined $1.5 million for last year’s oil well blowout in Northern Colorado, the Colorado Energy and Carbon Commission unanimously approved the fine on Wednesday — CBS News
U.S.-based clean energy group Avantus, along with Toyota Tsusho America, announced completion of the 159-MW Norton Solar Project in Runnels County — the companies on March 18 said TAI has entered into a long-term virtual power purchase agreement with Toyota Motor North America for the full output of the solar facility — Power Magazine
Constellation Energy Corporation and LS Power Equity Advisors, LLC Wednesday announced an agreement under which Constellation will sell a portfolio of generation assets in PJM to LS Power, a key step in satisfying regulatory commitments related to Constellation’s acquisition of Calpine — see the press release
Burned-Out Philadelphia Refinery Finds New Life as Life Sciences Hub — Bill Gates-backed biotech startup plans a $450 million production facility on the once-polluted site of Philadelphia Energy Solutions — The Wall Street Journal*
Oil & Gas Texas
Inside Climate News – March 19, 2026
Senator Launches Investigation Into Methane Pollution in the Permian Basin
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) launched an investigation into the discrepancy between reported and observed methane pollution from the Permian Basin—the largest-producing oil field in the United States and one of the largest in the world.
The investigation, announced Wednesday, follows a recent report by MethaneSAT, a short-lived methane-sensing satellite launched by the Environmental Defense Fund, Harvard University and others in 2024. That report, released in early February, found that methane emissions from oil and gas production facilities in the Permian Basin from May 2024 to June 2025 were four times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s official estimates.
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Bloomberg – March 19, 2026
Gas Traders Await Start of Massive US Plant as Iran War Hits Supply*
A massive US natural gas export complex owned by QatarEnergy and Exxon Mobil Corp. is still in startup mode as the Iran war upends global supply, disappointing traders who were anticipating more progress at this stage. Golden Pass, a terminal near the Texas-Louisiana border, is poised to be a critical source of supply after Iran strikes damaged Qatar’s giant Ras Laffan facility on the Persian Gulf. The loss of one of the world’s top exporters has sent liquefied natural gas prices in Europe and Asia soaring, threatening to unleash an energy crisis in countries that have become heavily dependent on Qatari cargoes of the heating and power-plant fuel.
Exxon Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in January that the first LNG from Golden Pass was likely to be produced “in very early March.” Data compiled by BloombergNEF show that the first production unit has not completely ramped up, however. The facility began taking in more gas in February but not has not consistently increased flows. Exxon “continues to support the Golden Pass venture in its efforts to deliver this important project,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. Golden Pass LNG, through a spokesperson, declined to comment on timing of the facility startup. Golden Pass is one of a few gas export facilities on the US Gulf Coast that are close to being completed. Venture Global Inc.’s Plaquemines terminal in Louisiana is ramping up, along with an expansion of Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi plant in Texas. Other projects remain under construction.
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Dallas Morning News – March 19, 2026
East Texas county lands $16 billion gas power project in White House, Japan deal*
A $16 billion gas-fired power facility is coming to Anderson County, placing one of the nation’s largest energy projects in rural East Texas. It’s one of three new energy infrastructure projects President Donald Trump plans to announce Thursday, part of a $550 billion investment package Japan pledged in October. Among the details:
- Project: Natural gas-fired power generation hub.
- Capacity: Up to 5.2 GW of natural gas-fired generation, capable of serving up to 5 GW of large-load demand.
- Operator: NextEra Energy Resources.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to arrive Thursday morning at the White House, kicking off a visit originally expected to focus on trade and strengthening the U.S.-Japanese alliance as China’s influence grows in Asia. The war in Iran now hangs over the meetings, with Takaichi warning this week the visit will be “very difficult.”
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KSAT – March 17, 2026
Corpus Christi turns to San Antonio in water crisis
Tensions ran high at Corpus Christi City Hall as leaders debated potential solutions to the city’s growing water crisis — including a possible partnership with San Antonio’s CPS Energy. The city of Corpus Christi passed a vote Tuesday to continue to explore that partnership. The public comment alone stretched past two hours. Some got heated, even prompting police to escort two speakers out. The discussion comes as Corpus Christi faces severe drought conditions, with reservoir levels dropping to historic lows.
The situation has drawn sharp criticism from state leaders. Gov. Greg Abbott recently accused the city of mishandling state support tied to a previous desalination effort, saying local leaders squandered more than $700 million intended to address the problem. One of the options now back on the table is building a seawater desalination plant at the Barney Davis Power Plant in Flour Bluff.
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March 19, 2026
White House decision could ease fertilizer delivery issues: Texas Farm Bureau
The Trump administration announced a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act in an effort to ease high oil and fertilizer prices for Americans. The Jones Act, officially known as the Merchant Marine Act, is a federal shipping law that typically requires goods moved between U.S. ports to be transported on U.S.-built, flagged, owned and staffed vessels.
The temporary waiver allows more ships, including foreign-flagged vessels, to move fuel, fertilizer and other inputs between domestic ports. “This action will allow vital resources like oil, natural gas, fertilizer and coal to flow freely to U.S. ports for 60 days, and the administration remains committed to continuing to strengthen our critical supply chains,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
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Bloomberg – March 19, 2026
The White House Is Using the Wrong Oil Price for the Iran War: Javier Blas*
US President Donald Trump has seemingly turned the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil into a referendum on his war against Iran. Thumbs up if WTI stays below $100 a barrel. Thumbs down if it rises above. Even if he succeeds in keeping that particular gauge below the triple digits, it would be a pyrrhic victory. What matters for the American economy isn’t the price of WTI, but the cost of refined petroleum products — and they’re rising rapidly. While the price of Texas crude is up 60% since January, the cost of key everyday fuels has risen by between 85% and 120%.
On paper, the White House’s strategy makes sense: Wall Street focuses on WTI as its preferred indicator of what’s going on in the oil market, and hardly pays attention beyond. Watch cable television in America and WTI gets blanket coverage. On social media, too, everyone interested in commodity and financial markets talks about it. Few equity and bond traders are looking at the cost of, say, Number 6 fuel oil in New York, Gulf jet-fuel grade 54, or reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending (the industry’s name for the stuff used to make gasoline.) But those products, the mainstay output of US refineries, are precisely what will make or break the country’s consumers and businesses. …
Senior figures in the oil industry fear the administration’s next step will be imposing a ban on US crude-oil exports, although the White House has told executives that it didn’t have any immediate plans to do this. It has also talked, publicly and privately, about intervening in the oil futures market — which would be another unwise Hail Mary pass aimed at keeping WTI prices lower. Putting aside the enormous financial and political costs of each of those measures, they also fail to address Trump’s essential need in trying to defend his unpopular war: keeping energy prices manageable for American consumers and businesses. The conflict has not only reduced the flow of crude oil out of the Persian Gulf; it has also cut the critical supply of refined products. Since the conflict started, refining margins — the difference between what these products cost and the price of crude feedstock — have exploded.
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Texas Border Business – March 19, 2026
U.S. Natural Gas Production Hits Record High as LNG Exports Surge
The amount of natural gas produced and marketed in the United States reached a record high in 2025, up by 5.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) to average 118.5 Bcf/d, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). About two thirds of production occurs in three regions—Appalachia, the Permian Basin, and the Haynesville Shale. These three areas accounted for 81% of the growth last year.
The Appalachia region in the northeastern US produced 31%, followed by the Permian Basin with 23%. Production growth in Appalachia had been slowing due to pipeline constraints, but the situation is improving. The Permian Basin experienced the largest gain (up 11%), about half of overall gains last year. Most of the growth in the region is due to associated gas produced along with oil, and during much of 2025 crude prices were high enough to support significant activity.
Oil & Gas National & International
Oil Price – March 19, 2026
Asia Turns to U.S. Oil as War Chokes Middle East Supply
U.S. crude loadings for Asia are set for a three-year in April as Asian refiners are accelerating buying of American oil to partially offset the loss of supply from the Middle East, traders with knowledge of recent purchases told Bloomberg on Thursday. About 60 million barrels of American crude grades are set to be loaded for Asia next month, according to Bloomberg’s trade sources, as Asian refiners are scooping up non-Middle Eastern supply from all other regions since the de facto closed Strait of Hormuz has trapped most of the crude production in the Gulf.
The purchases have also been made at steep premiums over Dated Brent as Asia scrambles to replace part of the barrels from its key sourcing region, the Middle East. The U.S. Midland crude remains competitively attractive into Asia against the Murban grade from Abu Dhabi, given how constrained supply from the Persian Gulf remains, Kpler said in an analysis earlier this week.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 19, 2026
Trump’s Iran War Frays Ties With Allies as Oil Prices Surge*
President Trump’s war with Iran has put the U.S. on a collision course with some of its closest allies over one of the most audacious foreign policy moves of his presidency. Longstanding allies weren’t informed of the battle plans until hours before the first attack was launched almost three weeks ago, and they have since been publicly criticized by the president for not providing enough military help. Some offers have been rebuffed, and friendly capitals have been left guessing over the White House’s plans to end the war and soothe energy markets.
Trump has moved to allay anger among Arab countries, infuriated by Israeli and Iranian strikes on major energy facilities in the region. He claimed on Wednesday that he had no advance knowledge that Israel was going to attack Iran’s largest gas field, after U.S. officials said he did. But he has spent much of the week lashing out at European allies, demanding they join a military escort mission through the Strait of Hormuz only to later say he didn’t need their help.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 19, 2026
Saudi Arabia Sees a Spike to $180 Oil if Energy Shock Persists Past April*
Saudi Arabia’s oil officials are working frantically to project how high oil prices might go if the Iran war and its disruption of energy supplies doesn’t end soon—and they don’t like what they are seeing. The base case, several oil officials in the Gulf’s biggest producer said, is that prices could soar past $180 a barrel if the disruptions persist until late April. While that would sound like a bonanza for a kingdom still heavily leveraged to oil revenue, it is deeply concerning. Prices that high could push consumers into habits that slash their oil use—potentially for the long term—or trigger a recession that also hurts demand. They also would risk casting Saudi Arabia in the role of profiteer in a war it didn’t start.
“Saudi Arabia generally does not like too-rapid increases in oil, because that then creates long-term market instability,” said Umer Karim, an analyst of Saudi foreign policy and geopolitics with the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. “For Saudis, the ideal equation is a relatively modest increase in prices while their market share remains stable.” Saudi Aramco, the country’s national oil company, which handles production, sales and pricing, declined to comment. This week’s strikes targeting energy facilities have pushed oil prices higher. In retaliation for an Israeli strike Wednesday on Iran’s South Pars gas field, Tehran hit facilities in Qatar’s Ras Laffan energy hub and attacked other Gulf infrastructure including Saudi facilities at Yanbu, the Red Sea end of a pipeline that can take crude around the chokepoint in the Strait of Hormuz.
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Fox News – March 19, 2026
Chinese missiles targeting US Navy could trigger ‘overnight’ war shift, expert warns
The risk of a broader global conflict is rising as China’s indirect role in the Iran crisis comes into sharper focus, with new concerns emerging over weapons used against U.S. forces. Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang joined FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria” to discuss how Beijing’s support for Iran could quickly escalate tensions with the United States.
Chang pointed to reports that advanced weapons used by Iran may already be tied to China, raising the stakes for any future confrontation in the region. “Those supersonic missiles that Iran fired at the Abraham Lincoln, our aircraft carrier, those were Chinese… It’s clear that the Iranians have more of those Chinese missiles,” Chang said.
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Axios – March 19, 2026
Energy shock prompts hawkish pivot from global central banks
Nearly three weeks into the Iran war, the risk of sustained disruption to global energy supplies is getting worse, not better. That’s raising the possibility of tighter money and higher borrowing costs worldwide. Global policymakers can’t wave a magic monetary wand and fix a breakdown in the key supply chains for oil and natural gas. All they can do is try to contain the inflationary fallout. … The [Middle East oil] developments prompted a hawkish turn from the Bank of England, and markets repriced the possibility that the Federal Reserve will forestall interest rate cuts. The CME FedWatch tool now puts 6% odds on a rate increase by June, up from zero Wednesday. …
The Bank of England said it “stands ready to act” against the energy-driven inflation surge, and in a unanimous statement dropped language that said its benchmark interest rate was “likely to be reduced further.” After a furious bond market response, however, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey seemingly tamped down rate hike expectations. The European Central Bank took a more measured approach to the energy shock, saying the war has made things “significantly more uncertain,” with risks of both higher inflation and weaker growth. President Christine Lagarde emphasized that the war might trap the ECB in a tough scenario, with “a prolonged disruption in the supply of oil and gas [that] would result in inflation being above and growth being below the baseline projection.”
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Reuters – March 19, 2026
Latest oil crisis readies hammer for demand curve: Robert Cyran*
It took two Middle East oil shocks for the world to really focus on energy efficiency. The result was a multi-decade, steady reduction in the amount required to produce a certain amount of wealth. If the region’s latest crisis persists, it will accelerate the trend into a new gear. Before 1973, crude held, in real terms, at less than $30 a barrel. The price was so cheap that consumers couldn’t get enough. It replaced dirty coal for heating, catalyzed automaking and inspired scientists to develop new chemicals.
An oil embargo by OPEC members against the United States after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War caused the price per barrel to nearly quadruple, even though accompanying production cuts were only about 9% of total supply, according to the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. A few years later, the Iranian Revolution knocked out 7% of the world’s supply, leading prices to double. Economies, naturally, reacted. Shoppers were more discerning and the quest for alternative energy sources intensified. The result has been a steady increase in efficiency, as laid out in the paper, “Oil Intensity: The curious relationship between oil and GDP, opens new tab.” Some 53 years ago, it took about a barrel of oil to support $1,000 of GDP, but now the same economic output comes from less than half as much. The world kept using more oil, as wealth was growing faster.
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Reuters – March 18, 2026
BP offloads German refinery to Klesch, boosts cost savings target*
BP said on Thursday it would sell its German oil refinery site in Gelsenkirchen to investment firm Klesch Group for an undisclosed sum and raised its cost reduction target, in the latest move to simplify its portfolio and shore up its balance sheet. The transaction forms part of the British oil major’s $20 billion divestment plan aimed at cutting debt and boosting returns and is expected to save BP around $1 billion of underlying operating expenditure associated with Gelsenkirchen. BP declined to provide a value of the deal.
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March 18, 2026
Why Restricting US Oil Exports Would Backfire: Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy
Media reports suggest the Trump Administration is considering restrictions on US oil exports. Officials have said such measures are not under discussion, according to media reports, but the question is likely to persist if energy prices continue to climb. While legally feasible, export restrictions would likely backfire—offering limited relief to US consumers while imposing economic and geopolitical costs.
The idea is not new. The Biden Administration reportedly considered oil export restrictions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 raised fuel prices. Congress preserved this option in the 2015 legislation that lifted the crude export ban, allowing the President to reimpose restrictions for up to a year in the event of a national emergency or for national security purposes. The law also reaffirmed executive authority under other statutes, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which could be applied to refined products.
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Already the continent’s biggest single supplier of natural gas since Russia invaded Ukraine, Norway is hoping to use the Middle East war to get European Union blessing to drill in the Arctic. The European Commission is revising its Arctic strategy, which has since 2021 committed the EU to work towards an international moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the region.
With Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial conduit for oil and gas deliveries — Norwegian politicians and business circles have been quick to lobby for the planned ban to be scrapped. “They’re taking advantage of the situation to apply pressure,” said Anne Karin Saether, project manager at the Norwegian Climate Foundation, an independent body that promotes science-backed climate policies.
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Colorado Public Radio (NPR) – March 4, 2026
In Colorado, a fossil fuel company has drilled four miles deep, toward a geothermal future
Last spring, Occidental Petroleum, an oil and gas company better known as Oxy, began drilling a massive hole in the shadow of a natural gas processing plant south of Greeley. Drilling rigs are a common sight in Weld County, an area known for producing the vast majority of oil and gas extracted in Colorado. In this case, however, Oxy erected the tower for a different purpose: not to mine fossil fuels, but to tap carbon-free heat roughly 20,000 feet beneath the Earth’s surface.
The project, known as the Geothermal Limitless Approach to Drilling Efficiencies (GLADE), was supported by a $9 million grant issued by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2022. Its goal was to test whether new drilling techniques could reduce the cost and time required to drill superdeep geothermal wells, a potential global clean-energy game-changer.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Inside Climate News – March 19, 2026
South Texas Officials Didn’t Know Tesla Was Discharging Lithium Refinery Wastewater Into Local Ditch
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Friday approved an investigation report on Tesla’s battery-grade lithium compounds manufacturing facility near Robstown in Nueces County, finding no violation of the plant’s wastewater discharge permit. TCEQ began its investigation after workers for Nueces County Drainage District No. 2, which presides over the ditch area, found an unfamiliar pipe stretched across the district’s easement, expelling black liquid into the ditch. The workers filed two complaints with TCEQ on Jan. 20 and Feb. 9 about the quality of the wastewater discharged from the Tesla facility.
On February 12, a state investigator evaluated the ditch running alongside U.S. 77, west of Corpus Christi, and the liquid waste from the discharge pipe. The wastewater appeared clear as it flowed downstream, according to state records. Along the banks and in the ditch, there was a heavy growth of algae and vegetation.
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Austin American-Statesman – March 19, 2026
Rivian to launch driverless robotaxi services in 25 cities with Uber*
Electric automaker Rivian is officially stepping into the robotaxi market, announcing a $1 billion partnership with Uber to roll out autonomous ride-hailing services in more than 25 cities by 2031. Uber is investing $1.25 billion into Rivian for driverless robotaxis, according to the announcement. The ride-hailing company will initially purchase 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis to roll out commercial deployments in San Francisco and Miami in 2028.
Rivian, which has positioned itself as a direct competitor to Tesla, had a strong presence across Austin during the South by Southwest Conference and Festival as its lead sponsor. But the California-based company, while talking extensively about autonomy and its new R2 model, did not mention the partnership with Uber during the event. The two companies plan to expand to 25 additional cities across the U.S., Canada and Europe through 2031, with Uber having the option to purchase an additional 40,000 robotaxis starting in 2030. Those plans are contingent on certain benchmark milestones, though the companies did not explain what those were. Rivian declined to name the 25 cities, saying all questions should be directed to Uber. The ride-hailing company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The City of Austin also did not say whether it had been in contact with Rivian or Uber.
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KXII – March 17, 2026
Grayson County pushes to take local control over future AI data center developments
Residents and county leaders in Grayson County are pushing for a greater role from state legislature in decisions about future AI data center development. The push for local control comes as concerns grow that an AI data center being built in neighboring Fannin County could eventually expand across the border into Grayson County.
For some residents, the concern became real when survey markers appeared near their property. Heather McCallister, a Bells resident, said she and her husband spotted the markers during a routine drive home. “We saw survey markers touching our place, and then obviously it just kind of sparked an investigation,” McCallister said.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 19, 2026
As EV Market Stalls, Battery Makers Shift to Grids and Data Centers*
Makers of electric-vehicle batteries are pivoting to make energy storage for data centers and utilities, including the likes of Ford Motor F -1.27%decrease; red down pointing triangle. Battery manufacturers made significant investments in the U.S. in recent years, buoyed by policy support for EVs. That changed when President Trump’s administration took away carrots incentivizing EV buyers and did away with sticks that punished automakers for making gas-guzzlers. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence expects energy storage to make up 41% of total U.S. battery demand this year, up from 26% two years ago.
At the same time, there are clear incentives to make grid-scale batteries in the U.S. Even though Trump’s signature One Big, Beautiful Bill Act took away tax credits for solar and wind, subsidies remain for energy storage as long as the equipment doesn’t contain too much content from China. Chinese-made batteries themselves face high tariffs. The Iran war’s destabilizing impact on fossil-fuel markets could be yet another catalyst for data centers to consider batteries over diesel or natural-gas-fired power. While higher gas prices could boost the appeal of EVs, the policy challenges they face in the U.S. make hybrids a more likely beneficiary for the foreseeable future.
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Utility Dive – March 19, 2026
Last month, global pop superstar and Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny put on a musical extravaganza for the Super Bowl LX halftime show. While the performance was filled with symbolism and cultural references, there was one element that caught me by surprise: the utility poles.
It is not often that a wonky topic like “energy resilience” enters the pop cultural zeitgeist — let alone on, arguably, the world’s biggest stage. However, through this inclusion, Bad Bunny clearly intended to draw attention to a significant challenge that many Americans across the United States feel acutely — an energy system that is not fit-for-purpose, unable to reliably meet the needs or withstand the threats posed in the 21st century and beyond.
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Bloomberg – March 19, 2026
Trump’s Energy Emergency Is Self-Fulfilling: Liam Denning*
President Donald Trump’s vendetta against offshore wind power is characterized chiefly by its oddities. These range from the president’s pet theories about the technology’s supposed hazards to his attempts to shut down nearly built projects. Now, he appears to be escalating to the truly bizarre, with a reported offer to pay an offshore wind developer almost $1 billion in order to simply walk away. This latest threat to offshore wind, coming amid a war in waters thousands of miles away that’s spiked oil prices, confirms a bigger conclusion: Just over a year after Trump declared a “national energy emergency,” he himself now constitutes that emergency.
The Trump administration is considering paying more than $928 million to TotalEnergies SE, the French oil and renewables giant, to reimburse it for relinquishing licenses it secured under the prior administration to develop wind farms off the coasts of New York and New Jersey and the Carolinas, according to the New York Times. In addition, Total would commit to investing in natural gas infrastructure in Texas. If such a deal materializes, Trump would effectively be admitting that his attempts to simply abrogate a number of other existing offshore wind licenses, sometimes on dubious national security grounds, have failed decisively in the courts. You don’t pay folks to walk away if you think you can achieve the same outcome by fiat.
As for any associated commitment by Total to invest in gas-related stuff, unless there’s a final investment decision on specific projects in hand, I would bracket such commitments with those that Trump has extracted from artificial intelligence hyperscalers to cover their energy costs; good for branding, or trolling, but largely inconsequential. In any case, Texas is already awash with natural gas — currently trading at negative $3.60 per million BTU at the Waha hub — and has more than 60 gigawatts of gas-fired power capacity at various stages of development in its interconnection queue. Hardly seems like a pressing problem to be solved.
Regulatory
The Wall Street Journal – March 19, 2026
States Fight EPA Over Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rollback*
Attorneys general from New York and California are leading an alliance of states, counties and cities in an attempt to reinstate the legal foundation for federal greenhouse gas emissions regulation. The legal filing challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s repeal of the Obama-era “endangerment finding” that classified six gases as a threat to public health and welfare. The repeal put an end to rules requiring companies to report and measure vehicle emissions. The petition, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was brought by over two dozen attorneys general including from California, Washington, Maine and Virginia, as well as cities such as Boston, San Francisco and Cleveland. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is also leading the petition.
The state officials say the repeal contradicts scientific evidence of threats posed by climate change. They also say that ending the endangerment finding doesn’t align with the EPA’s requirements under the Clean Air Act. Following the filing, the EPA said in a statement that “the Endangerment Finding is not valid, and EPA cannot retain the regulations that resulted from it.” The agency added that it “is bound by the laws established by Congress, including under the CAA. Congress never intended to give EPA authority to impose GHG [greenhouse gas] regulations for cars and trucks.” “Across our country, communities are already suffering from climate disasters. From freak storms to devastating floods to deadly cold snaps and unbearable heat waves, the climate crisis is here, and it is already reshaping the way we live,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Thursday March 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 and gas prices rose on Thursday as strikes on key energy infrastructure in the Middle East exacerbated fears of a global supply crunch.
Qatar said Wednesday that Iranian missile strikes had damaged a key liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility. The action followed Tehran’s warning about attacking energy facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after Israel bombed a natural gas processing facility in Iran.
Gas prices were also sharply higher. The front-month gas price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) hub, a European benchmark for natural gas trading, traded nearly 30% higher at 70.8 euros ($81.2) per megawatt-hour.
Iranian missile strikes inflicted “extensive damage” on Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest LNG export facility in the world, Qatar said.
Top Stories
Oil Price – March 18, 2026
Qatar’s LNG Shutdown Shockwaves to Gas Markets
QatarEnergy’s shutdown of its LNG production complex has resulted in a streak of five days with zero shipments of the superchilled fuel, according to Kpler data cited by Bloomberg. This is the longest period with no Qatari LNG leaving the country since 2008, the publication noted, adding no LNG carrier has passed the Strait of Hormuz since February 28. That includes vessels normally exporting liquefied gas from the UAE, meaning 20% of the world’s LNG exports are gone.
QatarEnergy — the state-owned energy giant responsible for all of the country’s liquefied natural gas exports — announced a complete halt to LNG production after Iranian drone strikes hit facilities at Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial City. This happened on March 2. A force majeure declaration followed on QatarEnergy exports.
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Reuters – March 18, 2026
US crude stocks rise, imports from Venezuela and Mexico highest since late 2024, EIA says*
U.S. crude stocks rose last week, with flows from Venezuela and Mexico hitting their highest levels since 2024, while gasoline and distillate inventories fell, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels to 449.3 million barrels in the week ended March 13, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 383,000-barrel rise.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 944,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said, hitting their highest level since August 2024. … The discount for U.S. crude futures versus Brent was the largest since May 2019 on Wednesday as the cost of freight rose and the U.S. prepared to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. “This crude stock build would certainly be more bearish if there was not so much else going on,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital. Oil futures have surged after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened several energy facilities in the Middle East and Iran’s huge Pars gas field took a hit.
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electrek – March 18, 2026
EVs wiped out oil demand equal to 70% of Iran’s exports in 2025
EVs are starting to chip away at one of the global economy’s biggest vulnerabilities: oil. A new analysis from energy think tank Ember finds that the global EV fleet avoided 1.7 million barrels per day of oil consumption in 2025. It’s getting close to the roughly 2.4 million barrels per day, or 70%, of what Iran exports through the Strait of Hormuz. “Oil is the Achilles’ heel of the global economy,” said Daan Walter, a principal at Ember. “In particular, Asia’s oil vulnerability has been exposed by the current crisis.”
About 79% of the world’s population lives in countries that import oil. And when prices spike, the costs add up fast. Ember estimates that every $10 increase per barrel adds around $160 billion to global oil import bills per year. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most critical chokepoints. It carries about a fifth of global oil exports, and the wider Gulf region supplies around 29% of the world’s oil. Much of that infrastructure is exposed to geopolitical risks. Asia is especially vulnerable, importing around 40% of its oil through the strait.
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CNBC – March 18, 2026
Vice President JD Vance and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will meet Thursday with the oil industry as the White House looks for ways to address surging fuel prices. U.S. governors and bipartisan leaders in Congress will also attend the meeting at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington. API is the lobby group that represents all the big U.S. oil and gas companies. The attendees will discuss “supporting reliable energy supply amid global volatility,” a spokesperson for API told CNBC.
Vance said Wednesday that the White House will announce additional measures in the next 24 to 48 hours to address rising fuel prices. “We’ve got a problem, we know we have a problem, and we’re doing everything we can to address it,” Vance said at an event in Auburn Hills, Michigan. “We’ve got a rough road ahead of us for the next few weeks, but it’s temporary.” Diesel prices have topped $5 per gallon for the first time since 2022 as the Iran war has triggered the biggest oil supply disruption in history. Prices have increased about 35% since the U.S. and Israel attacked the Islamic Republic, according to data from travel association AAA.
The Latest TERse Tips
Economists Don’t See a Recession Unless Oil Hits $138 and Stays There for Weeks — in survey, an average of economists projects war boosting inflation but probably not hurting growth — The Wall Street Journal*
Autonomous big rigs headed to Texas toll road between Austin and San Antonio — Einride is partnering with SH 130 Concession Co. to test its cabless autonomous freight vehicles — Austin American-Statesman*
Oil and European natural gas prices surged as Iran carried out an attack on a major LNG site in Qatar, after earlier warnings from Tehran on threats to energy facilities across the Gulf — Bloomberg*
4 injured from missile shrapnel in Riyadh as fragment falls near refinery — Times of Israel
Russia Sends Oil and Gas Tankers to Crisis-Hit Cuba, Defying U.S. Blockade – FT
Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado is expected to visit Houston next week to speak at CERAWeek by S&P Global — Houston Chronicle*
Linea Energy secured debt financing and a preferred equity financing from DESRI in its Duffy battery energy storage project in Matagorda County — the project is a 235 MW / 470 MWh utility-scale battery system designed to store electricity and support grid reliability in ERCOT — orrick
Ashtrom Renewable Energy has secured a financing agreement worth approximately $200m with BHI, the US branch of Bank Hapoalim, for the El Patrimonio solar project near San Antonio — the company began building the facility in 2025 and expects to complete the project by 2027 — Power Technology
In the turbulent politics of the Caspian Basin, there is one issue that has long resurfaced without yet coming to fruition: building a natural gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea, from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan…It would make a lot of sense — GIS Reports
Macquarie walks away from Kuwait oil pipelines deal amid Iran war, sources say — Reuters*
Construction is finished on a major Massachusetts offshore wind farm, the first project to reach this stage during President Donald Trump’s time in office — Associated Press/KXAN
Oil & Gas Texas
Reuters – March 18, 2026
From Texas to New Jersey, Middle East war sends traders on hunt for diesel storage*
Demand for U.S. distillate fuel storage tanks has more than tripled since the start of the Iran war, as traders wager that a surge in European and Asian prices will bolster U.S. exports of diesel, jet fuel, and other distillates, storage broker Tank Tiger said. The Israeli-U.S. war with Iran has choked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil supplies flow. Distillate fuel markets have been most severely impacted by the resulting slump in Middle East oil exports, as refinery issues around the world had kept them in tight supply in recent years.
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Bloomberg – March 18, 2026
As Global Oil Prices Skyrocket, US Crude Is Lagging Behind*
Benchmark oil prices are soaring as war in the Middle East roils trading flows, but the rally is uneven across the globe, sparking some of the largest gaps between US crude and the rest of the world in years. West Texas Intermediate was trading at a discount of close to $12 a barrel to the global Brent benchmark on Wednesday, the most since early 2015. US futures were around $96 a barrel that day, while some grades in the Middle East, like Oman crude, have topped $150 as the hostilities have escalated.
That’s partly a reflection of diverging supply outlooks between regions as conflict rages on. Oil and gas infrastructure sites in Iran and other nations around the Persian Gulf were targeted overnight. Supplies of light-sweet crude in the West haven’t been hit as hard, at least for now. For heavier barrels, the US can source them from Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America. Releases from emergency oil reserves in the US are also almost entirely made up of sour crude supplies — similar in quality to typical Middle Eastern barrels — bolstering availability for Gulf Coast processors and further cushioning the impact on US benchmark futures. Traders said that current plans to release emergency stockpiles would add supply mainly to Western markets, meaning it will take time to reach where the shortage is most acute: Asia.
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Austin American-Statesman – March 18, 2026
Gas prices jump more than $1 across Texas as Iran war disrupts oil supply*
Related; Average cost per gallon of gas nears $4 in the US; more states averaging $5 per gallon — KCEN
Gasoline prices in the Austin-San Antonio area have jumped more than $1 per gallon in the past month as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran continues driving up the price of oil — the single biggest component in pump prices. Drivers across Texas were paying an average of $3.57 per gallon, according to data from price-tracking site GasBuddy. That’s $1.07 more than a month ago. With the war in its third week, crude oil prices also continued shooting higher Wednesday, with West Texas Intermediate closing at $96.32 per barrel, up 2.7% for the day. Brent, the international benchmark, jumped 3.8% to settle at $107.38. The price of both benchmarks has increased roughly 50% since the start of the war.
In Austin, the average price for regular unleaded hit $3.65 per gallon Wednesday, up 46 cents from a week ago and $1.14 higher than a month ago, GasBuddy data showed. San Antonio drivers have seen even steeper increases, with Wednesday’s $3.66 average up 49 cents from a week ago and $1.16 from a month ago. GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said pump prices will continue increasing, a move he called a “price hike due to Iran situation.”
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San Antonio Express-News – March 18, 2026
The Iran war might end soon. Your high gas prices won’t, according to a new report: Chris Tomlinson*
President Donald Trump may end the attack on Iran soon, but the price of gasoline will remain high for months to come. The U.S. Energy Information Administration released its short-term outlook on Tuesday, predicting that gasoline will average $3.34 a gallon in 2026, about 24 cents higher than last year. The government agency expects the prices to average $3.18 a gallon in 2027. But that’s only if the fighting in the Middle East ends within weeks, and the international benchmark price known as Brent drops quickly afterward.
“We forecast the Brent crude oil price will remain above $95 a barrel over the next two months, before falling below $80 a barrel in the third quarter of 2026 and around $70 a barrel by the end of the year,” the outlook’s authors wrote. The U.S. military is capable of massive destruction with just a few weeks of strikes, but the repercussions of war can last for months or years. After U.S. taxpayers pay the $10 billion bill for the first 10 days of fighting, they will keep paying for the war through higher fuel bills for months. The higher prices will not stay around long enough, though, to significantly boost the U.S. oil industry’s production.
“We expect U.S. crude oil production will average 13.6 million barrels per day in 2026 and rise to 13.8 million barrels per day in 2027,” the report said. “Our 2027 forecast is 0.5 million barrels a day higher than last month’s forecast.” Higher energy costs, including higher electricity bills from inflated natural gas prices, will slow the global economy. Oil prices are up 20%, which typically raises the inflation rate by about 0.6 percentage points. Based on February’s consumer price index rise of 2.4% over last year, inflation will likely rise to 3% this month.
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Politico – March 18, 2026
Corpus Christi water shortage deepens, threatening oil refining hub*
The City Council in one of Texas’ largest petrochemical and refining hubs allocated over $200 million on Tuesday for a plan to drill new water wells as a more dire picture of the city’s historic water crisis emerged. Water officials in Corpus Christi said at a public meeting that the city could reach a Level 1 water emergency as soon as May, moving up the threshold from November. Under that emergency, water curtailments would be required and could start at a 5 percent reduction of total water demand.
The city is seeking to help address the shortage with the Evangeline Groundwater Project, which could see Corpus Christi Water move to drill more than 20 water wells at a cost of about $665 million. Council members on Tuesday green-lighted just over $208 million for the Evangeline project, but a legal challenge could delay construction by years or force the project to shut down altogether — reflecting a worsening outlook for the Corpus Christi region in South Texas. City officials and business leaders are weighing a range of options to secure access to more water supplies amid a sustained industrial boom and drought conditions.
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Reuters – March 18, 2026
US oil loan from emergency reserve depends on stiff premiums*
A U.S. plan to help control global oil prices with a swap of millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve depends on energy companies returning oil back to the facility with high premiums in the form of additional barrels, which some traders said could deter participation. The exchange is part of a wider agreement by countries in the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels of crude from reserves in an effort to tame prices that have risen during the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Global oil prices closed above $103 per barrel on Tuesday as the Strait of Hormuz remained mostly shut to oil, gas and fertilizer transit.
The Department of Energy took bids from energy companies until late Tuesday for initial swaps totaling up to 86 million barrels of oil, the results of which are expected to be published in coming days. The U.S. said last week exchanges from the SPR would eventually total 172 million barrels and oil companies would return about 200 million barrels including the premium. The structure of the swap was unusual in that it required companies to pay back anywhere from 18% to 22% interest, or premium, in the form of oil. Bidders may offer to pay back even more oil in hopes of winning contracts.
Oil & Gas National & International
Transport Topics – March 18, 2026
U.S. fuel makers are boosting purchases of crude from Venezuela to the highest in more than a year, making good on the Trump administration’s goal of taking more crude from the country as the Iran war reshuffles global oil flows.
Imports of Venezuelan heavy crude doubled in the week leading up to March 13, reaching the highest since late 2024, according to U.S. government data released March 18. Oil shipments from Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador rose by more than a million barrels a day collectively over the same period. Additionally, Saudi Arabian imports rose by almost 200,000 barrels daily but were offset by Iraqi imports that fell by the same amount.
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Associated Press/Spectrum News – March 18, 2026
U.S. eases Venezuela oil sanctions as Trump seeks to boost world oil supply during Iran war
U.S. companies will be allowed to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company after the Treasury Department eased sanctions, with some limitations, on Wednesday as the Trump administration looks for ways to boost world oil supplies during the Iran war. The Treasury issued a broad authorization allowing Petróleos de Venezuela S.A, or PDVSA, to directly sell Venezuelan oil to U.S. companies and on global markets, a massive shift after Washington for years had largely blocked dealings with Venezuela’s government and its oil sector.
Separately, the White House said Trump would waive, for 60 days, Jones Act requirements for goods shipped between U.S. ports to be moved on U.S.-flagged vessels. The 1920s law, designed to protect the American shipbuilding sector, is often blamed for making gas more expensive.
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CNBC – March 18, 2026
Trump waives Jones Act shipping rules for 60 days to steady oil market
President Donald Trump issued a 60-day waiver of a longstanding U.S. shipping law in an attempt to stabilize oil markets amid the Iran war, the White House confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday. The temporary suspension of the Jones Act “will allow vital resources like oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and coal to flow freely to U.S. ports for sixty days,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. The Trump administration “remains committed to continuing to strengthen our critical supply chains,” Leavitt said.
The Jones Act, signed into law in 1920 by then-President Woodrow Wilson, requires that the transport of goods between U.S. ports must be conducted by U.S. vessels. The law was intended as an effort to grow the domestic shipping industry after World War I. The statute has been criticized as a form of protectionism, and some economists have recently argued that it impedes domestic trade.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 18, 2026
How Waiving the Jones Act for Oil Tankers Would Work*
President Trump temporarily waived a century-old shipping law in a bid to lower the cost of moving oil, gas and other fuels around the U.S. Here’s how that move would work. Foreign ships will be allowed to transport cargoes of vital products such as jet fuel and fertilizer between U.S. ports for 60 days. That is a meaningful change from the current law, which dates back to the Jones Act of 1920, and requires all goods moving between U.S. ports to sail on U.S.-flagged ships that are built at American shipyards and crewed by U.S. sailors. That, in turn, makes those ships more expensive. The Jones Act was designed to promote and protect U.S. shipbuilding, but most tankers that can carry oil, fuels such as gasoline and diesel, and liquefied natural gas aren’t American made. It costs at least three times as much to build such vessels in the U.S. when compared with big shipbuilding nations such as China and South Korea.
Trump’s temporary waiver will allow foreign ships to move oil, coal, natural gas and other fuels between U.S. ports, which should help ease the cost of shipping. For instance, foreign tankers could be used to move gasoline and diesel fuel produced by refineries in Texas and Louisiana to markets along the East Coast. Waivers of the Jones Act are rare. The U.S. government granted one after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017 and again after the island was struck by Hurricane Fiona in 2022 to allow foreign ships to deliver aid and fuel between U.S. ports. Another waiver was granted in 2021 for fuel shipments to the East Coast after the Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, shut down following a cyberattack.
“It’s a classic case of ‘desperate times call for desperate measures,’” said Basil Karatzas, chief executive of New-York based Karatzas Maritime Advisors. “It’s questionable the impact the waiver will have for gas prices, but at least it’s playing well on the optics. If the macro-picture does not improve soon, more will have to be done.”
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CNBC – March 18, 2026
Iran missile attack on Qatar causes ‘extensive damage’ to facility housing huge gas plant
Qatar said Wednesday that Iranian missiles caused “extensive damage” at Ras Laffan Industrial City, home to the largest liquefied natural gas, or LNG, export facility in the world. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry denounced the attack as a “dangerous escalation, flagrant violation of state sovereignty, and a direct threat to its national security and regional stability.”
Qatar reserves the right to respond in accordance with the right to self-defense guaranteed under international law, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had threatened to attack energy facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after Israel bombed a natural gas processing facility in Iran. Emergency teams were deployed to contain fires at Ras Laffan, according to a social media post from state-owned QatarEnergy. No casualties have been reported. Qatar’s Interior Ministry later said the fire at the facility had initially been brought under control.
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Reuters – March 18, 2026
Iran war leaves deep, costly scar on Mideast energy
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The Wall Street Journal – March 18, 2026
What U.S. Marines Can Do to Help Reopen the Strait of Hormuz*
President Trump is pressing aides and allies to find ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as gas prices rise. His best bet might be the U.S. Marine Corps. The Pentagon has deployed the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, a rapid-response force of about 2,200 Marines, to the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. could use the unit to seize one or more of the islands off the southern coast of Iran to use as leverage or as a base to counter Iranian attacks on commercial shipping, according to former and current U.S. officials. The unit, aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, is slated to arrive in the Middle East from Japan in just over a week.
A Marine Expeditionary Unit is a self-sustained unit that operates off ships, using them as a mobile base. It is composed of four elements: a ground combat unit of Marine infantry, equipped with armored vehicles and artillery; an aviation unit of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, helicopters and jet fighters such as the F-35B; a command team that coordinates the unit’s movements; and a logistics battalion that provides essential support, supply and equipment maintenance. It specializes in conducting raids by sea and by air.
Iran has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which about 20% of the world’s oil flows, with attacks on commercial traffic. The move has wreaked havoc on the global economy, driving up gas prices in the U.S. and elsewhere and posing a military and political problem for Trump. U.S. forces are attempting to reopen the strait by targeting Tehran’s ability to threaten the chokepoint: its launch sites, production capability and warehouses of missiles, drones and sea mines. On Tuesday, the U.S. military dropped 5,000-pound, deep-penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian sites along the coastline that are used to house antiship cruise missiles, according to U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
The Wall Street Journal – March 19, 2026
As EV Market Stalls, Battery Makers Shift to Grids and Data Centers
Makers of electric-vehicle batteries are pivoting to make energy storage for data centers and utilities, including the likes of Ford Motor. Battery manufacturers made significant investments in the U.S. in recent years, buoyed by policy support for EVs. That changed when President Trump’s administration took away carrots incentivizing EV buyers and did away with sticks that punished automakers for making gas-guzzlers. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence expects energy storage to make up 41% of total U.S. battery demand this year, up from 26% two years ago. At the same time, there are clear incentives to make grid-scale batteries in the U.S. Even though Trump’s signature One Big, Beautiful Bill Act took away tax credits for solar and wind, subsidies remain for energy storage as long as the equipment doesn’t contain too much content from China. Chinese-made batteries themselves face high tariffs.
The Iran war’s destabilizing impact on fossil-fuel markets could be yet another catalyst for data centers to consider batteries over diesel or natural-gas-fired power. While higher gas prices could boost the appeal of EVs, the policy challenges they face in the U.S. make hybrids a more likely beneficiary for the foreseeable future. Two deals announced this week illustrate the shift. LG Energy Solution , the battery-making unit of Korean conglomerate LG, said it would produce battery cells for Tesla’s energy-storage business out of a Michigan factory that was once meant for General Motors’ EV batteries. The factory is expected to cost $4.3 billion. Samsung SDI , another Korean energy storage maker, announced a $1 billion deal to supply batteries to an undisclosed American energy company out of its Stellantis joint-venture factory in Indiana.
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Grist – March 9, 2026
The future of geothermal energy may depend on fossil fuel workers
Mike Fleming was always interested in geothermal energy — how it works, how sustainable it is, and how efficiently it can heat homes and businesses. But Fleming, who has a decade of experience drilling wells in New England, didn’t see it as a career path.
That changed when his boss recommended him for a position at Phoenix Foundation Company in late 2024. Part of the job involved overseeing drilling for geothermal projects. There were some differences between the roles, but there were plenty of commonalities, too. The technical skills, focus on safety, and need for precision are the same, and ultimately, “You’re making a hole in the ground, you’re putting some plastic pipe down there, and you’re sealing the hole,” said Fleming.
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In rural West Texas, renewable energy brings a windfall for seniors
In the far corner of the Crockett County Senior Center, 75-year-old Cynthia Flores almost always has a puzzle going. She and her friends sort colors and look for edge pieces while they gossip — “faster than the telephone” — in the Tex-Mex blend of Spanish and English they grew up speaking in Ozona, a tiny ranching and oil outpost in far West Texas. A couple of days before Valentine’s Day, their puzzle surface was one of the few in the center not covered in red and pink hearts; preparations were underway for the big dance the following night.
“La comida esta ready,” another senior said, calling the puzzlers to lunch. Flores placed one last piece, then took her seat at a long community table. The plate in front of her would have delighted a nutritionist with its lean protein and mountain of steamed broccoli. She pulled a tiny plastic container of teriyaki sauce out of her bag and poured the contents over the meat. “They feed us what we need,” Flores said, “but I always fix it up.” Mostly, she said, she’s just thankful not to have to cook. Like many of her friends, Flores still lives at home, but comes into the center for lunch most days. After being married at 16 and preparing food for herself and her family for almost 60 years, she said she was ready for a break.
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Bloomberg – March 17, 2026
Data Center Rush Poses Conflicts for Law Firms With Energy Ties
The data center boom is a conflict minefield for law firms that count major utilities among their top clients. Three of the largest firms in Texas—Vinson & Elkins, Baker Botts, and Jackson Walker—are go-to advisers for large regulated utilities Oncor Electric Delivery Co., CenterPoint Energy, and Texas-New Mexico Power. They are now among a slew of firms representing AI data center developers and hyperscalers building multibillion-dollar facilities that require massive amounts of electricity from the state’s power grid.
“There’s a whole host of conflicts that can result,” said John Browning, a former appeals court judge in Dallas. “Law firms in Texas want to cash-in on the business opportunities, but at the same time they also have to navigate that very difficult tightrope of keeping their existing utility clients happy.”
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Reuters – March 18, 2026
The company that’s turning air conditioners from energy hogs into grid assets*
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Governing – March 17, 2026
New Mexico Advances Clean Energy Despite Federal Policy Shifts
In October 2023, Kit Carson Electric Cooperative learned that the U.S. Department of Energy selected its project for a $15 million federal grant to help it build microgrids in rural areas that face high wildfire risk.
But two years later the DOE notified the utility, which supplies some 30,000 northern New Mexicans with electricity, that it was canceling the award. It was one of 321 such terminations of grants for energy projects across the nation.
In January, a federal judge sided with plaintiffs who sued the DOE, alleging agency officials decided which grants to cancel based on whether the states where they were located voted for President Donald Trump.
Regulatory
Inside Climate News – March 18, 2026
House Democrats Want Clean Energy Tax Credits Back
U.S. House Democrats proposed legislation on Wednesday to restore clean energy tax credits revoked by Republicans last year through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The “Energy Bills Relief Act,” signed by more than half of House Democrats, 122 in all, seeks to establish new incentives for renewable projects and to protect consumers from rising electricity costs due to grid demands from large energy users such as data centers.
In addition to re-upping clean energy credits introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the sweeping legislation would reinstate grant money for renewable energy projects that the Trump administration terminated and authorize $2.1 billion to address shortages of transformers and other grid technologies.
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Politico – March 17, 2026
Senate panel takes up drought, hydropower bills*
A Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee is set to take up a host of proposals aimed at shoring up water infrastructure across the nation and alleviating drought in the West. The Subcommittee on Water and Power will meet on Tuesday to hear testimony on 20 proposals. The panel rescheduled a late February hearing that included the same bills, while adding a few additional items. The legislation includes full committee Chair Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) S. 3743, which would direct the Interior Department to conduct a study on how best to improve hydropower performance at the Glen Canyon Dam, while addressing invasive species in the region downstream of the Lake Powell reservoir.
Persistent drought in the Colorado River Basin has shrunk flows in the waterway, and lawmakers are attempting to address shortages with legislation that would increase water recycling and storage. Lawmakers will also weigh legislation related to hydropower licensing. Advocates for the industry were on Capitol Hill last week urging action on permitting reform.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday March 18, 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 slipped on Wednesday despite escalating attacks on the United Arab Emirates’ energy infrastructure, as rising U.S. crude inventories helped offset rising geopolitical risk premiums.
WTI prices fell 1.81%, to $94.56 per barrel.
Prices of Brent, the international benchmark, declined 1.17% to $102.19 per barrel.
Market sources, citing data from the American Petroleum Institute, told Reuters that U.S. crude stocks rose by 6.56 million barrels in the week ended March 13, well above the 380,000 additional barrels expected in a Reuters poll for the same period.
The price pullback came even as fresh strikes in the UAE fueled fears of prolonged supply disruptions amid the Iran conflict. Recent incidents included a drone attack on the world’s largest ultra-sour gas facility, a fire at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, and damage to a tanker near the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE reopened its airspace on Tuesday after a temporary shutdown triggered by drone strikes. Meanwhile, operations at the Shah gas field remain suspended following a separate drone attack that caused a fire, authorities said, with no reported injuries.
Top Stories
S&P Global Platts – March 17, 2026
S&P Global Ratings Raises 2026 Oil Price Assumptions On Longer‑Than‑Expected Oil Flows Disruption
- S&P Global Ratings raised its West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil price assumptions by $15 per barrel (/bbl) for the remainder of 2026 while keeping its assumptions for 2027 and beyond unchanged.
- Our price assumptions for Henry Hub, Canadian Alberta Energy Co. (AECO), and Dutch Title Transfer (TTF) for 2026-2029 are also unchanged.
- At this time, we don’t believe these revisions will directly lead to any rating actions this year.d
S&P Global Ratings has reviewed its hydrocarbon price deck and raised its WTI and Brent oil price assumptions by $15/bbl for the remainder of 2026 while leaving its assumptions for 2027-2029 unchanged. Our Henry Hub, AECO, and TTF natural gas price assumptions for 2026-2029 are also unchanged.
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KIII – March 17, 2026
The race for water in Texas reaching critical stage for many water hungry communities
Cities across Texas are racing to secure new sources of drinking water as drought and growing demand strain lakes and rivers. In the South Texas city of Beeville, leaders are turning underground in hopes of protecting the city’s water future. Drilling crews are now working in the 300 block of West Cleveland near the city’s utility department. But this is not an oil well. City officials say it is a water well that could become a critical backup supply for the community.
Right now, Beeville depends heavily on Lake Corpus Christi for its drinking water, pulling roughly four million gallons every day from the reservoir. But with projections showing the lake could run dry as soon as next year, city leaders say they had to move quickly to find another option. The new well is part of a broader effort to replace that supply with groundwater. The project comes with a significant price tag. City leaders say voters approved a $35 million bond to cover the work.
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ProPublica – March 17, 2026
Oil Regulators Found Hundreds of Wells Violating Oklahoma Rules. Then They Ignored Their Findings.
Five years ago, Oklahoma oil regulators took on a project with an impressive name: the Source of Truth. State officials wanted a comprehensive database capturing all vital information about the more than 11,000 wells in Oklahoma that shoot the toxic byproduct of oil production back underground.
I’d heard about this project from several people during the 18 months I had spent reporting on the growing number of cases where oilfield wastewater blasted out of old wells, known as purges, after being injected underground at high pressures. State employees also referenced the project in internal communications that I received after filing nearly a dozen public records requests to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry.
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Civil Eats – March 17, 2026
The Persian Gulf Oil Crisis Is a Food Crisis: Raj Patel
American farmers are in trouble. Spring planting is here, and the inputs they need—urea, phosphate, the nitrogen for corn, wheat, and soy—are mostly imported from the Persian Gulf. In fact, up to 30 percent of the global fertilizer trade passes through the Gulf. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins acknowledged this trouble on Friday,
“We are getting almost all of our urea, almost all of our phosphate, almost all of our nitrogen from other countries around the world,” she said last week, “and that has to stop.” It may have to stop, but it can’t in time for this season’s planting. Unlike oil, there is no strategic reserve for nitrogen fertilizer. Domestic producers cannot rapidly replace millions of tons of supply.
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Austin American-Statesman – March 17, 2026
Tesla’s range claims are bogus, Texas owner says in suit. He gets half the advertised mileage.*
A Texas Tesla owner is accusing the Austin automaker of fraud, claiming his vehicle has barely half the range the company advertised. James Dondero bought a 2022 Model X for $106,290, taking into account Tesla Inc.’s advertisement that the vehicle would travel more than 300 miles on a full charge. He also paid an additional $20,000 for the “long-range” option, which Tesla promised would increase the vehicle’s range from 311 miles to 348 miles. Despite that, Dondero says in a lawsuit, he can’t make it more than 185 miles on a full charge.
“Tesla hyped the range of its electric vehicles, or EVs, raising consumer expectations beyond what the vehicles can deliver,” his suit says. “And Tesla compounded this problem by selling Long Range packages (at $20,000 a pop) to customers like Dondero without delivering any value.” Calling the vehicle defective and accusing Tesla of “continued misrepresentations,” Dondero is claiming breach of contract and fraudulent inducement related to his purchase of the luxury SUV. He says he followed instructions provided by Tesla customer service, such as depleting the battery charge to less than 5% and fully charging it three times in a row, or charging to less than 100% using the home charging unit. Still, the car’s performance didn’t improve, he alleges. Tesla also scheduled service appointments without offering a new diagnosis and declined to repurchase the vehicle.
The Latest TERse Tips
Corpus Christi water emergency may be just two months away, city leaders say — two out of the five projections city leaders presented Tuesday showed water shortages beginning in May, but the city has yet to detail plans for how to reduce water use for residents and businesses — Texas Tribune
As Corpus Christi water shortage worsens, residents and businesses may soon have to cut their usage 25% — Texas Tribune
The Age of America’s Economic Warfare Dominance Is Ending, Financial Times Analysis Warns — “A new article in the Financial Times argues that the long-standing era of unchallenged American dominance in economic warfare is drawing to a close, as rival powers increasingly deploy their own tools of financial and trade coercion. Written by Nicholas Mulder of Cornell University, the piece contends that instruments once monopolised by the United States sanctions, export controls, tariffs, and control of strategic trade chokepoints are now being effectively replicated by competitors such as China and Iran. What was once a largely one-sided advantage has evolved into a multi-directional contest of economic power.” — Facebook
Cuba Struggles to Revive Obsolete Power Grid After Nationwide Blackout — residents endure long electricity outages as the island’s economy grinds to a halt, fueling unrest — The Wall Street Journal*
Trump Administration Announces Deals Totaling $56 Billion During Indo-Pacific Energy Security Summit — see the press release
The Texas Public Utility Commission filed a proposed rule change that would establish interconnection standards for large load customers and support business development while maintaining system reliability — RTO Insider*
In The New Yorker, Rachel Monroe highlights “Christian nationalism,” which she writes “is arguably the dominant political force in Texas today, thanks, in part, to multimillion-dollar donations from two West Texas billionaires, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. It has become routine to hear Republican leaders proclaim that the principle of separation of church and state is not aligned with the Founding Fathers’ true wishes” — The New Yorker*
Ashtrom Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of Ashtrom Group Ltd, has signed a ~US$200 million financing agreement with BHI, the US Branch of Bank Hapoalim, B.M., for the construction of a new solar project, El Patrimonio, located near San Antonio — Energy Global
Oil & Gas Texas
Bloomberg – March 17, 2026
Trump’s Oil Reserve Release Is Reshaping the Futures Curve*
As oil traders brace for a historic release from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the form of a loan, they’re dumping prompt barrels and snapping up cheaper supplies further out when borrowers will need to repay the government. Countries around the world are planning releases from emergency reserves as the war in the Middle East chokes supply and sends energy prices soaring. The first batch of the US plan to release 172 million barrels, which is expected to take four months to complete, will be structured as an exchange — essentially a loan that companies must eventually return with interest.
Bids for the first tranche are due by 5 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday. Traders have begun positioning for the flows they would expect to see as a result of the program, selling nearby months where supply will rise and buying back later ones for when barrels will be re-delivered. Crude will be delivered in April and May this year and returned over an extended window through September 2028. West Texas Intermediate futures for 2027 are trading almost a dollar higher than where they closed on Friday — and about $5 higher than a week ago. In contrast the nearest April futures contract, which expires in the coming days, is almost $2 a barrel lower than its close on Friday.
The emergency reserve releases have already helped tame some of the gains in crude futures — US oil briefly touched nearly $120 a barrel last week as markets grapple with disruptions to flows through the Strait of Hormuz. The International Energy Agency has called it the largest supply disruption on record. “The paper market is still leaning on the idea that policymakers have tools available to blunt the shock, even as physical benchmarks continue to point to a tighter underlying market,” said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group.
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Houston Chronicle – March 17, 2026
Worries mount over meeting about Gulf of Mexico oil-and-gas work
One year after President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to mixed results, conservationists are now concerned his administration is about to put its most vulnerable residents at greater risk. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum last week called for a meeting of the Endangered Species Committee—which includes other top federal officials and is informally called the “God Squad”—that’s set to take place March 31 in Washington, D.C. According to the notice about the meeting filed Monday to the Federal Register, the gathering is about “an exemption under the Endangered Species Act with respect to oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities” in the Gulf of Mexico.
Holly Hopkins, an official with the American Petroleum Institute, told the New York Times the upcoming meeting “is an important step toward ensuring a workable path forward for safe, responsible offshore development while minimizing impacts on endangered species.” But those working with endangered species don’t exactly see it that way. The Gulf is home to several threatened and endangered species, and the latter include the sperm whale, the Rice’s whale—of which there may be as few as 50 left in the world—and the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, which was listed back in 1970 and has since seen some resurgence in population.
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S&P Global Platts – March 17, 2026
S&P Global Ratings Raises 2026 Oil Price Assumptions On Longer‑Than‑Expected Oil Flows Disruption
- S&P Global Ratings raised its West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil price assumptions by $15 per barrel (/bbl) for the remainder of 2026 while keeping its assumptions for 2027 and beyond unchanged.
- Our price assumptions for Henry Hub, Canadian Alberta Energy Co. (AECO), and Dutch Title Transfer (TTF) for 2026-2029 are also unchanged.
- At this time, we don’t believe these revisions will directly lead to any rating actions this year.
S&P Global Ratings has reviewed its hydrocarbon price deck and raised its WTI and Brent oil price assumptions by $15/bbl for the remainder of 2026 while leaving its assumptions for 2027-2029 unchanged. Our Henry Hub, AECO, and TTF natural gas price assumptions for 2026-2029 are also unchanged.
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S&P Global Platts – March 17, 2026
Trump says US doesn’t need NATO help for Strait of Hormuz shipping
The US no longer needs or wants its European allies to send warships to escort commercial tankers through the effectively shuttered Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said March 17 after leaders of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members declined his request. In a statement posted to his social media platform Truth Social, Trump confirmed that most NATO countries informed the US they would not join the military action, despite agreeing that Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. The president characterized the alliance as a “one-way street” where the US protects member nations but receives little support in return.
“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID,” Trump wrote. Later March 17, during a bilateral meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Trump said the NATO response was “pretty shocking.” “I’ve long said that, you know, I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us,” Trump said. “So this was a great test, because we don’t need them, but they should have been there.”
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E&E News By Politico – March 17, 2026
Sable Offshore begins flowing oil through controversial California pipeline*
Related: State officials threaten legal action after federal order restarts oil pipeline near Santa Barbara — KCBX
A Texas company that has been stuck in a yearslong regulatory skirmish with California regulators began transporting oil from offshore wells through a contested pipeline after the Trump administration stepped into the fray to overrule state officials on national security grounds. Sable Offshore announced Monday that, since Saturday, it had been using the Santa Ynez pipeline system to move oil from its wells off the Santa Barbara coast to Pentland Station in Kern County, California. The company said it expects to begin sales of the crude by April 1.
In a statement, Sable CEO Jim Flores said that his company “is putting California consumers first by increasing domestic supply of crude oil into the California market” and “we look forward to continuing” in the wake of the Department of Energy action on Friday. The announcement indicates that despite continued opposition from California officials, Sable sees Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s order that the company ship its product to market in the name of national defense as sufficient legal cover to ramp up operations.
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KIAH – March 17, 2026
TCEQ to investigate fire at Lyondell Basell’s Pasadena site
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said it plans to investigate the Lyondell Basell’s BayPort plant in Pasadena after a fire broke out there Thursday night. The company says everyone is safe and accounted for. Earlier, LyondellBasell reported an operational problem at the facility, warning that residents nearby could notice large flames or smoke as a result.
The La Porte Office of Emergency Management said crews from the La Porte and Pasadena Fire Departments, along with CIMA, Harris County Hazmat, pollution control officials, and industrial liaisons from the Harris County Office of Emergency Management had responded to the scene. Records from TCEQ show the facility had seven incidents last year where air contaminants were not supposed to be released.
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World Oil – March 17, 2026
Buccaneer Energy expands Texas output with Carlisle-1 well acquisition
Buccaneer Energy has acquired a 100% working interest in the Carlisle-1 well in the Pine Mills field, East Texas, strengthening its position in the Fouke area and increasing near-term production and cash flow. The well is currently producing about 25 bopd, lifting the company’s total output to approximately 155 bopd. Carlisle-1 benefits from low operating costs of about $6.23/bbl and generates strong margins, with an estimated netback of roughly $65/bbl at current oil prices.
According to a third-party reserves report, the well contains approximately 51,000 bbl of proved developed producing (PDP) reserves, with a PV-10 value of about $910,000. Additional upside is expected from a planned waterflood and Buccaneer’s Organic Oil Recovery (OOR) program, which could increase recoverable volumes to more than 250,000 bbl.
Oil & Gas National & International
The Hill – March 17, 2026
Diesel crosses $5 per gallon average in the US
The national average price for diesel has exceeded $5 per gallon as the war in Iran strains oil supplies, according to AAA. Diesel, like gasoline, is made from oil. It is often used to fuel trucks used in shipping, and high diesel prices can raise the price of trucked goods.
A month ago, before the conflict began, diesel prices in the U.S. averaged about $3.65 per gallon. Its average price is now about $5.04 per gallon. According to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, this marks the second time ever that the average diesel price has exceeded $5, the first being in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Forbes – March 17, 2026
Study Finds Additional $1 Trillion In Pipeline Capital Needs By 2052: David Blackmon*
Just when you thought the trillions of dollars in new capital needed to upgrade things like the power grid’s generation and transmission systems in the coming decades was unimaginably daunting comes a new study which finds much more will be needed to build out new pipeline systems. The Study, conducted by the INGAA Foundation, reveals the need for an eyewatering $1 trillion in capital for new pipeline infrastructure in the United States and Canada alone by 2052, an average of roughly $40-48 billion per year across the next 26 years.
Though the INGAA Foundation is an arm of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), the study looks at pipeline needs for a variety of energy gases and liquids, including oil, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and natural gas liquids in addition to raw natural gas streams. INGAA Foundation partnered with the University of Houston (UH), Wood, and ESMIA in the conduct of the study. The UH team, led by the Division of Energy and Innovation, with support from faculty and staff at the C.T. Bauer College of Business, played the lead role in the study, which also leveraged input from a variety of industry experts.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 17, 2026
Gulf States Want the U.S. to Cripple Iranian Regime Before Ending War*
Battered by Iranian strikes and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates and some fellow Persian Gulf states have come to view Iran’s theocracy as an existential enemy. They now want the regime they once courted to be neutered, if not dismantled, when the conflict ends—so the ordeal is never repeated. The U.A.E. has borne the brunt of Iranian attacks: more than 2,000 drones and missiles have been fired at the country since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. Over 80% of those were aimed at civilian infrastructure, including oil facilities, refineries, airports, ports, hotels and data centers, according to the U.A.E. government, killing six civilians and injuring 157 others. All six states in the Gulf Cooperation Council have, so far, refrained from striking back openly, limiting themselves to self-defense.
“This is not a military exchange. This is an attack on a peaceful nation, a nation that has been working diligently and very hard for diplomacy,” Sultan al-Jaber, the U.A.E. Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said in an interview. “Any long-term political settlement must address the full spectrum of threats, including Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missile capabilities, and their network of regional proxies,” added Jaber, who also serves as CEO of the country’s ADNOC oil giant. In talks with the U.S. before the war began, Iran discussed its nuclear program but ruled out any negotiations about curbs on its missile arsenal, or on the activities of the paramilitary organizations that it sponsors across the Middle East, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and several militias in Iraq.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
KUHF (NPR – Houston) – March 17, 2026
A difference of 32 degrees Fahrenheit is no small thing. In springtime, for example, it’s the difference between whether you need a jacket or not. For two University of Houston professors, a difference of 32 degrees is a scientific breakthrough. “We got very excited. We even didn’t sleep that night,” said Liangzi Deng, an assistant professor at the University of Houston’s physics department. “Of course, we considered whether it was real, there are many things ongoing, but at that moment we were really celebrating that we’d made a world record.”
Deng, alongside Paul C.W. Chu and others, had broken the record for the warmest temperature at which an object becomes a superconductor, raising it by about 32 degrees. It’s a discovery that could have implications for the energy industry and other technology. Their study, published this month in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” found that some materials can become a superconductor at warmer temperatures when placed under extreme pressure. It’s a significant step in the development of more efficient energy storage and transmission. “That’s the eureka moment,” Chu said.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 17, 2026
Tesla, LG Bet on U.S. Batteries With $4.3 Billion Michigan Plant*
A Michigan battery factory once meant for General Motors’ electric vehicles has a new partner: Tesla .
LG Energy Solution , the battery unit of Korean electronics giant LG , said it would produce battery cells for Tesla’s fast-growing energy-storage business at a new factory in Lansing, Mich. Those cells will eventually power utilities and artificial-intelligence data centers. LG once planned to make batteries for GM’s EVs at the factory, but as the automaker pulled back on its electric ambitions, it sold its stake in the venture to LG last year. The new $4.3 billion LG-Tesla tie-up was part of a Trump administration announcement on Tuesday, among dozens of other deals, as part of its “energy dominance agenda.”
“American-made cells will power Tesla’s Megapack 3 energy-storage systems produced in Houston, creating a robust domestic battery supply chain,” according to the Interior Department. As U.S. electric-vehicle demand dropped off and federal incentives were pulled back, automakers took financial hits in the tens of billions of dollars. Automakers and battery companies instead have rushed to repurpose EV battery plants to serve the fast-growing market in utility-scale energy storage.
Ford Motor, for example, shut down a new EV battery plant in Kentucky earlier this year and plans to swap out its equipment to produce stationary batteries. Large, stationary batteries are in demand as tech companies stand up AI data centers, which have tremendous energy demands. Utilities also use them to manage energy loads or as a complement to renewable sources like solar and wind. Tesla’s energy generation and storage business, which involves utility-scale batteries and solar panels, grew 27% last year even as its core automotive business declined 10%. The LG factory in Michigan will produce lithium-iron phosphate cells, known as LFP. This chemistry is commonly used in energy-storage batteries. Chinese producers such as CATL make the most advanced LFP batteries, but they come with hefty tariffs when imported to the U.S., said Sam Adham, a battery expert at consulting firm CRU Group. Tesla primarily sources its energy-storage batteries from China, he said.
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Utility Dive – March 17, 2026
FERC approves SPP merger of interconnection, transmission planning
In a groundbreaking move, the Southwest Power Pool will combine its generation interconnection and transmission planning into a single process under a plan approved Friday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. SPP plans to open its first Consolidated Planning Process, or CPP, window in April and in the fall publish the first Generalized Rate for Interconnection Development-Contribution (GRID-C), a standardized rate to cover system upgrade costs that gives project developers greater upfront cost certainty before they commit to the interconnection process, SPP said Monday.
“SPP and its stakeholders have risen to the occasion with one of the most innovative, common-sense proposals presented to the Commission since the inception of open access transmission service,” FERC Commissioner David Rosner said in a concurring statement released with the agency’s decision. “This proposal will get transmission built smarter and connect new generation faster, helping to make energy more reliable and affordable in the SPP region.”
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The Wall Street Journal – March 17, 2026
China Has Five-Minute EV Charging. America Is Trying to Catch Up.*
Electric vehicles had it rough last year in the U.S. Sales fell off a cliff, plagued by weaker demand and the end of the $7,500 tax credit. One bright spot: America’s EV fast-charging infrastructure has gotten much better. Fast-charging sites—public stations that can recharge an EV more quickly than a plug in a homeowner’s garage—grew by roughly 87% from January to November 2025, according to a recent study by EV charging analytics firm Paren. The number of plugs at each site is increasing, and they are becoming more powerful, able to recharge cars more quickly, the study found. Industry experts say that robust charging infrastructure is key to EV acceptance.
Still, the U.S. lags behind China, where new vehicle models are starting to recharge in about as much time as a gas car would need to fill up. One holdup, charging company executives say, is the cars themselves. In the U.S., fast-charging sessions can take around 20 to 40 minutes or more, depending on the vehicle. By contrast, Chinese automakers are rolling out EV charging that can take only a few minutes. “In the U.S. today, we don’t have cars that are capable of that high of power acceptance,” said Robert Barrosa, president and chief executive of Electrify America, a charging provider. BYD, which recently surpassed Tesla in electric sales, said early this month that its newest charging stations can charge an EV with the company’s updated “Blade” battery from low to 70% in five minutes. In nine minutes, it can be almost fully recharged.
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Reuters – March 17, 2026
US weighs near $1 billion wind farm settlement for TotalEnergies, NYT reports*
U.S. officials are drafting agreements to pay nearly $1 billion to oil major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), opens new tab as compensation for the cancellation of leases for wind farms in federal waters off New York State and North Carolina, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. Under the terms of the proposed settlements, the U.S. Interior Department will cancel the leases in federal waters for two projects, known as Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay, the NYT said, citing documents.
The Justice Department will then pay more than $928 million to TotalEnergies, compensating the firm for its winning bids in lease sales under the previous Biden administration, according to the NYT report. The White House, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Interior did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. TotalEnergies declined to comment on the report.
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E&E News By Politico – March 17, 2026
Interior unveils $56B in coal, LNG, nuclear deals struck in Tokyo*
The Trump administration announced Monday it had secured more than $56 billion in investments and nonbinding pledges to support U.S. energy projects during its weekend summit in Tokyo, including a deal to supply boilers to what would be the first new coal power plant in the U.S. in over a decade. Asian governments and companies from 17 countries agreed to invest in a range of energy technologies across nearly two dozen deals struck at the summit, including coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, critical minerals and battery manufacturing, according to an Interior Department fact sheet.
South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Power Systems signed an agreement in principle to supply $1 billion in boilers for the Terra Energy Center, a proposed 1.25-gigawatt coal power plant in southeast Alaska, the Interior Department said. The deal would mark the first order of utility-scale boilers for a coal plant since 2006. The Terra Energy Center, being developed by Flatlands Energy, would also be the first new coal plant to open in the U.S. since the Sandy Creek Energy Station in Texas in 2013.
Utility Dive – March 17, 2026
Utilities have made $200B+ in profit since 2021, new report says
Investor-owned utilities’ profit margins widened last year, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Energy and Policy Institute. IOUs kept as profit an average of 14.6 cents of every dollar they collected from customers in 2025, up from 12.8 cents of every dollar from 2021 to 2024, EPI said Thursday. Utilities in the Southeast, which operate outside organized wholesale power markets, have higher average profit margins than utilities in organized wholesale power markets such as the PJM Interconnection, EPI found. The gap is “large enough to warrant scrutiny of whether vertically integrated monopolies operating outside of RTOs are consistently extracting more profit from captive customers than is necessary,” EPI said.
EPI’s data shows IOUs earning significantly more than the allowed returns on equity set by regulators. Dani Marx, a spokesperson for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities, said in an email that EPI “took a simple but analytically weak and insufficient approach” that deviates from standard utility profit calculations “to intentionally mislead” its audience.
Regulatory
Bloomberg – March 16, 2026
Trump’s Pipeline Order to Test Limits of Cold War-Era Authority
President Donald Trump‘s emergency order reopening Sable Offshore Corp.’s dormant pipeline sets the stage for courts to determine the extent to which the federal government can rely on a pronouncement of an energy crisis to preempt states’ sovereign authority to regulate companies within their boundaries. The March 13 executive order and accompanying directive from Energy Secretary Chris Wright rely on broad interpretations of the Defense Production Act and a domestic energy emergency that Trump declared in an earlier order.
Ryan Regula, a partner at Snell & Wilmer, said anticipated litigation over the move will be a “linchpin type of action” for developing Administrative Procedure Act jurisprudence surrounding energy regulations. That’s especially true after the US Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overhauled the 40-year-old doctrine of deferring to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, he said.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday March 17, 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 jumped over 2% on Tuesday as uncertainty lingered over a U.S.-led coalition to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
West Texas Intermediate rose 2.51% to $95.85 per barrel as of 8:44 p.m. ET.
International benchmark Brent crude gained 2.45% to $102.57 per barrel.
“Mixed messages are coming from the Trump administration on the war’s duration, as the market focusses more on the actions on the ground that remain escalatory,” said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the U.S. was allowing Iranian oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. would soon announce a coalition of countries to escort ships through the Strait, citing officials.
Top Stories
E&E News By Politico – March 13, 2026
How a culture warrior forced a runoff in the race for Texas oil regulator
Last summer, Republicans across Texas were trying to force Bo French out of a party leadership position after he made disparaging online comments about Muslims and Jews. Now he’s vying to become one of the most important U.S. energy regulators. The longtime GOP activist made it into a primary runoff for a spot on the Railroad Commission of Texas. In May, he will face incumbent Commissioner Jim Wright, who was endorsed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 15, 2026
Oil Industry Warns Trump Administration That Fuel Crunch Will Likely Worsen*
American oil executives delivered a bleak message to Trump officials in recent days: The energy crisis the Iran war has unleashed is likely to get worse. In a series of White House meetings Wednesday and recent conversations with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the CEOs of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips warned that the disruption to energy flows out of the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway would continue to create volatility in global energy markets, according to people familiar with the matter. In response to questions from the officials, Exxon CEO Darren Woods said that oil prices could rise past current elevated levels if speculators unexpectedly bid up prices and that markets could see a supply crunch of refined products. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth and ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance also conveyed their concerns about the scale of the disruption, these people said.
President Trump didn’t attend the Wednesday meetings. U.S. oil prices have climbed from $87 a barrel that day to $99 a barrel Friday. The White House has implemented or is considering several measures it hopes will lower oil prices—including further easing sanctions on Russian oil, a massive release of emergency energy reserves and possibly waiving a statute that limits crude flows between U.S. ports. Administration officials have also told oil chief executives that they are hoping to increase the flow of oil between Venezuela and the U.S., a White House official said. Burgum said the administration has been “working around the clock” with energy companies to stabilize global energy markets. Wright and the Trump administration will continue to take action to minimize disruptions to energy supplies, Energy Department spokesman Ben Dietderich said.
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Politico – March 14, 2026
Iran war could boost US LNG projects striving for investment
The disruption to Qatar’s liquefied natural gas production from the ongoing U.S.-Israel war against Iran could give a boost to the next wave of U.S. gas export projects trying to get financed, according to industry analysts. Projects that have been proposed but are still awaiting their sponsors’ final investment decisions could become more important the longer the Middle East conflict goes on, even after a succession of formal go-aheads last year for domestic gas export projects. The United States is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, roughly 10 years after the first cargo of U.S. LNG departed from the Lower 48 states.
One of those projects advanced Friday: Venture Global announced it would proceed with the second phase of its mammoth CP2 terminal in southwest Louisiana after it secured $8.6 billion in project financing. The facility is “a strategically important project to global energy supply and security,” Venture Global noted in a statement.
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The Latest TERse Tips
The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a contractor and its insurer can attempt to recover part of a $6.75 million settlement paid to injured workers from a subcontractor that installed a fire-suppression system that was accidentally triggered — Business Insurance
U.S. Allies Rebuff Trump’s Demand for Help Opening Strait of Hormuz — Germany, Australia and Japan say they won’t be joining U.S. efforts, while the U.K. and France say they are willing to discuss options — The Wall Street Journal*
Island-wide power outage leaves much of Cuba without electricity amid deepening crisis — KFOX
Fermi Inc., operating as Fermi America, announced Monday it will file an additional 5GW clean air permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality within weeks — Investing
Fitch Ratings has upgraded Vistra Corp. and Vistra Operations Company, LLC’s Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BB+’ — the Rating Outlook is Stable — Fitch
Data center demand spike could drive 79% ERCOT price hike in 2027: EIA — in a high-demand scenario, data centers could drive 2025-2027 annual load growth 15% higher in Texas and 4.7% higher in the PJM Interconnection, the Energy Information Administration said — Utility Dive
Summit Midstream Corporation Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Financial and Operating Results — see the press release
Empire Petroleum Reports Financial Results for Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 — see the press release
Natural Gas Services Group Inc. on Monday reported profit of $4.1 million in its fourth quarter.— see the snapshot
Oil & Gas Texas
Reuters – March 15, 2026
Emergency stockpile oil coming soon to Iran-wracked markets, IEA says*
More than 400 million barrels of oil from International Energy Agency emergency reserves will begin flowing soon, the agency said in its most detailed account of the rollout of the plan to combat a spike in crude prices since the start of the Iran war. Stocks from Asia and Oceania countries will be available immediately and stocks from Europe and the Americas will be available at the end of March, the agency said on Sunday, four days after the agreement was announced.
Governments have committed to make available 271.7 million barrels of oil from government stocks, 116.6 million barrels from obligated industry stocks and 23.6 million barrels from other sources, the statement said. The bulk of the pledged reserves – 195.8 million barrels – are from member countries in the Americas, 172.2 million of that from government stocks, the IEA said.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 13, 2026
Zeitview acquires Insight M to enter oil and gas, expand methane detection*
Consolidation continues to spread from the upstream oil and gas sector to the services sector. Zeitview has acquired Insight M, a leading methane detection and analytics company. The acquisition gives Zeitview entry into the oil and gas space, allowing it to serve all key sources of energy generation — wind, solar and oil and gas — distribution and consumption. Consumption includes commercial and industrial facilities and data centers.
“We work in multiple assets: wind, solar, renewables, oil and gas, transmission, substations, poles, pipelines, data centers, big box retailers” said Dan Burton, founder and chief executive officer. Speaking with the Reporter-Telegram, Burton said his company had been looking to enter the oil and gas space for a few years but felt it needed to come up with something different.
“We found that with Insight M,” he said. At the end of February, he said the company began unifying its ability to monitor across various assets and the next step is to fully integrate Insight M’s technology identifying and prioritizing high-impact emissions events into its solutions. Insight customers will have the same access but also expanded data from methane detection to broader asset intelligence.
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World Oil – March 16, 2026
Texas RRC chairman highlights strength of Texas oil and gas industry in letter to Trump
Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Jim Wright said Texas oil and natural gas production remains a cornerstone of U.S. energy supply in a letter to President Donald Trump, emphasizing the state’s role in supporting national energy security.
“Texas energy has long been the foundation of our nation’s economic strength and national security,” Wright said. “In times of global uncertainty, the continued development of American oil and natural gas resources—guided by responsible oversight and sound policy—remains one of our greatest strategic advantages.”
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Inside Climate News – March 16, 2026
A New Mexico Religious Pilgrimage Rode a Global Wave Hoping for Ripple Effects for the Environment
Oil and gas wells might seem unusual sites for religious pilgrims, but on January 12, three faith-motivated environmentalists set out on a 328-mile trek from Carlsbad, New Mexico, that would see them slogging on foot past fossil-fuel developments, through remote ranch lands and deep into the desert on their way to the state capitol in Santa Fe.
The trio, representing New Mexico Interfaith Power & Light (NM-IPL) sought to use their 25-day journey to connect with communities and advocate for the passage of the Clear Horizons Act (SB18), a bill that would have required a 45 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. The group is one of three dozen organizations that are part of the Clear Horizons New Mexico coalition.
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March 10, 2026
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft restoration plan to address natural resource injuries resulting from a May 9, 2000, pipeline rupture at Sabine National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana. The Dynegy-owned transmission pipeline released approximately 845 barrels of highly volatile natural gas liquids into surrounding marsh and open water habitats.
The spill injured wetlands and aquatic species, including fish, blue crabs, and amphibians. A settlement reached in 2001 provides funding to restore the injured natural resources. The Draft Restoration Plan proposes using the remaining settlement funds to support additional native wetland vegetation plantings as part of the ongoing Sabine National Wildlife Refuge Marsh Terracing Project. This project enhances coastal marsh habitat by constructing earthen terraces that reduce erosion and support long-term wetland recovery.
Oil & Gas National & International
The Wall Street Journal – March 14, 2026
Here’s Where the U.S. Economy Is Most Vulnerable to Iran War*
Airlines, farms, autos — Airlines, where fuel counts as one of the top costs, are quickly exposed to soaring energy prices. Analysts at TD Cowen recently lowered their earnings targets for major carriers, and airline shares are down since the start of the war. Rising fuel costs also ripple through the economy, hitting businesses that rely on fuel for transportation or operations such as Strata Critical Medical, a medical service and logistics company that recovers and transports human organs for transplant. “If we see a surge in pricing, that’s going to be passed through to the customer,” co-Chief Executive Melissa Tomkiel said on an earnings call last week.
Fueling inflation — Costlier fuel is an especially big burden for lower-income households because they tend to spend a bigger share of their income at gas stations. But fuel hikes work their way into other goods and services, too. Pricey diesel makes it costlier to ship groceries around the country, potentially boosting prices in stores. Those jet-fuel costs end up making flights more expensive. Inflation has been above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target for five years, and analysts warn that added pressure on already-stretched household budgets might cause consumers to rein in their spending, the main driver of U.S. economic growth. Spending on travel, hotels, restaurants, electronics and appliances tends to take a hit when oil prices surge and stay high for many months, said Pooja Sriram, senior U.S. economist at Barclays.
Slowdown — Economists at Goldman Sachs estimate that a $10 increase for a barrel of oil reduces annual growth in gross domestic product by around 0.1 percentage point, if prices remain at that higher level through the end of the year. A slowdown could put more pressure on a struggling labor market that has averaged a slight jobs decline over the last six months, punctuated by a 92,000-job reduction in February. A new government estimate on Friday showed the economy closed out last year with slower growth than previously reported.
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Dallas Morning News – March 15, 2026
Helium, not just for balloons, is a growing economic risk as Iran war rages*
Disruptions to Qatar’s natural gas processing from the Iran war have driven helium prices sharply higher, exposing the fragility of a small but critical market that supports industries from semiconductors to medical imaging. Helium spot prices have doubled since the Middle East crisis began, according to Phil Kornbluth, president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, as buyers scramble to secure supply. State energy giant QatarEnergy, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, announced a production halt at its 77 million tons per annum facility last week and declared force majeure on LNG shipments, amid the conflict.
Because helium is extracted as a byproduct of natural gas processing, any disruption to LNG output directly cuts helium supply. Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times last week that it would take “weeks to months” for deliveries to return to normal even if the conflict ended immediately. Qatar is a pivotal supplier rather than a marginal one. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey shows the country produced about 63 million cubic meters of helium in 2025, out of roughly 190 million cubic meters globally, accounting for close to one-third of world supply.
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Bloomberg – March 16, 2026
An Energy Shock Lesson From China’s Dash for Gas*
For most of the world, 2026’s gas shock began on Feb. 28. That’s when US and Israeli strikes against Iran first threatened to block a fifth of the world’s supplies of liquefied natural gas, sending prices in Europe up nearly 50% in a matter of hours. In northern China, it began months earlier, when biting winter cold and rising prices for domestic fuel left cash-strapped rural households enduring frigid conditions that seem like a throwback to an earlier, more poverty-stricken era: Layering clothing to compensate for boilers they couldn’t afford to switch on, or standing outside in the middle of the day to warm themselves with wan winter sunlight.
For that situation, you can blame the pipe dream that gas would provide a transition fuel in the shift to cleaner forms of energy. Other nations still clinging to this fantasy amid the current conflict in the Middle East should pay heed to what went wrong. China’s crisis has roots in the policies that cleaned up the smog-laden air of its big cities over the past decade. In Hebei, a province surrounding Beijing and Tianjin, local authorities since 2017 have been cracking down on people burning coal for domestic heating. Financial support and legal penalties were wielded to encourage households to switch to gas boilers, electric heaters, or heat pumps.
A glance at the blue skies of Beijing these days would suggest the policy has been a success. In the hard-scrabble rural villages at the sharp end of the switch, however, conditions are bleak. Subsidies that were initially provided to lower the cost of gas have been progressively removed, to the point where many can barely afford to pay for heating in sub-zero temperatures out of their meager incomes.
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Houston Chronicle – March 16, 2026
After attacks on Iran’s oil facilities, toxic black rain endangers the public*
Clouds of toxic smoke unleashed into the atmosphere by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iranian oil facilities made a dangerous return to Earth in the form of “black rain,” prompting international health officials to warn of serious risks to the public. Residents in Tehran complained last week of burning eyes and difficulty breathing when the dark and oily precipitation fell near the Iranian capital after several fuel oil depots and a refinery were struck.
Plumes of dark smoke have also been seen across other parts of the region over two weeks of war, as Iran retaliates against U.S.-Israeli airstrikes by firing drones and missiles at the oil and natural gas facilities of its Persian Gulf neighbors. Rain washes hazardous chemicals out of the atmosphere in a relatively short period of time, experts said, but people exposed to black rain should take precautions to avoid short- and long-term health risks.
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Reuters – March 11, 2026
Iran war shatters Trump’s case for fossil fuels: Ron Bousso*
The economic risks of the world’s heavy dependence on oil and gas have been laid bare twice in four years – first with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now with the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran – undermining U.S. President Donald Trump’s flagship push to double down on fossil fuels. The dramatic supply disruptions and price spikes unleashed by the latest Middle East conflict are likely to harden the resolve of many governments to accelerate the drive for greater energy self‑sufficiency – and that will include clean energy.
The ongoing Middle East conflict has seen the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of global oil and gas shipments flow, sending shockwaves through energy markets. While Brent crude prices have dropped from $119 per barrel on Monday – their highest level since June 2022 – to around $90, the global benchmark is still more than 24% higher since the start of the war. In any case, the physical shortages that are rapidly developing are heaping pressure on economies worldwide, reviving fears of higher inflation, weaker industrial output and slower growth globally. The pain has been particularly acute in Asia, which relies on the Middle East for nearly 60% of its crude oil imports.
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The New York Times – March 11, 2026
Here’s One Boast Trump Won’t Be Making Anymore: Natasha Sarin*
For President Trump, lower energy prices haven’t been just a nice bit of relief for American consumers. They’ve been a signature bragging right, proof of concept for his administration’s whole approach to the economy and to America’s position in the world, as well as a valuable counterexample to the higher overall costs that his tariffs brought about. “Nobody can believe when they see the kind of numbers, especially energy,” he said during his recent State of the Union address. “When they see energy going down to numbers like that, they cannot believe it. It’s like another big tax cut.” A few days later, he boasted about those numbers in Corpus Christi, Texas, where Energy Secretary Chris Wright actually pumped gas.
The focus is back on energy prices at the moment, but unfortunately for the administration — and American consumers — those prices have now gone in the opposite direction thanks to the war in Iran. Gas prices declined by about 6 percent during the year after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, but by early last week, those successes had been erased: Average gas prices rose last week from $2.98 to $3.41, one of the largest weekly increases ever recorded. Jet fuel costs are surging too, with major U.S. airlines reporting that they’ll probably need to raise ticket prices soon. Crude oil prices jumped more than 40 percent after the conflict began. Last week alone saw the largest weekly price rise in 35 years, about twice as large as the effect when Russia, a significant oil producer in its own right, mounted its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Canary Media – March 10, 2026
Oil and gas workers find an easy segue into geothermal jobs
Mike Fleming was always interested in geothermal energy — how it works, how sustainable it is, and how efficiently it can heat homes and businesses. But Fleming, who has a decade of experience drilling wells in New England, didn’t see it as a career path. That changed when his boss recommended him for a position at Phoenix Foundation Co. in late 2024. Part of the job involved overseeing drilling for geothermal projects. There were some differences between the roles, but there were plenty of commonalities, too. The technical skills, focus on safety, and need for precision are the same. And ultimately, “You’re making a hole in the ground, you’re putting some plastic pipe down there, and you’re sealing the hole,” said Fleming.
What felt routine at first is part of an emerging frontier in energy. Fleming’s work focuses on what’s called conventional geothermal, which requires drilling some 200 to 500 feet into the ground in search of subsurface earth that hovers between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit — a temperature millions of residential heat pumps nationwide use to warm or cool homes year-round.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Daily Energy Insider – March 15, 2026
Southwest Power Pool prepares to expand into Western Interconnection region
The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is planning to expand its regional transmission organization (RTO) services into the Western Interconnection region. It was a unanimous decision by leaders from both organizations to proceed as planned with the western RTO expansion on April 1.
“April 1 will be a milestone day for SPP when we become the first regional transmission organization to bridge the eastern and western electric grids,” Lanny Nickell, SPP president and CEO, said. “We are excited to share the benefits of RTO participation with western utilities and their customers.”
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E&E Leader – March 16, 2026
How Utilities Are Operationalizing Weather Intelligence
1. Weather is no longer an episodic threat. It’s a daily operational variable.
2. It’s not just extreme weather that affects utilities. Everyday climate events, such as prolonged heat, particularly strong or weak winds, and even an inch more precipitation than anticipated, can also have an outsized impact on energy production, demand, storage, alternative energy needs and pricing.
While no energy provider is completely immune to the effects of weather on their operations, utilities like Houston’s CenterPoint Energy are creating a new blueprint for getting ahead of these events and significantly reducing impact as a result.
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Inside Climate News – March 12, 2026
The Iran War Is Making the Case for Renewable Energy, Experts Argue
Related: Drivers wonder if they should go electric as the war spikes gas prices — Associated Press
The war between the United States, Israel and Iran has triggered the largest disruption to global oil supplies in the history of the modern oil market, with Brent crude prices currently hovering around $100 a barrel, sending economic shockwaves across Persian Gulf states, Asian countries and the U.S. with no clear endgame in sight.
As the war nears the two-week mark, U.S. and Israeli forces have intensified their attacks on Iranian weapons sites and regional proxies, striking thousands of targets with increasing lethality. In retaliation, Iran continues to hit across the Middle East region, targeting U.S. military bases and oil and gas facilities, forcing the ramping down of oil production in many Gulf countries.
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Utility Dive – March 12, 2026
America’s power shortage is a market failure: Clean Economy Project
In the last few weeks alone, winter storms, record-breaking electricity demand and new federal reliability warnings have all pointed in the same direction: America’s grid is not ready for the future. Regional grid operators from PJM Interconnection to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas may face future capacity shortfalls. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. is warning that the U.S. may not have enough power to meet demand over the next decade. Meanwhile, electricity bills are rising as demand begins to outpace supply.
In the mid-19th century, the American economy was expanding rapidly, but the country’s transportation system was fragmented. Railroads were built locally, financed piecemeal, and often failed to connect across regions. Freight moved slowly. Investment was uncertain. The nation’s economic ambitions were colliding with an infrastructure system designed for a different era. The solution was not to slow economic growth. It was to change the rules that governed how infrastructure was planned and financed. Today’s electricity system faces a strikingly similar challenge
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Politico – March 10, 2026
VW pushes into energy storage on slow EV battery demand*
Volkswagen is broadening its battery ambitions beyond electric vehicles into large-scale energy storage and trading as global EV demand falls short of expectations. Europe’s biggest automaker started operations at its first major storage facility on Monday in Salzgitter, Germany. The setup, part of VW’s Elli energy subsidiary, can supply as many as 20,000 homes for roughly two hours. The site connects directly to the grid and will also be used for energy trading on the European power exchange EPEX SPOT. It uses cells from Volkswagen’s in-house PowerCo division, which once targeted as many as seven EV battery plants and has already scaled back ambitions for its German cell factory, also located in Salzgitter.
Volkswagen is seeking new battery revenue streams as China’s dominant suppliers cut their prices and EV growth rates slow. The automaker previously targeted enough production to supply about 3 million EVs annually by 2030 — a goal set when growth forecasts were far more bullish. Energy storage is in high demand due to a surge in power-hungry data centers and more renewable energy plants feeding into electricity grids.
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Tech Policy Press – March 4, 2026
The Great Green AI Hoax Machine
Listening to Silicon Valley, you might think climate and energy problems are already being solved. They are not. Energy prices are skyrocketing across America, and carbon emissions are expanding, under the hood of an incredibly thin PR campaign, rife with disinformation. Our new report shows that 74% of AI energy reduction claims are completely unproven, so we should be watchful for any proof behind the PR at the White House this week. Energy researcher Ketan Joshi analyzed more than 150 claims from AI giants like Microsoft and Google and found barely a quarter cite an academic paper. More than a third had no citations at all. And, in a typical circle of self-affirmation, almost a third of those that did used only corporate sources.
Google’s 5-10% reduction claim is in 2023 one of the most specific and widely cited, promising reductions equivalent to the total annual emissions of the European Union. But this number is not based on science. It comes from a 2021 blog post by the consulting firm BCG, and that blog is based solely on its “experience with clients.”
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Latitude Media – March 5, 2026
From green hydrogen to data centers: Why Monarch Energy pivoted
When Ben Alingh co-founded Monarch Energy in 2021, it was on a bet that the green hydrogen industry would soon take off and need industrial-size electrolyzers to produce the fuel at scale. So Alingh and his co-founder Charles Koontz, both veterans of Ørsted, spent several years scouting ideal sites for those electrolyzers. The machines, which use electricity to split water into its separate elements, needed access to a lot of clean power, water, and grid infrastructure like transmission and pipelines.
Acquiring those sites involved years of complex state and local permitting processes, but by 2024, Monarch had lined up sites with a combined four gigawatts of capacity, mainly across the Midwest and Gulf Coast. There were generous tax breaks for green hydrogen under the Inflation Reduction Act — though the eligibility specifics were still being ironed out. Still, Alingh said the market signals weren’t strong enough for him to be confident in the model.
Regulatory
Energy & Policy Institute – March 12, 2026
In Depth: Paying for Their Profits — How Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Soaring Utility Profits
Households and businesses served by investor-owned utilities pay billions of dollars in profits to utility investors each year. Until now, no one has put a precise number on how much of an electric bill is made up of that profit. Using publicly reported financial data, this report provides the first systematic look at how much of each dollar spent on electricity ultimately goes to investors.
EPI analyzed financial data from 110 investor-owned operating electric utilities nationwide between 2021 and 2024, including several utilities that bill customers jointly for electric and gas service. We also incorporated 2025 filings for 79 investor-owned utilities that had reported annual results to the SEC in time for inclusion in this analysis.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday March 6, 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 on Monday as investor focus returned to threats facing Middle East oil facilities, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for nations to help safeguard the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for global energy shipments.
West Texas Intermediate crude gained 54 cents, or 0.6%, at $99.25 a barrel, after settling up nearly $3 in the previous session.
Brent crude futures climbed $1.27, or 1.2%, to $104.41 a barrel by 0400 GMT, after settling up $2.68 on Friday.
Both contracts have surged more than 40% this month to their highest since 2022, after the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran prompted Tehran to halt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, choking off a fifth of global oil supply in the biggest disruption ever.
“U.S. strikes over the weekend on Kharg Island raised supply concerns, as most of Iran’s oil exports pass through it,” ING commodity strategists said on Monday.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – March 15, 2026
White House Tries to Build Coalition on Iran to Address Energy Crisis*
President Trump and top aides spent the weekend framing their Iran operation as a resounding military success while imploring other countries to join their effort to resolve a worsening energy crisis related to the Strait of Hormuz. The Trump administration as soon as this week plans to announce that multiple countries have agreed to form a coalition that will escort ships through the waterway, which runs along the Iranian coast, U.S. officials said. The U.S. and potential coalition countries are still discussing whether those operations would begin before or after the war ends.
The White House declined to comment on the expected announcement, which could shift depending on battlefield conditions. Trump told reporters Sunday that the administration had reached out to seven nations for help policing the strait, but declined to say whether any had agreed to assist. For any that decline, he said, “We will remember.” Publicly, many countries have been noncommittal to such an escort mission until hostilities cease, given the risks involved, including Iran’s placement of mines in the strait.
This pressure for the White House to announce such a coalition underscores the dilemma facing the administration. Gasoline prices continue to rise and questions swirl from within the Republican Party as to the endgame. The military operation has resulted in the striking of more than 6,000 Iranian targets, including the killing of Iran’s supreme leader and other top regime officials. But the strategic problems—growing instability in the Middle East, a global energy crisis and the domestic political fallout—have proven difficult to manage through bombing alone. In a Sunday joint statement, the foreign ministers of the U.K. and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council said GCC states “have the right to take all necessary measures to defend their security and stability and protect territories, citizens and residents.”
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CNBC – March 13, 2026
Who is really footing the AI energy bill? Inside the debate about data center electricity costs
Tech companies have also committed to meeting data center needs through renewable sources. Such alternative energy sources will become increasingly important as concerns over energy availability grow due to the growing demand for data centers worldwide, according to JLL’s Howard.
“The average wait time for a grid connection in primary data center markets is already between four to six years, and up to 10 years in cities like Tokyo,” Howard said. Globally, these energy shortfalls could “create massive opportunities for energy producers, particularly when it comes to renewable energy,” he added. However, skepticism toward renewable energy commitments within the U.S.′ current administration has raised questions about how far such sustainability pledges will advance in the country, Howard said.
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Utility Dive – March 13, 2026
Atlas Energy to buy $840M in power assets from Caterpillar
Atlas Energy has inked a multiyear agreement to secure 1.4 gigawatts of incremental natural gas power generation assets from Caterpillar to meet surging electricity demand. Under the agreement, the Austin-based power systems and proppant supplier will invest $840 million to obtain large natural gas reciprocating generator sets, including Caterpillar’s CG260-16 and G3520 models used for behind the meter and bridge power applications.
Deliveries are scheduled between 2027 and 2029. Annual price increases will be capped at 8% per year, according to the agreement. The deal is one of Caterpillar’s largest as the company continues to build out its power systems segment for data center and oil and gas customers. It also has an extension option if more orders are needed.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 13, 2026
Trump Wants to Secure Hormuz. Here’s What It Would Take.*
President Trump has vowed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital artery for the world’s energy supply that has been closed off by Iran. It won’t be easy. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have repeatedly pledged that naval vessels will escort oil tankers and other ships through the strait. On Thursday, Trump said escort operations would begin “very soon.” In a pair of social-media posts Saturday, the president called on other nations to help. The U.S. is holding off on sending warships into the narrow strait—just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point—with Navy officers saying Iranian drones and antiship missiles could turn the area into a “kill box” for American sailors.
One option to clear the way for escorts would be a more-intense use of air power to hunt and destroy Iranian missiles and drones before they could be fired at ships in the strait. Another would be to use ground troops to seize the territory around the waterway. The administration has said it is keeping all options on the table, including the use of ground troops. On Friday, Trump ordered a Marine expeditionary unit, which typically has warships with thousands of sailors, attack jets and 2,200 Marines, to the Middle East.
In an escort operation, U.S. warships, maybe in conjunction with allied navies, would travel through the strait alongside oil tankers to clear mines and fend off Iranian attacks from the air as well as from Iran’s “mosquito fleet” of small, fast-attack boats. Experts estimate it could take two ships per tanker, or a dozen ships to guard convoys of five to 10 tankers, to have the necessary air defenses. The short distances involved make shooting down missiles and drones much more difficult. Despite weeks of American and Israeli attacks that have decimated Iran’s navy and military capabilities, its commanders are still demonstrating the ability to attack.
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Bloomberg – March 13, 2026
US Officials Have Discussed Trading Oil Futures, Burgum Says*
The Trump administration has discussed trading in the oil futures market as a strategy to help curb surging crude prices amid the war in Iran, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. Burgum, however, said he wasn’t aware whether the US had actually intervened in the market at this point. “I would say there has been a discussion. We have a lot of smart people working in this administration — a lot of smart people work in the energy trading market,” Burgum said during an interview with Bloomberg Television in Tokyo on Saturday. “An intervention to try to manipulate and lower prices would require enormous amounts of capital. That is all I will say on that front.”
His comments come as US and Israeli attacks on Iran continue to upend the global energy landscape, trapping millions of barrels of oil in the Persian Gulf, with the Strait of Hormuz effectively blocked. Global crude futures have surged more than 40% in the nearly two weeks since the conflict began, driving US gasoline prices to their highest level in 22 months. Brent crude settled above $100 a barrel for the second straight day, ending Friday at the highest level in more than three years. The head of the company that oversees the trading of West Texas Intermediate US oil futures has warned it would be a “biblical disaster” for the federal government to start trading derivatives as a way to lower crude prices. “Markets do not like when governments intervene” in market pricing, Terry Duffy, chief executive officer of CME Group Inc., said at a conference in Boca Raton, Florida, this week.
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March 13, 2026
The Iran War Is Also Now a Semiconductor Problem: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Iran conflict has triggered dramatic economic effects across the globe, but despite its location far away from the warzone, South Korea has felt outsized shocks. The country’s stock market plunged 18 percent in just four trading days—the worst drop since the 2008 financial crisis—and wiped out more than $500 billion in market value as the energy security disruption has cascaded through Korea’s semiconductor-heavy stock market.
But the market panic was only the surface symptom, exposing a deeper structural weakness in Korea’s economy. South Korea suffers from a persistent energy vulnerability, and geopolitical shocks can quickly translate into acute economic pain. When these shocks threaten the conditions that allow major industries—particularly Korea’s booming semiconductor trade—to operate smoothly, the entire economy feels it immediately.
The Latest TERse Tips
Corpus Christi water emergency may be just two months away, city leaders say — two out of the five projections city leaders presented Tuesday showed water shortages beginning in May, but the city has yet to detail plans for how to reduce water use for residents and businesses — Texas Tribune
The proliferation of data centers for artificial intelligence could drive U.S. natural gas consumption in the power sector significantly higher than previously estimated, according to a new analysis by the Energy Information Administration — Natural Gas Intelligence*
Lifting rules that limit flaring the Permian Basin’s associated gas to allow oil producers to put more barrels into the global market is not on the RRC agenda currently, the regulator told Hart Energy
The mayor of the city of Lone Star said Friday the city is aware of the oil leak/spill that has been observed in Lone Star Lake (the reservoir) — KLTV
Banpu Power, the electricity generation arm of Thai coal miner Banpu, plans to invest $90 million in a battery energy storage system in the U.S. state of Texas, anticipating demand from data centers, which are expanding rapidly there — Nikkei
Flying taxis to connect Texas cities under new federal program — San Antonio Express-News*
Video: Electric vertical aircrafts to be tested in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott says — KVUE
Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – March 3, 2026
US Drillers Add Oil, Gas Rigs As Brent Tops $100 For First Time in Years
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US to 553 this week, down 39 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 1 to 412 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 75 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs also rose by 1, reaching 133, which is 33 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count stayed the same at 8.
The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production fell this week, by 18,000 bpd in the week ending March 6, to 13.678 million bpd on average, 184,000 bpd under the all-time high. Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells, rose again during the week ending March 6 by 3 after gaining 7 crews in the week prior. The number of active drilling rigs in the Permian Basin stayed the same at 241, which is 60 rigs under year-ago levels. The count in the Eagle Ford was also unchanged at 43, which is 5 fewer than this same time last year.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 13, 2026
Iran War Delivers Windfall to America’s Oil Country*
New Mexico churns out about 2.3 million barrels of crude every day, enough to make it the nation’s second-largest oil-producing state behind its more famous neighbor, Texas. In fiscal year 2025, New Mexico raked in at least $7.3 billion in revenue from the output. Now, it stands to make even more. Higher oil prices brought on by the conflict with Iran might vex the global economy, but for some U.S. states, they are a windfall that will help close budget deficits, fund early childhood education and improve roads. “At the end of the day, it means more jobs and more opportunities for people,” Jonathan Sena, the mayor of Hobbs, N.M., said of higher oil prices. “Oil-and-gas is the foundation of our economy.” Hobbs has reaped the rewards of its place in the biggest oil-producing county in the country: As oil prices soar, restaurants and hotels fill up, construction booms and retail sales rise.
Higher oil costs strain the U.S. economy by raising gasoline and diesel prices, and the prices of a myriad of goods and services. But unlike during past oil shocks, the U.S. itself is now a major oil producer, providing insulation for the economy from the worst effects of the war. The southeast corner of New Mexico hosts some of the most productive wells in the Permian Basin, the nation’s most prolific oil field that extends far into West Texas. Oil-producing regions of the U.S. are seeing their output fetch higher prices as Iran blocks tankers from safely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.
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Associated Press – March 13, 2026
US energy secretary directs oil company to restore operations off California
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright directed a Texas-based oil and gas company Friday to restore operations in waters off southern California that were damaged by a 2015 oil spill, invoking the Defense Production Act. Restoring Sable Offshore Corp.’s Santa Ynez unit and pipeline off Santa Barbara aims to address supply disruption risks, according to a department news release. The unit includes three rigs in federal waters, offshore and onshore pipelines, and the Las Flores Canyon Processing Facility. The facility can produce about 50,000 barrels of oil per day and would replace nearly 1.5 million barrels of foreign crude each month, officials said.
“The Trump Administration remains committed to putting all Americans and their energy security first,” Wright said in a statement. “Unfortunately, some state leaders have not adhered to those same principles, with potentially disastrous consequences not just for their residents, but also our national security. Today’s order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness.”
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 13, 2026
EIA: Natural gas production hit record high in 2025*
U.S. marketed natural gas production continued to set records in 2025, growing by 5.3 billion cubic feet per day to average 118.5 Bcf, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Natural Gas Monthly report. According to the report, the Permian Basin joined with Appalachia and Haynesville to account for 67% of natural gas production last year, and for 81% of last year’s growth. Other U.S. regions accounted for the remaining 1.1 Bcf per day of growth.
The Permian Basin was second to Appalachia in terms of production last year, accounting for 23% of marketed natural gas. But the region saw the highest growth among the three main regions, jumping 11% or 2.7 Bcf per day to average 27.7 Bcf per day. Analysts noted that the growth in natural gas production is primarily the result of associated gas produced during oil production. West Texas Intermediate averaged $65 a barrel in 2025, down from $77 in 2024 but sufficient to support oil-directed drilling in the Permian region. Additionally, the average gas-to-oil ratio, which has been steadily increasing in the Permian, contributed to natural gas growth.
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Bloomberg – March 15, 2026
US Reiterates Oil Reserve Release Spurred by Iran War Will Be an Exchange*
The US Energy Department reiterated Sunday that a planned 172-million-barrel release of oil from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be structured as an exchange. The agency gave more details on the release Friday, clarifying it would begin with an exchange — essentially a loan that companies must eventually return with interest — of 86 million barrels. The oil is expected to begin moving to market this coming week. Energy Secretary Chris Wright earlier referred to the action as a release, leading to some confusion among traders who initially interpreted the plan as an outright sale.
An Energy Department spokesman said an exchange was the plan all along. He pointed to the reference in Wright’s initial announcement to refilling the reserve with approximately 200 million barrels within the next year, or about 20% more than what was being released, at no cost to the taxpayer. That would only be possible with an exchange, the spokesman said. Wright also referred to the release as an exchange in an CNN interview on March 12. Countries around the world are planning releases from strategic oil reserves as the war in the Middle East chokes supply and sends fuel prices soaring. The Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for crude tankers, has been all but shut since the start of the conflict. Last week, The International Energy Agency agreed last week to discharge 400 million barrels from emergency oil reserves, its largest-ever release. The US plan is part of that effort.
Oil & Gas National & International
Inside Climate News – March 13, 2026
China’s Clean Energy Push Has Made It Less Vulnerable to Energy Shocks, Including the Iran War
When Gary Dirks arrived in China in 1995, the country’s government was looking to source more of its energy at home. Dirks was the incoming country head for BP, but efforts to find more oil and gas in the country had largely fizzled. So government leaders pivoted, Dirks said. China invested heavily in its domestic coal and, later, in building wind and solar energy. Now, those investments and other steps are shielding China from more severe impacts of the volatility unleashed by the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, despite Beijing’s continued reliance on foreign oil.
“They’ve been taking measures for a very long time to try to maximize their use of their own resources,” said Dirks, now senior director at the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. “They’ve been aware of this vulnerability for a very long time.”
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The Wall Street Journal – March 15, 2026
If Seizing Iran’s Nuclear Material Is the Endgame, Here’s What It Would Take*
President Trump has said preventing Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons is a central aim of the war he is waging. In the absence of regime change—or at least a deal to hand over its enriched uranium by Tehran’s leaders—that could mean seizing the country’s fissile material. Accomplishing that in the face of resistance from Iranian forces would be a complex military operation that could require the deployment of hundreds of troops at one or more sites for days, former U.S. military officers and experts said. The U.S. military has elite teams specially trained to remove radioactive material from a conflict zone. But locating and seizing the hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium that Iran possesses would require an intricate choreography and could be fraught with risk.
President Trump has said he wouldn’t rule out sending ground troops into Iran if necessary. But on Friday, he signaled an operation to seize the country’s enriched uranium wasn’t imminent. “We’re not focused on that, but at some point we might be,” Trump said on Fox News Radio. “Right now, we’re focused on knocking the hell out of their missiles and their drones.” Before Israel and the U.S. conducted a series of airstrikes on Iran in June last year, the country was believed to have more than 400 kilograms of 60% highly enriched uranium, and nearly 200 kilograms of 20% fissile material, which is easily converted into 90%-weapons-grade uranium.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 13, 2026
Why Trump’s Move to Lower Oil Prices Fell Flat*
If the White House hoped tapping 40% of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve would quickly push down oil prices, it hasn’t worked. News this week that member countries of the International Energy Agency would coordinate to release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency stockpiles, of which the U.S. will contribute close to half, barely touched the oil price. Big as the number sounds, it isn’t nearly enough to compensate for the loss of barrels passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts expect the total IEA release to add around 3 million barrels of crude and refined products a day. But according to Janiv Shah, a vice president at Rystad Energy, nine to 10 million barrels of oil a day are currently trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz, even accounting for the flows that are likely to be diverted to pipelines.
So the initial announcement, intended to have a positive impact on sentiment in the markets, seems to have fallen flat. Brent was trading around $90 a barrel on the day of the IEA announcement and ended the week at around $103. When the barrels do eventually hit the physical oil market, they should bring prices down at least some. But another problem is that strategic reserves take longer to unlock than commercial stocks, especially if they are in specialized storage facilities. The U.S. SPR holds 415 million barrels of crude in 61 underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas. But it will be hard to get it out quickly. The Biden administration made a similar-size draw at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which left the store at just 60% capacity. As more oil is extracted, pressure levels in the caverns fall, which slows subsequent withdrawals.
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E&E News By Politico – March 13, 2026
Why the Iran war hurts Trump’s plans to expand LNG*
On the eve of the Iran war, Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Texas to celebrate the expansion of a liquefied natural gas terminal. Gas will likely be “the fastest-growing energy source probably through the rest of my life,” Wright told a crowd gathered at Cheniere’s Corpus Christi plant. Two weeks later, that outlook has become significantly more complicated. The U.S.-Israel war in Iran has resulted in shutting down the world’s largest LNG facility, in Qatar, and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, stranding about a fifth of global gas supplies. Escalating attacks by Iran on tankers and cargo vessels on Thursday have dimmed hopes of reopening the shipping route and led analysts to question the future growth of gas.
“The LNG industry has a problem,” said Alex Munton, an analyst who tracks the industry at Rapidan Energy Group. The conflict presents a double-edged sword for the U.S. The shutdown of the Qatari plant, Ras Laffan, is an opportunity for American LNG developers, who can talk up the relative security of their supplies to potential customers. But whether those buyers will be willing to sign long-term contracts is an open question as fighting in the Persian Gulf diminishes the global supply of gas — and raises prices around the world. The conflict comes just four years after Europe shutoff gas pipeline import from Russia in retaliation for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
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The New Yorker – March 13, 2026
Trump’s Inexcusable Unpreparedness for the Iranian Oil Crisis*
Two weeks after the United States and Israel launched an air war on Iran, there has been no let up in the conflict—or its financial repercussions. On Thursday, Iran’s new Supreme Leader said that his country would keep closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane through which about a fifth of the world’s oil flows, and more vessels in the Persian Gulf were attacked, including two oil tankers that were set ablaze off the coast of Iraq. On world markets, the price of a barrel of crude jumped to more than a hundred dollars. Here in the U.S., the price of gasoline has risen by about more than twenty per cent since the war began, and energy analysts warn that it could rise a lot further if the Strait isn’t reopened. The Dow has fallen by about four per cent. Donald Trump, having plunged the country into a potentially disastrous war, with no clear rationale or exit plan, is flailing around for ways to mitigate its economic consequences. On Thursday, he suggested in a social-media post that the U.S., as the world’s largest oil producer, makes a lot of money when prices go up—an argument that even the most slavish G.O.P. congressman facing a reëlection campaign might hesitate to embrace.
Perhaps the most startling thing about the whole situation is that the Trump Administration was apparently surprised by, and unprepared for, Iran’s capability to inflict economic pain on the U.S. and its allies. This despite the fact that during a showdown in Trump’s first term the regime in Tehran used the same tactics of threatening to block the Strait and of attacking oil infrastructure in neighboring Gulf states that are allied with the U.S. Whether out of arrogance, capriciousness, or collective amnesia, this recent history was ignored.
In 2018, after rashly pulling out of the nuclear deal that the Obama Administration had negotiated, Trump launched a “maximum pressure campaign” against the Islamic Republic, which included extensive sanctions on its oil industry, the country’s biggest revenue generator. The response from Tehran was robust. In February, 2019, the Navy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that if Iran had no buyers for its oil it would take military steps to close the Strait. Ultimately, it backed off—it was able to continue exporting oil to China and other countries that ignored the U.S. sanctions—but the government and its foreign proxies did carry out a campaign of aggression in and around the Gulf. In May and June of 2019, four oil tankers docked in the United Arab Emirates were sabotaged and two freight vessels, one Japanese-owned and the other Norwegian-owned, were damaged by Iranian mines in the Gulf of Oman, which sits below the Strait. Months later, in Saudi Arabia, drone attacks struck oil-pumping stations that were operated by Aramco, the state-run oil giant. According to a report from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, Tehran “meant to send a message to the Gulf states that if they continue to encourage the United States to cut off Iran’s oil sector, Iran will take actions to harm their ability to export oil.” The report continued, “The message to the United States is that the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign is not without costs, and if the United States seeks to pursue this approach, Iran will take steps that have a negative impact on the global economy.”
America Depends Less on Oil Than Ever*
War with Iran has frozen commerce in the Persian Gulf and boosted oil prices by more than 50 percent worldwide, translating almost immediately into higher gasoline costs. It’s the largest global oil disruption ever and is likely to accelerate inflation throughout this year. And yet, in the United States, the impact is much more muted than it would have been a few decades ago. That’s in part because America uses less energy per unit of economic output than it used to. In economist-speak, the U.S. economy is less “energy intensive,” for a few reasons. One, the U.S. economy now depends largely on services like health care, retail and entertainment, which require much less energy than manufacturing industries. There are only about 21 million jobs in goods-producing sectors, while private services employ 114 million people.
And two, the machines that Americans do use are now much more efficient, a trend that started in earnest after the oil price shocks of the 1970s. According to the Department of Transportation, the average new light-duty vehicle gets 28 miles per gallon of gas, up from 13 in 1975. Gasoline consumption rose until 2007, then leveled off as electric vehicles gained traction. As a result, consumer spending on gas as a share of discretionary income has fallen. Economists at Wells Fargo estimate that a sustained 50 percent rise in oil prices — similar to the current situation — would have had about twice the effect in the 1980s as it would today, when it’s expected to trim about one percentage point from annual consumer spending growth. The United States has also become the world’s largest oil and gas producer. Rather than depend on supply from the Middle East, the rest of the world now consumes petroleum products that are fracked from North Dakota and West Texas.
Why Trump has his sights on Iran’s Kharg Island — and what it means for the oil market
Related: Trump weighing options to strike Iran’s critical oil hub, UN Ambassador Waltz says — CNBC
President Donald Trump’s order to strike Iranian military assets on Kharg Island has thrust one of Tehran’s most critical oil hubs into the center of the escalating U.S.-Iran conflict. Trump said the strikes, carried out Friday night, targeted military facilities and spared oil infrastructure. But he warned the United States could attack crude facilities on the island if Iran continues attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping artery for global energy supplies.
“The strike on the military facilities of Kharg was meant to serve as a warning shot to Tehran. If it doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the oil infrastructure on the island would be next,” Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights, told CNBC in an email on Monday.
The Oil Tankers Trump Seized Are Costing the U.S. Millions of Dollars*
The seizures have put the U.S. government in a financial bind. The ships are highly expensive to maintain. And the Trump administration cannot legally sell their oil without a judge’s permission. Maintaining the seized tankers has already cost the United States tens of millions of dollars — in one case, $47 million in only three months — and complicates Mr. Trump’s claims of swift financial victories from his military operations targeting Venezuela and Iran. The situation is laid bare in U.S. District Court in Washington, where Trump officials are detailing the financial burden of maintaining a seized tanker.
Consider the case of Motor Tanker Skipper No. 9304667. The United States seized the tanker and its more than 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan petroleum on Dec. 10 as it made its way from Venezuela to Asia. Since then, the costs to maintain the tanker and its oil have mounted. The government has already spent $47 million repairing and maintaining the aging ship, which is only valued at $10 million, federal prosecutors said in a court filing. And it will most likely need to spend another $5 million over the next few months to cover insurance and crew, among other costs.
Moreover, storing the ship’s oil costs the government $15,000 per day, or about $450,000 per month. “I know that aircrafts, vessels and cargos pose unique challenges in asset management,” Gene Patton, a top Justice Department official, wrote in a court filing. “These assets have maintenance and storage costs that far outstrip standard assets. The larger assets in these categories are particularly challenging to maintain, as crews may need to be retained for around the clock servicing, and only limited locations can store such items.”
He Was Chevron’s Man in Venezuela—and a CIA Informant*
In the months before President Trump moved to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Central Intelligence Agency turned to an old friend for advice on who should replace the autocratic leftist. Former Chevron executive Ali Moshiri told the agency that if the U.S. government tried to oust the entire Maduro regime and install the democratic opposition led by María Corina Machado it would have another quagmire like Iraq on its hands, according to people familiar with the matter. She didn’t have the support of the country’s security services or control of its oil infrastructure, Moshiri argued.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Yahoo! News – March 13, 2026
Houston controller’s office says city’s electricity costs have risen over 40%
Energy costs in Houston have risen significantly, and will cost the city $131 million this fiscal year, according to the controller’s office. The increase is an approximately 40% increase from the previous fiscal year.
The change is due to multiple factors including a 2021 storm that tore through the Houston area, according to the controller’s office. “So, as a result of Winter Storm Uri, the state of Texas passed policies and reforms to help stabilize the grid and as a result of that, those costs have to be passed down to the customers,” City of Houston Deputy Controller Will Jones.
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E&E News By Politico – March 13, 2026
Texas floats plan to ease data center approvals*
Texas regulators moved Thursday to pare back proposed requirements for data centers seeking to connect to the state’s main power grid, although a final decision won’t come this month. A proposal from Chair Thomas Gleeson of the state Public Utility Commission would lower the fees for large loads and add other standards developers can use to show that they have a site ready to go. The proposed rule will be published in the Texas Register, and the PUC will accept comments on it until April 17.
If a project meets the minimum — or “gating” — requirements proposed by the PUC, it would be included in the first tranche of sites studied and potentially granted the ability to interconnect to the grid managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Officials with ERCOT and the PUC are juggling calls to make sure Texas has reliable electricity without causing a surge in prices as new demand comes online and requires expanded energy infrastructure. “I think it’s appropriate to take all these gating issues that we’ve been talking about and try to find ways that we can align the regulatory commitments we’re looking for with the commercial milestones and the development process for these large loads,” Gleeson said during Thursday’s open meeting.
KXXV – March 15, 2026
Neighbors fight plan for 200-foot power transmission towers crossing Texas landscape.
Homeowners across multiple Texas counties are pushing back against a proposed high-voltage power transmission line that planners say is essential to meet growing electricity demand in Texas, but which residents say would devastate their properties and the surrounding landscape.
The “Bell County East to Big Hill 765 kV Transmission Project” would connect to a new substation planned near Eldorado and traverse 194 miles of countryside across Schleicher, Menard, McCullough, San Saba, Burnet, Lampasas and Bell counties, ending at the Bell County East Switch substation in Temple. The Lower Colorado River Authority and Oncor are proposing the project to bring electricity to fast-growing areas of the Permian Basin.
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Dallas Morning News – March 15, 2026
The Texas lithium boom that wasn’t … or at least not yet*
The Lone Star State is already a literal powerhouse that bestrides domestic energy production. Lithium — the stuff that consumer technology, electric vehicle batteries and solar panels are made of — is in abundant supply around the world and here at home, including Texas. There’s an estimated 9 million tons of the alkali metal scattered in reserves around the U.S.; while we don’t have nearly as much as Australia, China or other countries abroad, that hasn’t stopped an enterprising number of domestic players from vying to tap into the emerging market.
Except that trend has now lost momentum, and the economics of a would-be gold rush are running headlong into reality. Once upon a time, lithium was seen as the avatar of a green energy economy that got lots of attention and subsidies from the Biden administration — but has had the rug largely pulled out from it as EV demand has tumbled, and as President Donald Trump has pulled back on government-funded initiatives his predecessor championed.
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Utility Dive – March 13, 2026
PJM is now using ambient-adjusted transmission ratings. Other grid operators will soon follow.
The PJM Interconnection is the first grid operator to fully adopt “ambient air” adjusted transmission line ratings, a measurement that can allow for fuller use of a transmission line’s capacity, PJM said Monday. PJM started using hourly ambient-adjusted ratings, or AARs, across its system on March 4.
“PJM systems now leverage new, complex and dynamic data sets of line ratings that update every hour according to a stream of weather data of ambient air temperatures with forecasts up to 10 days ahead,” the grid operator said. “PJM system changes also synchronized markets functions to adapt to the new advanced data structures and dispatch methods.” AARs can increase capacity on transmission lines by 15% to 40% compared with static ratings, according to Ampacimon, a grid technology company.
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Utility Dive – March 13, 2026
IOUs work to interconnect 39 GW of data center, manufacturing load: EEI
Investor-owned utilities are working to connect at least 39 GW of publicly announced data centers and other large loads across the United States, the Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade group, told federal regulators on Thursday.
“We continue to underscore the importance of crafting federal policies that build upon, rather than disrupt, existing forward progress, including state processes and stakeholder efforts,” Drew Maloney, EEI president and CEO, said in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “We are committed to ensuring the timely interconnection of large loads while also ensuring benefits and protection for all customers and the grid.”
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Utility Dive – March 13, 2026
‘Clear warning signs’ as PJM wholesale power costs jump 54% in one year
There are “clear warning signs” for the PJM Interconnection’s capacity market and for grid reliability in its footprint largely driven by data center development, the grid operator’s independent market monitor said Thursday.
On the reliability front, PJM’s last two base capacity auctions show a growing shortfall compared to its reserve margin targets. The gap was about 210 MW in the 2026/2027 auction, rising to about 6,520 MW in the 2027/2028 auction, Monitoring Analytics noted in its annual report on PJM’s markets. At the same time, the price impacts have been large and will continue to grow “until the issues associated with the additions of large data center loads are addressed,” it said. Last year, wholesale power in PJM cost $67 billion, up 54% from $43.5 billion in 2024, according to the report.
Regulatory
Politico – March 13, 2026
Federal court U-turns on Texas smog plan ruling*
A federal appellate court, in a rare reversal of an earlier decision, has found that EPA erred in rejecting a Texas plan for meeting federal smog regulations. In a unanimous opinion issued Friday, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited factors that included EPA’s own recent about-face in concluding that the agency was wrong to reject the state’s plan for satisfying “good neighbor” requirements tied to compliance with the 2015 ozone pollution standard.
The panel, led by Judge Priscilla Richman, accordingly withdrew its opinion from last March upholding EPA’s earlier disapproval of the state plan. In the new ruling, the panel retained its earlier finding that EPA also erred in disapproving Mississippi’s plan, but — on procedural grounds — upheld the disapproval of Louisiana’s good neighbor blueprint. Richman, an appointee of President George W. Bush, pointed to an EPA proposal released in January that seeks to undo similar Biden-era disapprovals of plans submitted by Alabama and four other states by relying on a different analytical framework.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 13, 2026
An Easy Fix to a Clinton Energy Error: Michael Buschbache, James Conde*
Bipartisan consensus these days is rare. But Republicans and some Democrats agree on at least one thing: We’re going to need a lot more energy fast if the U.S. wants to reduce soaring electricity costs. That means building natural-gas plants. The biggest obstacle is counterproductive regulation. A comprehensive permitting fix will require action by Congress, but the Trump administration can quickly remove one big roadblock. That roadblock arises from a program called Prevention of Significant Deterioration. It extended the Clean Air Act to areas that already have clean air—ones that meet the protective “national ambient air quality standards” set by the Environmental Protection Agency. It requires a labyrinthine permitting process any time a “major emitting facility” is built, requiring air-quality modeling and public hearings. Antigrowth nonprofits can sue to stop permits, attack companies for noncompliance, and seek civil penalties.
Why would Congress want to punish industrial development in clean areas? Because heavily polluted industrial states (primarily on the East and West coasts) that had to comply with the Clean Air Act’s red tape wanted to prevent industry from migrating to cleaner areas, so they insisted on red tape for all. The result is that the industry packed up and went overseas. The program singles out a list of industrial facilities for disfavor, setting a low threshold for the permitting requirements to kick in. Among these facilities are what the law labels “fossil-fueled fired steam electric plants,” or what most people would call coal plants. Notably, one thing not included in that naughty list is gas turbines. Enter the combined-cycle natural-gas plant. First commercialized in the 1970s, these ingenious plants fire a natural-gas turbine and use the resulting waste heat to power a steam turbine, resulting in a combined efficiency of more than 60%, compared with about 42% for a simple gas turbine.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Friday March 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 headed for weekly gains as of Friday, despite the U.S. trying to ease supply concerns by issuing a 30-day license for countries to buy Russian oil and petroleum products stranded at sea.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for April was up by 94 cents, or 1.0%, at $96.67 a barrel, poised for more than a 6% uptick for the week.
Brent futures for May rose $1.02, or 1%, to $101.48 a barrel at 0730 GMT, heading for a weekly increase of nearly 10%.
The license was issued in what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said was a step to stabilise global energy markets roiled by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, but analysts said this has failed to resolve wider supply constraints.
“ICE Brent futures have already breached $100 per barrel and are still supported today, despite moves to calm the markets with the Russian oil waiver and the unprecedented release of emergency stockpiles,” said Emril Jamil, senior analyst at LSEG.
“The market sees this as a short-term solution that does not address the crux of the supply disruption. The crude intermonth spreads for future months indicate an unresolved and continued tightness in supply,” Jamil said.
Top Stories
Texas Tribune – March 12, 2026
A plan to get more electricity to West Texas may come undone
If Texas wants to continue to be a leader in oil, the Permian Basin needs more energy. That’s the warning influential trade groups representing oil companies have been telling state lawmakers and regulators for years. A dearth of power plants and transmission lines connecting the region to the rest of the state’s grid means there isn’t enough electricity to power field operations, such as compressors and oil pumps.
In 2023, lawmakers offered a solution that spelled out a dramatic expansion of electricity transmission infrastructure in the Permian Basin, the state’s biggest oil field. “Texas’ thriving production is driving the state’s success,” the Texas Oil and Gas Association, a statewide trade group whose membership makes up roughly 90% of the state’s crude oil and natural gas market, wrote to regulators charged with designing that plan. “And a reliable electricity supply is crucial to sustaining this industry.”
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Investing – March 12, 2026
CME Group CEO warns against US intervention in oil futures markets*
The chief executive of CME Group warned the Trump administration against intervening in derivative markets to lower oil prices during the war with Iran, saying such action could trigger a “biblical disaster,” according to report from the Financial Times. Terry Duffy, who leads CME Group, the exchange where US oil futures trade, told a conference in Boca Raton, Florida, this week that government intervention in the futures market would erode market confidence if used to curb the rise in crude prices.
“Markets do not like it when governments intervene in pricing,” Duffy said at the conference. He warned that investors losing confidence in markets to set the price of critical commodities would risk a “biblical disaster.” Duffy’s remarks came after a report suggested the US Treasury was considering measures to lower oil prices, including intervention in futures markets.
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Trump weighs Jones Act waiver amid rising fuel prices, White House says
Related: “The Trump Administration is looking for ways to mitigate rising U.S. gasoline prices caused by the war. That includes suspending the 1920 Jones Act, and ponder that irony: Because of a war, the President may suspend a law that was intended to protect national security” — The Wall Street Journal*
The Trump administration is prepared to waive the Jones Act to loosen shipping rules as the Iran war continues, the White House said Thursday. The 100-year-old statute requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be carried on ships that are U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed, and it limits the number of tankers domestic shippers can use.
“In the interest of national defense, the White House is considering waiving the Jones Act for a limited period of time to ensure vital energy products and agricultural necessities are flowing freely to U.S. ports,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to CBS News. “This action has not been finalized.”
Bloomberg – March 13, 2026
The White House’s Oil-Restraint Toolbox Is Empty: Javier Blas*
Despite President Donald Trump’s blustering that America benefits when oil prices surge, crunch time is fast approaching for both the war and the energy market. He either ends the conflict quickly, or sky-high energy costs will force him to do so. The oil market may not have the same fearsome reputation as the bond market but, trust me, it can be equally savage in twisting a politician’s arm. This week, the White House earned some breathing space thanks to the release of emergency reserves, plus the use of pipelines bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. But the extra time is measured in days, rather than weeks. Certainly, Trump does not have months.
My working assumption is that the oil market will add $3 to $6 a barrel to the headline price for every day — every single day — that the war continues. Monday to Friday, that’s $15-$30. It’s bearable for another week, perhaps two, but any longer and the world will start to incur serious economic damage through soaring energy costs. Short of a very risky — and possibly illegal — intervention in the oil futures market, the White House doesn’t have more meaningful tools to wield to bring energy prices down.
Do I believe the Trump administration is seriously thinking about interfering with the futures market? You bet. Even the Biden administration considered it in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, before realizing it was too hazardous and unlikely to succeed.
The White House has already thrown everything it can at the problem. Sure, it can ask Congress to scrap federal fuel taxes, as Biden did in 2022. But that would take time — and may ultimately not win sufficient votes. US states, particularly those under Republican control, may also announce their own fuel-tax holidays, as some Democratic states did three years ago. Trump can waive some environmental rules for gasoline and diesel too. All those measures would buy time at home — but internationally, the damage from rising oil prices would continue. The White House, cornered, may try another tool: an export ban on US oil and refined products. That would certainly crash domestic prices, but send global ones soaring. It would be a tremendous mistake.
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Inside Climate News – March 12, 2026
Recent attacks in the Middle East on desalination plants, facilities that remove salt from seawater, raise the potential for a humanitarian crisis if the region’s freshwater production facilities are subjected to more widespread destruction. The attacks also underscore the region’s heavy reliance on an energy-intensive method of producing drinking water that is powered almost entirely by fossil fuels.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States of striking a desalination plant in southern Iran. The U.S. has since denied any role in the attack. The next day, Bahrain accused Iran of damaging a desalination plant in a drone attack. The targeting of freshwater production facilities follows attacks on schools, airports, hotels and refineries since U.S Operation Epic Fury began in February. Attacking desalination plants is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which established humanitarian laws for the treatment of non-combatants in war.
The Latest TERse Tips
An investigation is underway after HAZMAT responds to plant fire in Pasadena, officials say — KTRK
Strait of Hormuz must remain closed as ‘tool to pressure enemy,’ Iran’s new supreme leader says — CNBC
Iran targets Turkey’s Incirlik air base housing US nuclear bombs — India TV News
Fertilizer Stocks Jump With Shipments Stuck at the Strait of Hormuz — investors flock to U.S. fertilizer producers, which can access cheap natural gas; farmers are expected to shift to less-dependent crops — The Wall Street Journal*
Trump Administration Sues California in Bid to Nix Car Pollutant Rules — the lawsuit is the latest move in the climate skirmish between the federal government and California — The Wall Street Journal*
Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) is modernizing how it keeps the lights on with the launch of a new drone‑based inspection program that gives crews a faster, sharper view of vegetation near power lines — Gilmer Mirror
Italy’s AB Energy USA is establishing its headquarters in The Woodlands, taking over the last open space that was available in the 31-story former Anadarko tower — KHOU
Fitch Ratings has assigned a ‘BBB+’ rating to Sempra’s senior unsecured notes — Fitch
Texas Railroad Commission chairman discusses challenges facing state’s oil industry — KWTX
Oil & Gas Texas
Energy Now – March 12, 2026
US Natgas Prices at Waha Hub in Texas Remain Negative for Record 25th Day
U.S. spot natural gas prices for Thursday at the Waha Hub in the Permian Shale in West Texas closed in negative territory for a record 25th straight day as pipeline constraints trap gas in the nation’s biggest oil-producing basin, prompting some analysts to project that gas production could be reduced in the short term.
Longer-term, energy firms will likely boost Permian output when more gas pipes enter service as soaring oil prices from the Iran war encourage oil and associated gas production, and as gas demand rises to feed fast-growing U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and to produce electricity for power-hungry data centers running artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
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World Oil – March 11, 2026
U.S. Gulf lease sale draws $47 million in bids for 25 offshore blocks
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) generated nearly $47 million in high bids during its latest Gulf offshore oil and gas lease sale, reflecting continued industry interest in exploration acreage on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. Lease Sale Big Beautiful Gulf 2 (BBG2) attracted 38 bids from 13 companies for 25 blocks covering about 141,000 acres in federal waters of the Gulf.
Interior officials said the sale was the second offshore lease auction required under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which mandates additional lease sales to support domestic energy development. “Today’s lease sale reflects President Trump’s continued focus on strengthening America’s energy security while supporting jobs and economic growth across the Gulf of America,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “By advancing responsible offshore development, we’re ensuring that the United States remains a global energy leader and that American families benefit from reliable, affordable energy for years to come.”
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Houston Chronicle – March 12, 2026
Trump announced a $300 billion refinery project in Texas. Industry experts are skeptical.*
Brownsville may be getting a long-promised crude refinery, the nation’s first new oil refinery in almost 50 years. President Donald Trump announced the $300 billion project, to be funded by Reliance Industries, an Indian refining company owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, on Truth Social this week. But because of the more than decade-long attempt to get a light crude refinery built in Brownsville and the financial risk associated with such a project, the announcement has been met with some skepticism.
“It doesn’t seem to me that the U.S. Gulf Coast really needs another refinery, especially down in Brownsville,” said Andy Lipow, head of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates. Here’s what to know about the eyebrow-raising announcement. The project is the latest iteration of a nearly decadelong attempt by multiple companies to launch a 160,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Brownsville.
Companies have for years failed to get the necessary funding or struggled to obtain and maintain the necessary permits from entities such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Not only does a project of this magnitude require serious financial backing but it would also mean needing to build a pipeline to get crude to the Brownsville site — another hurdle bound by red tape. The project’s price tag would be a steep climb, but “project announcements are cheap,” Lipow said.
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Reuters – March 12, 2026
Chevron sells stake in Angola’s Block 14, 14K to Energean for $260 million*
Energean on Thursday said it would acquire Chevron’s interests in two offshore Angola oil blocks for a base consideration of $260 million, as the Mediterranean-focused gas producer follows through on its plan to build out a hub in West Africa. Energean has been increasing investment to lift production amid geopolitical disruptions and is evaluating new M&A opportunities in the region as it seeks to expand its portfolio.
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Energean to buy Chevron’s 31% operated interest in Block 14 and 15.5% non-operated interest in Block 14K, backdated to January 1 and pending approvals
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Last year, a fire at a production platform in Block 14 killed three people
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The deal is expected to be immediately cash flow accretive
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In addition to the base consideration, Energean will make contingent payments of up to $25 million per annum, capped at $250 million
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The Wall Street Journal – March 22, 2026
President Trump’s Head-Spinning Pivot on an Emergency Oil Release*
In a rapid reversal that left U.S. allies stunned, the Trump administration shifted from opposing the largest-ever intervention in oil markets to cajoling allies into moving forward with the maneuver in a matter of hours. Tensions in the global oil market seemed to be easing on Tuesday just as Western governments and their allies were debating a major release of emergency oil reserves to calm prices. President Trump said the war with Iran would be over soon, and some European nations were questioning whether governments should intervene at all, U.S. and European officials familiar with the discussion said. According to the officials, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright gave his counterparts in the Group of Seven nations the White House’s position Tuesday morning: A massive intervention in oil markets was premature because the price of oil had recently dipped below $90 a barrel.
Less than two hours later, U.S. officials reversed their earlier position and pushed their counterparts for a major release of oil, said people familiar with the matter. The 180-degree turn was entirely due to a change of heart by President Trump, said a senior administration official. Wright’s earlier stance reflected Trump’s views, according to the administration official. The president began the day opposed to release of oil, but changed his mind after advisers persuaded him that such a move was necessary to quell volatile oil prices, the official said. Trump told Wright to push for market intervention. “It is 100 percent incorrect that Secretary Wright advocated against a release at the IEA meeting Tuesday,” an Energy Department spokesman said. “In fact, quite the opposite, he rallied the member nations to support President Trump’s plan.”
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Houston Chronicle – March 12, 2026
The Iran war might end soon. Your high gas prices won’t, according to a new report: Chris Tomlinson*
President Donald Trump may end the attack on Iran soon, but the price of gasoline will remain high for months to come. The U.S. Energy Information Administration released its short-term outlook on Tuesday, predicting that gasoline will average $3.34 a gallon in 2026, about 24 cents higher than last year. The government agency expects the prices to average $3.18 a gallon in 2027. But that’s only if the fighting in the Middle East ends within weeks, and the international benchmark price known as Brent drops quickly afterward.
“We forecast the Brent crude oil price will remain above $95 a barrel over the next two months, before falling below $80 a barrel in the third quarter of 2026 and around $70 a barrel by the end of the year,” the outlook’s authors wrote. The U.S. military is capable of massive destruction with just a few weeks of strikes, but the repercussions of war can last for months or years. After U.S. taxpayers pay the $10 billion bill for the first 10 days of fighting, they will keep paying for the war through higher fuel bills for months. The higher prices will not stay around long enough, though, to significantly boost the U.S. oil industry’s production.
“We expect U.S. crude oil production will average 13.6 million barrels per day in 2026 and rise to 13.8 million barrels per day in 2027,” the report said. “Our 2027 forecast is 0.5 million barrels a day higher than last month’s forecast.” Higher energy costs, including higher electricity bills from inflated natural gas prices, will slow the global economy. Oil prices are up 20%, which typically raises the inflation rate by about 0.6 percentage points. Based on February’s consumer price index rise of 2.4% over last year, inflation will likely rise to 3% this month.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – March 12, 2026
Oman port closure cuts off last ammonia export route from Middle East
The Omani port of Salalah on the Arabian Sea has been closed “until further notice,” according to a customer advisory from the port, suggesting no ammonia can be exported from the Middle East, the world’s largest export region. “All terminal operations have been temporarily suspended until further notice,” the advisory, issued March 11, said.
The closure comes after a drone strike on fuel tanks at the port on March 11, according to Oman state media. OQ Trading uses Salalah port to export ammonia from the Salalah Methanol Company, most recently to Jordan. The 26,000-metric ton gas carrier Gas Ammon, chartered by OQ Trading, is due at Salalah on March 15, according to S&P Global Energy shipping data.
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Dallas Morning News – March 12, 2026
Oil spike fuels ‘existential threat’ for airlines, higher ticket costs for travelers*
Gas pumps aren’t the only place where inflation-weary consumers will feel the pain of soaring energy costs. The Iran war’s fallout has sent oil prices on a historic tear above $100 and is ricocheting across major airlines, which are all but certain to hike ticket prices in response. The moves come just as spring break shifts into high gear, and flyers are planning their summer vacations amid affordability concerns. As a result, prospective air travelers could feel a hit to their wallets, as carriers grapple with skyrocketing jet fuel prices, which are linked to international crude prices that are being pushed up by the war in Iran.
Recently, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told The Wall Street Journal that surging energy costs could cause fares to jump. While it remains unclear how U.S. airlines plan to handle the fallout stemming from the conflict, some global carriers are already taking drastic action as the war creates a logjam of crucial oil and gas supplies in the Strait of Hormuz. Cathay Pacific said it is hiking fuel charges for most flights, according to an AFP report. Air France-KLM is raising long-haul ticket prices due to the oil spike, according to Reuters.
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gCaptain – March 10, 2026
Electronic Fog of War: GPS Spoofing Distorts Ship Traffic Near Hormuz
Satellite navigation interference detected near the United Arab Emirates coast is creating the appearance of vessels sailing in straight lines toward the Strait of Hormuz—even though the ships are not actually following those tracks—according to new analysis from vessel-tracking platform MarineTraffic. The anomaly was first observed around 15:00 UTC off Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, where vessel positions began appearing in long linear patterns inconsistent with normal ship navigation.
“Unlike the typical single-point clustering commonly associated with signal jamming, this interference creates the appearance of vessels moving in a straight line toward the Strait of Hormuz, even though the vessels are not actually following that trajectory,” MarineTraffic said.
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Politico – March 12, 2026
Five reasons oil prices won’t snap back from Iran war
Trump may have started the war — but he doesn’t have the power to unilaterally end it. The Iranians have not publicly stated that they will quickly agree to stop their attacks. In the last week, they have increasingly targeted the region’s energy infrastructure, which could cause a major jump in oil prices and a longer period of uncertainty if they persist. In response to Trump’s comments, Revolutionary Guard spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini on Tuesday told Iranian state media that “Iran will determine when the war ends.”
Iranian officials are keenly aware of the political pressure Trump faces at home as long as gas prices at the pump remain elevated. Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, said the spike in global oil prices showed that the regime would not capitulate if the U.S. and Israel continued to target oil infrastructure. “9 days into Operation Epic Mistake, oil prices have doubled while all commodities are skyrocketing,” he wrote on X. “We know the U.S. is plotting against our oil and nuclear sites in hopes of containing huge inflationary shock. Iran is fully prepared. And we, too, have many surprises in store.”
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The New York Times – March 22, 2026
Trump Removes Sanctions on Russia to Help Oil Flow Amid Iran Conflict*
The United States on Thursday temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil that is currently at sea, allowing it to be shipped to buyers around the world as the Trump administration scrambles to contain energy prices that have been soaring because of the war in Iran. The exemptions, which were issued by the Treasury Department, will be in place until April 11. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent estimated that freeing Russian oil could add hundreds of millions of barrels of crude to global markets, curbing prices that have been hovering near $100 per barrel as a result of the Iran conflict.
The decision was a significant turning point in America’s effort to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine. Russia has faced punishing sanctions from the United States and the rest of the Group of 7 advanced economies since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Those sanctions have included a price cap on Russian oil and a crackdown on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of unmarked vessels that oil exporters have used to evade sanctions.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 12, 2026
Emboldened by Oil Shock, Iran’s Leaders Play Diplomatic Hardball*
Arab diplomats trying to find a diplomatic path out of the war now being waged by the U.S. and Israel against Iran say Tehran, emboldened by its ability to rattle the global economy by choking oil shipments, has laid out steep preconditions for any return to talks. Iran is demanding that the airstrikes stop before it entertains cease-fire discussions and wants firm guarantees that it won’t be attacked again if it agrees to stop the fight, Arab diplomats said. It also wants reparations for damages and is hoping to get U.S. forces to disengage from the region. The demands are part of a broader public expression of confidence—whether real or feigned—in recent days.
After nearly two weeks of intense American and Israeli airstrikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, sank much of the Iranian navy and hit its missile sites, Iran’s leadership appears to be firmly in control and capable of landing blows against its neighbors. Its military continues to score hits on targets around the region, including a number of tankers and cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of world oil shipments. The attacks are aimed at driving oil prices higher and have succeeded in spiking benchmark prices above $100 a barrel for a period.
New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first statement since being selected to replace his father, vowed to attack U.S. bases in the Middle East and keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. Iranian officials believe President Trump is feeling the heat from global markets and said their leaders aren’t interested in surrendering. They have told Arab diplomats that any deal would have to guarantee safety for all, or there would be safety for none. That high-risk, escalatory strategy is aimed at deterring future attacks on a regime that feels its survival is in acute danger. The country’s hard-line leaders aren’t likely to quit until they feel their point has been heard, which could herald a dragged-out conflict even after the U.S. decides it is ready to wrap things up.
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The Hill – March 12, 2026
Why naval escorts through Strait of Hormuz are so risky
The U.S. has yet to begin escorting oil tankers through the treacherous Strait of Hormuz, something that increasingly looks like a high-risk proposition during the war with Iran. President Trump, who floated using escorts to reopen the waterway and avoid an oil crisis amid soaring global prices, so far has held off, opting instead for strikes against mine-laying vessels near the strait.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also deferred on any timeline for such a mission, saying Thursday it was his belief that the Navy, along with a possible international coalition, will begin escorting vessels through the Strait of Hormuz “as soon as it is militarily possible.” “It is a prospect as soon as … it is possible to ensure safe passage,” he told Sky News. The hesitation betrays the dangerous nature of inserting American warships into the waters just off the Iranian coast, where they face direct attack by drones or shore-to-ship ballistic missiles as retaliation for the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war in the country, experts say.
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Marketplace – March 12, 2026
Without Middle East crude, some CA refineries have to shut down
Iran’s new leader said Thursday that the country will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. Oil prices jumped in response. Brent Crude, which is basically the type of oil that’s no longer flowing out of the Mideast, flirted with $100 a barrel. Even with more than 170 million barrels of oil being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, some of the refineries that convert crude oil into consumable energy just don’t have access to the raw material they need. The war could end up causing many refineries to shut down production. The kind of oil that’s getting cut off by this conflict mostly goes to Asia.
“A lot of that crude goes to China, Malaysia, Singapore. India is very important also,” said Anna Mikulska, head of analytics at CGCN Group. She said some Middle Eastern crude also heads to refineries in California. “California has imported a lot of its crude from Iraq, for example. This is a lot of barrels that California will have a problem replacing,” Mikulska said. Refineries there can’t just switch to the heavier, sulfur-rich oil that comes from western Canada, because they aren’t set up to handle it.
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The New York Times – March 22, 2026
War in Iran Has India Wondering How to Keep Its Stovetops Lit*
In kitchens across India, the familiar blue flame of a gas stove symbolizes both modern convenience and successful policymaking. This week, that flame flickered. War in the Middle East has threatened the supply of the liquefied petroleum gas that powers India’s homes, restaurants and industries. The immediate anxiety is about cooking gas, for the billion-plus Indians who rely on it every day. Worries are growing over India’s dependence on an imported fuel, the delayed efforts to protect household supplies and a panic that may have worsened the disruption.
India is the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas, after China, burning about 31 million tons a year. Roughly 60 percent of that is imported, mostly via the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that provides passage from the Persian Gulf to the open sea. The rest is made in India, mainly as a byproduct from crude-oil processing. When missiles started flying between Iran and the Arab states on Feb. 28, in the aftermath of attacks by the United States and Israel, shipping through the strait came to a halt. In the following days, rumors of a shortage of liquefied petroleum gas ricocheted across India’s cities, setting off hoarding and a brisk black market in the metal cylinders used to transport the gas. The government’s initial response consisted of the occasional reassuring social-media post by a cabinet minister.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 22, 2026
Trump’s Energy Triumph: Kimberley A. Strassel*
The Democratic-media complex seems determined to get everything wrong about Iran, though few efforts compare with this week’s work to tag the Trump administration with a global energy crisis. Not only is this uninformed and overdone, the sudden concern over energy security comes about three years late. The undermine-America crowd describes Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as an “oil shock” that is “spiraling,” “chaotic” and the “worst in history.” It seems to have evaded this crew that Iran’s bombardment of peaceful trading vessels is yet more justification of U.S. strikes. Iran’s been using energy threats to manipulate geopolitics for decades and won’t stop until it is fully defanged.
They are blaming the administration, in particular Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whom Politico described as the “vaunted” team “in danger of fumbling the biggest energy crisis” of Donald Trump’s second term. The go-to quote comes from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who ranted that “on the Strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN. . . . Which is unforgiveable, because this part of the disaster was 100% foreseeable.”
Let’s talk about plans. That the U.S. was finally in a position to disarm Iran is largely thanks to a plan Mr. Trump initiated in his first term—to gain energy independence, which his team is now turning into energy dominance. Trump policies turbocharged a shale revolution that made the U.S. a net exporter of petroleum products and the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. Alongside was Mr. Trump’s plan to foster economic and security ties in the region against shared threats like Iran via deals like the Abraham Accords.
We are no longer hostage to Middle East fossil-fuel threats, which gives us room to weather temporary Hormuz disruptions. Domestic gasoline prices have spiked but are still notably below their highs during Joe Biden’s term. Thanks to growing U.S. exports, our allies are better positioned against fallout. And Gulf actors are working alongside the U.S. to mitigate Iran’s blockade. Some of us remember “OPEC embargo” days. No more.
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March 12, 2026
Will Trump ‘Fight to Win’ in Iran?: The Wall Street Journal*
‘We have to start winning wars again. . . . And now we never win a war. We never win. And we don’t fight to win. We don’t fight to win. You either got to win or don’t fight it at all.”
President Trump spoke those words in February 2017, a sentiment he has often repeated. We hope he recalls them now as Iran escalates its retaliation and imposes costs on the U.S. and the world economy. Will Mr. Trump still fight to win? Two weeks into the conflict, Israel and the U.S. continue their steady degrading of Iran’s terror infrastructure. The early days had to target Iran’s air defenses and missile forces. Its navy has largely been destroyed. The regime’s forces of repression—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the basij paramilitary—are under daily siege.
The regime’s strategy in response is now clear: Target the production of oil in the Persian Gulf and its flow through the Strait of Hormuz. If it can raise the price of oil high enough for long enough, it believes it can force Mr. Trump to call off the bombing campaign. Iran’s advantage—its only one—is that it can employ asymmetric means to impose that economic pain. Drones are cheap to produce and hard to intercept when they swarm a target. Mines can be laid cheaply, and do great damage to U.S. ships if undetected. The U.S. hasn’t been as prepared to counter these threats as it has been against Iranian missiles. Any ideas, Secretary Hegseth?
The result has been the near total closure of the Strait of Hormuz for non-Iranian oil, a surge in the global price to $100 a barrel, and panic in financial markets and the press. Even from their bunkers, Iran’s remaining leaders can see this Western anxiety. Their bet is that if they can cause Mr. Trump to blink first, they will emerge from the war with a sword over the Gulf they can use at any time. This is the danger Mr. Trump faces as he contemplates when to end the war. Iran has threatened Gulf oil production for decades, and that potential threat has built a risk premium into the oil price. But if the war ends with that threat having been proven in practice, with the U.S. unable to do anything about it, the U.S. will be the strategic loser. The deterrent effect of enforcing Mr. Trump’s red lines will be diminished, if not evanescent.
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Hawaii Tribune Herald – March 11, 2026
International oil majors Chevron and Shell are closing in on the first big oil production deals with Venezuela since the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro in January, five sources close to the negotiations told Reuters.
The deals would allow both companies to boost production in coveted oil regions in the South American country, the biggest steps to date toward what U.S. President Donald Trump has said would be a $100 billion effort to rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry after decades of mismanagement and underinvestment under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez. Venezuela’s National Assembly in late January approved a sweeping reform of the country’s main oil law. It now grants foreign companies autonomy to operate, export and sell Venezuelan oil even when they are minority partners of state-owned oil company PDVSA.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Oil Price – March 12, 2026
Tesla Wins License to Supply Electricity Across the UK
Tesla has been granted approval to supply electricity to homes and businesses across the UK, opening the door for the electric vehicle giant to enter the country’s retail energy market. Energy regulator Ofgem confirmed on Thursday that Tesla Energy Ventures Limited, a subsidiary of Musk’s company, has been granted an electricity supply licence by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority under the Electricity Act 1989. The licence allows the company to supply electricity to both domestic and non-domestic customers in England, Scotland and Wales.
Ofgem said the approval followed a seven-month application and assessment process that ran from July 2025 to March 2026. The licence formally took effect on Wednesday evening, after Tesla was informed of the decision and the instrument was entered into Ofgem’s electronic public register. As a licensed supplier, Tesla Energy Ventures has to comply with the sector’s standard licence conditions.
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Spectrum News – March 12, 2026
Dallas considers Atmos Energy’s request for 10% rate increase
Atmos Energy is seeking approval from Dallas city leaders for a 10% rate increase that would raise natural gas bills for customers across the city. The proposal would increase the average residential bill by about $11 per month or roughly $135 per year. The company says the increase is needed to support continued investment in infrastructure and maintain safe, reliable service.
Dallas resident Nikki Stephens said winter utility bills already strain many households, particularly after severe weather earlier this year. “Usually, it’s around $300-$350 for winter months, especially January,” Stephens said. Outside of those colder months, Stephens said her gas bill remains relatively consistent. “It’s just something that you expect,” she said.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 12, 2026
The Electric Grid Needs Huge Upgrades. No One Knows Who Will Pay for Them.*
The U.S. power industry is embarking on an AI-driven expansion of the electric grid, a build-out that promises to be one of the most expensive since World War II. Some of the costs are set to be shared between power-gobbling AI companies and consumers already bridling at utility bills. President Trump has sought to minimize the extent to which consumers will be forced to pay for new data centers that power the artificial-intelligence boom, but utilities and regulators warn that those measures won’t fully shield consumers from costs associated with long-needed upgrades to the system for transmitting power across the U.S.
Utilities around the country are planning to spend tens of billions of dollars to build new high-voltage transmission lines to carry electricity from power plants over long distances. Many companies this year announced plans to substantially increase capital expenditures to build the new capacity, in large part to serve demand from data centers. Utility and power officials for years have argued for upgrading the aging transmission system, much of which was built to support the postwar population boom in the 1950s and 1960s. But doing so has historically proven pricey and time-consuming because of permitting issues, regional opposition and supply-chain snarls.
Now, as the AI race propels significant electricity-demand growth for the first time in decades, companies are seeking to overcome the hurdles to supply data centers, some of which use the same amount of power as a midsize city. They say the investments are needed to bring new power plants online and ease bottlenecks on the existing grid. Southern Company, which operates electric utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, expects to invest $81 billion in its system over the next five years, a 30% increase from its forecast last year. About $17 billion is earmarked for building and upgrading transmission, said Aaron Abramovitz, the company’s treasurer and senior vice president of finance. “It’s because of growth, it’s because data centers are coming to the Southeast, but it’s also to ensure that we have a reliable energy source for all of our customers,” he said. “As new data centers come to our service territory, we’re making them pay their fair share.”
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Fort Worth Report – March 12, 2026
Residents frustrated with energy company demand details about data center’s carbon footprint
North Texans demanded an energy conglomerate provide information about how plans to build a $10 billion data center in southeast Fort Worth will affect homes and natural resources. Residents, including those from Forest Hill, packed a March 12 town hall hosted by Black Mountain where CEO Rhett Bennett and Bob Riley, a consultant with engineering firm Halff, presented a site plan.
The town hall came after Fort Worth City Council members tabled a vote Tuesday to approve additional rezoning that would give Black Mountain an additional 80 acres for its use. The company requested the delay so it could complete a report describing how the data center campus would impact the city’s infrastructure, Riley said.
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Reuters – March 12, 2026
US Department of Energy to invest $1.9 billion for power grid upgrades
The U.S. Department of Energy will invest about $1.9 billion to accelerate upgrades of power grids in the country, it said on Thursday. U.S. power consumption is set to rise sharply this year and the next, driven by rapid growth in AI and cryptocurrency data centers and increased electrification of heating and transport. However, that demand has also led to higher electricity prices for a large swath of the country.
The DOE said the funding would be used to prepare for the rise in demand and to lower electricity costs for American households and businesses. The selected projects for the funding will need to showcase how reconductoring or replacing existing power lines with higher-capacity conductors, combined with transmission technologies, can bolster the nation’s electric grid.
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Engineering News Record – March 12, 2026
Power Isn’t the Only Electrical Challenge for AI Data Centers
Finding power for data centers is only the beginning. The data centers themselves require significantly more electrical engineering work than any other facility, and there simply aren’t enough engineers, digital designers or contractors in the U.S. to meet current demand. The need for new electricians alone is expected to increase 6% annually, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report last year, and many of those electricians will be working on the 446 new data centers planned for North America by the end of the decade.
This labor shortage is another obstacle to American ambitions to consolidate the nation’s leadership in the artificial intelligence race. The significance of this shortage cannot be overstated because of the prime position electrical systems occupy in data centers: “You can’t do anything without electrical,” one data center developer told me. “ Electrical is the biggest spend in the data center … it can be 45% of the entire spend on the project.” As companies rush to build more power-hungry, complex data centers to meet the nation’s demand for greater computing power, artificial intelligence offers a unique solution to problems of its own creation. These buildings that house the servers, allowing artificial intelligence to “think,” need that intelligence to meet the demand for these services.
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Dallas Morning News – March 12, 2026
Lithium was found deep underground in northeast Texas. Now, there’s a race for who gets it*
Franklin County — Inside his office just off Mt. Vernon’s town square, attorney B.F. Hicks lays a map out on his desk. At speed, he points at different tracts of land, reciting who lives there, what size their property is and which companies he’s heard have sent landmen to knock on their door to negotiate lithium leases. For a few years now, the infiltration of companies into this rural region of Texas searching for lithium – a critical ingredient for storing solar energy and powering electric vehicle batteries – has become a topic of conversation over dinner at the local chophouse or in catching up at the historical society meeting.
Sometimes, it’s behind closed doors as friends, family and neighbors gossip about who’s getting the best offers for their mineral rights. Being an energy frontier for other parts of Texas isn’t new to residents in Franklin and surrounding counties, as some of their backyards have started to fill with solar panel farms and battery energy storage systems, all fuel powering the “green economy.”
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March 12, 2026
With AI demand surging, Texas can’t stand in the way of renewables: Dallas Morning News*
Texas is already the nation’s top wind power producer and is poised to expand solar energy and industrial battery storage this year. But as the state grapples with increased energy demands due to population growth and the influx of large users like crypto mines and massive data centers used to power artificial intelligence, lawmakers must remain open to renewable energy. If they don’t, Texas risks falling behind in the energy race. Texans should not find themselves short on electricity because the grid can’t keep up with demand, whether that demand comes from industry, new residents or millions of people asking chatbots to generate images and answer silly questions.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that Texas will receive about 40% of new solar capacity and 53% of new battery storage capacity added nationwide this year. And much of the new energy expected in Texas is renewable or helps store energy for future use. According to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of the state’s power grid, about 87% of the electric capacity planned to connect to the grid in the next six years are solar, wind or battery plants. Only about 13% are new gas plants. But these alternate sources won’t solve the grid’s reliability challenges alone. Texas will continue to need dispatchable power sources, like natural gas, but blocking other sources of energy would be a mistake. Wind, solar and battery storage are among the fastest ways to add new electricity to the grid at a time when demand is growing rapidly.
Regulatory
Politico – March 12, 2026
Chevron settles with DOJ over biofuels program violations*
Chevron has agreed to shell out a civil penalty after collecting millions of of invalid biofuel production credits in 2022. The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it had struck a settlement agreement with Chevron USA, requiring the oil company to pay a $1 million fine for violating the Clean Air Act’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program. Prior to the settlement, the company had already surrendered about $3.6 million in biofuel production credits to offset its alleged violations, according to a news release.
“Today’s action demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to the Renewable Fuel Standard program by ensuring that Renewable Identification Numbers generated and traded represent actual renewable fuel gallons produced,” Adam Gustafson, principal deputy assistant attorney general at DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement. Under the RFS, companies can generate credits, or RINs, on renewable fuel they produce for use in the United States. The program ensures that a certain volume of renewable fuel replaces fossil fuels used to power vehicles and aircraft and heat homes.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Thursday March 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 surged more than 8% with Brent crude hitting $100 per barrel Thursday, as traders remain unconvinced that release of government stockpiles could offset the massive supply shock triggered by the war in the Middle East
The IEA said Wednesday that its 32 member countries would release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves, marking the biggest coordinated drawdown since the agency was created in the aftermath of the 1973 oil embargo.
West Texas Intermediate crude was up $7.22, or 8.28%, to $94.47.
Brent futures rose $8.54, or 9.28%, to $100.52 a barrel at 0354 GMT.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Iran’s military command said: “Get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security, which you have destabilised,” in remarks directed at the U.S.
There are no signs of a de-escalation in the Gulf and as a result, there is no end in sight to the disruptions to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, ING analysts said on Thursday.
“The only way to see oil prices trade lower on a sustained basis is by getting oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz,” ING said. “Failing to do so means that the market highs are still ahead of us.”
Top Stories
Bloomberg – March 1, 2026
Refiners Hold Off Buying Oil as Prices Surge After Supply Hit*
Refiners are beginning to balk at eye-watering premiums on available oil barrels, threatening to slow down the flow of the world’s most traded commodity as the war in the Middle East upends energy markets. Markups of as much as $40 a barrel above benchmarks in the Middle East, $13 in Brazil and $10 in Azerbaijan — on top of sky-high freight rates — are leading refineries to hold off purchases at a time when many are cutting crude processing and fuel prices are surging. The soaring premiums and hesitation to close deals were related by several traders with direct knowledge of supply talks.
The holdup is just the latest sign that traders and refineries around the world are increasingly scrambling to adjust to the upheaval in a region that accounts for a fifth of global crude supplies. This could further exacerbate the shortages of fuel that are showing up in some markets around the world. Although there’s still ample time left for trades to wrap up this month’s trading cycle, the challenges to replace whatever lost volumes that they can manage are significant. Among the complications are tweaks to a key pricing mechanism for Middle East crude and distortions in the forward price structure that have muddled valuations.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 11, 2026
Escalating Hormuz Crisis Raises Specter of Prolonged Closure*
Escalating Iranian attacks and the U.S. government’s decision to hold off on military escorts for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz are raising the prospect of a prolonged closure that would choke off exports through the world’s most important energy-transport route. On Wednesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck three cargo ships attempting to transit the waterway, the only sea route out of the Persian Gulf. It warned that any other vessels trying to move through the strait also would be targeted.
The U.S. has turned down repeated requests for tanker escorts from oil companies, said officials from Gulf countries. Defense officials say it is too risky to send warships into the confined waters of the strait—which is about 21 miles wide at its narrowest point—until the risks of Iranian fire have receded. American forces have hit Iran’s navy, and its drone and missile crews, in an effort to curb the threat. But Iran is still landing blows. Added to that are the risks of naval mines and Iranian submarines lurking below. With traffic paralyzed as a result, the shutdown of the strait is fast causing a global economic disruption and a major military and political challenge for the Trump administration.
Shippers were bracing for an extended shutdown of the waterway, where traffic could take a long time to recover even after the conflict ends. “It will take time. Not only do we need hostilities to stop, but also shipowners to perceive that the risk to the people on board and to the ships has been materially reduced,” said Jerry Kalogiratos, chief executive of Athens-based Capital Clean Energy Carriers, which transports liquefied natural gas. “Think about the Red Sea: Six months after the Houthis stopped the attacks, and traffic has not normalized,” he said, referring to Yemen’s Iran-backed militants. “It’s all about perception of safety. And we are far away from that.”
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Oil Price – March 11, 2026
Shell and TotalEnergies Issue Force Majeure After Qatar LNG Shut Down
Several major energy traders have begun declaring force majeure to their own customers after Qatar’s LNG shutdown rippled through global gas markets, according to Reuters sources on Wednesday. Companies including Shell and TotalEnergies–both major portfolio players that lift liquefied natural gas from QatarEnergy–have notified downstream buyers that contractual deliveries may be disrupted following Qatar’s suspension of LNG production. The move marks the first clear sign that Qatar’s export stoppage is cascading through the global LNG trading system.
QatarEnergy halted production at its giant LNG complex earlier this month and declared force majeure on shipments after drone strikes hit facilities at Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial City. The country operates roughly 77 million tons per year of liquefaction capacity and is the world’s second-largest LNG exporter.
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S&P Global Platts – March 11, 2026
Cyber agency staff furloughs could challenge energy sector as threats grow
The US Department of Homeland Security’s decision to furlough two-thirds of its cybersecurity staff could increase risks to US energy infrastructure, as defense analysts track a rise in cyberattacks targeting the operational systems of the nation’s critical assets in the wake of the Iran war. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) furloughs were discussed on Capitol Hill March 3 at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, when then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that the cyber agency had been significantly degraded.
The CISA furloughs followed a partial government shutdown that began in February, after Democrats refused to fund the DHS unless Republicans agreed to changes to immigration enforcement as part of a budget deal. In a March 10 email, a CISA spokesperson reiterated the impact of the furloughs on the agency, referring to Noem’s written testimony that said while the agency can continue to respond to imminent threats and maintain its 24-hour operations center, “proactive work that keeps our adversaries at bay … is delayed or halted.”
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KBMT – March 11, 2026
Diesel prices spike in states with competitive Senate elections, report says
Diesel prices spiked in three states with competitive Senate races as the country navigates oil supply issues caused by the Iran war, figures reported on Sunday show. Oil analyst Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy, a company tracking fuel costs, said in a statement that diesel prices rose by more than a hundred cents over the previous week in Texas, North Carolina and Georgia, three of the states with the largest increases. The trio will host Senate elections in November that could help decide the makeup of the chamber.
The average diesel price in Texas rose 111 cents from the prior week, De Haan said. It spiked 110.5 cents in the Tar Heel State and 108 cents in Georgia. Fuel costs around the country have soared as oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a Middle Eastern passage through which a fifth of the world’s petroleum travels, ground to a halt. Iran threatened to attack any ship passing through the strait earlier this month, when the U.S. and Israel ignited a regional conflict with a fatal strike against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
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Reuters – March 12, 2026
Crude oil futures separate from reality as Asia physical market buckles: Clyde Russell*
Crude oil futures prices are reflecting a view that the market can successfully navigate the Iran war, while prices for physical cargoes and refined products are signalling an imminent crisis. Only one of these price signals is correct – and it’s not what is happening in the paper oil market. Global benchmark Brent crude futures ended at $91.98 a barrel on Wednesday, up 4.8% from the prior close but still down from the brief spike on March 9 that saw them reach $119.50, the highest in nearly four years. In the physical market, the premium for a physical cargo of Middle East benchmark Dubai crude over its paper equivalent rose to almost $38 a barrel on Wednesday, the highest since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Paper oil traders seem to believe the rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump and some in his administration that the campaign against Iran is going well and there is no real threat to oil and product shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. They also appear to believe that the International Energy Agency’s release of a record 400 million barrels of crude from stockpiles will help solve some of the supply disruptions. However, the current issues can’t be solved by comments from political leaders that appear untethered from the reality on the ground, as well as a stockpile release that will probably not put enough oil in Asia, where it is needed. While the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively blocked, the situation can only get worse and the pace at which it does so will start to accelerate. This is especially the case in Asia, which takes most of the 18 million to 20 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and products that flowed through the strait prior to the U.S. and Israel launching an aerial campaign against Iran on February 28.
The Latest TERse Tips
Iran-backed hackers say they are expanding cyberattacks to global targets outside of critical infrastructure, aiming to wreak economic havoc in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli military strikes over the weekend — cyber activity aligned with Iran is largely contained to regional targets, such as Jordan, so far, said Kathryn Raines, team lead at threat-intelligence company Flashpoint’s national security solutions unit — The Wall Street Journal*
Three Ships Hit Near Strait of Hormuz as Iran Tries to Choke Off Oil Traffic — the U.S. has turned down requests to escort ships in the strait. The IEA will launch the largest-ever oil release from emergency stocks — The Wall Street Journal*
There is video purporting to capture VLCCs catching fire in the Gulf after being hit, from al Jazeera
President Donald Trump plans to invoke emergency law for Sable Offshore as it looks to restart production from a cluster of offshore platforms in California, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter — Trump is preparing to summon authorities under the Defense Production Act to preempt state laws and ease permitting for Sable, the report added — Reuters*
Consumer prices tick up in February, boosted by rising energy prices — the data was in line with expectations, but the escalating Iran war will push prices up further in March — Dallas Morning News*
Governor Greg Abbott admonished Corpus Christi leaders for not moving more decisively on the city’s water crisis — here is the city’s formal answer
Fitch Ratings has raised its 2026 Brent oil price assumption to USD70/barrel from USD63/barrel due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which we assume to be temporary — Fitch
TXO Partners, L.P. says Cross Timbers Energy, LLC, a joint venture in which it holds a 50% interest, has executed purchase and sale agreements with multiple private buyers to sell oil and gas properties totaling approximately $200 million in aggregate consideration — see the press release
Houston Chronicle map shows highest and lowest gas prices across Texas
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Oil & Gas Texas
Bloomberg – March 11, 2026
Natural Gas Boom Will Spur a Shortage of US Fracking Gear, Shale Boss Says*
Rising US natural gas exports and soaring domestic demand for the power-plant fuel will lead to a shortage of fracking gear later this decade, according to the head of one the country’s top drilling contractors. Activity in US shale fields is expected to ramp up toward the end of this year into 2027, primarily driven by gas consumption, Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andy Hendricks said in an interview. That could lead to a deficit of equipment to frack gas wells in two to three years, particularly in the Haynesville basin of Texas and Louisiana, he said.
Hendricks’ remarks underscore a broader industry push to build pipelines connecting the Haynesville and other gas basins in the US South with new Gulf Coast export terminals. More equipment and infrastructure would align with President Donald Trump’s efforts to expand US shipments of the fuel to overseas buyers and dominate global energy markets. Global demand for US liquefied natural gas has jumped as the war on Iran disrupts supplies from the Middle East, but Gulf Coast plants are already running at full capacity and other facilities there are still under construction. Meanwhile, domestic US gas consumption has skyrocketed as data-center developers rush to build power plants to run artificial intelligence.
In the Haynesville, the number of drilling rigs has surged over the past year as new pipelines shuttle gas from that basin to export terminals. Producers there are likely to favor fracking equipment that runs on cheaper gas versus diesel, leading to a shortfall of that gear, Hendricks said. “All the horsepower that we have that can burn natural gas as a fuel is sold out today,” he said. “There’s going to be a call on equipment in the Haynesville over the next two to three years. We’re going to have to increase the amount that’s working over there and it’s going to require new equipment to be manufactured and put to work.”
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KHOU – March 11, 2026
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright says the U.S. will release 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of the International Energy Agency’s efforts to combat steep oil prices amid the Iran war. Wright said the release would begin next week and take about 120 days “to deliver based on planned discharge rates.” He also said the U.S. would replace about 200 million barrels within the next year. The U.S. had more than 415 million barrels in the SPR as of the end of last month. President Trump previously downplayed the importance of using reserve oil, but confirmed earlier Wednesday that his administration would “reduce it a little bit” and then fill it back up.
The nation’s emergency crude oil is stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, tucked away deep underground in massive salt caverns along the Gulf Coast. The reserve is spread across four major storage sites. Two of those sites are a quick drive from Houston. Bryan Mound is in Brazoria County near Freeport and Big Hill is in Jefferson County near Beaumont. The two other sites are in Louisiana at West Hackberry, which is near Lake Charles, and Bayou Choctaw, which is 12 miles south of Baton Rouge.
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Texas Tribune – March 11, 2026
Texas oil companies stand to profit from Iran war disruptions while consumers face higher gas prices
The U.S.-Israel war with Iran means higher profits for Texas oil companies and higher costs for its consumers, according to Texas experts who are tracking suddenly-volatile energy markets. The average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline in Texas hit $3.21 Tuesday morning, up from $2.55 a month ago, according to AAA. That is lower than Tuesday’s national average of $3.54.
While Texas’ position as the nation’s leading oil and gas producer insulates Texans from the steepest price hikes, drivers should expect to pay more at the pump the longer the war continues, experts said, especially during the summer travel season when gas consumption rises.
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Houston Chronicle – March 11, 2026
War in Iran sent oil prices soaring. Here’s how it’s affecting Texas production.*
The price of crude jumped more than 30% in the days following the start of the U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran, easing pressure on Texas oil and gas producers suffering after nearly a year of suffocatingly low prices. But is it enough to get more rigs back in the ground and to boost Texas production? Analysts aren’t so sure. Ramanan Krishnamoorti, the vice president for energy and innovation at the University of Houston, said the Iranian conflict would have to go on for months in order for it to impact Texas production numbers.
“When this war gets resolved, the prices of oil are likely to fall significantly” Krishnamoorti said. “I just don’t see how anybody in the oil industry here will be willing to go and put more money into building up infrastructure on a product that is not likely to have a very high price when it actually starts to flow.” Still, this moment offers “a nice breath of fresh air” for the oil industry, said Matt Bernstein, vice president of North American oil and gas with Rystad Energy. Texas oil drillers have been in a showdown with the market in the last few years. Flagging oil prices helped usher in a wave of layoffs, a spree of mergers and acquisitions, and shifts in production tactics and technologies. The price of Texas crude hovered around $60 for much of 2025, the lowest in four years.
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San Antonio Express-News – March 11, 2026
What to know about $300B Trump-backed refinery drawing eyes to South Texas*
A $300 billion oil refinery project with ties to the Trump administration is coming to deep South Texas — the first project of its kind in five decades — and it will be built in Brownsville, in the Rio Grande Valley. President Donald Trump announced the America First Refining oil refinery on Truth Social on Tuesday, March 10. … The America First Refining refinery will be built on 240 acres within the Port of Brownsville and will be hydrogen-powered. It’ll produce up to 50 billion gallons of “ultra low sulfur diesel” per year, as well as jet fuel and “specialized gasoline,” according to the company’s website.
“This is not yesterday’s refinery where you drive down the road and you see smoke stacks up and down the highway. … This will be the cleanest refinery ever built on the planet, okay?” Port Director William Dietrich said. The project is expected to create 500 permanent operations jobs and thousands more during construction. It’s also expected to spur jobs in the Permian Basin, where the shale oil for the refinery will be sourced. Though the refinery has been in the works for the last 12 years, port officials couldn’t provide a timeline for construction or even how America First Refining will live up to its promise to be the “cleanest” refinery on the planet.
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KERA (NPR) – March 11, 2026
Texas gas prices are rising amid Iran war, but we’re still paying less than other states
Gas prices in Texas are climbing as crude oil prices spike amid tensions in the Middle East, though drivers across the state are still paying less than the national average. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Texas stood at about $3.25 as of Wednesday, according to data from AAA. That’s up from last month, when prices hovered around $2.55 per gallon throughout the state.
The main reason: a spike in crude oil prices — the main ingredient in gasoline — fueled in part by the escalating conflict in the Middle East. “When you look at the bigger picture over the past week or two, you see an increase in crude oil prices, and that’s after the U.S. intervention in Iran,” said Daniel Armbruster, a spokesperson for AAA Texas.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – March 11, 2025
Hormuz traffic increases, at least two sanctioned ships cross strait: CAS
Eight ships crossed through the Strait of Hormuz on March 10, up from three ships the day before, according to an S&P Global Commodities at Sea report on March 11. Two of the ships were tankers, both sanctioned, according to the report. The US-sanctioned Marser, a Very Large Gas Carrier, moved eastbound out of the Persian Gulf, having “likely loaded Iranian LPG via ship-to-ship transfer between March 9 and March 10,” the report said. The other tanker was the Breez, an MR tanker sanctioned by the US, the EU and the UK that sailed westbound into the Gulf, according to the report.
Some 1 million barrels of Saudi crude loaded from the Juaymah terminal on March 10 as a co-load on the VLCC tanker Majra, the CAS report said. Another 3 million barrels of Oman Blend loaded from Mina al Fahal, it said.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 11, 2026
U.S. Plan to Unblock Strait of Hormuz Collides With Realities of Global Insurance*
President Trump’s plan to sell insurance for ships in the Gulf, a way of easing the war-induced crunch in oil supplies, is proving easier said than done. The effort was designed to help “ensure the free flow of energy to the world,” Trump said in a social-media post last week. The U.S. would provide, at a very reasonable price, political risk insurance for all shipping, backed if necessary by U.S. Navy escorts, he said. The U.S. Development Finance Corp., part of the federal government, was tasked with implementing the $20 billion plan, an “America First”-style insurance program, led by American insurers. This U.S.-centric idea ran counter to the market realities, according to industry executives.
Maritime war risks policies are sold mostly out of Lloyd’s of London, with foreign insurers covering foreign ships and cargo. “There’s a whole ecosystem around war risks,” said David Smith, head of marine with broker McGill and Partners. “It’s very rare that U.S. insurers position themselves anywhere near that particular ecosystem.” U.S. officials called London insurers and brokers, trying to figure out how the market operates, industry insiders said. Some have received calls asking for confidential data on the Lloyd’s market that participants have been reluctant to share. The administration adapted its plan on Friday after shipowners and insurers questioned its practicality. The DFC pivoted to proposing using the $20 billion as reinsurance, or coverage insurers can buy to offset certain risks.
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Associated Press – March 11, 2026
Iran war becomes a contest of who can take the most pain: Jon Gambrell
The war with Iran, for all its complexity and global effects, boils down to a single question: Who can take the pain the longest? A surge in oil prices points to what may be Iran’s most effective weapon and the United States’ biggest vulnerability in continuing the campaign: damaging the world economy. A sharp rise in gas prices has rattled consumers and financial markets, and international travel and shipping have been severely disrupted.
U.S. President Donald Trump appears aware of the danger. As oil jumped to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday, the highest since 2022, he suggested the war would be “short-term.” That helped reassure markets and the price eased to around $90 — even as Trump, nearly in the same breath, vowed to keep up the war and the punishment on Iran.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 11, 2026
The Economic Winners and Losers of the Iran War*
Higher energy prices offer little comfort to the Middle East While the Gulf typically benefits from higher oil prices, the paralysis of the Strait of Hormuz has restricted sales and forced production cuts. A brief war could lead to economies in the Gulf contracting by as much as 2% this year, while prolonged clashes might trigger a 15% decline, according to Capital Economics. Kuwait and Qatar would suffer the biggest blows because of their outsize energy industries, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates may be able to partially offset losses by shipping more via pipelines.
The conflict has also shaken the Gulf’s carefully cultivated image as a stable sanctuary. That threatens ambitious economic overhauls like Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which relies on foreign investment. Meanwhile, Middle Eastern tourism will likely suffer. International visitors could drop as much as 27% this year, according to research firm Tourism Economics, costing up to $56 billion in lost revenue. Contagion has spread across the wider region: This week, Egypt’s pound crashed to a record low against the dollar on concerns that more expensive energy imports will strain fragile government finances. Meanwhile, the conflict will exacerbate Iran’s economic crisis.
Europe faces another energy shock, but not like the last one. A prolonged period of higher energy prices could derail Europe’s nascent economic recovery. The European Union relies on fossil-fuel imports for about 58% of its energy. Among major economies, only South Korea and Japan are more dependent on fossil-fuel imports. While most European countries don’t buy much energy from the Middle East, they are exposed to rising global prices. Dwindling supply from the Gulf has sparked a bidding war for what’s left elsewhere, sending European gas prices up more than 50% this month.
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March 11, 2026
America’s Strategic Oil Exports: The Wall Street Journal*
The International Energy Agency said Tuesday that its 32 member countries will release a record 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to mitigate supply disruptions caused by Iran. Stockpiles exist for this purpose, but don’t overlook how U.S. crude exports are also providing a strategic oil reserve for the West. … But refineries in Asia and Europe that import crude from the Middle East are still seeing major disruptions, which is reflected in rising crude prices. The IEA release is intended to mitigate disruptions and contain prices. Western countries established the IEA after the 1970s Arab oil embargo for this purpose.
In recent years, however, the outfit has become a mouthpiece for the anti-fossil-fuel crowd. Progressives have cited IEA projections of waning global oil and gas demand to push policies to limit U.S. production. Fortunately, they haven’t succeeded in stranding U.S. oil exports, which are now also mitigating supply disruptions for allies. Europe and Asia can thank former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who in 2015 drove legislation to overturn the U.S. embargo on oil exports that was imposed in 1975. Mr. Ryan cut a deal with Barack Obama to lift the ban in return for extending renewable subsidies. This spurred more shale fracking without crimping U.S. supply since Gulf Coast refineries aren’t well-suited to process lighter shale blends.
As a result, the U.S. is now a net exporter of oil. Since 2015, U.S. crude exports have increased nearly 10-fold to four million barrels a day, about 1.8 million of which supply refineries in Europe and 1.5 million in Asia and Australia. (See the nearby chart.) U.S. exports have reduced allies’ reliance on Russia and the Middle East. Yet that hasn’t stopped progressives from trying to reinstate the ban. Democrats introduced legislation during the Biden years to block crude exports. “We cannot continue to fuel the global climate crisis at the expense of American communities burdened by fossil fuel pollution,” Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey said in 2021. U.S. exports are “perpetuating a merry-go-round of oil dependence,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said. These guys are clueless about the security and economic benefits of fossil fuels. They prefer that allies depend on Russia and the Middle East. Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm floated a ban on crude exports in 2021, though wiser heads prevailed after Russia invaded Ukraine.
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Real Clear Politics – March 11, 2026
FOX News contributor Newt Gingrich on FOX Business’ “Kudlow” said it will be considered an American defeat if President Trump can’t keep the Strait of Hormuz open. “I don’t care what it costs. If they can’t keep it open, this war will in fact be an American defeat before very long,” Gingrich told host Larry Kudlow.
“If we can get the Strait open, then the world will calm down, the price of oil will collapse, and everything will be fine,” Gingrich said. “So I think the president probably has two or three weeks—every day he can hold open the Strait of Hormuz. Every day that oil tankers go through that strait safely, he buys another week in terms of getting things done. And that’s why I think the actual critical path to this whole fight is to get the Strait open, have lots of ships coming through safely, have the price of oil collapse, and all of a sudden people will relax and say, you know, we are going to win this thing. But that, I think, is the question which has to be answered.”
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The Wall Street Journal – March 10, 2026
The World Needs These Two Middle East Pipelines Now More Than Ever*
Two pipelines built just for the occasion—one in Saudi Arabia and one in the United Arab Emirates—bypass the Strait of Hormuz. They are the only ways to get a significant amount of oil out of the Persian Gulf into world markets. The pipes can’t replace the flows carried by tanker ships, but their use is almost all that is preventing an even worse crisis from unfolding. Saudi Arabia in particular is pumping as much crude as possible through its pipeline to its Red Sea port of Yanbu, built in the early 1980s when the Iran-Iraq War threatened shipping in the Persian Gulf.
“While we have faced disruptions in the past, this one by far is the biggest crisis the region’s oil-and-gas industry has faced,” said Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco’s chief executive, on Tuesday. The shipping blockage has made Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure in the world economy. The state oil producer expects to send a maximum of seven million barrels of oil through the 746-mile-long pipeline within a few days, Nasser said.
About two million barrels of oil are dedicated to Saudi refiners, leaving five million barrels that could reach global markets each day. That is equal to most of Saudi Arabia’s crude shipments through the strait in the run-up to the war, according to the International Energy Agency. It is a big test of the infrastructure. The pipe has never run at full capacity for an extended period, the IEA said. And it doesn’t fix the whole problem: Aramco sends 800,000 barrels daily of petroleum products through the strait, which can’t be rerouted. Plus, there is the oil stranded in Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain.
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Reuters – March 11, 2026
Historic oil reserve release is only a band-aid on a gaping supply shock: Ron Bousso*
The International Energy Agency’s plan to release 400 million barrels of oil reserves is unprecedented in scale and desperately needed to blunt the devastating supply shock triggered by the Iran war. But it will offer only limited relief as long as energy exports from the Middle East remain blocked. The IEA said on Wednesday that its 32 member countries unanimously agreed to move forward with the biggest collective drawdown ever from their strategic petroleum reserves (SPR).
The release is more than double the scale of the previous – and until now, largest-ever – coordinated drawdown in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the U.S. released 180 million barrels. Yet the enormity of the crisis confronting the global oil market today certainly warrants these record-breaking volumes – if not more. Nearly 20 million barrels per day (bpd) of supply – roughly a fifth of global output – have been trapped inside the Gulf since the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz shortly after the launch of the joint Israel‑U.S. war against Iran on February 28. Measured against that disruption, the announced release looks a lot less impressive. After only 11 days of conflict, the current market deficit has already reached roughly 220 million barrels. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are working to divert some exports to ports outside the Gulf, which should provide additional relief, but those flows remain limited and vulnerable.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
San Antonio Express-News – March 11, 2026
New ERCOT process aims to end ‘doom loop’ for large power users seeking to connect to Texas’ grid*
When the Electric Reliability Council of Texas designed its process for connecting big industrial users to the statewide grid, it envisioned receiving from eight to 15 such requests every three months. Now, with the state at ground zero of the data center boom, it’s getting as many as 100 requests in that same time period. So, for the past 18 months, the grid operator has been discussing how to handle the rapid influx of demand. It’s looking for a way to keep data centers and other big requests from getting stuck in what’s been nicknamed the “doom loop.”
“We quickly came to the conclusion with the market participants that something had to change,” President and CEO Pablo Vegas said. The solution? A new process — called batch study — that allows for requests to be evaluated as a group based on the amount of electricity that can be reliably served over a six-year period instead of looking at each request individually. ERCOT presented the framework for the batch study to the Public Utility Commission on Feb. 20 but still needs to determine who will be included in the “batch zero” group — the first to be evaluated using transitional guidelines. The goal is to have that criteria worked out by June, then the grid operator can start working on evaluating the group’s power requests.
The new evaluation process is a result of Senate Bill 6, legislation requiring new rules for interconnection, operation and cost of service for large load customers. Large loads — like data centers for artificial intelligence and oil and gas electrification — are flooding into Texas, drawn by the state’s booming business landscape, plentiful land and affordable utilities. ERCOT now has projects seeking about 230 gigawatts of electricity at various stages of the existing process. Soon, they will need to be transitioned into the new batch study process.
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San Antonio Express-News – March 11, 2026
Data centers are economic infrastructure for San Antonio*
San Antonio is known as Military City, USA, for good reason. We are home to the largest joint military installation in the U.S. Department of Defense, a nationally recognized cybersecurity ecosystem, and a growing advanced manufacturing and health care sector. Every one of these industries depends on something most people never see — data. Data centers power the digital infrastructure behind modern life. They support defense operations, cybersecurity, financial transactions, telehealth, logistics and the artificial intelligence tools increasingly used in both commercial and military environments. In today’s economy, digital infrastructure is foundational, not optional.
For the business community, supporting responsible data center development is not about chasing a tech trend. It is about ensuring San Antonio maintains a competitive economy. Data centers represent significant capital investment, high-wage technical and operational jobs, and an expanded commercial tax base that supports local services. They also signal to the market that San Antonio has the grid reliability, workforce strength and regulatory predictability to compete nationally.
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Just the News – March 11, 2026
Oil-rich Texas to build power lines for renewables, and landowners face possible eminent domain
xas produces so much oil that if it were an independent country, it would rank in fourth or fifth place in the world’s top oil producers. Yet the state is still looking to build massive high-voltage transmission lines primarily to satisfy the needs of wind, solar and battery facilities. The lines will cross over tens of thousands of acres of private land. The Texas legislature shrunk the timeline to construct them at breakneck speed, which has made the landowners very conerned, considering they have little time to provide input and are potentially facing eminent domain to make room for the projects.
The power lines are 765 kilovolt lines, which are strung over 200-foot towers requiring corridors 200 to 300 feet wide. Margaret Byfield, executive director of the American Stewards of Liberty, said that landowners who object to the lines crossing their land are effectively asking for the company to reroute it to other property owners, who also don’t want the lines on their property. “So it pits neighbor against neighbor. It’s just a terrible system,” Byfield told Just the News.
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Governing – March 11, 2026
Why Texas Is Outpacing New York in Renewable Energy Development
Over the last two years, Texas added more wind and solar power than New York has in the last two decades, a gap that has increased even as the mandates required by the state’s 2019 Climate Act are looming.
Those mandates, which Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to delay, include having an energy system relying entirely on clean energy by 2040. But nearly seven years after they were established, the state isn’t on track to hit that mandate or its near-term target of converting the grid to 70% renewable energy by 2030.
Texas never set ambitious clean energy goals, but is building faster than New York, in part because of deregulation, limited local opposition and investments into the infrastructure that carries power from rural parts of the state to urban cores.
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Reuters – March 11, 2026
RWE targets gas-fired power plants in $20 billion US expansion drive*
RWE, Germany’s largest power producer, on Thursday said it would expand more aggressively in the United States, a market where data centres have significantly fuelled power demand, by investing in new gas-fired power plants. Overall, the U.S., where RWE already has 13 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar, wind and battery storage capacity, will account for 17 billion euros ($20 billion), or nearly half, of the company’s planned spending by 2031.
Installed capacity in the United States is expected to increase to 22 GW as a result, the company said.
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Politico – February 28, 2026
Solar power’s newest friends: MAGA influencers
Environmentalists and solar power proponents have found a pair of surprise allies: Katie Miller and Kellyanne Conway. Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Conway, the polling guru who led President Donald Trump’s first campaign, raised eyebrows this month when they publicly touted the clean energy source that has come under fire from the Trump administration.
According to a confidential strategy memo obtained by POLITICO, their advocacy is aligned with a campaign by members of the nation’s largest renewable energy lobby group to MAGA-fy solar power — technology that Trump once derided as “a blight on our country. The memo distributed earlier this month shows the American Clean Power Association launched the “American Energy First” campaign to engage Conway and conservative influencers like Miller “to amplify the benefits of solar energy” and “note the harm that could result from reckless trade policy.”
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Phys Org – March 4, 2026
A tool lets residents track Texas power outages and aids in disaster response
Texas is known nationwide for its grueling hot summers. However, hurricanes and occasional winter weather can have a harsher impact on citizens and infrastructure due to the effects of power outages. Led by director and primary investigator Dr. Samuel Brody, researchers from the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas (IDRT) have created a tool that can show residents, emergency responders and policy makers where power outages are occurring in near real-time, helping users respond to disasters faster, safer and smarter.
The live power outage map is part of the Texas Disaster Information System (TDIS)—a project in partnership with the General Land Office, Texas Water Development Board, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management—aiming to create data-driven systems to support disaster mitigation, response and recovery. The tool addresses a long-standing challenge in disaster response—knowing where power is currently out, and what services are affected by outages.
Regulatory
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved eight pilot programs that will allow a handful of companies, including Archer Aviation, Beta Technologies, Joby Aviation, and Wisk to start widespread electric aircraft testing as early as this summer.
The three-year program, which will span 26 states, is designed to ensure U.S. companies lead the way in next-gen aircraft used for personal travel, regional transportation, cargo logistics, and emergency medicine, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in remarks Monday.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday March 11, 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 moved higher early on Wednesday, despite a report that there would be a historic release of emergency reserves from the International Energy Agency.
US crude oil gained 1.3% to trade at $84.55 a barrel.
At 3:36 am ET, global benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.7% to $88.39 a barrel.
On Tuesday, G7 energy ministers convened in Paris to discuss the U.S.-Iran war and its impact on global oil and gas markets. The conflict has disrupted energy production in the Middle East and led to a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday evening that the IEA had proposed the largest ever release of oil from its strategic reserves, exceeding the 182 million barrels that its member states put on the market following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Countries are set to decide on Wednesday whether to release emergency oil stocks.
Top Stories
Bloomberg – March 10, 2026
Trump Says US to Get New Oil Refinery With Reliance Backing*
The Brownsville refinery will be designed to run entirely on US shale oil, America First said Tuesday.
President Donald Trump said the US will get its first new oil refinery in 50 years with the help of investment from India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. “I am proud to announce that America First Refining is opening the FIRST new U.S. Oil Refinery in 50 YEARS in Brownsville, Texas,” Trump said Tuesday in a post on Truth Social. The announcement came as the White House sought to quell concerns about rising energy prices due to the war in Iran. Trump is weighing several possible options to lower the cost of oil and gasoline, including the release of inventories from emergency reserves, as well as military escorts for tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Texas refinery is the same project that was being developed by Element Fuels, which announced in June 2024 it had completed site preparation and received the necessary permits to construct a plant capable of processing about 160,000 barrels of oil daily. Element Fuels’ web address now redirects to the website for America First Refining, the company Trump said will open the new refinery. The company plans to break ground on the new refinery in the second quarter of this year and has already signed a 20-year agreement to sell the fuels it produces, according to a Tuesday statement from America First Refining. The sales deal was made with Reliance.
Representatives for Reliance couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The Energy Department referred questions to the White House, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for more details. The Trump administration is pursuing a policy of US energy dominance, which promotes increased production of oil, natural gas and coal. But while US oil output has surged over the past decade and a half on the back of the shale revolution, the nation relies on an aging array of refineries. Several of the plants have also shut down in recent years, adding to tightness in processing capacity.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 10, 2026
IEA Proposes Largest Ever Oil Release From Strategic Reserves*
The International Energy Agency has proposed the largest release of oil reserves in its history to bring down crude prices that have soared during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, officials familiar with the matter said. The release would exceed the 182 million barrels of oil that IEA member countries put onto the market in two releases in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the officials said. The proposal was circulated at an emergency meeting of energy officials from the IEA’s 32 member countries on Tuesday. Countries are expected to decide on the proposal Wednesday. It would be adopted if none objects, but even one country’s protests could delay the plan, officials said.
The IEA proposal is intended to counter the massive disruption caused by the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to global markets. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply moves through the Strait every day and the threat of attacks on tankers by Iran have brought shipments to a near standstill. Iranian attacks on oil tankers traveling through the Strait are the kind of scenario that led Western nations and their allies to create the IEA in 1974 in the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo. The agency, a club of Western nations and their allies, sets guidelines for how much crude member countries must keep in their reserves and coordinates releases to protect economies from oil market turmoil. Since Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel first began their strikes on Iran, the price of oil has soared as much as 40%, breaching $100 before falling this week as traders closely track statements from President Trump on how long the war will last. Oil ended Tuesday under $84, but the price of fuels such as diesel has continued to skyrocket.
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Texas Tribune – March 10, 2026
Governor blasts Corpus Christi leaders over looming water shortage, threatens a state takeover
Gov. Greg Abbott criticized Corpus Christi leadership Tuesday over its looming water crisis and warned that if local leaders do not take immediate action, the state may need to intervene to ensure residents and businesses have enough. “Corpus Christi is a victim not because of lack of water. They’re a victim because of a lack of ability to make a decision,” Abbott said at a press conference after a reporter asked him to comment on an Inside Climate News story quoting former regional and city officials who said the potential shortage is a result of years of delayed and poor decisions by city leaders.
“We can only give them a little time more before the state of Texas has to take over and micromanage that city and run that city to make sure that every resident who goes to the water tap and turns it on, they’re going to be getting water out of their faucet, not because of what local leaders are doing, but because of what the state of Texas will do,” Abbott said.
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Houston Chronicle – March 10, 2026
Houston oil majors face a ‘double-edged sword’ as Iran conflict drives prices, disrupts operations
Workers are evacuating and facilities are shuttering across the Middle East as Iran responds to the war waged by the U.S. and Israel. In addition to the human toll, at risk are multibillion-dollar oil and gas facilities owned by Houston giants such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum and ConocoPhillips.
The strikes against critical energy infrastructure and threats of retaliation have caused not only massive disruptions in production in the region but a near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping channel usually responsible for moving roughly 20% of both the world’s oil and natural gas cargoes, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Houston’s oil companies are feeling the sting of disruptions. Exxon’s CEO Darren Woods said Tuesday in an interview with Reuters that the ability to manage inventory “becomes very challenged.” “Many of the operations are pulling back simply to manage inventory levels as the logistics in the supply chain and the flow through the Strait get worked (through) with time,” Woods said. Thanks to longstanding sanctions on Tehran, U.S. oil and gas companies have no direct operations in Iran; but they are operating in nearby Qatar, Oman, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.
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Reuters – March 10, 2026
Brent to trade above $95 for next two months on Iran war, EIA says*
Brent oil prices are set to trade above $95 a barrel over the next two months as the Iran war disrupts supplies, before falling to around $70 by the end of the year, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday in a monthly report. Oil shipments have been largely blocked from using the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint through which a fifth of global oil flows every day, and this will cause Mideast oil output to fall further in the coming weeks, the EIA said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook.
Saudi Arabia began oil output cuts, sources said on Monday, joining other Gulf producers including Iraq and Kuwait in reducing production amid the constraints. Those production shut-ins will gradually ease as transit resumes, the EIA said, adding that once oil flows are reestablished through the Strait, global oil production will continue to outpace demand.
The Latest TERse Tips
The Trump administration asked Israel on Monday not to carry out further strikes on energy facilities in Iran, particularly oil infrastructure, according to three sources familiar with the matter — Axios
Trump Says the Iran War Is Nearly Won but Israel Has Other Ideas — Israel is sticking with its overarching goal of creating the conditions for regime change in Tehran — The Wall Street Journal*
Republican lawmakers showed signs Tuesday they were getting nervous about the course of the Iran war and the economic impact on voters ahead of the November elections — in comments Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Republicans voiced concern that rising gasoline prices could become a significant problem for the party heading into the midterms. Republicans are trying to hold on to a razor-thin majority in the House and preserve their edge in the Senate as well — The Wall Street Journal*
As Iran War Pushes Up Oil Prices, Putin Can Barely Conceal a Smirk — U.S. eases restrictions on oil sales to help stabilize markets, more may be coming — The Wall Street Journal*
Diamondback Energy, Inc. announced Tuesday the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 11,000,000 shares of its common stock by SGF FANG Holdings, LP — see the press release
Chevron has appointed Emmanuelle Garinet as Director of Exploration for the Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa — World Oil
GridStor has secured a $120m (€103.04m) financing package from NORD/LB and Siemens Financial Services for the Gunnar Reliability Project, a battery energy storage facility in Texas — the project features a 150MW/300 megawatt-hour (MWh) facility in Hidalgo County, intended to enhance energy reliability in the Lower Rio Grande Valley region once operational — Power Technology
Fitch Ratings has assigned a ‘BBB+’ rating to AEP Texas Inc.’s offering of series Q senior notes — Fitch
Oil & Gas Texas
The Hill – March 10, 2026
Exxon evacuates personnel in Middle East
Exxon Mobil has evacuated some personnel from the Middle East amid growing instability in the region due to the ongoing U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, CEO Darren Woods told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “Our first and highest priority is making sure our people remain safe, and we evacuated folks who weren’t critical or essential to the operations that we were providing support for,” Woods told the outlet.
Reuters reported that Exxon scaled back some of its operations in the region to manage oil inventory levels as shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint, remains disrupted. The company is a partner of Qatar-owned petroleum company QatarEnergy, which halted production of liquified natural gas and related products last week following a reported Iranian attack on two of its energy facilities. Qatar’s Minister of Energy Saad Sherida al-Kaabi has warned that a prolonged conflict could lead Gulf states to halt exports within weeks, destabilizing the global market.
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Houston Chronicle – March 10, 2026
Exxon wants to ‘domicile’ in Texas amid shareholder and climate fights*
Exxon Mobil wants to be legally Texan. The company announced in a federal filing that it was seeking to change its corporate registration from New Jersey to Texas, a legal move that is likely to benefit the Houston oil giant in the event of any environmental or shareholder litigation cases. “The Board believes Texas legislators, judges, and juries who might make decisions that impact Exxon Mobil are generally more familiar with our business and operations,” the company said in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Exxon moved its headquarters to Spring, a suburb of Houston, in 2023. Roughly 75% of its workforce is in Texas. Yet it remained legally registered in New Jersey, a remnant of its days as part of historic Standard Oil, a monopoly oil and gas company that once controlled nearly 90% of the country’s production. The move to domicile the company in Texas has to be approved by shareholders.
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KBMT – March 10, 2026
ExxonMobil carbon storage project moves toward state hearing as Cheek residents raise concerns
A proposed ExxonMobil carbon capture and storage project planned for Jefferson County is moving forward in the state regulatory process, even as residents in the nearby Cheek community voice concerns about the facility’s potential impacts. The Texas Railroad Commission scheduled a prehearing in Austin related to ExxonMobil’s Rose carbon storage project, which seeks a permit to inject captured carbon dioxide underground as part of a carbon capture and storage initiative. The hearing will focus on the company’s application and whether the proposal meets state regulatory requirements.
The Rose project is part of a broader effort to capture carbon emissions and store them underground, a process known as carbon capture and storage, or CCS. Previously, the proposal sparked concern among residents in the Cheek community near the proposed site. Dozens of residents gathered at a town hall meeting in Beaumont to learn more about the project and discuss potential risks.
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Stocktwits – March 10, 2026
Battalion Oil Corp. on Tuesday, announced the acquisition of 7,090 net acres of oil and gas assets in Ward County, Texas, from RoadRunner Resource in an all-stock deal. Battalion will issue 485,000 shares of its common stock to complete the acquisition. The two companies had previously partnered on the acreage under a joint venture agreement.
The newly acquired area adjoins the company’s existing Monument Draw position, expanding its overall footprint in the region. The deal is expected to add about 30 new drilling locations targeting the Wolfcamp A, Wolfcamp B, and 3rd Bone Spring formations.
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Bloomberg – March 10, 2026
Can Tapping Oil Reserves Tame the Iran War Price Shock?*
What’s the current discussion about tapping oil reserves? — Finance ministers from the Group of Seven said on March 9 that while they’re prepared to deploy strategic oil reserves, they hadn’t reached the point of taking action. Trump has been reluctant to release oil from the US reserve. He and his energy secretary, Chris Wright, have characterized high energy prices as temporary. As for other countries, Japan instructed oil storage bases to make preparations for a release, Nikkei reported, indicating the country might proceed independently, though the government said no decision had been made. India said on March 9 that it wasn’t planning to tap its buffer.
Would tapping the reserves make up for the oil that’s being choked off by the war? — Oil traders have expressed doubts about that. Even if the US SPR’s maximum drawdown rate is coupled with flows from other IEA members, it might cover just a portion of the 11-to-16 million barrels of supply from the Persian Gulf that Citigroup Inc. estimates is being lost each day. The maximum drawdown capability of the SPR is 4.4 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Department’s website, and it takes 13 days for SPR oil to reach the open market after a presidential decision. However, an analysis prepared by the Energy Department in 2016 said the actual amount could be limited to 1.4 million barrels to 2.1 million barrels per day. During the 2022 release following the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the amount of oil released from the SPR never topped more than 1.1 million barrels a day, according to an analysis of Energy Information Administration data by ClearView Energy Partners.
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Houston Chronicle – March 10, 2026
18 Houston billionaires — and one icon — make Forbes ranking of world’s wealthiest people in 2026*
Seventeen Houston billionaires return to this year’s list, with Richard and Nancy Kinder ranking as the wealthiest among them. Kinder, chair of pipeline giant Kinder Morgan, comes in at No. 232 this year, Forbes said, with a net worth of $13 billion. The Kinders recently reaffirmed their pledge to give away 95% of their net worth, largely to Houston charities, during their lifetimes or at their deaths. Other prominent Houston billionaires on the list include Tilman Fertitta, currently serving as U.S. Ambassador to Italy, entrepreneurs Jeffery Hildebrand and Dan Friedkin, and philanthropists John and Laura Arnold.
Thanks to factors including “sizzling markets and favorable fiscal policies,” Forbes noted, the world’s billionaires are becoming both richer and more numerous. The 3,428 men and women on this year’s list are collectively worth $20.1 trillion, up $4 trillion compared to 2025.
Oil & Gas National & International
Yahoo! News – March 10, 2026
UAE’s biggest oil refinery halts operations after drone strike causes fire
The largest oil refinery in the United Arab Emirates, located in Ruwais, has suspended operations following a drone strike that sparked a fire in the industrial area, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) is currently assessing the extent of the damage at the refinery, which has a daily processing capacity of 922,000 barrels of oil.
The attack on the refinery, part of a growing wave of incidents across West Asia, has raised concerns about disruptions to energy assets in the Persian Gulf, a region that is vital to global oil supplies. The UAE government confirmed the fire at the Ruwais industrial zone, which also houses a fertilizer plant, chemical facilities, and a power plant. A major oil export facility is also located nearby. The Abu Dhabi Media Office reported that emergency services were responding to the blaze.
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S&P Global Platts – March 10, 2026
Aramco’s East-West pipeline to hit full capacity in ‘next couple of days:’ CEO
The 7 million b/d East-West pipeline connecting Saudi Arabia’s eastern and western coasts will hit full capacity “in the next couple of days,” Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said March 10 on the company’s third-quarter earnings call. Aramco has been shifting crude flows to the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea as exports from its west coast are largely shut in due to disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz amid the war in the Middle East.
Exports of Saudi oil from Yanbu surged to a record high in the week ended March 10, shipping data from S&P Global Commodities at Sea showed, as more crude flowed west. Nasser also said that Aramco, the world’s largest crude exporter, is meeting “the majority” of its customers’ requirements by tapping its storage facilities in Asia, the Mediterranean and Northwest Europe.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 10, 2026
Saudi Aramco Could Restore Output Quickly Once Strait of Hormuz Reopens*
Saudi Aramco said it could restore production within days of the Strait of Hormuz reopening, while warning that prolonged disruption of the waterway poses severe consequences for oil markets and the global economy. “There would be catastrophic consequences for the world’s oil markets, the longer the disruption goes on…the more drastic the consequences for the global economy,” Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser told reporters on Aramco’s earnings call Tuesday. Normally, around 20% of the world’s oil and gas passes through the vital waterway each day, but it has been effectively closed since the start of the Iran war. U.S. naval escorts have been touted as one option to help restart tanker movements through the strait but no formal plans have been laid out.
“While we have faced disruptions in the past, this one by far is the biggest crisis the region’s oil and gas industry has faced,” he said. When asked how quickly Aramco could restore output to around 10 million barrels a day once the waterway reopens, Nasser said production could be ramped up “in days, not weeks.” Aramco meanwhile is rerouting more of its crude exports to the Red Sea port of Yanbu to bypass the Strait of Hormuz via its East-West pipeline, but this will only be able to partially offset the disruption to its traditional export route, analysts have said. The company expects to reach the pipeline’s 7 million-barrel-a-day capacity in a couple of days, Nasser said. Aramco also said its Ras Tanura complex—home to an oil refinery and a large offshore oil-loading facility—was restarting following a precautionary shutdown after an Iranian drone attack last week.
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S&P Global Platts – March 10, 2026
Hormuz traffic drops to three ships, with one carrying Iran crude to China
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz dropped to three ships on March 9, including the US-sanctioned VLCC CUME, which loaded Iranian crude and is bound for China, according to a March 10 report by S&P Global Commodities at Sea. The CUME is managed by Harry Victor Ship Management LLC, which is linked to Iran’s Trilance Petrochemical Co., according to the US sanctions list. Phone numbers listed for Harry Victor Ship in Dubai were not working.
The Hormuz traffic was down from four ships on March 8, according to the CAS report. The two other ships to exit Hormuz on March 9 were a bitumen tanker and a Panamax bulk carrier, it said. An estimated 2.2 million barrels of crude were loaded in the Middle East Gulf on March 9, with 1.6 million barrels from Saudi Arabia and 600,300 barrels from Kuwait, according to the report, citing preliminary data. As of March 9, 289 million barrels of Gulf-origin crude were in transit east of Hormuz, having cleared the chokepoint before the Feb. 28 war began, CAS said.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 10, 2026
Iran’s Control of Hormuz Means It’s Exporting More Oil Today Than Before the War*
Iran is exporting more oil through the Strait of Hormuz than before the war, showing it is in control of a strategic waterway that it has closed off to the rest of the region’s oil producers. As Gulf Arab oil producers from Saudi Arabia to Iraq cut production and scramble for new routes that bypass the strait, Iran is conducting business as usual, according to data from tanker-tracking firm Kpler, throwing a financial lifeline to Tehran as it comes under blistering attack from the U.S. and Israel.
Since the war started on Feb. 28, seven tankers have loaded oil off the Iranian coast, according to Kpler. At least two of the most recent loadings are out of the Persian Gulf, Kpler said. Over the past six days, tankers have loaded a daily average of 2.1 million barrels of Iranian oil, higher than the 2 million barrels a day Iran exported in February, according to Kpler. Iran’s export levels can vary week to week, but the recent increase shows that, unlike other producers, their shipments are unimpeded and that China hasn’t lost its appetite for Tehran’s crude.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to attack any ship trying to cross the strait since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes at the start of the conflict, scaring off ships carrying oil and goods between the wider world and the Persian Gulf, where about a third of global oil production takes place. Iran has fired drones and missiles at Gulf Arab oil producers and warned that it would set fire to ships crossing the strait. The crisis has sparked fears that a doomsday scenario was finally coming to pass, with millions of barrels of oil coming off the market every day. Markets have whipsawed in recent days, with oil prices near $120 a barrel Monday before sliding below $80 a barrel on Tuesday after President Trump said the war would end “very soon.”
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The Wall Street Journal – March 10, 2026
China Has Spent Years Preparing for the Iran Oil Crisis*
The turmoil in the global energy market from war in the Middle East is exactly the sort of emergency scenario that China has long been preparing for. Worried that conflict in the region could wreak havoc on its economy by cutting off the supply of oil, Beijing has been spending lavishly to limit how much it needs to import, while building up large stockpiles and diversifying where it gets its energy from. The Iran war has brought many of those fears to fruition, serving as the biggest test yet of China’s bid to fortify its economy against what it views as reckless behavior by the U.S. So far, Beijing is weathering the storm.
Iran has sought to effectively cut off energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway linking producers such as Saudi Arabia to oil-importing nations in Asia and beyond. While China is the world’s largest importer of oil in terms of total barrels, it is less dependent on the Strait of Hormuz for energy than other economies such as Japan and South Korea. Insulating China from energy shocks has been a priority for leader Xi Jinping. Core elements of its strategy include ramping up the use of electric vehicles to replace gas-guzzlers while simultaneously pumping more crude from inside China’s borders. A deepening energy partnership with Russia, meanwhile, has helped curtail Beijing’s reliance on the Middle East. At the same time, China has accumulated massive oil stockpiles, likely totaling more than 1.2 billion barrels, enough to cover its imports for around 100 days or more. In a sign of continued stockpiling by Beijing in the lead-up to the Iran war, customs data released Tuesday showed that China’s crude imports rose nearly 16% in the first two months of 2026 compared with a year earlier.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
KFDA – March 10, 2026
More than 50 people sue oil and natural gas company over Windy Deuce Fire
More than 50 people have filed lawsuits over the Windy Deuce fire that burned 144,000 acres in the Texas Panhandle in 2024. The lawsuits claim restructuring officers for Polaris Operating, LLC were negligent and did not shut off power or conduct inspections during the time of heightened risk.
On February 26, 2024, an ignition involving electrical distribution lines occurred near US Highway 87. The power lines then ignited what became known as the Windy Deuce Fire.
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Community Impact – March 10, 2026
Base Power, Austin back away from economic incentive agreement for $265M expansion
Home energy provider Base Power is no longer pursuing a multimillion-dollar city incentive deal for a new manufacturing facility but may still be expanding its local presence. … Earlier this year, city officials were set to consider another investment from Base under Austin’s Business Expansion Program for a $265 million east side manufacturing and production facility. A proposed economic development agreement expected to support hundreds of new jobs was on City Council’s Feb. 5 agenda but was pulled before a vote.
The city and Base had “mutually agreed not to move forward” on that outlined incentive deal, Austin Economic Development spokesperson Carlos Soto said. “We appreciate Base Power’s engagement throughout the process and remain supportive of companies exploring opportunities to invest and grow in Austin,” Soto said in an email. “Austin continues to be a strong and competitive environment for businesses in the energy and advanced manufacturing sectors, and we look forward to working with companies that are interested in creating jobs and investing in our community.”
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Tech Crunch – March 10, 2026
Google and Tesla think we’re managing the electrical grid all wrong
Google, Tesla, and data center developer Verrus are among a group of companies arguing that the electrical grid is being underutilized and they want everyone — especially politicians — to know about it. The three companies along with HVAC giant Carrier, virtual power plant company Renew Home, distributed energy resource developer Sparkfund, and smart electrical panel startup Span founded a new group called Utilize to get that message across. The group, which launched Tuesday, is advocating to change the way the grid is built and used. The group points out, correctly, that the grid is designed for brief bursts of high demand; most of the time there’s lots of capacity that goes unused.
Utilize thinks that should change. The group argues that smarter ways to use that capacity already exist. Utilize name-checks a number of those solutions, including battery storage, demand response, and virtual power plants, all of which have emerged en masse over the last decade, but remain under utilized. (Oh, that’s where the name comes from.)
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Fort Worth Star Telegram – March 10, 2026
Oncor wants to expand, improve southeast Fort Worth substation*
Oncor Electric is requesting that the Fort Worth City Council approve the rezoning of a southeast Fort Worth lot containing a power substation that the utility company intends to expand and renovate, documents say. According to documents filed with the city of Fort Worth, Oncor is requesting that the City Council approve a request to rezone 5.27 acres 5621 Parker Henderson Road. The property is zoned for two-family and light industrial use. Oncor is requesting that the property be zoned for light industrial use with a conditional use permit for an electrical substation with a site plan included.
Half of the site is vacant. At the Feb. 11 Zoning Commission meeting, representatives from Kimley-Horn and Oncor said improving the substation will lessen the demand on other Oncor substations in the area. “Due to the growing demand in this area, Oncor needs to improve that site as well as expand it to the east,” explained Oncor engineer Rob Myers.
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MISO, SPP eye 500-kV cross-border projects to bolster reliability, save money
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator and the Southwest Power Pool are considering two sets of 500-kV transmission projects that would provide reliability, economic and transfer benefits across their southern seam, according to a draft report discussed Friday. The potential projects grew out of the SPP-MISO 2024-25 Coordinated System Plan study, which aimed to find transmission projects that would benefit both systems along their border in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.
SPP and MISO are taking comments on the draft report and could seek approval of a final set of transmission projects late this year or in early 2027.
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Politico – March 10, 2026
US solar capacity expected to triple by 2036*
The U.S. solar industry is projected to provide half of annual additions to the electric grid through mid-century despite the rollback of tax credits and Trump administration funding cuts, according to a new report. The upped forecast from research firm Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association on Tuesday suggests surging electricity demand and cost pressures facing natural gas and other competing resources are helping to buoy solar power. Overall, U.S. solar capacity is now expected to nearly triple by 2036, rising from 279 gigawatts in 2025 to 769 gigawatts.
“Solar will continue to be the dominant source of new power capacity in the United States, even as gas generation continues to grow,” said Michelle Davis, head of solar at Wood Mackenzie, in a statement. “Strong demand growth combined with escalating costs of new gas plants will allow solar to remain competitive, even without tax credits. Yet multiple uncertainties are facing the industry, including the Iranian war.
The New York Times – March 10, 2026
U.S. Solar Installations Fell in 2025 as Trump Attacked Clean Energy*
Solar power installations declined in the United States last year, as the Trump administration sought to impede the growth of renewable energy, according to an industry report released on Tuesday. Solar energy maintained its position as the largest source of new electricity generation added to the electric grid, but the amount added was 14 percent lower than in 2024, according to the report and data published by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm.
Last year was much better for battery storage installations, which increased to their highest annual level, the report said. Trump administration officials have not criticized batteries as much as they have criticized solar and wind power. “The emphasis in federal energy policy that happened throughout 2025 on fossil fuels and a kind of a move away from renewables definitely made an impact on the solar industry, to be sure,” said Michelle Davis, head of global solar at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. “It’s undeniable.”
Regulatory
Source NM – March 10, 2026
Climate chilled at New Mexico Legislature — again
It was bitingly cold as legislators, staff, lobbyists and others rolled into New Mexico’s capitol building, the Roundhouse, in Santa Fe on Jan. 26. The annual session had begun six days earlier — a short, one-month session dedicated almost exclusively to the state budget. A cold front had blown off the North Pole and swooped down through Canada and the central U.S., dragging record cold temperatures behind it. In Santa Fe, which sits at 7,000 feet, temperatures dipped to the single digits overnight that Sunday and Monday — pretty cold, but not unusual for the capital in January. However around Carlsbad, New Mexico, 250 miles farther south and nearly 4,000 feet lower, it was even colder, with three nights dropping below zero. Sitting in the middle of the broad, flat Permian Basin that stretches across southeast New Mexico and into Texas, the city can normally count on much warmer temperatures than most other corners of the state. But not this last week of January.
The basin is the most productive oilfield in the nation, with tens of thousands of oil and gas wells and related infrastructure just in New Mexico’s section of the Permian. And when the temperatures there plunged, oil and gas infrastructure began flaring and venting unusually large amounts of natural gas. According to records kept by the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, the January spike was the largest amount of gas burned or lost to the atmosphere in at least two years — maybe longer.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday March 10, 2026
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Oil prices plunged as much as 10% Tuesday before paring losses, as investors assessed comments from U.S. President Donald Trump on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and oil flows via the critical Strait of Hormuz.
WTI fell 3.8% to about $91 per barrel. The declines come after oil surged past $100 on Monday.
Brent crude was down around 4.3% at $94.62 per barrel as of 11.45 p.m. ET Monday.
Trump who had signaled Monday that the conflict with Iran could end soon, sending oil prices lower, warned later in the day that Tehran would be hit “twenty times harder” if it attempted to halt oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social Monday stateside.
Top Stories
Reuters – March 10, 2026
Iran says oil blockade will continue until attacks end, Trump threatens to hit harder*
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday they would not allow “one litre of oil” to be shipped from the Middle East if U.S. and Israeli attacks continue, prompting a warning from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would hit Iran much harder if it blocked exports from the vital energy-producing region. Trump’s comments came after global financial markets seesawed on Monday on concerns that Iran’s security establishment was rallying behind new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and was not prepared to back down any time soon.
Trump said the United States had inflicted serious damage on Iran’s military and predicted the conflict would end well before the initial four-week time frame he had laid out, though he has not defined what victory would look like.
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Associated Press – March 9, 2026
Trump says Iran war could be over soon, but oil disruption would trigger harsher US strikes
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the war against Iran could be short-lived, but he left open the possibility of an escalation in fighting if global oil supplies are disrupted by the Islamic Republic, which chose a new hard-line supreme leader. Oil prices briefly shot to their highest level since 2022 a day after Iran selected Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his late father as Iran’s supreme leader. Investors saw it as a signal that Iran was digging in 10 days into the war launched by the United States and Israel.
But prices later fell and U.S. stocks rose on hopes that the war with Iran may not last much longer. “We took a little excursion” to the Middle East “to get rid of some evil. And, I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion,” Trump told Republican lawmakers at his golf club near Miami.
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The Hill – March 9, 2026
Trump, Pentagon give conflicting signals on end to Iran war
Related: Trump says rising oil prices ‘a very small price to pay’ for ‘safety and peace’ — The Hill
Related: Iran names former supreme leader’s son to succeed him as oil prices soar — Associated Press/KENS
President Trump and the Pentagon are offering conflicting signals on how long the U.S. war with Iran will last, as officials in Tehran prepare to dig in for a longer fight and with the economic fallout from the clash hurting the U.S. and global economy. Trump on Monday suggested victory is in sight but with the caveat that the U.S. is not yet done hammering Iran.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 9, 2026
Why Iranian Regime Change Would Transform Global Energy Markets*
The Iran conflict is rocking energy markets and threatening to squeeze the global economy, but beyond the immediate crisis lies a staggering economic prize—unlocking the oil industry in a nation with one of the world’s largest proven reserves. On Monday, Brent crude surged past $100 a barrel before falling back in volatile trading as the conflict paralyzed the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage between Iran and Oman that a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows through. Thousands of ships are stuck outside the Persian Gulf. But there is promise lurking behind the peril.
If the fight leads to regime change in Iran—a prospect that remains far from certain—it could one day reshape global energy markets. Lifting crippling economic sanctions could boost output in a country that already produces roughly 4% of the world’s oil. “There is plenty of runway for Iranian oil,” said Karen Young, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.
For years, Iran’s oil industry has been strangled by international sanctions, starving it of most foreign investment and technology. If that persists, it would likely lead to an eventual collapse in production. “That can change quickly, in a scenario as we now see in Venezuela where expectations of increasing production were quite bleak but already showing improvement,” said Young. After years of U.S. sanctions, the Venezuelan energy sector suffered a heavy blow amid a lack of access to technology and chronic capital flight. Since U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, Washington’s push to lift sanctions and attract foreign investment has positioned the nation’s oil sector for a steady, albeit lengthy, recovery.
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NBC News – March 9, 2026
Trump says it’s ‘too soon’ to talk about seizing Iran’s oil — but doesn’t rule it out
President Donald Trump on Monday left open the prospect of acquiring Iranian oil as the U.S. proceeds with a war officials have said is aimed at depriving Iran of a nuclear weapon and defanging it so it no longer poses a threat to the U.S. or Middle East neighbors. Trump told NBC News that he did not want to discuss whether he would like the U.S. to seize Iranian oil but added: “Certainly people have talked about it.”
He mentioned Venezuela, where the U.S. launched a raid in January that captured the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. Since then, the Trump administration has taken steps to secure and tap Venezuela’s oil reserves. In his State of the Union speech last month, Trump said the U.S. has already gotten more than 80 million barrels of oil from Venezuela.
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S&P Global Platts – March 9, 2026
Hormuz Strait traffic tapers amid war as tankers await passage: CAS
The number of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz has continued to taper since the start of the war in the Middle East, falling to just four ships on March 8 from 91 seen on Feb. 28, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data collected on March 9. AIS signals from S&P Global’s Market Intelligence Network showed four ships transiting the Strait as of March 8, comprised of an Iranian Medium Range tanker, the Dalia, two bulk carriers and one other ship.
Additionally, Iranian oil and LPG shipments have continued to pass through in recent days, such as the Very Large Crude Carrier, Voy, which is carrying Indian crude and destined for China, the data shows. Of total ships crossing the Strait, the number of oil and chemical tankers has dropped to just one as of March 8 from 44 on Feb. 28, the data showed.
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S&P Global Platts – March 9, 2026
Biofuel complex rocked by volatility in underlying fossil markets
SAF and renewable diesel outright prices hit multi-month highs following the outbreak of war in the Middle East on Feb. 28, driven by strength in the underlying fossil contracts which they are priced against. There is often a lag between movements in the underlying fossil contract and the corresponding adjustment to bio-premiums, European biofuel traders said.
As of March 6, the downward momentum for premiums had not mitigated the drastic increase in underlying fossil fuel products, leaving market participants unsure of when, and to what extent, biofuel prices will soften. Elsewhere, biodiesel and ethanol markets have seen mixed reactions to the increasing fossil market volatility, and disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Latest TERse Tips
Webb County officials say energy efficiency improvements across county facilities have generated millions of dollars in savings over the past several years — Laredo Morning Times
Chemical manufacturers, product makers, and product retailers are gearing up for new state-level restrictions on products sold in stores and online that contain per- and-polyfluoroalkyl substances — Hunton
Trump’s War on Wind Energy Is Costing Him Blue-Collar Union Support — “A lot of my members voted for President Trump in the last election, and they completely turned around on him,” one union chapter president, whose members work on offshore wind projects, said — NOTUS
The oil & gas industry is experiencing a fundamental transformation in how companies access and deploy capital in 2026, and despite strong balance sheets and robust free cash flow generation, the sector is witnessing strategic shifts in funding sources and investment priorities that signal a new era of capital allocation, writes Akin Gump
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget director all but confirmed that the governor plans to propose changes to the state’s climate law to ease statutory mandates for the costly clean energy transition — City and State
Oil & Gas Texas
KXAN – March 9, 2026
Oil prices drop by more than $40 per barrel from dramatic early morning rise
On Monday morning, the price of crude oil futures opened at $115.62/barrel. It was the first time oil had crossed the $100/barrel threshold since mid-2022 — a staggering jump from when the market closed on Friday at $91.27/barrel. The spike was largely driven by shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. Around 20% of the world’s oil flows through the small naval passage bordering Iran. Due to the United States’ military operation in Iran, many shippers have taken extra precautions in recent days.
“This is caused by the actions of Iran,” Texas Oil and Gas Association Todd Staples said. “The impact that consumers are experiencing is because Iran has aggressively gone after their Gulf state neighbors — they’ve aggressively essentially stopped the flow of about 20% of the oil supply.”
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The Hill – March 9, 2026
Schumer calls on Trump to tap Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid rising oil prices
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Sunday called on President Trump to immediately release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid rising oil and gas prices caused by the military conflict in Iran. Oil prices jumped to nearly $120 per barrel before dropping some on Monday as missile strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Arab countries have put pressure on supplies.
Brent crude reached $119.50 per barrel before falling back to $106 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate rose to $119.48 per barrel before dropping back to $103. “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists for moments exactly like this,” Schumer said in a statement.
“When wars and global crises disrupt energy markets, the United States has the ability to act, but President Trump and his administration are refusing to do so. Trump should release oil from the SPR now to stabilize markets, bring prices down, and stop the price shock that American families are already feeling thanks to his reckless war,” he added.
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Source NM – March 4, 2026
Texas energy company seeks federal approval for pipeline through New Mexico to power data center
A Texas energy company has applied to build a 17-mile pipeline in Doña Ana County in order to help power a controversial data center in Southern New Mexico. Several southern New Mexico Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups plan to lodge objections to Houston-headquartered Energy Transfer’s proposal for the $60 million pipeline, which it filed in February with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The project would pipe 400,000 dekatherms of gas daily to power plants for Project Jupiter, according to the nearly 900-page application for the $60 million pipeline, dubbed the “Green Chile Project.” As a point of comparison, that amount of gas used daily would power Española for one year, according to Lu Liu, an assistant civil engineering professor at Iowa State University.
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Innovation Map – March 4, 2026
Texas takes the No. 1 spot on new energy resilience report
A new report by mineral group Texas Royalty Brokers ranks Texas as the No. 1 most energy-resilient state. The study focused on four main sources of electricity in hydroelectric dams, natural gas plants, nuclear reactors and petroleum facilities. Each state was given an Energy Resilience Score based on size and diversity of its power infrastructure, energy production and affordability for residents.
Texas earned a score of 71.3 on the report, outpacing much of the rest of the country. Pennsylvania came in at No. 2 with a score of 55.8, followed by New York (49.1) and California (48.4). According to the report, Texas produces 11.7 percent of the country’s total energy, made possible by the state’s 141,000-megawatt power infrastructure—the largest in America.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – March 9, 2026
US to remove oil sanctions on some countries until Iran situation ‘straightens out’: Trump
The US will lift sanctions on oil sales by “some countries” until the war with Iran “straightens out,” US President Donald Trump said March 9. “We are also waiving certain oil-related sanctions to reduce prices,” Trump said, speaking at a White House press conference. “We have sanctions on some countries. We’re going to take sanctions off until this straightens out. When the time comes, the US Navy and its partners will escort tankers through the strait if needed.”
The number of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz has continued to taper since the start of the war against Iran, falling to just four ships on March 8 from 91 seen on Feb. 28, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data collected on March 9. When asked to detail the sanctions the US would lift, Trump provided no further details.
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News from the States – March 5, 2026
Top Alaska court takes up lawsuit challenging trans-Alaska gas pipeline law
The Alaska Supreme Court is considering whether to advance a lawsuit that claims the Alaska Constitution conflicts with a state law that directs construction of a trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline. On Wednesday, the court’s justices — minus Chief Justice Susan Carney, who is recovering from surgery — heard oral arguments from plaintiffs who believe any pipeline built under the law would result in so much climate change that it would unconstitutionally degrade hunting and fishing opportunities.
A lower court dismissed the lawsuit in March 2025, but the dismissal was appealed to the Supreme Court.
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Reuters – March 9, 2026
Canadian oil tycoon backs South Bow pipeline to boost US exports*
The Canadian tycoon who heads one of North America’s fastest growing oil companies told Reuters he supports a proposal to potentially revive parts of the former Keystone XL pipeline and wants to see Canada use the project as leverage in upcoming trade negotiations with the United States. Still, Adam Waterous, CEO of Strathcona Resources, said he would prefer a new West Coast pipeline to increase access to Asian markets.
The comments by Waterous, one of Canada’s most aggressive oil industry dealmakers, are the first public statements by a Canadian oil shipper in favour of a new pipeline proposal led by Canadian company South Bow (SOBO.TO), opens new tab that could increase the country’s crude exports to the U.S. by more than 12%. They are an early indication that the project — which would require both a green light from U.S. President Donald Trump and the construction of additional links to U.S. refining hubs — has at least some level of commercial support from Canadian oil sands producers at a time when the U.S.-Israel war on Iran has disrupted international supply and sent global crude prices soaring.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 6, 2026
The Billionaire Whose Ships Are Braving Missiles in the Strait of Hormuz*
Even in the adrenaline-fueled shipping industry, billionaire George Prokopiou has long been renowned for sailing close to the wind in pursuit of profit. This week, the Greek magnate made one of the boldest plays of his 55-year tanker career: sending at least five ships through the Strait of Hormuz while war flared across the Middle East. They are among the few merchant vessels to have sailed through the waterway since the conflagration trapped thousands of boats and threatened a global energy crisis. Prokopiou’s rivals, many of whom have tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf, are reluctant to dispatch any more for fear their ships or sailors could join the casualty list.
His gambit is that oil importers will pay sky-high rates to an owner willing to get crude out of the war zone. Alternatively, Gulf producers could charter ships to stow crude at sea as their tanks on land fill up. Already, drillers in Iraq and Kuwait have slowed output because they were out of storage space. Armed guards patrolled the decks of Prokopiou’s ships while they sailed through the Strait with their transponders off to avoid attracting fire from Iran, according to ship-tracking data and people familiar with the voyages. But there is little the ships could have done if they had been attacked by missiles, drones or limpet mines.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
San Antonio Express-News – March 9, 2026
Inside San Antonio’s AI-driven data center boom and what it means for CPS Energy*
CPS Energy President and CEO Rudy Garza is facing the challenge of his career. The city-owned utility — like other electric providers across the state — is up against an unprecedented surge in demand as data centers and other large load customers flock to the region “We’ve got over 50 projects that could quadruple our resource needs if they all showed up,” Garza said of the Alamo City.
“If” is the key word as uncertainty is a reality that complicates planning. It’s the same struggle utilities and electric grid operators across the U.S. are grappling with — striking the balance between providing the infrastructure and energy generation needed to keep up while navigating uncertainty about how much of the possible demand materializes. This much is certain, Garza said: Two gigawatts of data centers are in the contracting phase in the CPS service area, demanding enough energy to power about 500,000 homes.
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Associated Press/AOL – March 9, 2026
AI is spurring a big expansion of high-voltage power lines. Landowners and locals are fighting back
In Texas’ Hill Country, the Hill Country Preservation Coalition sprang up against the construction of the southernmost of three 765-kilovolt lines — the highest voltage used in the United States — that Texas regulators commissioned to cross the state in east-west “superhighway” corridors.
The coalition’s founder, Jada Jo Smith, calls it a “Goliath” that will be nearly impossible to defeat. To at least minimize the damage, the coalition is pressing state regulators to adopt a different, slightly longer path that follows existing highway corridors. “Why would you choose a route that would potentially harm our most iconic rivers that we have left in the state of Texas?” Smith said.
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KRHD – March 8, 2026
Caldwell moves to ERCOT electric grid, citing aging infrastructure and reliability concerns
The city of Caldwell is transitioning from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator electric grid to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid, citing an aging substation and the need for more reliable service as the city expands.
The transition is scheduled to begin March 12, and city officials warn that service disruptions are possible but should not last longer than an hour. Caldwell’s existing substation is 57 years old and serves more than 2,000 retail electric meters, primarily within the city’s municipal boundaries in Burleson County. The substation’s transformer is 35 years old and has experienced performance issues, including at least one failure related to its load tap changer. City officials say the substation would require extensive and expensive upgrades to remain in service.
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KXXV – March 9, 2026
Wind farm in Mart begins turbine replacement, ENGIE responds to neighbors concerns
A wind farm in Mart is entering a new chapter. Prairie Hill Wind Farm has begun a six-month demolition process that will remove 100 existing turbines and replace them with 63 new, more efficient models. The project is privately funded, meaning it will not be paid for by taxpayers or ratepayers, according to ENGIE, the company behind the project.
For some residents, the wind farm has already made a tangible difference. “I don’t mind it because I’ve noticed that the cost of energy in this area has reduced since the turbines were put in… my bill dropped by like $200,” a local Mart resident said.
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Texas Tribune – March 9, 2026
A viral image from the March 1 shooting in downtown Austin — an autonomous vehicle blocking an ambulance from reaching the scene where a gunman fatally wounded three people and injured 15 others — has put a spotlight on driverless cars as they hit the streets in more major Texas cities.
A video widely circulated on social media shows a Waymo vehicle blocking the street as paramedics try to reach the scene of the shooting at Buford’s, in the city’s nightlife district on West 6th Street, forcing the ambulance driver to seek another route. “This is why we should not have self-driving cars,” an onlooker says in the video.
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KBTX – March 6, 2026
Battery storage fire safety: How a 2019 explosion near Phoenix led to changes in the industry
attery energy storage system facilities are expanding across the Phoenix Valley, but fires at those sites have raised safety concerns for nearby residents and first responders. The Environmental Protection Agency says battery fires can burn for hours and release harmful gases that pose health risks. The EPA also says a response plan is critical when managing one of these sites.
Lithium-ion batteries store large amounts of electricity that can become unstable. They have caused fires in golf carts, garages, cars, airplanes and buildings. Phoenix Fire Captain Michael Duffy warned the Phoenix City Council in July about the dangers posed by lithium-ion batteries and the facilities that house them
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Clean Technica – February 26, 2026
A recent poll from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, chief pollster for President Trump, found that a clear majority of Republicans support expanding solar power in the United States. In the survey, 68% of GOP voters agreed that “we need all forms of electricity generation, including utility solar, to be built to lower electricity costs,” while 70% said they support utility-scale solar deployment when projects use American-made materials. Another poll from Kellyanne Conway’s KA Consulting showed that three-quarters of Trump voters (75%) in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas believe that solar energy should be used in the U.S. to strengthen and increase our energy supply.
Conservative voters are drawing a clear distinction between rhetoric and practical solutions that lower costs. As the Fabrizio memo notes, the idea that solar is inherently at odds with right-leaning voters is not borne out by the data.
Regulatory
JD Supra – February 26, 2026
Staying With the Current: Key Texas Water Decisions in 2025: Haynes Boone
In 2025, the Texas Supreme Court issued several decisions with meaningful implications for Texas water law. The decisions provide guidance on ownership of produced water, agency discretion during wastewater permitting and appellate jurisdiction for river authorities. The decisions are particularly relevant for oil and gas operators, water utilities, developers, industrial and manufacturing facilities, landowners, agricultural producers and other entities navigating Texas water law.
Produced Water — In Cactus Water Services, LLC v. COG Operating, LLC,1 the Court addressed ownership of produced water that was generated incidental to oil and gas production. The Court held that a mineral lease granting the right to produce oil and gas also conveys the produced water necessarily generated by those operations unless there is an express reservation in the conveyance document.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday March 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
Stock futures were plunging to start the week’s trading as U.S. oil prices neared $120 a barrel amid the U.S.-Iran conflict, raising fears higher energy prices could dramatically slow the U.S. economy. Futures tied to the Dow fell 1,026 points, or 2.33%. S&P futures lost 2.05% by midnight Sunday and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 2.34%
Oil prices surged about 20% on Monday, hitting their highest since July 2022, as the expanding U.S.-Israeli war with Iran led some major Middle Eastern oil producers to cut supplies and on fears of prolonged disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint.
Brent crude and WTI moved up at the Sunday evening US Daylight Time Asian opening, relatively in tendem, to about $119 a barrel.
Agriculture markets, led by edible oils, rose as they took their cue from oil prices due to the extensive use of vegetable oils in making biofuels. Aluminium firmed on supply worries even as other metals faced headwinds from a stronger dollar.
Brent was on track for its biggest one-day gain ever in both percentage and absolute terms as the expanding U.S.-Israeli war with Iran led some major Middle Eastern oil producers to cut supplies and on fears of prolonged disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint.
Analysts predict the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will have to also cut output soon as they run out of oil storage.
The war could leave consumers and businesses worldwide facing weeks or months of higher fuel prices even if the week-old conflict ends quickly, as suppliers grapple with damaged facilities, disrupted logistics and elevated risks to shipping.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – March 8, 2026
The Long-Feared Persian Gulf Oil Squeeze Is Upon Us*
The chairman of oil producer DNO was flying from New York to Oslo early on Feb. 28 when he told staff to turn off the company’s oil wells in Iraq. America and Israel had just attacked neighboring Iran. Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani wasn’t taking any chances, having weathered a drone strike on the company’s oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan last summer. By the time he landed, the pumps had stopped—the first oil shutdown of the war. To the south, another problem was brewing. An apparent recording of an Iranian naval captain telling ships not to enter the Strait of Hormuz spread through industry WhatsApp groups.
Tanker traffic slowed to a trickle. The doomsday some oil analysts believed could never happen was coming to pass. Unable to ship crude to world markets, much bigger producers in Iraq began to run out of places to put it. The country cut output by more than two-thirds. Tanks in Kuwait were next to fill up. U.S. oil prices vaulted above $100 a barrel Sunday for the first time since the fallout of Russia’s war on Ukraine. “In the whole written history of the strait, it has never been closed, ever,” said JPMorgan Chase analyst Natasha Kaneva. “To me, it was not just the worst-case scenario. It was an unthinkable scenario.”
On Saturday, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. signaled it too was slowing production so tanks didn’t overflow. If the strait is still closed this Friday, daily output in the region could fall by more than four million barrels, Kaneva estimates. The decline could reach around nine million by the end of March, representing almost a 10th of global demand. One week into President Trump’s war on Iran, the most severe shock to energy markets since the 1970s is cascading through the world economy. The disruption quickly fed into higher gasoline and diesel prices at the pump, and higher mortgage rates and borrowing costs for the U.S. government, endangering Trump’s economic priorities. To be sure, the U.S. has more shock absorbers this time around. Oil is a far smaller component of gross domestic product than it once was, and the U.S. has become a top energy exporter in its own right.
Associated Press – March 8, 2026
Oil prices are soaring, but Trump is downplaying the need to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Oil prices have soared in the week since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran, but President Donald Trump on Saturday downplayed the idea of turning to America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ease the pressure. Trump was asked by reporters on Air Force One about whether he would consider tapping the reserve. As the war continues to escalate across the Middle East, including in areas critical to the production and movement of oil and gas, that’s strained the energy sector globally. In the U.S., consumers are already facing higher gas prices, a key cost of living.
“We’ve got a lot of oil. Our country has a tremendous amount,” Trump said. “There’s a lot of oil out there. That’ll get healed very quickly.” Trump’s Republican Party is under pressure over the issue of affordability ahead of November midterm elections. Tapping the reserve is among the few things a president can do on his own to try to make an impact on oil prices.
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Dallas Morning News – March 6, 2026
Airlines in bear market as oil poses ‘existential’ threat*
US airline stocks slipped into a bear market as Wall Street warns that the war in the Middle East threatens to dramatically squeeze profits by driving up fuel costs. The S&P Supercomposite Airlines Industry Index closed down 4.1% on Friday afternoon, extending a skid into a sixth day. The group is down over 22% from a multi-year high marked just last month. A decline of 20% or more from a peak is defined as a bear market.
The price jump represents an “existential threat” for carriers, Deutsche Bank warned on Friday. The industry suffered serious damage when fuel prices surged in 2005, prompting Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines to file for bankruptcy, the firm noted. “Absent near-term relief, airlines around the world could be forced to ground” thousands of aircraft as a result of the Iran war, analyst Michael Linenberg wrote in a note. “Some of the industry’s financially weakest carriers could halt operations.”
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Politico – March 6, 2026
How Georgia’s power bills are sparking the midterms
Democrats pulled off the kind of election feat in Georgia last year that would make any political strategist salivate — leveraging voter frustration with high power bills to unseat two Republicans by record margins. For the first time in more than 20 years, the special election for Georgia’s Public Service Commission installed two Democrats on the little-known panel that approves electricity rates. The commission race ultimately flipped 22 counties that President Donald Trump had carried just the year before.
Now green groups are looking to replicate Georgia’s playbook in other states, as sky-high power bills shine a national spotlight on these typically low-profile regulatory boards, as I write in a story today. National electricity rates continue to rise, outpacing wages and inflation, federal data shows — swiftly becoming a flash point ahead of the midterm elections.
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Politico – March 6, 2026
Solar group takes revenge on Chip Roy over tax credits*
Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy made it his mission last year to kill renewable energy tax incentives. In response, a political action committee backed by solar energy executives decided to try to do the same to Roy’s campaign for Texas attorney general. This week, the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC notched a partial victory. On Tuesday, Roy was forced into a GOP runoff with Mayes Middleton, who topped a four-way primary with 39.1 percent to Roy’s second place at 31.6 percent.
The fledgling PAC, established just last month, spent more than $650,000 opposing Roy in the race, campaign finance records show. Each candidate had millions in their warchest. The group targeted conservative voters on platforms like Rumble and Truth Social, with messaging saying Roy is “not MAGA enough for Texas.” The far-right congressman has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump for demanding concessions before voting with party leaders.
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Argus Media – March 6, 2026
US weighs military powers to restart oil pipeline
President Donald Trump’s administration is considering invoking a 1950 war mobilization law to override legal impediments to restarting a pipeline that would transport oil being produced offshore California. The Trump administration since last year has pushed to restart a network of pipelines that would allow US independent Sable Offshore to start selling crude it is producing from offshore platforms off the coast of southern California.
Federal regulators in December asserted to have control over the pipelines, but a state judge last month halted the restart of the pipeline, citing a consent decree that had resolved a state lawsuit over a massive spill from the pipeline in 2015. The administration is now considering an alternative to restarting the shuttered oil pipeline by using the Defense Production Act of 1950. Under a legal opinion the US Department of Justice published on 3 March, the administration asserted the ability to use the Korean War-era law to preempt both state law and the consent decree.
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Inside Climate News – March 8, 2026
After a Decade of Missteps, a Texas City Careens Toward a Water-Shortage Catastrophe
The imminent depletion of water supplies in Corpus Christi threatens to cut off the flow of jet fuel to Texas airports and other oil exports from one of the nation’s largest petroleum ports, triggering potential shockwaves through energy markets in Texas and beyond. Without significant rainfall, Corpus Christi is headed for a “water emergency” within months and total depletion of the system next year, according to the city’s website.
“The impacts are going to be felt tremendously through the state, if not internationally,” said Sean Strawbridge, former CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, the nation’s top port for crude oil exports, in a 40-minute interview Thursday. “This should be no surprise to anybody. We were talking about this over a decade ago.”
The Latest TERse Tips
America’s Military Is Focused on Iran. Its Biggest Challenge Is China — Trump’s war in the Middle East is the latest campaign that has drained missile stockpiles and stretched American forces thin — The Wall Street Journal*
Oil Prices Are Barreling Toward All-Time Highs — The Wall Street Journal*
A record number of Texans are leaving Congress, further diminishing the state’s clout on Capitol Hill — Houston Chronicle*
See How Fast Gasoline Prices Are Rising — war in the Middle East has shocked oil markets — The Wall Street Journal*
AEP has named Adrian Rodriguez president and chief operating officer of AEP Texas — see the press release
Huge flames in Tehran after Israeli strikes on oil refineries — witnesses in Tehran captured the aftermath of oil depots being hit by airstrikes as flames and smoke engulfed the surrounding cityscape — the Israel Defense Forces said it struck “several fuel storage complexes” in Iran’s capital, which the country’s National Iranian Oil Company later confirmed — “It was as if the night had turned into day,” one resident told the BBC.
Venezuela this month resumed exports of a key crude grade that had not been shipped since late 2024, diluted crude oil (DCO), with U.S. Chevron sending a 500,000-barrel cargo to the U.S. Gulf Coast, a document from state energy company PDVSA seen on Friday showed — Reuters*
An overnight storm brought damage and fallen trees to East Texas on Saturday and electric company crews are working to restore power to customers — the Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation shared pictures of fallen trees and damaged power lines in the Hall area on social media — KETK
Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – March 6, 2026
US Drillers Add Oil Rigs as WTI Jumps 14%
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US to 551 this week, down 41 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 4 to 411 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 75 below this same time last year. The number of gas sunk by 2, reaching 132, which is 31 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count stayed the same at 8.
The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production fell this week, by 6,000 bpd in the week ending February 27, to 13.696 million bpd on average, 166,000 bpd under the all-time high. Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells, rose again during the week ending February 27 by 7 after gaining 7 crews in the week prior.
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Politico – March 5, 2026
BLM to help oil industry find new uses for wastewater*
The Bureau of Land Management is instructing employees in the field to help companies find uses for oil field wastewater, such as for agriculture, beyond injecting it underground permanently. The new BLM policy is the latest step in a debate about what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater produced every year. Decades of deep injection have resulted in earthquakes, geyser-like well blowouts and ground swelling. Some water managers in Texas worry that if the practice continues at the current rate, groundwater resources could get contaminated.
The move comes as the Trump administration’s EPA is also working on a regulation to make it easier for companies to treat and reuse the water. The wastewater, often referred to as “produced water,” “salt water” or “brine,” comes up with oil and gas at well sites. The byproduct is many times saltier than seawater, often has chemicals added during drilling and fracking and can be radioactive.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 6, 2026
TIPRO: Energy output hit records in challenging 2025*
Despite a year of unique challenges, the nation’s oil and gas industry made significant economic contributions in 2025. The Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) has released the 11th edition of its State of Energy Report, finding U.S. crude oil production averaged a record 13.6 million barrels per day in 2025. Further, U.S. natural gas production in 2025 averaged a record 107.7 billion cubic feet per day.
According to TIPRO, the industry supported 2,043,859 direct jobs in the U.S. last year, with total direct and indirect jobs tied to the industry reaching more than 19 million. Texas continued to lead the nation in both energy production and industry employment, according to TIPRO. The Lone Star State supplied a record 2.1 billion barrels of oil in 2025 and a record 13.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The industry supported a total of 476,777 direct jobs in Texas in 2025, with total direct and indirect employment of 2.5 million. Texas energy workers accounted for 23% of all oil and gas jobs in the nation.
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KXAN – March 6, 2026
Dallas oil CEO says gas prices could hit ‘$5 or $6’ per gallon due to US, Israeli war with Iran
The American and Israel’s war with Iran will likely hit Texans’ wallets soon. The conflict, which began with missile strikes from Israel and the U.S. on March 1, triggered an indefinite pause on commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. This includes oil tankers from countries in the Persian Gulf.
According to Jay Young, founder and CEO of the Dallas-area King Operating Corporation, said that roughly a fifth of all produced oil moves through the strait. When that flow paused, oil prices shot up by approximately 30%. Oil prices have risen steadily since the initial attacks on Iran. On Feb. 27, the price per barrel was around $67; it is now over $90 as of Friday afternoon and continuing to climb. Young said he could see it reaching over $100. “It’s good for oil and gas companies… good for revenue for the Texas Rail Commission,” he said. “It creates a lot of jobs, a tremendous amount of jobs… so this is good for a lot of people.”
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 7, 2026
Brazos Midstream expands Midland Basin operations*
Brazos Midstream is continuing to expand the Midland Basin operations it began in 2021. The company has commissioned Sundance II, a 300 million cubic feet per day cryogenic natural gas processing facility in Martin County and the largest cryogenic plant constructed by the company to date. It combines with Sundance I, a 200 Mmcf per day facility that entered service in mid-2024.
Brazos has also begun construction of a new processing complex in Glasscock County that will initially include Cassidy I, a 300 Mmcf per day cryogenic natural gas processing facility. Once completed by the end of the year, Cassidy I will increase Brazos’ total natural gas processing capacity in the Midland Basin to 800 MMcf per day. Brazos has already secured grid power and other related infrastructure to execute expansion opportunities at the Cassidy complex.
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Oil & Gas National & International
The Wall Street Journal – March 8, 2026
Why the Oil Shock Probably Won’t Derail the Economy. And One Way It Might.*
It was an ugly week for the economy. Oil prices surged 39%, all but guaranteeing inflation is about to lurch higher. And it came amid emerging signs of jobs weakness, as payrolls fell and unemployment rose in February. Those with long memories smell stagflation—a troubling mix of stagnant growth and stubborn inflation—or worse, recession. Higher oil prices helped sink the economy in 1973, 1980, 1990 and 2008. Odds are neither stagflation nor recession will happen. The economy has grown more resilient to oil shocks, and a productivity renaissance is under way, helped by artificial intelligence. Both should help sustain growth and cushion cost pressures.
Higher oil prices are like a tax, cutting into household consumption while boosting inflation and interest rates. But that effect has shrunk as the U.S. became less energy dependent. The U.S. consumed 4% less gasoline in 2025 than in 2007, while producing 42% more goods and services (as measured by gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation). The share of households’ consumption of energy, including electricity, natural gas and gasoline, fell from 5.7% in 2007 to 3.7% last year.
Oil alone has never caused a recession; it usually requires some other vulnerability. The 2022 spike didn’t hurt, in part, because the U.S. was adding over 300,000 jobs a month. The labor market looks fragile now, with payrolls surprisingly dropping 92,000 in February from January, and unemployment ticking up to 4.4%.
This, though, doesn’t look like a prelude to a recession. Employment growth has been sluggish for a year, due less to weaker demand for workers than a shrunken supply as immigration dries up. In spite of that, the economy grew a respectable 2.2% last year. The reason: output per hour worked, i.e. productivity, rose 2.8%. That’s roughly double its prepandemic pace, and a sign the economy is becoming much more efficient. AI probably played only a minor role. But as its deployment spreads, it could sustain productivity and thus growth above 2%, even with little or no job growth this year.
What could go wrong? Prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz could send oil prices much higher than the market anticipates. Robert McNally, a former energy adviser to President George W. Bush, estimates it will take four weeks for oil flows to fully resume. He considers that an optimistic scenario with no successful Iranian strikes on shipping, yet he still sees that pushing oil well over $100 a barrel. The energy minister of Qatar said it could reach $150.
Inflation, stubborn for longer Oil has often been a culprit in past recessions by prompting the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates (or refrain from cutting them) to get inflation down again. Until this past week, inflation seemed to be declining gently toward the Fed’s 2% target. Now, inflation-linked financial derivatives imply inflation—2.4% in January—will be 2.9% in the coming 12 months, according to Barclays. The derivatives also imply inflation will fall briskly thereafter, to 2.44% in the following 12 months. “The market thinks that any inflation impulse will be pretty quickly felt, and not lead to a sustained resurgence in inflation,” said Jonathan Hill of Barclays.
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S&P Global Platts – March 6, 2026
Marine insurers seek solutions as Gulf shipping threats evolve
Marine insurers are exploring new ways to revive seaborne trades in the Persian Gulf as threats shift from the weapons of past tanker wars to drones and modern missiles even as US offers to backstop war-risk insurance meets a cautious response. More than 10 ships have been targeted in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters since the US-Iran war broke out Feb. 28, leading to crew casualties and ship damage, and international shipping organizations have called on shipping companies to avoid the conflict zones if possible.
“This situation is unprecedented. There is perhaps a tendency in some quarters to view this as a rerun of 1980s tanker wars, but that scenario was fundamentally different,” Munro Anderson, director of strategy and operations at marine war risk insurance specialist Vessel Protect, part of Pen Underwriting, told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, March 6.
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CNBC – March 8, 2026
Kuwait cuts oil production as Strait of Hormuz closure disrupts global energy market
Kuwait said Saturday that it has cut oil production and refining output because tankers cannot transit the Persian Gulf due to threats from Iran. The Arab monarchy did not say how many barrels per day it has cut, but described the output reduction as a precautionary measure that will be “reviewed as the situation develops.” Kuwait is the fifth-largest oil producer in OPEC. It produced about 2.6 million barrels per day in January.
The state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said it “remains fully prepared to restore production levels once conditions allow.” Oil prices surged about 35% this week as the Iran war triggered a major disruption of global energy supplies. Tankers have stopped transiting the critical Strait of Hormuz because ship owners fear their vessels will be attacked by Iran.
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CNBC – March 8, 2026
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said oil and gas prices will begin to fall when the U.S. begins to knock out Iran’s ability to hinder tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, as Americans weather spiking gas prices due to the war in Iran. “The plan is to get oil and natural gas and fertilizer and all the products from the Gulf flowing through the straits before too long,” Wright said on Fox News Sunday. “We’re massively attriting their ability to strike with missiles and drones, and that rate of attrition will increase in the coming days. So we’ll be cautious, we’ll be careful, but energy will flow soon.”
President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in the White House in part by promising to lower gas prices and defeat high inflation. He has frequently touted lower gas prices ahead of the November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress for the remainder of his term.
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Reuters – March 6, 2026
Oil derivatives signal traders see Middle East shock as short-lived*
Oil options and futures are signalling that the latest Middle East conflict may be short‑lived, as traders pile into structures that profit from a retreat in prices after the initial spike. Options and futures markets often provide the earliest signal of whether traders see a supply shock as fleeting or structural, creating opportunities to profit from sharp swings in prices.
The Israel‑U.S. attack on Iran has sent shockwaves through energy markets as war‑risk insurance costs surge, freight rates hit record levels and disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz snarl oil flows and strand hundreds of vessels. Oil prices , on Friday were at multi-year highs. In a sign traders see the price shock as temporary, 30-day at-the-money Brent implied volatility jumped 17.5 points to 68% over the past week through Tuesday, while 60- and 90-day tenors rose only 5.9 and 2.8 percentage points, LSEG data shows.
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Bloomberg – March 5, 2026
The Iran War’s Most Precious Commodity Isn’t Oil: Javier Blas*
The CIA calls it the “strategic commodity” of the Middle East. But it’s not referring to oil or natural gas. What the American spy agency has in mind is far more prosaic: drinking water. Don’t underestimate it, though, because if military hostilities continue to escalate, water could become the geopolitical commodity that decides the war between the US and Iran. The Persian Gulf is gifted with a fabulous hydrocarbon endowment, worth trillions of dollars. What its desertic countries don’t have is water. From the 1970s onward, the oil money bought a solution: desalination plants. Today, the region relies on nearly 450 facilities to stop everyone going thirsty.
The US Central Intelligence Agency has been briefing American policymakers for decades on the inherent risk of relying on those plants for such a crucial supply. In a secret assessment in the early 1980s — since declassified — the CIA said: “Senior government officials in some of the countries perceive it [water] as more important than oil to the national well-being.” More than four decades later, not much has changed. Desalination remains a relatively cost-effective technology to transform sea water into drinking water. The downside is the vulnerability of the installations, and the oil and gas consumption required to fire the power generators that run the plants.
About 100 million people live in the countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — all now under Iranian attack. Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE are, for all practical purposes, completely dependent on the desalination plants, particularly for metropolises such as Dubai. Saudi Arabia, and especially its capital, Riyadh, also relies heavily on them.
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Reuters – March 6, 2026
Asia has limited options to diversify from Mideast energy reliance*
Asian energy buyers are scrambling to find alternatives as the Iran war creates unprecedented supply disruption, but the region has limited longer-term options to reduce its heavy reliance on Middle Eastern oil. The world’s top crude importing region buys 60% of its oil and petrochemical feedstock from the Middle East, where the war that started with Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran nearly a week ago has pushed up global energy prices and threatens to drive inflation and hurt economic growth.
Unable to receive Middle Eastern crude, refiners from China to Southeast Asia are looking for expensive alternatives that will take weeks or months to arrive, while some are cutting output. This week, China and Thailand suspended exports of oil products while Vietnam halted crude exports, which typically go to Australia. However, alternative sources have drawbacks including distance, refinery configurations, long-term contracts and cost.
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Oil Price – March 6, 2026
How Quickly Can Qatar Restart the World’s Largest LNG Export Hub?
QatarEnergy declared force majeure on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports on Wednesday, following disruptions at its Ras Laffan industrial city facilities caused by the Middle East conflict. This legal declaration effectively releases the state-owned company from contractual delivery obligations due to extraordinary circumstances beyond its control. The shutdown was triggered by a near-complete halt of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz due to the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. Qatar accounts for 20% of global LNG exports, primarily serving Asian markets including China, Japan, India and South Korea as well as Europe.
Unfortunately for gas customers, it could take months before the giant LNG plant returns to normal production. U.S. President Donald Trump initially projected that Operation Epic Fury would last only four to five weeks, but later announced that the U.S. has the capability to go “far longer”. His ally in the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has described the campaign as “quick and decisive action” that may “take some time” but will not last for years.
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Associated Press – March 8, 2026
Oil built the Persian Gulf. Desalinated water keeps it alive. War could threaten both.
As missiles and drones curtail energy production across the Persian Gulf, analysts warn that water, not oil, may be the resource most at risk in the energy-rich but arid region. On Sunday, Bahrain accused Iran of damaging one of its desalination plants. Earlier, Iran said a U.S. airstrike had damaged an Iranian plant. Hundreds of desalination plants sit along the Persian Gulf coast, putting individual systems that supply water to millions within range of Iranian missile or drone strikes. Without them, major cities could not sustain their current populations.
In Kuwait, about 90% of drinking water comes from desalination, along with roughly 86% in Oman and about 70% in Saudi Arabia. The technology removes salt from seawater — most commonly by pushing it through ultrafine membranes in a process known as reverse osmosis — to produce the freshwater that sustains cities, hotels, industry and some agriculture across one of the world’s driest regions.
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CNN – March 5, 2026
Trump keeps trying to auction off this US property for oil drilling. No one is buying.
A federal deadline came and went this week for oil companies to bid on around 1 million acres of drilling territory off Alaska’s Cook Inlet. No one did. “At this time, no bids have been received,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said in a statement on its website. Alaska’s Cook Inlet was once a major basin for oil and gas, but its reserves have been declining for decades. As its energy resources are depleted, it has also gotten increasingly expensive for companies to drill there.
As a result, the number of companies who want to develop energy there is scant. On Wednesday, for example, the state of Alaska also posted dismal results of a separate auction it runs in the area. Of the close to 3 million of acres of waters the state offered up for oil and gas drilling, just one company submitted a $600 bid for a 20-acre parcel.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 6, 2026
BP Asks Shareholders to Vote Against Call for More Disclosures*
BP has called on shareholders to vote against a resolution that would require it to publish more detailed disclosures on how it takes investment decisions. The resolution, filed last month by a group of investors, calls on the British energy major to disclose how it assesses cost-competitiveness for each project and how it accounts for cost-overruns. BP should explain how investment in exploration creates value for shareholders, the resolution said. The company said Friday that the resolution is duplicative of disclosures that BP already makes and doesn’t reflect its existing capital discipline or operational improvement.
BP said the resolution is too focused on returns and ignores the company’s broader investment criteria. It said that all investment decisions are balanced against criteria that include strategic alignment, sustainability and integration. BP is increasing investments across its traditional fossil-fuel business after a move into renewable sources of energy hit profits. Multibillion dollar write-downs followed and the company has since been working to regain investor confidence. A new strategy set out in February last year involves more money for BP’s oil-and-gas business and a focus on improving operational performance in a bid to grow shareholder returns. It has been accompanied by a revamped board and a new chief executive. The additional requirement would complicate a goal of simplifying reporting processes, BP said. The resolution was tabled by activist investor Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, joined by some pension funds. They represent around 0.42% of BP’s share capital, according to ACCR.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
E&E News By Politico – March 6, 2026
Texas grid plan sets up data center scramble*
Texas’ grid operator unveiled proposed requirements this week for data centers seeking to plug into the state’s main electric grid, setting up a rush among developers. Data center companies will be scrambling this year to be part of the first group to receive possible interconnection agreements in the sprawling region managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Sites that aren’t part of that first group — which ERCOT calls Batch Zero — may need to wait years to receive approvals to connect to the grid as Texas works to build out more transmission lines to accommodate data center demand. Projects that aren’t selected for Batch Zero could end up abandoning the state, according to some Texas electricity experts.
Brownwood News – March 6, 2026
Spiller Requests More Time For Electrical Line Project
State Representative David Spiller has requested more time for the selection of the route of a proposed electrical power line that would run through the District 68 that he represents in the Texas Legislature. Oncor Power has proposed a 765-kiloVolt power line that would run from near Glen Rose to near Big Spring, a distance of about 250 miles. The power line is known as the Dinosaur-Longshore Transmission Line Project. Several different routes are being considered. Two of the routes would run through Brown County.
Proposed routes would also run through Comanche and Eastland Counties. The route selected will require easement rights from the landowners. Once Oncor chooses a route, it must be submitted for approval to the Public Utility Commission of Texas. At that time, affected landowners would be notified and would have 30-days to comment.
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PV Tech – March 6, 2026
Zelestra begins construction on 441MWdc solar portfolio in Texas
Spanish independent power producer (IPP) Zelestra has begun the construction of the 253MWdc Echols Grove and 188MWdc Cedar Range projects in Texas. The plants are the largest PV projects the company has developed in the US to date and are scheduled to reach full commercial operation by the end of 2027. The projects are being built by engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor McCarthy Building Companies.
In total, around 704,000 bifacial modules will be installed across approximately 2,400 acres. According to the company, development and construction activities are expected to create around 400 local jobs.
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Hoptown Chronicle – March 6, 2026
US farmers skew Republican, but many draw the line at data centers that hog land and energy
AI supporters, such as President Donald Trump, have run into a roadblock that may be hard to circumvent: American farmers in deep-red states are actively opposing data center projects in their communities. “The tech industry’s relentless push for data centers is colliding with farmers who see the projects as a threat to their way of life, fueling unrest in Republican primaries and vocal criticism from conservative candidates,” reports Rachel Shin of Politico.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who is running for reelection, doesn’t see any benefit to farmers from unregulated data center builds. He told Shin, “There’s no guardrails of any kind. … So they can pop up wherever they want to, as often as they want to, and take up as much land as they want to.”
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ESG Dive – March 6 2026
Vanguard’s antitrust coal settlement and what it signals for ESG litigation
Last week, Vanguard settled a lawsuit brought forward by Texas and 10 other Republican-led states that alleged the asset manager colluded with industry peers BlackRock and State Street to artificially constrict coal prices. The three asset managers initially filed a joint motion to dismiss the state-level charges, but that was denied in August. Vanguard became the first of the three largest U.S. asset managers to settle the legislation when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the firm would pay the 11 suing states a total of $29.5 million. …
Ben Steinberg, an antitrust litigator for law firm Shinder Cantor Lerner, called Vanguard’s settlement “a significant development in the broader battle over ESG litigation, but it’s one that is hard to interpret,” in an interview with ESG Dive. Prior to the failed dismissal, Steinberg wrote in April 2025 that the legal antitrust theory Republicans are pursuing is novel in how it’s being used to combat climate progress.
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Utility Dive – March 6, 2026
Reliability risk isn’t just about capacity anymore: Tapas Peshin
The North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s latest Long‑Term Reliability Assessment makes one point clear: the North American grid is moving deeper into an era of structural reliability risk. Demand is growing faster than firm resources and transmission. Retirements are outpacing additions of dispatchable capacity. And the system is becoming more dependent on inverter‑based and weather‑dependent resources. Out of the 23 assessment areas in the report, 13 now face elevated or high reliability risk in the coming decade.
Those numbers matter, of course. But they also hide something else emerging beneath the surface: The most acute reliability risks today come not from a shortage of installed megawatts, but from the widening gap between how we model reliability and how the grid actually performs under operational stress.
Regulatory
Oil Price – March 6, 2026
What Carter and Reagan Got Right About Oil Shocks
The conflict in Iran is unlikely to lead to 1970s-style oil rationing, but policymakers must use price mechanisms and encourage domestic energy investment to insure against unpredictable escalations, says Andy Mayer In 1979 the Iranian Revolution sparked the ‘second oil crisis’ as the price of crude oil more than doubled to $40 per barrel. Although global production only fell four per cent, then seven per cent during the following year’s Iran-Iraq war, it took time for policy and global supply chains to adjust. The price shock lasted until the mid-1980s.
Jimmy Carter, then US President put symbolic solar panels on the roof of the White House, which were later removed. But more importantly, began phasing out Nixon’s price controls from the first (1973) oil crisis, which allowed consumers and producers to respond dynamically to higher prices with rationing and investment in new resources.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Friday March 6, 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 Friday for the first time in six days as the U.S. government is weighing potentially intervening in the futures market to blunt rising prices and issued waivers for Russian oil purchases to ease supply constraints from the Middle East war.
West Texas Intermediate was down $1.08, or 1.3%, to $79.93 as of 0440 GMT.
Brent crude futures were down 95 cents, or 1.1%, to $84.46 per barrel.
Still, Brent has surged 16.4% this week while the WTI jumped 19.2% on track for the steepest weekly gain since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The gains followed the start on February 28 of the war between the U.S. and Israel, on one side, and Iran that has halted tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply.
“With every passing day, halted activities in Hormuz will have two major impacts on oil: the inability to store 20 million barrels per day and the lack of flow to the world, which could drive global energy prices higher,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova.
Top Stories
The Hill – March 5, 2026
Treasury Department to announce measures to combat rising oil prices amid Iran conflict: Report
The Treasury Department will announce measures to combat rising energy prices amid the U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran as soon as Thursday, Reuters reported. As the conflict in the Middle East nears the one-week mark, oil prices have risen and consumers are seeing an impact at the pump. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to the strikes, choking off a crucial shipping lane.
The Hill has reached out to the White House and Treasury Department for comment. The per-barrel price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the benchmark for the U.S., is more than $79.70 as of Thursday afternoon. That is an increase of more than 25 percent relative to a month ago. The average price for a gallon of regular gas increased to $3.25 Thursday, up from $2.98 a week ago and $2.89 a month ago, according to AAA. One year ago Thursday, the average price of gas was nearly $3.11.
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Politico – March 4, 2026
Susie Wiles sounds the alarm on gas prices
President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is telling his advisers to bring ideas to the Oval Office to lower gasoline prices in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran, according to two energy industry executives familiar with the conversations. The White House is “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,” said one of the executives, who was granted anonymity to describe internal administration discussions.
The attack and Iran’s subsequent targeting of the Persian Gulf’s energy sector has sent crude oil up more than $10 a barrel, lifting gasoline prices to their highest levels since Trump took office last year. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other advisers focused on energy policy, including a council led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, “are getting screamed at to find some good news” on bringing down prices, the same executive said. “Folks are scrambling for announcements and messaging to counter the narrative” of rising prices, this person said.
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New York Post – March 5, 2026
Chevron warns of economic collapse in California under Gavin Newsom in doomsday letter
California will face economic collapse under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “misguided” climate policy — with crippling job losses and sky-high gas prices, Chevron warned in a doomsday letter to the lefty governor on Wednesday. The oil giant’s bleak outlook in the letter to Newsom and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) came amid calls to block proposed amendments to the Cap-and-Invest program, which places a strict limit on greenhouse emissions that decreases each year.
Chevron argues that the carbon-cutting program will “cripple the survivability” of the state’s remaining refineries, with devastating effects on the Golden State and its residents. “The proposed regulation will cripple the survivability of the state’s remaining refineries, which will result in California losing the entire industry to this misguided program,” read the letter from Chevron President Andy Walz, obtained by the California Globe.
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The Atlantic – March 5, 2026
Tesla’s Secret Weapon Is a Giant Metal Box*
Elon Musk’s vision for the future of Tesla has finally rolled off the assembly line. Last month, a Tesla factory in Texas built the first Cybercab, a driverless electric car with neither a steering wheel nor pedals. With typical bombast, Musk has promised that the Cybercab will cost less than $30,000 by next year, and said that it could perhaps even pay for itself: Owners will conceivably be able to nap at home while the car is out hailing riders and earning them money.
The Cybercab is among the splashiest parts of Tesla’s pivot away from its core business of selling cars (or at least those driven by humans). Musk is dead set on turning Tesla into a company that makes robots and robotaxis. Earlier this year, he killed the Model S—the vehicle that initially made Tesla into an electric-car giant—freeing up factory space to manufacture Optimus, a humanoid robot he says has the potential to be the “biggest product of all time.” The world’s richest man has a lot riding on the success of Tesla’s robots and robotaxis, namely a pay package worth up to $1 trillion.
So far, the transformation has been chaotic. For all the hype surrounding the Cybercab, it’s not clear that Tesla can legally sell a car without a steering wheel. The technology also remains unproven: Tesla operates a fleet of robotaxis in Austin, where they have crashed at roughly eight times the rate of American drivers, according to an analysis of Tesla’s self-reported crash data. Musk has even further to go with his Optimus robots. The program has been dogged by public embarrassments and failures: At a Tesla event in December, an Optimus robot tasked with handing out water to guests lost its balance and dramatically tumbled backwards. Meanwhile, Tesla’s car sales are tumbling as Musk has seemingly lost interest in making human-driven cars. Besides the Cybertruck, which has proved to be a flop, Tesla has not released an entirely new car model since 2020. (Tesla and Musk did not respond to my requests for comment.)
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The Latest TERse Tips
China might assess that its military overmatch around Taiwan is such that the US can’t amass enough force to forestall or respond to a Chinese assault without suffering heavy losses — Asian Times
APA Corporation (Nasdaq: APA) today announced the dual listing of its common stock on Nasdaq Texas —see the press release
Nasdaq Texas, announced in November, is debuting approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its first cohort of expected dual listings Thursday — Dallas Morning News*
The Pedernales Electric Cooperative recently changed its base power rates, amongst other alterations, to reflect increasing market prices, effective March 1st — Highland Lakes Daily Tribune
Fitch Ratings has published the ‘BBB-‘ rating for Xcel Energy Inc.’s issuance of $900 million 6.25% junior subordinated notes due Oct. 15, 2085 — Fitch
Riley Exploration Permian, Inc. on Thursday reported financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2025 — see the press release
A natural gas pipeline that has been dormant since 2013 should be reopened, says a new report from National Bank of Canada — TC Energy Corp.‘s Line 2 has been inactive for more than a decade, but economists at National Bank say now is the time to restart the pipeline, which runs through Ontario and Quebec and forms part of the Canadian Mainline — Yahoo! News
An offshore oil leak near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf last Friday — WWL Louisiana first learned of the incident from a viewer who claimed an oil spill near Port Fourchon was the reason the Audubon Aquarium Rescue postponed a turtle release event last Friday — KCEN/WWL
Yearslong drought could be the final straw for South Texas farmers — some farmers are opting to close up shop — KSAT
A power outage struck most of Cuba, including Havana, the state electric utility said on Wednesday, as the Communist-run government grapples with increased pressure from the Trump administration that has curtailed oil shipments — Reuters*
Evers & Sons Wins Texas Compressor Station Expansion Adding Six Units — Pipeline & Gas Journal
How did a West Texas oilman make Team USA’s Olympic bobsled team? — ESPN
Oil & Gas Texas
Houston Chronicle – March 5, 2026
Texas spent $7M to plug a toxic well. Now it’s demanding a Houston company foot the bill.*
The Texas Railroad Commission spent an eye-popping $6.95 million to plug a Ward County well bursting with toxic water in September 2024. It was a price tag so hefty — roughly 230 times the amount needed to plug the average well — that it became a symbol of the financial pressure facing the commission as it struggles to contain decades-old leaking wells. Now, the commission is trying to recoup those funds from a prominent Houston wastewater disposal operator it says was responsible for the blowout. WaterBridge, which went public last year in a high-profile initial offering, denies it was to blame and aims to dispute the findings in a hearing.
The legal battle to come is a test for both the commission and the oil and gas industry it regulates, as tension builds over who should be held accountable for a rash of leaking wells in Texas. “This case is unprecedented,” attorneys for WaterBridge wrote in response to the commission’s enforcement proceedings. The case is unusual because WaterBridge’s disposal well was properly permitted and operating within the confines of those permits, the company said. And yet the commission is holding WaterBridge responsible for a blowout that occurred a half-mile away at a 1950s-era well that was not plugged by modern standards.
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Houston Chronicle – March 5, 2026
Texas school district rejects tax deal for $6B LNG terminal project*
The Point Isabel Independent School District rejected a multi-million dollar tax break for a proposed $5.7 billion liquefied natural gas project on the Gulf Coast, finding the facility would not “align” with the community’s values or finances. School districts in Texas have typically granted such agreements, which are meant to incentivize investment with reduced property taxes in exchange for promises of economic development. But the district’s board of trustees in Port Isabel, a town with 5,200 people tucked between nature preserves at the mouth of the Rio Grande, have rejected three similar proposals from LNG developers planning large industrial complexes in the area, including a previous application from the 625-acre Texas LNG project.
“We are at a loss at how school board leadership could have made such a decision,” Tim Fitzpatrick, a spokesperson for the Texas LNG project said after the vote Monday. “There is no economically rational benefit for this vote, which should be about how to benefit students.” He said the agreement “would have delivered an additional $15 million per year to the Point Isabel ISD.” In an announcement last month, project developer Glenfare Group said it planned to finalize financing and begin construction this year on its tract of coastal wetlands along the Brownsville Ship Channel, adjacent to the 980-acre site of Rio Grande LNG, where crews began clearing land in 2023.
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Shreveport Bossier City Advocate – March 5, 2026
Magnitude 4.9 earthquake felt in south Shreveport, the strongest in LA since at least 2020
An earthquake shook northwest Louisiana early Thursday morning. It was the largest earthquake to strike North America in the previous 24 hours. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck north of Coushatta around 5:30 a.m. Thursday. It was the strongest earthquake recorded in Louisiana since at least 2020 and the strongest quake to rattle North America in the 24 hours previous, a significant occurrence for this region. …
The Coushatta earthquakes are likely manmade. Louisiana does not regularly experience natural quakes due to its geology, but like in east Texas and Oklahoma it is believed an increase in shaking over recent years is due to the disposal of waste water generated from oil and gas extraction through injection into the ground. Most of those quakes are weak and shallow. A magnitude 4.9 earthquake is significantly stronger than most such quakes.
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Baird Maritime – March 5, 2026
Exxon to send first fuel shipment from US Gulf Coast to Australia
Exxon Mobil is set to ship around 600,000 barrels of fuel from the US Gulf Coast to cover its own import requirements in Australia, the first such shipments by the oil major, four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The planned shipments, on a route rarely used for refined products flows, show how severely global oil trade has been impacted by the near-complete halt of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after Iran began striking vessels in the waterway this week in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks on the country.
The medium-range vessels Largo Eagle and Nord Ventura have been booked by Exxon to ship either gasoline, diesel or jet fuel, loading from Houston between March 13 and 16, and between March 15 and 18, two of the four sources said.
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Pipeline Online – March 5, 2026
Done with the Eagle Ford in Texas, Baytex is focusing on Canada
Baytex Energy Corp. is done with its Texas Eagle Ford venture, now focusing on Canadian production.. The company reported its operating and financial results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2025 (all amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted).
“2025 was a definitive year for Baytex, marked by the successful repositioning of our portfolio into a focused, high-return Canadian oil producer,” said Eric T. Greager, Chief Executive Officer, in a release on March 4. “We strengthened our financial position and reinforced our potential for long-term value creation. With a sustaining breakeven of US$52/bbl WTI, Baytex is well-positioned to navigate market volatility and accelerate shareholder returns. Our 2026 plan is already delivering operational momentum across our core Pembina Duvernay and heavy oil fairways, and I am confident the company is set up for a seamless leadership transition.”
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Houston Chronicle – March 5, 2026
The Iran war is good for Texas oil and gas companies — but only in the short-run: Chris Tomlinson*
Texans working in the oil patch know that a war in the Middle East is good for business, even if it’s bad for American consumers. Oil and gas producers can’t be blamed for that. They offer a commodity for sale and global markets determine prices. Foreign wars are a windfall because prices rise while the Permian Basin’s production costs remain unchanged. At least for a little while.
About 20% of the world’s oil and gas must pass by ship through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has attacked at least seven ships attempting to pass through the strait this week, leading most shippers to suspend operations. Oil prices are higher, but not as much as many predicted. Oil traders are currently paying $74 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate, compared with $56 a barrel before President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began escalating tensions with Iran. That’s a risk premium of $18 a barrel. The same is true for global natural gas, with prices up almost 43% since Qatar shut down liquefied natural gas production due to Iranian retaliatory attacks on Persian Gulf neighbors.
“Closing the Strait of Hormuz and attacking oil export facilities, we always thought that was the ‘end of days’ scenario that was going to push oil prices above $100,” explained Jim Krane, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute whom I’ve known since we covered the Iraq War together for the Associated Press. “But the oil markets have been pretty relaxed.” At least for now. Persian Gulf governments stepped up oil exports when Trump started rattling sabers. Saudi Arabia stored oil around the world just in case of a war, and China has been stockpiling for the past year, Krane said.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – Marc 5, 2026
Iran says targeting Western-linked ships at Hormuz, denies full closure
Iran has claimed it is restricting passage through the Strait of Hormuz only for vessels linked to Western nations and Israel rather than fully closing the critical energy chokepoint, as maritime traffic remained severely disrupted and regional oil exporters explored using stranded tankers for floating storage. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said vessels belonging to the US, Israel, European countries and their supporters would not be permitted to transit the waterway, the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported March 5.
The move has effectively halted tanker movements through a strait that last year handled shipments of 15 million barrels/day of crude and 5 million b/d of oil products, mainly destined for Asian buyers, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data. “We are blamed by some who say Iran has shut down the Strait of Hormuz. We basically do not believe in closing the Strait,” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ brigadier general, Kiyoumars Heydari, said on state television. “We deal with the sailing vessels in accordance with international protocols.”
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The Wall Street Journal – March 5, 2026
Venezuelan Oil Cargoes Are Surging at an Opportune Time*
The global oil market is reeling after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran shut the world’s biggest oil-shipping artery. But tankers are ferrying more crude from an unlikely source: Venezuela. U.S. imports of Venezuelan oil have climbed to their highest level in more than a year, just months after President Trump implemented an oil blockade that crippled the shadow fleet transporting the Latin American country’s heavy crude. More than two dozen tankers have ferried Venezuela’s oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast since the early January incursion that led to the ouster of former President Nicolás Maduro. Those tankers transported more than 280,000 barrels a day to the U.S. in February, according to market intelligence firm Kpler, the most since December 2024 when Venezuela exported over 300,000 barrels a day.
The White House wants to see those numbers grow. Trump is pushing U.S. oil producers to invest $100 billion in Venezuela to jump-start the oil industry there, and his success in convincing them to do so has become all the more important. The president hopes to keep oil prices, a key driver of inflation, tamped down in the wake of missile strikes that for weeks could hamstring shipments through a vital oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between Iran and the United Arab Emirates. American fuel makers are snapping up the rising supplies of Venezuela’s heavy, viscous oil that their refineries were designed to process. Its cheap oil has historically been a better bargain for U.S. refineries than the light, sweet oil produced by U.S. frackers.
“They’re going to run more of it because it’s profitable,” said John Auers, managing director of Refined Fuels Analytics, part of energy consulting firm RBN Energy. Venezuela’s crude is expected to displace barrels produced in the U.S., as well as heavier oil from Canada and Mexico. That would take domestic market share from U.S. frackers, who have warned Trump that an influx of supply could weigh on oil prices, squeezing an industry that is already grappling with a glut. Domestic drillers will have to find more buyers overseas. The U.S. exported 4.1 million barrels of oil a day to countries including the Netherlands, South Korea and India in December, the most recent data available show.
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gCaptain – March 5, 2026
US-to-Asia Oil Shipping Hits Record $29 Million as Tanker Rates Explode
It’s never been more expensive to ship crude from the US to Asia, though some deals are starting to fall through already with rates sky-high. The global energy industry has been rocked by the widening Middle East fighting, with the impacts playing out in spiking oil prices, snarled shipping and fears of higher inflation. As of Wednesday it costs just over $29 million to hire a supertanker to take two million barrels of crude from the US Gulf Coast to China, the most on record, according to the Baltic Exchange in London. That’s about double the cost from two weeks ago.
The shipping rate is also equivalent to about $14.50 a barrel, which equates to almost 20% of the West Texas Intermediate futures price, which were hovering around $75 a barrel on Wednesday. Prices of WTI and global benchmark Brent surged this week after the US and Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Iran and the Islamic Republic responded with attacks on its Middle East neighbors. The conflict has effectively stopped traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route.
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Middle East Forum – March 3, 2026
Iran’s War on Gulf State Energy Infrastructure Reverberates Beyond Oil and Gas
The Gulf Cooperation Council states—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—long have sustained global energy stability. As the conflict with Iran expands, it directly threatens Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure and undermines that stability. The latest attacks suggest a clear shift. After U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on February 28, 2026, Iran’s retaliation moved beyond military targets and toward critical energy assets. On March 2, 2026, Iranian drones struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas complex, forcing QatarEnergy to halt production and declare force majeure on shipments. Around the same time, Saudi Aramco shut down its Ras Tanura refinery after debris from intercepted Iranian drones caused a small fire.
These incidents matter not simply because they hit major facilities, but also because they reveal a broader strategic pattern. If Iran or Iran-linked actors systematically begin to target Persian Gulf oil and gas fields, refineries, export terminals, and processing hubs, the consequences will extend far beyond the region. Oil and gas prices would rise sharply. Shipping and trade would face new disruptions. Inflation would intensify. Supply chains would come under renewed strain. Europe and Asia would bear much of the cost.
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CNBC – March 5, 2026
Is Cuba next? What the fallout from the Iran war means for Havana
“Cuba’s next,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican and ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, after the U.S. and Israel began strikes on Iran. The U.S. has imposed an oil blockade on the communist-run island nation since January, shortly after its ally and a key provider of oil, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, was seized in an extraordinary U.S military operation. It has caused a worsening economic crisis and left Cuba facing its biggest test since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Now Iran, with which Cuba has a strategic partnership, is under sustained attack. “This communist dictatorship in Cuba, their days are numbered,” Graham told Fox News’s “Sunday Night in America.” Before the Iran strikes, Trump said he wanted a “friendly takeover” of the island, without giving details. The comments, alongside the U.S. attacks on Iran and Venezuela, have done little to allay growing fears in Havana, experts told CNBC.
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Reuters – March 5, 2026
Russia may halt gas supplies to Europe amid Iran energy spike, Putin says*
Russia could halt gas supplies to Europe right now amid a spike in energy prices triggered by the Iran crisis, President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday, linking the possible decision to the European Union wanting to ban purchases of Russian gas and liquefied natural gas. Oil and gas prices have soared following the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran and Tehran’s strikes on Gulf Arab neighbours. The conflict has paralysed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and forced the shutdown of Qatar’s LNG production and Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery.
Putin said oil prices were rising due to the “aggression against Iran” and due to Western restrictions on Russian oil, while European gas prices were rising because customers were willing to buy gas volumes at higher prices due to events in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Asked by a Russian state television’s top Kremlin correspondent Pavel Zarubin about European plans to impose a total ban on Russian pipeline gas imports by late 2027 and to ban new short-term Russian LNG contracts from late April 2026, Putin said it might be more beneficial for Russia to stop selling the gas right now.
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Associated Press – February 26, 2026
What to know about Greenpeace and the oil pipeline lawsuit that threatens its future
Greenpeace is fighting for its life in North Dakota’s court system, where a judge has decided to order the environmental group to pay an expected $345 million to an energy company whose Dakota Access oil pipeline construction drew protests nearly a decade ago. A jury last year found three Greenpeace entities liable for numerous claims and awarded more than $660 million to Energy Transfer in damages, which Judge James Gion cut nearly in half. Once the order he promised Tuesday is formally entered, both sides are expected to appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court.
The $64 billion, Dallas-based energy conglomerate, which owns and operates thousands of miles (kilometers) of pipelines in 44 states, has objected to the halving of its award. Greenpeace USA has reported cash and assets nowhere near such hefty damages.
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The Times UK) – February 19, 2026
CIA ‘considered backing Ukraine plot to blow up Nord Stream pipeline’
The CIA was aware of and considered supporting the plans of a Ukrainian “sabotage squad” that is alleged to have blown up the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, according to a report in a respected German news magazine. The attack in September 2022, when at least four explosive charges with the equivalent of more than a tonne of TNT were detonated at the bottom of the Baltic sea, crippled the €18 billion pipeline project, a symbol of Europe’s energy dependence on Moscow.
Der Spiegel reported on Thursday that CIA officers in Ukraine had been approached about the plan in the spring of 2022, during the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion.
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The Guardian – February 26, 2026
An oil refinery defined life in this quaint California city. What happens when it’s gone?
Less than 40 miles north of San Francisco, the city of Benicia has the quaint ambience of an American small town, where a white gazebo and sign for a community crab bake mark the approach to a vibrant downtown stretch of restaurants, cafes and antique shops. From many vantage points, it’s easy to forget the city is home to a massive 900-acre oil refinery, its imposing sprawl of stacks, holding tanks and billowing steam hidden from view. But for nearly 60 years, the refinery has loomed over every aspect of life in Benicia, exerting outsized influence on its economy and politics, while posing serious risks to public health.
The Benicia oil refinery, which the Texas oil company Valero bought from Exxon in 2000, thrived in an era when fossil fuels reigned largely unchecked over the US – offering reliable local taxes, well-paying jobs and steady economic opportunities for the many small businesses in its orbit.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Inside Climate News – March 5, 2026
Texas Seizes the Solar Crown From California, and Other Key Points From the Latest Electricity Data
Texas, which already leads the country in electricity generation from natural gas, coal and wind, has passed California to become the leader in utility-scale solar. Data for 2025, released last week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, shows that Texas generated 58,634 gigawatt-hours from utility-scale solar, enough to pull ahead of California’s 53,713 gigawatt-hours.
But California can continue to claim the distinction of leading the country in electricity from small-scale solar, which EIA defines as any project with capacity of less than 1 megawatt. And if we look at the sum of utility-scale and small-scale solar, California remains ahead.
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San Antonio Express-News – March 5, 2026
CPS Energy says it will ‘get through summer’ before deciding whether to ask for rate increase*
Although CPS Energy has built in a rate increase into its budget, utility officials told City Council that doesn’t mean it will be seeking one. “We are not there yet,” CEO Rudy Garza said during the utility’s budget presentation to council members. “We have not said we’re coming for an increase.” Chief Financial Officer Cory Kuchinsky said the utility’s “goal is to get through summer” before even considering a potential rate increase.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones asked the city-owned utility to brief the council after it presented a record-breaking $2.87 billion budget to its board last week. The budget for the current fiscal year, which started Feb. 1 and runs through Jan. 31, 2027, includes a rate increase. Jones said she didn’t want council to be caught “flat-footed.” When CPS presented its budget at the utility’s Feb. 24 board meeting, Garza said it was atypical for the utility to look for board approval of a budget that included a rate increase that hadn’t already been approved by City Council. The delay was to give the new council time to get “their feet on the ground,” Garza said. The board delayed acting on the budget until its March meeting.
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Solar Power World – March 5, 2026
Vistra adds Enphase batteries to Texas VPP program
Electricity retailer Vistra is expanding its battery aggregation program to include Enphase Energy‘s IQ Batteries for residential virtual power plant (VPP) purposes. The program, Battery Rewards, is offered through Vistra’s flagship retail electricity brand, TXU Energy, and lets eligible Enphase customers earn incentives by exporting stored battery power to the grid during periods of high demand.
Through Battery Rewards, Vistra aggregates energy from participating customer-owned residential batteries and dispatches it to the Texas grid at times of energy demand. By harnessing flexible distributed energy resources, the program helps manage peak demand.
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pv magazine – March 5, 2026
Origis Energy secures $545 million for Texas solar and storage portfolio
Miami-headquartered Origis Energy announced it has secured $545 million in project financing for a portfolio of solar and energy storage assets located in Texas. The funding, which includes construction and term debt as well as tax equity, will support the completion of three utility-scale projects.
The financing was provided by a syndicate of lenders including MUFG, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), and SMBC. The tax equity portion of the deal was committed by a major financial institution.
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Reuters – March 5, 2026
USA Rare Earth to acquire remaining stake in Texas Round Top deposit for $73 million*
USA Rare Earth said on Thursday it would acquire the remaining minority interest in a Texas rare earth deposit in an all-stock transaction worth $73 million, as part of its efforts to boost domestic production of critical minerals. The company will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Texas Mineral Resources for about 3.8 million shares of USA Rare Earth common stock.
Last year, the company had said it will bring forward commercial production at its rare earths project in Texas to late 2028 from 2030, citing faster-than-expected progress at its processing facilities and rising U.S. demand for critical minerals. The purchase will make USA Rare Earth the sole operator of the Round Top project, which it claims to be the largest known U.S. source of heavy rare earth elements, gallium and beryllium.
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Politico – March 5, 2026
Midwest utilities are looking to FERC for monopoly expansion*
Xcel Energy and other Midwest utilities are pressing federal regulators and the Trump administration to suspend competitive bidding for certain power line projects — arguing the nation’s appetite for electricity to fuel artificial intelligence depends on it. The utilities are considering filing a brief with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking regulators to suspend a rule that enforces competition for the development of high-voltage lines. Proponents are telling federal officials that ending competitive bidding for transmission projects planned by grid operators in the Midwest and Great Plains is key to getting infrastructure built.
Multiple sources familiar with meetings at FERC and with administration officials said the same companies have also taken their request to the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council — support for the right to build regionally planned power lines in their service areas instead of having to bid for the projects. Other utilities involved are said to include American Transmission Co., ITC Holdings and Ameren.
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Regulatory
The Hill – March 4, 026
Affordable energy tomorrow requires deregulation today: Rep. Craig Goldman (R, TX)
The path to lower power bills isn’t more federal intervention — it’s less. While recent reporting points to rising energy demand as the driver of higher costs, the overlooked culprit is federal red tape. Today, there are nearly 200,000 pages of federal regulation within the Code of Federal Regulations. This is unsustainable. Achieving abundant and affordable energy will require a fundamental reversal of Washington’s regulatory status quo. Instead of continuing the creeping collection of federal energy regulations, every regulation should include a sunset clause. …
President Trump addressed this critical issue through an executive order requiring all existing energy regulations to sunset and imposing a five-year expiration date on all future energy rules. I support this initiative and have partnered with Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) to introduce legislation that would codify the order into law. Congress should act swiftly to make energy deregulation the enduring federal standard by passing the Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy Act. Failing to do so will only prolong delays in critical energy projects and guarantee higher costs for American families. Affordable and abundant energy is within reach, but it requires repealing regulations that stifle innovation and investment. Every inefficient rule undermines national prosperity.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Thursday March 5, 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
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that they had hit a U.S. tanker in the northern part of the Gulf and the vessel was on fire. As of 5 am there was no immediate confirmation of the incident or of a similar attack that Iran claimed earlier this week.
Oil prices surged more than 3% on Thursday, extending a rally as the escalating U.S.-Israeli war with Iran raised fears of prolonged disruptions to vital Middle East oil and gas supplies.
West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.44, or 3.27%, to $77.10.
Brent crude advanced $2.44, or 3%, to $83.84 per barrel by 0722 GMT, a fifth session of gains.
Crude oil markets remained on edge as they face ongoing risks to supply following the attacks in the Middle East, with concerns centred on trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz, ANZ analysts said in a note on Thursday.
Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel early on Thursday, sending millions of residents into bomb shelters as the conflict entered its sixth day and just hours after moves to halt the U.S. attacks were blocked in Washington.
Top Stories
Financial Times – March 3, 2026
U.S. shale drillers cannot increase production quickly enough to solve an oil supply crisis caused by Donald Trump‘s war in Iran, industry bosses have warned, saying a big rise in output would take months to materialise. Scott Sheffield, a veteran shale boss, said producers would resist costly new drilling programmes until they were certain oil prices — which hit an 18-month high above US$80 a barrel this week amid fears of supply disruptions from the Gulf — would last.
A lack of good drilling prospects would also hold back companies, which have cut spending, idled rigs and laid off workers in the past 12 months during a period of weak oil prices, he said. “It’ll just give them extra cash flow. They can reduce debt. They can do buybacks. They can pay dividends,” Sheffield said of the price surge this week. “But once the war ends, then it’s gonna fall back pretty quickly.” He added: “Also, you got to remember the companies are running out of [drilling] inventory . . . I do not anticipate anybody adding any rigs.”
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Oil Price – March 5, 2026
China Halts Fuel Exports Amid Global Market Squeeze
China has told energy companies to suspend new fuel export contracts and try to cancel already arranged fuel shipments abroad as global fuel markets tighten amid the Middle Eastern war that has effectively frozen most traffic through one of the world’s biggest oil and fuel chokepoints. Citing unnamed trading and energy industry sources, Reuters reported today that the call, made by the authorities in Beijing to fuel exporters, excluded jet fuel contracts for refuelling for international flights and bunkering fuel contracts.
Bloomberg, for its part, noted that the government had insisted the suspension of exports is implemented immediately. If true, this suggests that China is concerned about fuel supply availability despite its abundant oil in storage volumes, accumulated last year at a rate of close to a million barrels daily.
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S&P Global Platts – March 4, 2026
Major container lines suspend Persian Gulf bookings as conflict disrupts trade
Major container carriers have begun suspending bookings to and from the upper Persian Gulf as escalating conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt shipping operations across the region. Germany-based Hapag-Lloyd said, as of March 4, it has implemented a booking stop with immediate effect for all cargo types to and from several Persian Gulf countries due to operational and security constraints.
The suspension applies to shipments involving the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman (Sohar), Saudi Arabia (Dammam and Jubail) and Yemen, the carrier said in a customer advisory. “Due to the current operational and security constraints in the Upper Gulf region, a decision has been made to maintain cargo safety, ensure secure equipment positioning, and uphold operational standards,” the company said.
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The New York Times – Mrch 4, 2026
Trump’s Decision to Strike Iran Opens New Fissures in Midterms*
President Trump’s decision to attack Iran pushed a new, unpredictable issue to the forefront of American politics just as the midterms were getting underway, leaving both major parties navigating a volatile and potentially divisive conflict. Republicans on Saturday largely cast the strikes as a vital operation to confront a dangerous, authoritarian adversary, while Democrats warned that the operation could spiral into a perilous and protracted military campaign that would threaten to destabilize the region. In Texas, where Democrats hope to flip a Senate seat after years of disappointment, the two leading Democratic rivals in Tuesday’s primary condemned the strikes.
“CONGRESS, not the PRESIDENT, but CONGRESS has the EXCLUSIVE authority to declare war!” Representative Jasmine Crockett wrote on social media, calling on congressional Republicans and Democrats to “stand up to this President.” State Representative James Talarico, her chief rival, wrote on social media: “No more forever wars.” Republicans in a competitive three-way clash for the Senate nomination in Texas hailed the attack in glowing statements: Senator John Cornyn, the embattled incumbent, said he was “proud of the support being provided by President Trump.” Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, said the president had displayed “courageous leadership.” And Representative Wesley Hunt, a late entry into the primary race, said Mr. Trump had delivered “bold leadership” and “bold action.”
Still, a few Republicans sided with Democrats in arguing that the president had reached beyond his powers and was at odds with his own past warnings about intervention abroad. And a handful of Democrats, concentrated in swing congressional districts, expressed measured support for the attack, which the United States carried out jointly with Israel. “It’s one of these put-your-finger-to-the-wind situations,” said Steven Maviglio, a Democratic consultant in California, noting that many elected officials still had limited information about the operation. He added, “People are just testing the waters right now.”
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New York Magazine – March 3, 2026
How War in Iran Could Turn Into an Oil Shock Nightmare*
Editor Benjamin Hart spoke with Rory Johnston, a Canada-based oil-market researcher who writes the popular, data-driven newsletter Commodity Context
Can you explain why the strait’s closure would be such a problem for oil markets?
I view the strait as the world’s largest pipeline. It’s like a big garden hose, and if the strait is closed, it’s like a kink in the line. As soon as you unkink it, things go back to normal pretty quickly. The other risk here, and I think the more durable, real risk of a worst-case scenario for the oil market, is if Iran begins to pivot from just threatening the strait to attacking upstream oil infrastructure all around the gulf. You’ve got Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, etc., all well within missile and drone range. And back in 2019, Iran very purposely showed that it could attack major Saudi oil installations despite their defenses.
So if closing the Strait of Hormuz is like a kink in the garden hose, attacking upstream oil assets in facilities producing assets is like taking a shotgun to the faucet to which that garden hose is attached. Everything can be repaired, but you can’t just unkink that. It’s a “repair and rebuild” situation, which takes a much longer time. That becomes a very acute crisis very quickly.
I guess one question is whether Iran even has the capacity to do that right now, given the weakened state of their defense infrastructure.
I wouldn’t expect them to do that until there is literally the final showdown. That’s an existential, cornered-animal type of thing, because there’s no coming back from it. That would be the end of the regime.
And what if this conflict does drag on and the strait remains in this gray zone?
For tanker owners and people thinking about making the journey across the strait — if this were just a short thing, the easiest thing to do is just to wait, right? If it’s going to be over in a day or two, no harm, no foul. A couple of days is about 20 million barrels a day of crude through the strait — three days is 60 million barrels. That’s a lot of oil. But inventories are more than capable of covering the disruption. The issue becomes if it lasts longer. What they’ll do if it does last longer, and what they’re negotiating right now, probably as we speak, is exorbitant premiums for their war-risk coverage. As they’re insured for the risk, they’re going to make the journey.
People are like, “Why would they take the risk?” The answer is the Mad Men “that’s what the money is for” meme. If you’re getting paid to take the risk, people are going to take the risk. The amount of value on the line, both to exporters of the region and for import, particularly in Asia that depend on the region for their fuel — this is an existential crisis. No amount of money is too much to spend to remediate it. I think that’s what we’re going to be seeing. Now that this is not ending as quickly as I think many people had expected, we’ll see who is going to be brave for the cheapest amount of money, and then we’ll figure out what it will take to get everyone back through the strait.
Even back in the ’80s, during the height of the Iran-Iraq tanker war, when over 400 ships were attacked, including 250 tankers, and 55 of those tankers were actually sunk or scuttled — even during that period, the strait never closed formally. You still had people making the journey. But what’s happening right now is that things changed so quickly that insurers, providers, and ship owners no longer felt comfortable that they were hedged for the type of risk they were going to be taking.
Let’s say instead that this disruption is fairly temporary, that the conflict wraps up pretty quickly. Will consumers notice gas prices or other prices going up, even if it’s temporary?
I think if this lasts a couple more days, we’ll see it reflected at the gas pump in terms of overall gas prices. Diesel will be even more acutely affected. I think the big impact will be on freight and shipping rates, and that’s going to hit consumers more on the price of produce, the price of random consumer goods. That’s the type of stuff that diesel will complicate more. So I think you will see an impact at the price of the pumps, but the biggest impact won’t be as visible to consumers immediately. It will take a while to work through the supply chain.
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S&P Global Platts – March 4, 2026
Critical minerals shortage threatens US military production capacity
The Pentagon’s ability to replenish weapons stockpiles could come under pressure from the shortages in some critical mineral markets and China’s leverage over mineral supply chains, industry experts told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. Shortfalls in tungsten, antimony, gallium, and germanium – crucial components in military hardware ranging from ammunition to advanced weaponry systems – are emerging as a strategic vulnerability for the US military in the event of a prolonged engagement in the Iran conflict.
“Stockpiles are dwindling,” Peter Clausi, director of the Critical Minerals Institute, a Toronto-based think tank, told Platts on the sidelines of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto on March 3. “If the US is running out of tungsten and antimony and it doesn’t have access to germanium and gallium supplies, it cannot build new weapons.”
The Latest TERse Tips
Kazakhstan subsidiary and the Central Asian country’s Ministry of Energy have signed a contract for geological exploration of the Zhanaturmys field in the Aktobe region, the ministry said on Thursday — Reuters*
A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, as Washington and Israel intensified their bombardment Wednesday of Iran’s security forces and other symbols of power — Spectrum News
Texas oilmen in the news: “Texans for a Conservative Majority: This super PAC, created in 2013, has raised more than $23 million since the start of 2025. The political action committee is different from the similarly named Texans United for a Conservative Majority, supported by West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. Texans for a Conservative Majority’s top contributors include John Nau III, the former chairman and CEO of Silver Eagle Distributors, a beverage distribution company, and Anthony Wood, the chairman and CEO of Roku. Ohio Works Inc. is also a high-dollar contributor” — from Eleanor Dearman’s article “U.S. Senate ads flood TV, web in Texas this election season. Who’s behind them?” in the Fort Worth Star Telegram*
Texas oilmen cited again in Tuesday’s primary post mortem: “The most expensive state House primaries this cycle were proxy wars over issues including legalizing casinos, tort reform and a lingering battle between establishment Republicans and more hardline conservatives. The major factions included candidates backed by Miriam Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino empire, against gambling opponents backed by hardline oil billionaire Tim Dunn; and candidates backed by Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a Republican fundraising juggernaut that has pushed to make it harder for injury victims to sue, against opponents funded by trial lawyers and medical PACs.” — Texas Tribune
And from the Texas Tribune: “…Paxton’s success at portraying himself as a conservative fighter may have obscured a more obvious reality: His campaign has been a total dud. Whereas Cornyn and his allies could summon mountains of cash with little more than the snap of their fingers and a quick phone call, Paxton has struggled mightily to raise money, getting turned down by even his longtime fairy godfather, the right-wing megadonor Tim Dunn” — Texas Tribune
A 3.8 magnitude earthquake struck just north of Stanton Wednesday morning, sending light shaking across parts of the Permian Basin and prompting residents to check on homes, offices and oilfield sites within minutes — Country Herald
Riley Exploration Permian, Inc. on Wednesday reported financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2025 — see the press release
Iran Claims It Has “Complete Control” Over Strait of Hormuz — Oil Price
The Brent premium above WTI is at its highest in two years
Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 3.5 million barrels during the week ending February 27, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday — the increase brings commercial stockpiles to 439.3 million barrels according to government data, which is still 3% below the five-year average for this time of year — Yahoo! News
Oil & Gas Texas
The Wall Street Journal – March 4, 2026
Why American Frackers Aren’t Rushing to Pump More Oil*
The Middle East is on the cusp of a prolonged conflict that could push oil prices to heights not seen in four years. For now, American drillers are sitting this one out. The U.S. oil benchmark settled at $74.56 a barrel Tuesday, a threshold not breached since last June, when American bombers dropped bunker-busting bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites. But to West Texas oilmen, it makes little sense to add expensive rigs and boost production when the war could be short-lived and crude prices drop. What they don’t want is to add to an already big glut and waste their last few sweet spots.
“What we’re doing today is nothing different than I did yesterday,” said Wes Perry, chairman of Permian driller PBEX. “We’re not running any new economics.” American shale’s placid responses to energy whirlwinds are becoming an enduring feature of the U.S. oil industry. In recent years, public drillers under investor pressure to be profitable have treated spiking oil prices as an opportunity to return more cash to shareholders—and lock in prices for futures sales. A wave of consolidation has swept out the privately held operators that were quick to add new barrels when prices screened higher.
The upshot is that companies aren’t likely to add new rigs unless oil prices hit between $75 and $85 a barrel and stay there for several months, analysts and executives say. If need be, President Trump might have to pull other levers, such as tapping in to the country’s national crude reserves, to keep oil prices in check. Notably, he hasn’t called on his fossil fuel allies to pump more like he did after his previous attacks on Iran, when he had warned against “playing into the hands of the enemy.”
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Reuters – March 3, 2026
Chemical plant upset triggers flaring at Motiva, Texas complex, sources say*
A malfunction at the chemical plant triggered flaring at the Motiva Enterprises Port Arthur, Texas petrochemical complex on Tuesday, said people familiar with plant operations. The company filed a notice telling nearby residents flaring might be required by operations at the complex that include the nation’s largest refinery, which has a capacity of 640,500 barrels per day.
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Natural Gas Intelligence – March 4, 2026
U.S. LNG Feed Gas Slips as Corpus Christi Maintenance, Cameron Issues Weigh on Flows
- 80,000 MMBtu/d: Feed gas nominations to Corpus Christi LNG could be limited through the end of the week during maintenance at a critical compressor station, according to Wood Mackenzie pipeline data. Activities at the Sinton Compressor Station on the Corpus Christi Pipeline (CCPL) are expected to limit deliveries by about 80,000 MMBtu/d at the height of restrictions. Nominations to the terminal have been falling since Sunday (March 1), reflecting past maintenance events at the facility.
- 19.2 Bcf/d: U.S. feed gas nominations to Gulf Coast terminals have pulled back slightly over the week as disruptions at Cameron LNG and an end of elevated nominations to Golden Pass in Texas cut into overall demand. However, Wood Mackenzie estimated nominations to average 19.2 Bcf/d over the next seven days, about 4 Bcf/d above the year ago period. Roughly 2 Bcf/d has been nominated to Golden Pass since late February during operational test, but flows have reduced to near 0% capacity as of the Tuesday evening cycle, according to pipeline data.
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Journal of Petroleum Technology – February 18, 2026
The growing interest in closely spaced drilling units highlights the need to understand well performance under interference conditions in shale oil reservoirs, particularly in the Permian Basin. Over time, studies of the effect of well-completion optimization on production performance, along with studies on parent/child interference, have become more mature. The geomechanical effects of stress reduction from pressure depletion and its influence on child-well placement remain underexplored, however, and could play an important role in well planning.
This study examined this effect in the Midland Basin to demonstrate the geomechanical effects of production-induced pressure depletion on child wells at representative spacings, derived from basinwide well-spacing statistics. Additionally, the authors consider the relationship between depletion and production performance as a key factor in both early- and late-stage evaluations. They began with hydraulic-fracture-propagation simulations for two representative horizontal wells as parent wells in the Wolfcamp A (WCA) and Wolfcamp B (WCB) formations. This was followed by coupled flow and geomechanical simulations,
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Source NM – March 3, 2026
In New Mexico, natural gas transporter goes to the mat over $47.8M fine
On Jan. 6, 2025, Congress certified the election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States, triggering what has become a wide-ranging dismantling of the federal government’s environmental enforcement apparatus under his second administration. On the same day, Targa Northern Delaware, LLC, a subsidiary of Targa Resources, filed a full-court-press defense against New Mexico’s Environment Department in a case over alleged air pollution violations going back years. It’s a case that troubles the department and environmental watchers like Melissa Troutman, a climate and health advocate with WildEarth Guardians.
“NMED is right to worry about this,” she said, referring to the state’s Environment Department. “These oil and gas regulators don’t have the resources to defend themselves from every company who might sue to shirk responsibility — that’s real.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – March 4, 2026
Trump administration Hormuz oil security timeline uncertain: White House
The Trump administration is rolling out its plan to secure the Strait of Hormuz but does not yet have a timeline for when it will be safe for oil tankers, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said March 4. “Certainly, it is something that is being calculated actively by both the Department of War and the Department of Energy,” Leavitt said regarding the timeline and referring to the Department of Defense. “Both secretaries are in all of the briefings on this subject with the president, and this is again something they are monitoring,” she said during a press briefing.
Leavitt touted President Donald Trump’s announcement March 3 that the US Development Finance Corporation would provide political risk insurance for maritime trade in the Persian Gulf and, if necessary, the US Navy would escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 4, 2026
Strait of Hormuz: The Oil Bottleneck Threatening the Global Economy*
President Trump’s promise to protect the Strait of Hormuz with naval escorts and provide government-backed marine insurance underscores the urgent need to restore flows of energy from the Middle East before soaring prices rip through the world economy. As of Wednesday, day five of the war on Iran, several thousand ships were stuck inside and outside the Persian Gulf, trapping roughly a fifth of the oil and liquefied natural gas the world consumes each day. The blockage is cascading through the region’s industry as storage tanks fill up with oil that can’t set sail, forcing producers to slash output.
The problem is most acute in Iraq, the world’s fifth-biggest producer. Output has more than halved, oil officials in the country said, with cutbacks at the southern Rumaila and West Qurna 2 fields. “Others are poised to follow if the blockage of the Strait continues,” said Antoine Halff, co-founder of data-provider Kayrros. In Fujairah, part of the United Arab Emirates, several shipping-fuel suppliers suspended deliveries on Wednesday after an attempted Iranian drone attack, said Gulf energy officials. Its port is where many vessels stop off to load up on the marine fuel that powers their voyages.
Oil prices are at about $82 a barrel, 13% higher than where the oil benchmark traded on the eve of the war. The cost of chartering tankers to transport oil from the Persian Gulf has rocketed and now equates to 20% of the price of a crude cargo, compared with 3% in normal times, according to Argus Media analysts. Cutbacks prompted by dwindling storage compound disruptions from Iranian attacks on regional energy infrastructure, which prompted Qatar’s national producer to stop making liquefied natural gas.
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The New York Times – March 4, 2026
With Qatar’s Gas Shut Off, Western Energy Giants See a Big Payday*
The suspension of liquefied natural gas exports from Qatar this week has sent prices of the fuel soaring in Europe and Asia. And the biggest beneficiaries of that jump are likely to be Western energy companies. Major European firms like Shell and TotalEnergies, and U.S. firms like ExxonMobil and Cheniere, stand to earn big profits even if Qatar quickly restarts gas shipments disrupted by the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran that began on Saturday. That’s because U.S. and European energy companies are the most viable alternative suppliers for countries and companies that previously relied on Qatar for the gas they use to generate electricity or make chemicals, steel and other industrial goods.
Over the past decade, companies like Cheniere have built eight U.S. terminals where gas is chilled into liquid that can be transported on oceangoing tankers. Much of that gas is bought under contracts by large oil and gas companies, including Shell, Total and Exxon, that, in turn, sell it to customers around the world. The main Asian L.N.G. price benchmark is up about 91 percent since the end of last week and the benchmark European price is up about 44 percent. “It’s a real windfall,” said Jason Feer, head of business intelligence at Poten & Partners, a global consulting firm and shipping brokerage. “They get the benefit of this big jump.” The price at which Western energy companies can sell L.N.G. to Europe is now roughly twice what it costs those businesses to buy and deliver the fuel, Mr. Feer said. A week ago, the companies were earning revenue that was roughly 27 to 28 percent more than their costs. Qatar, which supplies about 20 percent of the world’s L.N.G., on Monday suspended production of the fuel and other products, after its facilities were attacked.
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Reuters – March 4, 2026
Trump’s Hormuz shipping plan is too little, too late in race to avert energy shock: Ron Bousso*
Trump said on Tuesday he had ordered the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to provide political risk insurance and financial guarantees for maritime trade in the Gulf. He also said the U.S. Navy could begin escorting vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane between Iran and Oman through which around a fifth of global oil and gas supplies normally passes.
At least four tankers were also targeted in or near Hormuz, prompting many ship insurers and charterers to suspend transit in and out of the Gulf. The closure triggered a surge in oil and gas prices – with Brent rising above $84 per barrel at one point, the highest level since July 2024 – and sent stock markets tumbling, particularly in Asia, as investors braced for a severe economic shock.
Saudi Aramco bringing shale gas revolution to Arabian Desert*
While the kingdom has scaled back its futuristic giga-projects and reversed plans to lift oil capacity, Aramco – the world’s biggest oil exporter – has raised its gas production targets with this $100 billion bet at the centre, as it seeks to become a major global natural gas player. Jafurah, estimated to contain 229 trillion standard cubic feet of raw gas and 75 billion barrels of condensate, is potentially the biggest shale gas development outside the U.S.
Reuters – February 27, 2026
US oil output fell in December to lowest since June 2025, EIA says*
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Reuters – February 26, 2026
Motiva buys cargo of Venezuelan heavy oil for March delivery; first purchase since 2019*
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
The Hill – March 4, 2026
Trump signs agreement with Big Tech to cover data center electricity costs
President Trump and major tech firms announced an agreement Wednesday to have Big Tech companies cover the cost of the electricity they consume as development of artificial intelligence shows no signs of stopping. Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon have agreed to sign onto the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” the White House said Wednesday, describing the pact as an agreement to build, bring or buy new power to support their data centers in order to prevent higher electricity costs for consumers.
Trump, during Wednesday’s roundtable with the companies’ leaders, said that companies would make five promises in accordance with the pact: This includes a commitment to provide or pay for all power generation and electricity needed for AI projects, along with adding electricity generating capacity to the grid through new power plants when possible. Companies also agreed to negotiate separate rate structures with different utilities, invest in local communities for workforce development, and utilize their infrastructure to provide backup power to local grids when needed.
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BIC Magazine – March 4, 2026
Texas grid sees 233 GW in data center requests: How much is real?
Grid planners are drowning in connection requests. More than 233 GW of large-load interconnection applications now sit in ERCOT’s queue, with over 70% coming from data centers. That’s nearly four times the 63 GW on the books just 14 months ago. ERCOT received 225 new large load requests in 2025 alone. The total requests exceed 220 GW by 2030, more than twice Texas’ record peak summer demand. Energy experts are calling it a bubble.
“It definitely looks, smells, feels and is acting like a bubble,” said Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. “The top-line numbers are almost laughable.” ERCOT officials told board members in December the organization can no longer evaluate applications individually. Existing rules were developed to handle 40 to 50 large loads at a time. With 225 new requests in a single year, the system has broken down.
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CNBC – March 4, 2026
Trump has an AI data center problem ahead of the midterms — with no easy solutions
President Donald Trump hauled big technology companies into the White House on Wednesday to sign a pledge that they will supply their own power for artificial intelligence data centers, as anger grows across the U.S. over rising electricity prices ahead of the midterm elections.
Trump has embraced the artificial intelligence industry as an engine of economic growth and pillar of national security in the U.S. rivalry with China. But his alliance with the industry also poses political risks as Democrats zero in on the cost of living as they campaign to win back Congress. Grassroots opposition to data centers is growing in communities across the U.S. with residents blaming the facilities for high utility bills. Trump promised to
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The New York Times – March 4, 2026
A Nuclear Reactor Backed by Bill Gates Gets Federal Approval to Start Building*
A novel type of nuclear power plant in Wyoming backed by Bill Gates received a key federal permit on Wednesday, making it the first new U.S. commercial reactor in nearly a decade to receive clearance to begin construction. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal body that oversees reactor safety, unanimously voted to grant a construction permit to TerraPower, a start-up founded by Mr. Gates. TerraPower is one of several companies trying to build a new wave of smaller, advanced reactors meant to be easier to build than the large reactors of old.
The permit, which comes after years of consultations and regulatory reviews, means that TerraPower can begin pouring concrete and building the nuclear components of its proposed nuclear plant in Kemmerer, Wyo. The plant, which still faces plenty of logistical hurdles, is currently expected to come online in 2031 near an old coal-burning power plant that is slated to retire a few years later. “Today is a historic day for the United States nuclear industry,” Chris Levesque, TerraPower’s chief executive, said in a statement. “This is the first commercial-scale, advanced nuclear plant to receive this permit.” …
TerraPower is one of more than a dozen start-ups across the United States betting that new technology and designs can make it easier and cheaper to build reactors. Today, every American nuclear plant uses light-water reactor technology, in which water is pumped into a reactor core and heated by atomic fission, producing steam to create electricity. Because the water is highly pressurized, these plants need heavy piping and thick containment shields to protect against accidents.
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Latitude Media – March 4, 2026
What AES’ $33.4 billion take-private says about energy and AI
It’s been quite a week for AES. It started with the announcement of a 20-year deal with Google to power an 850 MW data center in Texas with colocated renewables, and peaked on Monday with the official confirmation that the developer is going to be acquired by a consortium led by BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners and EQT, for an enterprise value of $33.4 billion.
The take-private deal, which is one of the largest ever in the utility sector, embodies many of the shifts that the boom in artificial intelligence has brought to energy in recent years. According to Ben Hertz-Shargel, global head of grid edge at Wood Mackenzie, the deal shows that “amazingly, utilities are a growth story” — but to maintain that growth, utilities and power producers must invest money at a scale and speed that is hard to sustain without external help.
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Utility Dive – March 4, 2026
Utilities’ spending spree continues, according to their Q4 2025 reports
The tail end of 2025 saw continued growth in most utilities’ spending and load projections, with Duke Energy claiming the distinction of having the largest capital spending plan of any regulated electric utility in the U.S. Companies used their fourth-quarter earnings presentations to highlight their efforts to address affordability concerns through large load tariffs and other means as they come under pressure from ratepayers, regulators and elected representatives over rising costs.
Transmission, grid hardening and wildfire mitigation also figured prominently in several spending plans, as did gas-fired generation, which has seen a resurgence in interest from load-serving entities and hyperscalers, even as turbine manufacturers face backlog
Regulatory
Bloomberg – March 4, 2026
Soaring Power Prices Send US on Search for Solutions*
US politicians are racing to tame the soaring cost of electricity that threatens to upend this year’s congressional elections. The Energy Department has loaned $26.5 billion — the most in its history — to help a big Southeastern utility reduce the cost of building new power plants in Georgia and Alabama. Meanwhile, the nation’s biggest grid operator has proposed capping wholesale prices and some governors are weighing utility rate freezes as a way to keep a lid on electricity costs. The affordability problem prompted a White House meeting to be held Wednesday with technology executives to address price spikes tied to billions of dollars in artificial intelligence investments. President Donald Trump wants tech companies to commit to footing the power bill for their energy-hungry data centers, which are blamed for driving up electricity costs.
Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc., Oracle Corp., xAI and OpenAI have agreed to sign the so-called ratepayer protection pledge Wednesday, said Michael Kratsios, an assistant to the president and director of White House Office Science and Technology Policy. The signers would agree to build or fund new power generation for their AI data centers, and pay for related infrastructure as well, Kratsios said in a media briefing on Wednesday. Companies that sign the pledge would negotiate separate rate structures with utilities and state governments, Kratsios said. They would commit to paying those rates for power and funding the added infrastructure, whether or not they use the electricity, he added.
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Politico – March 4, 2026
Committee sets vote on energy infrastructure security bills*
The House Energy and Commerce Committee will vote Thursday on legislation to protect pipelines and the electric grid from cyberthreats and other dangers. The roster of bills, which include giving new authorities to the Department of Energy, already cleared the Energy Subcommittee with broad, bipartisan support. The “Securing Community Upgrades for a Resilient (SECURE) Grid Act,” H.R. 7257, from subcommittee Chair Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), would amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to require states to address physical security, cybersecurity and resilience of local distribution systems in their state energy security plans.
The “Energy Emergency Leadership Act,” H.R. 7258, from Reps. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), would create a Senate-confirmed assistant secretary position at DOE focused on cybersecurity threats to grid infrastructure. The “Pipeline Cybersecurity Preparedness Act,” H.R. 7272, sponsored by Reps. Randy Weber (R-Texas) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), would require DOE to establish a program addressing cyber and physical risks facing pipelines and liquefied natural gas facilities.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday March 4, 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 3% on Wednesday as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran disrupted Middle East supplies, but the pace of gains slowed from past sessions after President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. Navy could escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.24, or 3%, to $76.8, after settling at its highest since June. Both benchmarks have risen about 5% or more in the past two sessions.
Brent rose $2.67, or 3.3%, to $84.07 a barrel by 0659 GMT, after closing on Tuesday at its highest since January 2025.
“The primary near-term driver for oil prices remains the US-Iran conflict,” said OANDA senior market analyst Kelvin Wong.
“At this stage, only clear signs of de-escalation could mitigate or reverse the current bullish trend for WTI, and such signals are currently lacking.”
Israeli and U.S. forces struck targets across Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian strikes against energy infrastructure in a region that accounts for just under a third of global oil production.
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Top Stories
Seatrade Maritime – March 3, 2026
Related: Faced with the overwhelming firepower of the United States and Israel, diplomats and analysts say, Iran is working to enlarge the battlefield from its own territory to the broader region — The New York Times*
Related: Iran strikes Saudi infrastructure, pushing Riyadh toward possible war — Iranian strikes on Saudi oil, water, and diplomatic sites have crossed key red lines experts warn, forcing Riyadh to weigh retaliation against fears of wider regional escalation — Jerusalem Post
Iranian broadcast to ships on VHF Channel 16 that the Strait of Hormuz was closed and no ships would be allowed to pass grabbed the headlines that the waterway was shut. Again, in the past 24 hours were the statements by Ebrahim Jabbari, a senior adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on Iranian TV saying: “The Strait of Hormuz has been closed. We will attack and set ablaze any ship attempting to cross.” The result is headlines in the mainstream media saying the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
However, threatening as these statements are the question is still being asked in the industry “does this mean the Strait is really closed?” As such there are two answers to this question – the legal, formal one, and the operational risk and frankly common sense one for the vast majority ships and their owners. Taking the first answer, the legal one, there has been no formal notice that the Strait of Hormuz has been closed and as such the statements and radio messages by Iran should be viewed as rhetoric.
While the statements are rhetoric in one sense the threat from Iran to commercial shipping in the Strait is a very real one. This is evidenced by the Joint Maritime Information Centre upgrading its regional risk assessment to Critical – the highest level that indicates “an attack is almost certain”. “While no formal legal closure of the Strait of Hormuz has been declared, the operational environment reflects active kinetic hazard conditions in this area,” JMIC said in its latest update.
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Texas Tribune – March 3, 2026
Bo French, Jim Wright head to runoff for seat on Texas Railroad Commission
Texas Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright and challenger Bo French will head to a runoff election, unofficial election results showed Tuesday, as neither could break through the required majority to secure the nomination. A candidate needs to win at least 50% of the vote to head to the general election. The candidate who wins the runoff election will face state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, in November. Rosenthal did not have a primary opponent. No Democrat has been elected to the commission since 1995. …
French, whose family owns an oil company in Midland, French Oil Company, recently stepped down as chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party to run for the seat at the commission. Behind Wright, he was the second most prolific fundraiser among the candidates, rasing more than $279,000.
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The Hill – March 3, 2026
Trump moves to give oil ships financial cover amid Iran war
President Trump took steps Tuesday to prevent a sharp decline in global oil supply and give maritime shipping companies financial protection amid the war in Iran. The president said Tuesday he was ordering the U.S. Development Finance Corp. (DFC), a federal agency, to provide political risk insurance for shipping companies traveling through the Persian Gulf.
Oil prices have spiked since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran over the weekend, killing Iranian supreme leader Ayotollah Ali Khameni. Iran has said it would close the Strait of Hormuz in response, choking off the key maritime shipping lane for energy and other firms. In a post on Truth Social, Trump ordered DFC to offer “at a very reasonable price, political risk insurance and guarantees for the Financial Security of ALL Maritime Trade, especially Energy, traveling through the Gulf. This will be available to all Shipping Lines.”
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Politico – March 3, 2026
Republicans dismiss energy cost concerns after Iran strikes
When the U.S. and Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iran over the weekend, some Democrats warned about the impact on energy costs. Now that those predictions have come to pass with an uptick in global prices for natural gas and crude oil, Democrats are pouncing — and Republicans are pushing back. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) started to set the tone for the GOP’s messaging Monday afternoon, saying he expected prices to return to prewar levels soon.
“I think that there will be, hopefully, a cessation of this in the not-too-distant future, at which time my assumption is that that’ll stabilize a bit,” Thune said. “Anything that happens in the Middle East seems to set off an increase in oil prices.” Other Senate Republicans are also giving the administration some breathing room for the time being. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said that while fluctuating energy prices are worth watching, “it seems to be second-tier right now.” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) agreed it was “a little soon to be saying that this is going to be a major issue.” Like a number of energy industry analysts, some Republicans are pointing to policies boosting domestic energy production as a potential cushion that could soften the impact of the price volatility. Indeed, other recent instability in the Middle East has not translated into major price spikes.
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Inside Climate News – March 3, 2026
War in Iran Could Have ‘Historic’ Disruptions on Energy Markets
The U.S. and Israeli war against Iran is disrupting energy markets and driving oil and gas prices higher in the United States and globally. While those increases are modest so far, experts say the war has the potential to cause more severe and lasting impacts if Iran damages the region’s energy infrastructure or restricts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Already, the three-day-old bombing campaign has killed hundreds of people in Iran, including the country’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has retaliated by hitting a broad range of targets across the region, including oil and gas sites. On Monday, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy said its Ras Tanura oil refinery sustained “limited” damage after the interception of two drones. QatarEnergy said Monday it was halting production of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, after military attacks on two facilities.
The Latest TERse Tips
Donald Trump-endorsed Alex Mealer headed to runoff with Briscoe Cain in Texas’ 9th District — Houston Chronicle*
Mayes Middleton, Chip Roy advance to runoff for Texas GOP attorney general nomination — News from the States
Who is Steve Toth? What to know about the Texas lawmaker who upset Dan Crenshaw in the Congressional District 2 primary — Houston Chronicle*
Nate Sheets declares victory over three-term Ag Commissioner Sid Miller — Austin American-Statesman*
Talarico wins Texas Senate Democratic nomination while Cornyn and Paxton head to Republican runoff — Associated Press
Don Huffines wins GOP comptroller race, beating Gov. Greg Abbott-backed candidate, the interim incumbent Kelly Hancock — Dallas Morning News*
Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick easily win their Republican primaries — News from the States
US banks on high alert for cyberattacks as Iran war escalates — Reuters*
The Trump administration is quietly building a legal case against Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez including readying a draft criminal indictment, one of several tools it is using to strengthen its leverage with Caracas, according to four people familiar with the matter — Reuters*
A Russian-controlled, sanctioned LNG carrier has been set on fire while on passage through the Mediterranean but its crew has been rescued — Trade Winds
“Blackstone’s utility playbook: NIPSCO and the future of TXNM” — a report from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project
Largest energy storage facility statewide gets approved for construction in Everett MA — the proposed facility’s construction is the first part of a wider development project at the former ExxonMobil tank farm site — Boston.com
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Oil & Gas Texas
BIC Magazine – March 3, 2026
Exxon, TotalEnergies output at risk from Iran war, analysts say
ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Shell are among the companies with more exposure to disruptions in oil and gas production due to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, analysts said in research notes this week.
- Energy Giant Exposure: Analysts identify ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and Shell as the companies most vulnerable to the conflict, with Middle Eastern operations accounting for 20% to 29% of their total production.
- Supply Disruptions: Military strikes and Iranian drone attacks have forced the shutdown of major oil and gas fields, including a total halt of LNG production in Qatar, which supplies 20% of the global market.
- Market Volatility: The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a massive price surge, with European natural gas jumping 40% and Brent crude rising to over $77 per barrel.
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US News – March 3, 2026
Exxon to Send Team to Venezuela in a Few Weeks, Executive Says
Exxon Mobil aims to send a technical team to Venezuela in a few weeks after working through logistical and security arrangements, an executive said on Tuesday. The U.S. oil major will work with the Venezuelan government and if the right investment terms are in place “we will be interested in going back,” Senior Vice President Jack Williams said during a Morgan Stanley conference.
U.S. President Donald Trump has urged oil firms to invest $100 billion in Venezuela and rebuild the energy sector after U.S. forces captured and removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from office in January. Exxon’s previous assets in the country were expropriated twice before and the company has said it needs durable investment protections before returning.
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Rigzone – March 3, 2026
UK, Texas Industry Bodies Comment on Middle East Conflict
“At a time when geopolitical tensions, including military action involving Iran, disrupt global energy supply routes, the United States and Texas provide stability,” he added. “Americans can rest assured that the United States, led by Texas, has the capacity to respond because of unmatched production, robust pipelines and world-class refining and export infrastructure,” he continued.
“While price fluctuation often occurs during times like these, Texas energy helps to minimize volatility for American consumers and stabilize global markets,” Staples noted. “American families and businesses, our military, and our allies abroad can depend on the reliable, affordable energy supply that starts here,” he highlighted.
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MEES – February 27, 2026
Chevron In Exclusive Talks For Iraq’s West Qurna-2*
Chevron has reached a key milestone in its planned entry into Iraq’s upstream. The US major signed two agreements with Baghdad on 23 February for exclusive negotiations to take over the 480,000 b/d capacity West Qurna-2 (WQ-2) oil field, and for and development of the Nasiriyah oil field. The agreements also cover four exploration blocks in Dhi Qar Governorate, and development of the Balad oil field in Saladin Governorate.
Tom Barrack, US ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria, attended the signing ceremony alongside Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani. Mr Barrack is also overseeing US policy on Iraq following last month’s departure of Special Envoy to Iraq Mark Savaya
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Inside Climate News – March 3, 2026
Tiny Texas School District Rejects Tax Deal with $6 Billion LNG Project
The Point Isabel Independent School District on Monday rejected a multi-million dollar tax break for a proposed $5.7 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project on the Texas Gulf Coast, finding the facility would not “align” with the community’s values or finances. Districts in Texas have typically granted such agreements, which are meant to incentivize investment with reduced property taxes in exchange for promises of economic development.
But the school district’s board of trustees in Port Isabel, with 5,200 people tucked between nature preserves at the mouth of the Rio Grande, have rejected three similar proposals from LNG developers planning to build large industrial complexes in the area, including a previous application from the 625-acre Texas LNG project.
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – March 3, 2026
Oil tankers eye floating storage as shipments from Persian Gulf at near standstill
Oil tanker companies are exploring opportunities to store refined products in the Persian Gulf to ensure cash flow at a time when they are facing challenges loading and moving out of the region, several market participants said March 3. “It’s a commercial decision, as there is nothing [else] to do right now,” a senior executive of a global oil tankers’ company that regularly loads cargoes of refined products from the Persian Gulf said.
Deals are being considered on a dollars per day basis because dozens of Long Range and Medium Range tankers are stuck in the Persian Gulf, a clean oil tankers broker said. Before the Iran-US war broke out over the weekend, Long Range II and I tankers on the benchmark Persian Gulf-North Asia routes were daily earning close to $45,000/day and $38,000/day on a round voyage basis, respectively, according to the estimates of brokers.
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The New York Times – March 3, 2026
Trump Bets That ‘Energy Dominance’ Will Make War in Iran Less Costly*
The Trump administration has said that it has more leeway to act aggressively in the Middle East because the world is flush with oil and gas, thanks in part to record U.S. production, and has less to fear than it once did from energy price shocks. The ongoing war in Iran could put that theory to the test. Long before U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran over the weekend, Trump administration officials had repeatedly suggested that America’s “energy dominance” means fewer constraints on military action abroad, including in oil-producing countries. The United States bombed Iran last summer and captured Venezuela’s president in January, and each time, the effect on global oil prices was fairly modest.
“The world is very well supplied with oil right now, and I think it gives President Trump more leverage in his geopolitical actions to not worry about a crazy spike in oil prices,” Chris Wright, the energy secretary, said on CNBC last month. Initially, at least, energy markets appeared to be responding to the latest conflict as Trump officials suggested they would. But experts cautioned that a prolonged war could quickly become far more economically damaging — and less predictable. The weekend’s strikes, and Iran’s missile and drone volleys in response, have already triggered some of the largest disruptions to global oil and gas markets in years. The flow of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping channel off Iran’s southern coast, has slowed sharply. Qatar on Monday halted production of liquefied natural gas after Iran attacked two of its gas sites. And Saudi Arabia suspended operations at its biggest oil refinery after a fire broke out during a drone strike.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 3, 2026
Analysts: Oil prices to be determined by Iran war length*
Energy prices continue to climb as U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran have significantly disrupted Middle East oil supplies. But market analysts believe those price increases could be short-lived. Despite the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on infrastructure, analysts at S&P Global Energy are holding to their forecast of a $65 Brent midcycle oil price.
“We think a plausible base case is that futures will remain elevated relative to our midcycle price but still trend downward. OPEC+ actions created a massive surplus last year that in some sense insulates the usual supply shock we’d possibly see. For our mid-cycle price to change, we’d have to see an extended removal of Iran-related volumes for a prolonged period,” analysts wrote.
“We will continue to monitor geopolitical developments and assess whether we need to adjust our price forecasts,” said Ravikanth Rai, associate managing director of Energy & Natural Resources Ratings at Morningstar DBRS. “We believe there is too much uncertainty to determine if crude oil prices will remain high, and it is largely dependent on how the conflict plays out. As such, there is no change to our mid-cycle pricing assumptions, so we are not currently contemplating any credit rating actions.”
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The Wall Street Journal – March 3, 2026
U.S. Success Against Iran Could Be a Game Changer for World Oil Security*
There are countless ways the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran could go wrong. Indeed, commentators seem to have dwelt on little else. Instead, let’s game out everything going right, if only because that would be a game changer for world energy security and geopolitics. If Iran, along with Venezuela, is soon ruled by a regime friendly or at least not hostile toward the U.S., that would neutralize two oil exporters who have regularly been the cause of supply disruptions in recent generations. Russia would remain the only adversarial oil power with significant sway, and its clout would be diminished.
This is a scenario, not a forecast. A range of outcomes is possible in coming days or weeks, and events in Iran remain fluid. That said, they have so far gone well for the U.S. and Israel. They killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day, significantly degraded Iran’s military capabilities, and suffered limited retaliatory damage.
Iranian attacks have left gas facilities in Qatar and an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia damaged. Tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has halted. But the strait technically remains open, and Iran’s ability to close it will likely diminish as the U.S. destroys its navy and missile batteries. Market reaction so far suggests disruption has been less than feared. Since Friday, Brent crude oil is up about $10 to around $82 early Tuesday afternoon, at the low end of where many analysts had expected. U.S. stocks, which were little changed Monday, were down less than 1% Tuesday afternoon. While President Trump initially called for regime change, he might stop short of that. After removing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump left Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, in charge, in exchange for control of its oil exports and industry.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 3, 2026
Iran Strikes Shatter the Gulf’s Post-Oil Pivot*
The Gulf’s costly gamble to build a post-oil future is now facing trial by combat. After years—and hundreds of billions of dollars—spent transforming the region into a nexus for artificial intelligence, tourism and logistics, those aspirations are now under fire as Iranian strikes pound the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and neighboring states. Amazon said early Tuesday it expected extended service interruptions following damage from drone attacks on three data centers in the region. The outages, which have led to users in the Gulf reporting banking app glitches, compound what has quickly become the most severe business disruption the Middle East has faced since the pandemic—and one that threatens to leave even more enduring consequences.
Across the region, thousands of flights have been grounded in some of the world’s busiest airports, shipping disruptions have severed key trade and energy lifelines, and stock markets have plunged. Thousands of stranded tourists are scrambling to evacuate on the few flights that are going out after smoke from blazing luxury hotels and other damaged sites streaked the glitzy Dubai skyline. “Iran’s strikes on the Gulf economies have punctured the perceived security and stability of the region,” said Jason Tuvey, deputy chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics. “This will lead to disruptions to non-oil activity in the near term and, if the attacks persist, could also threaten investment and diversification efforts over the longer term.”
Beyond the immediate physical damage, the cascading crisis is inflicting a reputational blow. For years, the Gulf marketed itself as an island of calm—a highly reliable, cosmopolitan sanctuary insulated from the Middle East’s chronic geopolitical volatility. Hedge funds, tech executives, entertainment brands and sports groups were lured by access to vast sovereign wealth. Now they are reassessing basic safety risks. Unlike previous conflicts, when Iranian attacks in the Gulf were limited to U.S. military bases, Tehran’s response this time could have far wider-reaching economic effects, analysts say.
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The New York Times – March 3, 2026
Who Could Profit From an Energy Crisis?*
Related: These U.S. natural gas exporters benefit from disruption to Qatar LNG supply in Iran war — CNBC
Concerns about an energy supply crunch are mounting after an Iranian official threatened on Monday to “set on fire” any ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that conveys 20 percent of the world’s oil and a substantial proportion of natural gas, and after President Trump said the war could last for weeks. Oil prices are up, but so far the spike has not been stratospheric. That’s because the world is flush in oil and gas supplies, my colleagues reported this morning, thanks in part to record production in the United States. This “energy dominance” may have emboldened the Trump administration to act aggressively in the oil-rich Middle East, write Brad Plumer, Lisa Friedman and Rebecca F. Elliott.
But a protracted conflict could seriously disrupt energy markets and raise the prospect of higher household energy bills, which could in turn lead to higher inflation. It also means some companies are positioned to profit from high energy prices. Today, we look at who is poised to make money. Qatar’s state-owned energy company shut down production of liquid natural gas on Monday after Iranian drone attacks on two of its sites. Natural gas prices in Europe surged by as much as 50 percent in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, Eshe Nelson reported. Qatar handles about 20 percent of the world’s natural gas exports. If its production facilities remain down or ships can’t travel through the Strait of Hormuz, liquid natural gas (L.N.G.) buyers in Asia and Europe may need to find other suppliers.
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Oil & Gas Journal – March 3, 2026
Occidental Petroleum, 1PointFive STRATOS DAC plant nears startup in Texas Permian basin
Occidental Petroleum Corp. and its subsidiary 1PointFive expect Phase 1 of the STRATOS direct air capture (DAC) plant in Texas’ Permian basin to come online in this year’s second quarter. In a post to LinkedIn, 1PointFive said Phase 1 “is in the final stage of startup” and that Phase 2, which incorporates learnings from research and development and Phase 1 construction activities, “will also begin commissioning in Q2, with operational ramp-up continuing through the rest of the year.”
Once fully operational, STRATOS is designed to capture up to 500,000 tonnes/year (tpy) of CO2. As part of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Class VI permitting process and approval, it was reported that STRATOS is expected to include three wells to store about 722,000 tpy of CO2 in saline formations at a depth of about 4,400 ft. The company said a few activities before start-up remain, including ramping up remaining pellet reactors, completing calciner final commissioning in parallel, and beginning CO2 injection.
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The New York Times – March 3, 2026
U.S. Automakers Risk Being Reduced to Niche Producers of Gas Vehicles*
Perhaps no business needs certainty more than the auto industry. It usually takes at least four years to design a new model and bring it to market, requiring carmakers to divine what buyers will find appealing by the time the vehicles reach showrooms. Yet industry veterans say they can’t remember a time when the biggest carmakers faced as much uncertainty as they do now. They have been whipsawed by tariffs. Chinese carmakers are breathing down their necks around the world. Self-driving taxi companies like Waymo are changing the very nature of transportation. Software has replaced horsepower as a key selling point. Sales are flat almost everywhere, and profits are declining.
How U.S. carmakers cope with this pivotal moment will determine whether they survive as global players or slide into irrelevance, becoming niche manufacturers of pickups and sport utility vehicles that only Americans buy. The early indications are not promising. Many established U.S. and European carmakers have been stumped by electric vehicles at seemingly every turn. First, Tesla’s meteoric rise caught them unawares. They responded by investing in new factories but are now pulling back after the U.S. government repealed tax credits and other subsidies for those cars.
“The term ‘unprecedented’ is always overused. But it is really everything coming together at once,” said Stuart Taylor, a former Ford Motor executive who is chief product officer at Envorso, which advises carmakers on software. U.S. carmakers, in particular, face some difficult choices. President Trump has given them a short-term gain by dismantling clean air regulations and fuel economy standards, making it easier to sell pickups and sport utility vehicles that are very profitable.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
News from the States – March 3, 2026
Amid utility corruption trial, leaked GOP bill would allow for electric companies to own nuclear
An Ohio lawmaker is moving to allow electric utilities to own nuclear power, according to a leaked bill draft. The legislation, allegedly co-written by an energy company, surfaced as utility executives are on trial for the largest public corruption scheme in state history. Ohio electric customers have paid for corrupt legislation for years.
“If we’re not able to see how the moneyed interests are influencing us, we’re just going to keep being ripped off,” Catherine Turcer, a government watchdog with Common Cause Ohio, said Turcer points to the legacy of 2019’s Ohio House Bill 6. Former FirstEnergy executives are currently on trial due to their $65 million scheme to pass H.B. 6, which provided a billion-dollar bailout for their struggling nuclear facilities. They passed this legislation at the expense of ratepayers, hiking their utility bills.
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March 3, 2026
U.S. battery industry cuts losses, shifts to new ventures amid EV bust: Dallas Fed
The future of the U.S. battery industry looked extremely promising several years ago. Consumer interest in electric vehicles (EVs) was rising, and the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, provided incentives for the domestic production of lithium-ion batteries that would power those vehicles.
Automakers responded with bold pledges to increase sales of EVs, pledges that were mirrored by major investment in gigafactories (enormous factories for producing lithium-ion batteries). More than 20 gigafactories were announced in the U.S. from 2021 through 2022, representing more than $50 billion in potential investment and thousands of new jobs. More announcements followed in 2023 and 2024.
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Mother Jones – March 3, 2026
The Culture Wars Are Coming for Your Electricity
Relations between states are becoming so strained over their different approaches to fossil fuels and renewables, some politicians are calling for a “divorce.” Utah Republicans celebrated last week when PacifiCorp, one of the largest utilities in the West, announced it would stop serving customers in Washington state. PacifiCorp mainly operates in Utah, but also in Wyoming and Idaho—and, to the chagrin of some Utah legislators, blue states like California and Oregon. Utah legislators had previously pressured to break their utility’s ties with states with more aggressive climate policies.
Now, PacifiCorp is handing over its 140,000 customers in Washington—along with two wind farms, a natural gas plant, and other energy infrastructure—to Portland General Electric for $1.9 billion.“We want a divorce from the three states that don’t look like Utah,” said Mike Schultz, Utah’s Republican House Speaker. “This is the first step forward.”
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Forbes – March 2, 2026
Data Center Batteries Enter The Iron Age
The spike in power demand from AI data centers over the past two years is not only driving up utility prices but also driving rapid, sustained growth in renewable power, especially solar. That’s despite the Trump administration’s attempts to encourage more use of carbon-based fuels. This has largely been thanks to increased use of battery storage to overcome the intermittent electricity generation of wind and solar.
Last year, the U.S. installed a record 58-gigawatt-hours of battery storage, 30% higher than in 2024, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Much of that growth was led by packs using lithium-iron phosphate cells, a chemistry that’s been mastered by Chinese battery giants CATL and BYD. Its advantage has been both lower costs and reduced fire risks compared to the lithium-ion cells used in electric cars. The challenge with that chemistry, however, is that the U.S. lacks a soup-to-nuts supply chain to produce LFP cells domestically.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – March 3, 2026
FiberLight to invest $350 million in West Texas fiber to serve AI data centers*
High-capacity fiber-optic networks and connectivity services are rushing to invest in infrastructure as artificial intelligence data centers flock to West Texas. FiberLight is among those providers, announcing a $350 million capital investment to build approximately 1,400 route miles of new, high-capacity network infrastructure across West Texas. That 1,400 new route miles of high-capacity fiber and duct will be purpose-built, high-count dark fiber engineered to scale alongside exponential AI workload growth.
This investment is in addition to the company’s previously announced $150 million West Texas initiative. The expansion includes a third diverse route to Abilene and will add 1.2 million new fiber miles, increasing the company’s Texas fiber footprint to nearly 4.8 million fiber miles. Bill Major, chief executive, said the company’s investment is helping support initiatives like Stargate, OpenAI’s $500 billion AI data center developed with Oracle and Crusoe Energy Systems at Abilene.
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Ars Technica – February 16, 2026
A fluid can store solar energy and then release it as heat months later
Heating accounts for nearly half of the global energy demand, and two-thirds of that is met by burning fossil fuels like natural gas, oil, and coal. Solar energy is a possible alternative, but while we have become reasonably good at storing solar electricity in lithium-ion batteries, we’re not nearly as good at storing heat.
To store heat for days, weeks, or months, you need to trap the energy in the bonds of a molecule that can later release heat on demand. The approach to this particular chemistry problem is called molecular solar thermal (MOST) energy storage. While it has been the next big thing for decades, it never really took off.
Regulatory
JD Supra – February 18, 2026
State Energy Regulatory Approaches to Powering Data Centers: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
The rapid expansion of data centers—driven by cloud computing, artificial intelligence and hyperscale digital infrastructure—has transformed what were once localized land-use and utility ratemaking concerns into issues of statewide and federal economic and energy policy. While our recent commentary focused on an emerging federal regulatory framework to power data centers, including in pending proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), states are simultaneously moving to legislate, regulate, incentivize, and in some cases constrain data center development. These state-level actions are ever more consequential to the economics of data center projects, impacting everything from site selection and interconnection timelines to long-term operational risk. …
This article analyzes key emerging themes across states rather than cataloging any individual state’s statutes or dockets. State policy frameworks are evolving to address the scale and energy impacts of data center growth, even while ongoing considerations occur at the federal level to redefine the boundaries of federal versus state authority over powering data centers. As a result, until FERC intervenes and successfully defends its pending new rules in federal courts, these state-level frameworks will materially shape data center projects.
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Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday March 3, 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 third day on Tuesday as the widening U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran and threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz heightened fears of supply disruptions from the key Middle East producing region.
West Texas Intermediate crude jumped $1.17, or 1.6%, to $72.40 a barrel. In the previous session, the contract initially climbed to its highest since June 2025 before sliding back to still settle up 6.3%.
Top Stories
CNN – March 2, 2026
US Gulf allies fend off attacks as Trump warns Iran of ‘big wave’ of strikes
President Donald Trump told CNN the “big wave” of the US attack on Iran is yet to come. Trump laid out his war objectives for reporters, saying he wanted to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, annihilate its navy, end its nuclear ambitions and stop it arming militant groups.
On the ground: Iran and its proxies are continuing to strike US allies in the Gulf, with the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia hit by suspected Iranian drones, booms heard in Iraq and sirens sounding over Bahrain. Israel, meanwhile, is striking Hezbollah targets in Beirut.
Americans warned: The US State Department urged US citizens to leave the Middle East immediately. Trump told CNN “the biggest surprise” of the war has been Iran’s attacks against Arab countries in the region.” Iran’s foreign minister said the “American people deserve better and should take back their country,” mirroring Trump’s repeated remarks to Iranians.
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Reuters – March 2, 2026
Qatar LNG, Saudi refinery, Israeli oil, gas fields down due to Mideast strikes*
Qatar halted its production of liquefied natural gas on Monday, as Iran continued to strike Gulf countries in retaliation for Israeli and U.S. strikes against it, prompting precautionary shutdowns of oil and gas facilities across the Middle East. Qatari LNG production is equivalent to about 20% of global supply and plays a major role in balancing both Asian and European markets’ demand for the fuel.
As a wave of attacks in the Middle East stretched into a third day, they also resulted in the suspension of operations at Saudi Arabia’s biggest domestic oil refinery after a drone strike, most oil production in Iraqi Kurdistan and several Israeli gas fields, throttling exports to Egypt. State-owned QatarEnergy, 82% of whose clients are Asian, was set to declare force majeure on its LNG shipments after Iranian drone attacks on facilities in the sprawling Ras Laffan complex. The complex hosts Qatar’s gas trains — massive processing units that supercool natural gas into liquid form for export by ship.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 2, 2026
Gulf States in Race Against Time to Repel Iran’s Onslaught*
Persian Gulf nations targeted by Iran have, so far, managed to limit the damage by deploying sophisticated U.S.-made air defenses against the hundreds of drones and missiles that have rained on their cities. With costly interceptors and radar, all integrated with the U.S. military, the oil-rich Gulf Arab states have fielded some of the most advanced air defenses in the world, despite their small populations and militaries.
A crucial variable in this war, however, is whether these monarchies start running out of interceptors before the Iranian regime runs out of projectiles. At current burn rates, it could be very soon. “The intensity of interceptor usage that we have seen over the last couple of days can’t be maintained for more than another week—probably a couple of days at most, and then they will feel the pain of interceptor shortage,” said Fabian Hoffmann, a missile expert at the University of Oslo. The other important part of this equation is the speed with which Israel and the U.S., which began the air campaign against Iran on Saturday morning, manage to hunt down and destroy Iran’s missile launchers and missile and drone stocks.
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Bloomberg – March 2, 2026
Ships Avoid Hormuz as Iran Raises Threats, Conflict Spreads*
Related: The Strait of Hormuz is facing a blockade. These countries will be most impacted — CNBC
Oil and gas shipping remains largely paused in the Strait of Hormuz that links the oil-rich Persian Gulf to the open seas, as a regional conflict escalates and Iran cranks up threats to vessels transiting through the chokepoint. On Sunday, a trickle of vessels were moving out of the waterway, which is crucial for the flow of oil and gas, according to ship-tracking data, even if none appeared to be entering. A small oil tanker, which appears to be sanctioned by the US for helping Iran export fuels, was targeted off Oman’s northern coast, though it was unclear who was behind the attack.
Mohsen Rezaei, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council that advises Iran’s supreme leader, said on state TV that “no American ship is allowed to enter the Persian Gulf.” Multiple ships have reported a day earlier hearing radio broadcasts purporting to come from the Iranian navy announcing that transit through the waterway was banned, although no official communication was made…. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, describing the waterway as effectively shut, said on Saturday that the country’s Revolutionary Guard warned ships that transiting Hormuz is not safe. German container liner Hapag-Lloyd AG subsequently said it is suspending transits through Hormuz due to its “official closure.” France’s CMA CGM SA, the world’s third-largest container line, told vessels in the Persian Gulf to take shelter immediately and suspended passage through the Suez Canal.
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Oil Price – March 2, 2026
Chevron Declares Force Majeure as Israel Shuts Leviathan Gas Field
Chevron has declared force majeure at Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field after the government ordered a temporary suspension of production on security grounds, marking the second time in less than a year that hostilities with Iran have disrupted Eastern Mediterranean gas flows.
Israel’s energy ministry directed operator Chevron to shut in Leviathan following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and subsequent retaliatory action across the region. Partner NewMed Energy said the suspension followed guidance from security authorities, noting that regulators instructed the consortium to adjust operations in line with evolving security conditions, including the possibility of temporary production halts as the situation develops.
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Anchorage Daily News – March 2, 2026
Texas investor with Trump family ties pursues project to tap North Slope gas
A Texas investor with ties to the Trump family is pursuing a project to unlock natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope using Russian technology. Gentry Beach, 50, said in an interview Friday that a company he owns, America First LNG, aims to install facilities on the North Slope, where gas can be super-chilled into a liquid.
From there, the liquefied natural gas, or LNG, would be shipped to Asian entities using tankers, including specialized ice-breaking tankers, he said. Gas could also possibly be delivered to Southcentral Alaska, he said. “I think you’ll see huge, huge revenue opportunities in Alaska from this, and I think you’ll see lots and lots of jobs,” he said.
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Oil Price – March 2, 2026
BlackRock, EQT To Acquire AES Corp. in $33.4B Deal
A consortium led by BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and EQT AB have agreed to acquire global power utility, AES Corp. (NYSE:AES), for $15 per share in cash, totaling an enterprise value of approximately $33.4 billion. The deal, which includes major pension and investment funds, represents a ~40% premium for AES shares and includes the assumption of debt with a cash equity value of $10.7 billion. AES will continue to operate as a utility, with regulated businesses in Ohio and Indiana expected to remain under local, state, and federal regulation.
The AES acquisition is one of the largest in recent utility and power generation history, highlighting part of a broader “land-grab” for reliable power generation assets. Energean also confirmed that it had been ordered to suspend production at the Karish field. Leviathan is Israel’s largest gas field, supplying Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. In the first nine months of 2025, the field sold 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to the three markets, with Egypt accounting for more than half at 4.8 Bcm.
The Latest TERse Tips
The United States will unveil a phased plan to mitigate the spike in oil prices amid the ongoing conflict in Iran and the wider Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late on Monday as oil prices jumped by 10% following the U.S.-Israel strikes on the Islamic Republic — Oil Price
Trump Sees Weekslong War Timeline in Iran — President outlines reasons for strikes, goals for operation; casualties increase — The Wall Street Journal*
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality reported an unexpected flaring event at Valero’s 200,000 bpd Mckee refinery — Quantum Commodity Intelligence*
WhiteHawk Energy, LLC said Monday that its affiliate entered into a definitive purchase and sale agreement to acquire natural gas mineral and royalty interests primarily located in the core of the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana and east Texas — see the press release
A Waymo robotaxi picking up a passenger near Sunday morning’s mass shooting in Austin blocked an ambulance from reaching the scene, according to a bystander video and Waymo and EMS officials have confirmed the video shows the company’s vehicle blocking the ambulance — Axios
Today, Venture Global, Inc. and Trafigura announced the execution of a new, binding agreement for the purchase of approximately 0.5 million tonnes per annum of U.S. liquefied natural gas from Venture Global for five years commencing in 2026 — see the press release
El Paso City Council on Monday authorized the City Attorney to appeal the recent RRC decision to approve a Texas Gas Service rate increase — KVIA
Oil & Gas Texas
March 2, 2026
U.S. LNG Exports to the World’s Rescue: The Wall Street Journal*
Qatar shut down its natural gas export production on Monday after a drone attack from Iran. Global prices for liquefied natural gas shot up as a result, but not nearly as much as they might have thanks to America’s LNG export boom over the last decade. This is a success that deserves more publicity, especially since the progressive left wants to shut it down. For decades the U.S. was a net importer of natural gas. But the boom in shale fracking that began in the mid-2000s unleashed cheap and abundant natural gas. Cheniere Energy took the risk of converting what had been an LNG import facility into an export platform in 2016. The first exports from the lower 48 states began to flow in February of that year. More companies have followed, which has spurred more natural gas production.
The U.S. now boasts eight LNG export terminals, which ship roughly 15 billion cubic feet a day. That’s enough gas to heat 80 million homes during winter. America has surpassed Australia, Qatar and Russia to become the world’s top LNG exporter. The nearby chart tracks the remarkable boom. In 2024 the Biden Administration sought to appease its climate left with an LNG export permitting pause that created uncertainty and slowed development in new projects. But President Trump lifted the pause upon retaking the White House. His Energy Department is rapidly approving new terminals and expansions, including one last week in Corpus Christi. U.S. LNG exports surged nearly 40% last year, and capacity is projected to double by 2031, per the Energy Information Administration.
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Houston Chronicle – March 2, 2026
Middle East conflict sends oil prices higher. What it means for Texas.*
For Houston, home to the country’s largest concentration of energy companies and refineries, the spike underscores how quickly geopolitical instability abroad can move markets at home. The rise in energy prices comes amid renewed tensions between Iran and U.S. and Israeli forces. Associated Press reports show global oil markets responded to attacks on shipping and threats that Iran could further disrupt passage through the strait, a key chokepoint for tankers carrying crude and liquefied natural gas. That reporting also noted parallel spikes in gold and other “safe haven” assets as investors sought refuge from market volatility. …
The AP also noted natural gas markets have also felt pressure. Prices for liquefied natural gas spiked after QatarEnergy halted production at a major facility following what officials described as military attacks on the site. Subitha Subramaniam, chief economist at Sarasin & Partners, told the BBC that if oil prices remain elevated for a sustained period, the effects could spread beyond energy markets, adding to inflationary pressures. “It will start to cascade into other prices such as food, agriculture, industrial commodities and that’s just going to really bleed into inflation,” Subramaniam said.
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Inside Climate News – March 2, 2026
Dow Asks Texas to Legalize Plastic Pollution From Its Seadrift Complex
Two weeks ago, when Texas sued a massive Dow petrochemical plant over water pollution, state environmental regulators were already considering a novel proposal from the company that would effectively legalize discharges of plastic material from the 4,700–acre complex into waters feeding San Antonio Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. If approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, it could set a precedent for authorizing discharges of materials like polyethylene pellets and PVC powder from other plastics manufacturing facilities, legal experts said.
Dow and its subsidiary, Union Carbide Corporation, requested the tweak to its wastewater permit in a 320-page application filed Jan. 4—three weeks after a citizen group announced plans to sue the companies over unpermitted plastic pollution. The TCEQ posted the application for public comment in February.
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KEYT – March 2, 2026
On Friday, a state judge kept a legal injunction in place preventing Sable from restarting its pipeline. But while state judges are stopping sable for now… there are broader legal battles over whether federal agencies or California regulators have the ultimate authority. “Despite Trump’s attempt to federalize the pipelines and Sable’s reliance on the Trump administration, the injunction for now remains in place,” said Environmental Defense Center Attorney Jeremy Frankel.
At the end of 2024, the State Fire Marshal gave sable waivers to operate its pipeline. but the Environmental Defense Center challenged those waivers and won a legal injunction. “… And the injunction prevents Sable from restarting the pipelines until they have certain necessary approvals, which they don’t yet have,” said Frankel.”
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Daily Energy Insider – March 2, 2026
Energy Department to expand exports from Texas LNG facility
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed an export authorization last week for a 12 percent expansion in exports at Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi liquefied natural gas (LNG) Terminal in Texas. The authorization allows additional exports of up to 0.47 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of U.S. natural gas as LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement (non-FTA) countries. The exports will come from Trains 8 and 9 of the Corpus Christi Stage 3 Project, known as the Midscale Trains 8 & 9 Project.
Overall, the Corpus Christi LNG is now authorized to export a total of 4.45 Bcf/d. It is now the second largest LNG export project in the U.S. “In the last ten years, American innovation and President Trump’s leadership transformed the United States into the world’s largest exporter of LNG,” Wright said. “This order helps further strengthen America’s LNG export capacity, delivering peace abroad and prosperity for Americans at home. I could not be prouder to be here today in Corpus Christi, standing alongside the American workers responsible for unleashing American energy dominance.”
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – March 2, 2026
Persian Gulf tanker rates spike as Hormuz traffic drops on Iran conflict
Freight rates for Persian Gulf crude and product tankers have surged as transits through the Strait of Hormuz slumped amid US-Israeli strikes on Iran, with industry groups urging vessels to avoid the region or be vigilant. Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed the rate to carry a 270,000 metric ton cargo of crude from the Persian Gulf to China at $62.07/mt on March 2, up 35% from the previous assessment and up 461% from the start of the year. Platts assessed the rate to carry a 90,000 mt cargo of refined products from the Persian Gulf to UK/Continent at $68.89/mt, up 19% on the day and up 44% from the start of the year. The five-year averages for both assessments were $13.18/mt and $48.30/mt, respectively.
Tanker industry group Intertanko warned vessels to follow the advice of the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) and the EU naval operation in the area EUNAVFOR Aspides, and to avoid the area as much as possible until the situation is clear, in a March 1 advisory to its members, seen by Platts. “If possible, delay transits through the Strait of Hormuz until the situation is clearer,” Intertanko said.
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The Wall Street Journal – Mrch 2, 2026
The oil market has become used to quickly recovering from geopolitical threats. Could this time be different? Brent crude futures have jumped 8% to roughly $78 a barrel after the Iran conflict began over the weekend. There are two scenarios that could cause a more severe and lasting impact on pump prices. One is a prolonged disruption to the flow of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 million barrels a day of oil—or a fifth of global oil production—transits. Second is serious damage to the region’s oil production or infrastructure, especially the kind that would disrupt spare capacity in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The worst-case scenario is one where Iran does serious damage to neighboring countries’ oil facilities, especially the export terminals that are difficult to repair and are within striking distance of Iran’s weapons systems, according to Clayton Seigle, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He estimates that this kind of damage could send oil prices higher than $130 a barrel, which was the peak after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Markets are used to quickly getting over geopolitical threats because the worst-case scenarios haven’t played out in recent history. The Strait of Hormuz hasn’t been disrupted in a serious way since the 1980s. Attacks on the region’s oil infrastructure—including two separate hits on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure in 2019—have failed to do much damage. “We’ve had seven years of ‘boy who cried wolf’ ” since Iran-allied Houthis attacked Abqaiq, a key Saudi oil-processing facility, said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 2, 2026
Iran Strikes Risk a Trump Priority: Low Gasoline Prices*
President Trump took the stage Friday against a backdrop of crude storage tanks at the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas and touted low fuel prices to a small crowd of supporters. “Slashing energy costs is among the most important actions we can take to bring down prices for American consumers,” he said.
Just a few hours later, the U.S. and Israel launched overnight strikes against Iran that risk sparking a wide conflict in a region that churns out about one-third of global crude—potentially snarling Trump’s stated goal to make life more affordable for U.S. consumers. Already, shipping is grinding to a halt in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane that connects the Persian Gulf to energy markets, and the U.S.-Israel offensive is raising the specter of a full closure. A regional conflagration could affect oil-field infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and other locations.
Benchmark U.S. oil futures climbed more than 7% to around $72 a barrel when trading resumed Sunday evening. Barclays analyst Amarpreet Singh said in a note to clients that the attacks could send global oil prices surging to $100 a barrel, a level not breached since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
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Dallas Morning News – March 2, 2026
What’s at stake for oil markets as Trump strikes Iran*
President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran creates new risks for a significant chunk of the world’s oil supply. The Islamic Republic itself pumps about 3.3 million barrels a day, or 3% of global output, making it the fourth-largest producer in OPEC. But the nation wields far greater influence over the world’s energy supplies because of its strategic location. … Iran’s main refinery, built at Abadan in 1912, can process more than 500,000 barrels a day. Other key plants include the Bandar Abbas and Persian Gulf Star refineries, which handle crude and condensate, a type of ultra-light oil that’s abundant in Iran. The country’s capital Tehran has its own refinery.
For Iran’s overseas shipments, the Kharg Island terminal in the northern Persian Gulf is the main logistical hub. There was an explosion in the island Saturday, according to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency, which didn’t provide more details or make any reference to the oil terminal. Kharg Island has numerous loading berths, jetties, remote mooring points and tens of millions of barrels of crude storage capacity. The facilities have handled export volumes exceeding 2 million barrels a day in recent years. US sanctions discourage most potential buyers of Iran’s crude, but private Chinese refiners have remained willing customers, provided they get steep discounts. Tehran relies for its international shipments on a fleet of aging tankers that mostly sail with their transponders deactivated to avoid detection.
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Politico – March 2, 2026
US putting Venezuelan oil proceeds into Treasury account*
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Friday that the United States has created an account within the Treasury Department where it is depositing profits raised from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil. Wright’s statement to reporters in Texas is the first confirmation that the Trump administration has followed through on plans to move the money it is making selling millions of barrels of Venezuelan crude oil out of a fund it initially set up in Qatar. Democrats have criticized the administration for what they have called the opacity around who controls the money and how it will be spent.
That account is in the name of the Venezuelan national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, Wright said. He said his office has hired third-party auditors to track the flow of profits from the sale of Venezuelan crude. “The first flow went through Qatar. We already have an account in the U.S. Treasury,” Wright told reporters while at an event held at a Corpus Christi LNG facility. “All the funds now flow through an account, not into the ownership of the U.S. Treasury, just in an account, in the name of the Venezuelan national oil company PdVSA.”
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Reuters – March 2, 2026
South Bow plan to revive parts of Keystone XL needs Trump approval, US oil pipeline links*
A proposal led by Canadian company South Bow to revive parts of the cancelled Keystone XL oil pipeline could increase Canada’s crude exports to the U.S. by more than 12%, if it gets a green light from U.S. President Donald Trump and additional links to U.S. refining hubs are built. The new proposal involves a different route through the U.S. than the previous Keystone XL pipeline project cancelled by former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2021 after years of Indigenous and environmental opposition.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
BIC Magazine – March 2, 2026
Grid Wars: Data centers challenge the Gulf Coast’s industrial power backbone
Meta’s $10 billion data center in Richland Parish, officially known as Project Hyperion, broke ground in December 2024 on the 2,250-acre Franklin Farm mega site near Holly Ridge, Louisiana. As of early 2026, the project has entered a high-intensity vertical construction and infrastructure build-out phase, with nearly 4,000 workers erecting structural steel and installing the complex utility systems required to power and cool the campus.
Designed as a 4-million-square-foot complex, the facility will be the largest in Meta’s global fleet and a primary hub for training next-generation AI models. To meet an immense power demand projected to reach 2 GW initially and potentially scale to 5 GW in the years ahead, Meta has partnered with Entergy Louisiana. The collaboration includes three new natural gas power plants and a $1.2 billion transmission expansion, alongside Meta’s commitment to match its electricity use with at least 1,500 MW of new renewable energy.
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KXAN – March 2, 2026
Tesla Prices Climb as the Rest of the EV Market Falls
Tesla is resisting an electric vehicle trend, with prices for all four of its models rising in the used car market even as they fall for nearly every other used EV. Just four months after the loss of the electric vehicle credit on September 30, 2025, used Tesla prices are up 4.3% while the rest of the used EV market has fallen 3.6%. New electric vehicles prices (excluding Tesla) have similarly dropped 2.3% overall, with a dramatic drop on higher-volume, lower-cost models.
iSeeCars analyzed the list prices of over 1.7 million 1- to 5-year-old used cars and over 4 million new cars sold in September 2025 and January 2026 to identify pricing trends since the EV credit ended last year (Tesla data for new cars is not publicly available, so it was not included in the new car analysis).
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Yahoo! News – February 28, 2026
Sempra Energy Q4 Earnings Call Highlights
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Sempra reported record adjusted EPS of $4.69 for 2025 (at the high end of guidance) and issued updated targets of $4.80–$5.30 for 2026, $5.10–$5.70 for 2027 and a $6.70–$7.50 outlook for 2030.
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The company unveiled a $65 billion capital plan for 2026–2030 (≈95% utility-focused) led by Sempra Texas/Oncor transmission, projecting rate base growth from $57 billion in 2025 to $97 billion by 2030 and saying operating cash flow plus transaction proceeds should eliminate the need for new common equity for the base plan.
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Sempra expects to close the sale of a 45% stake in SI Partners for $10 billion (implying >$22 billion equity value) in Q2–Q3 2026 while retaining a 25% residual stake (~$5.5 billion implied); management said the proceeds are central to strengthening the balance sheet, could enable deconsolidation of SI Partners debt, and would shift the business to roughly 95% regulated earnings after closing.
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Politico – March 2, 2026
North Texas county explores data center moratorium*
As data centers pop up around Texas, a rural county has asked the state attorney general to clarify how much authority local officials have to control their construction. Hood County commissioners have held two votes on imposing a moratorium on data center construction, responding to pressure from residents but turning it down both times. Local officials said they aren’t sure such a ban would be legal, while the developer at the center of the debate said the site is designed to minimize the effects on the surrounding area.
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The Wall Street Journal – March 2, 2026
Coal Power’s Comeback Isn’t Spurring New Investment*
Coal-fired power generation is having something of a moment. It isn’t clear just how long it will last. President Trump is trying to throw a lifeline to coal, the once-dominant fuel source for the U.S. power grid that has been in steep decline for more than 15 years. His efforts, combined with the boom in construction of power-hungry artificial-intelligence data centers, could keep coal plants that were once slated for retirement operating years longer than expected.
The Trump administration has ordered an expansion of coal mining, leasing and exports, while requiring a handful of power plants to continue operating past their expected retirement dates. Trump touted coal on the campaign trail and included it in his day-one executive order declaring an energy emergency. An electricity capacity crunch has emerged as new artificial-intelligence data centers strain power supplies.
“I don’t use the word coal,” Trump said at a White House event this month. “It needs a PR job because it had a bad reputation for a while. It has to be preceded by ‘beautiful, clean’ coal. We’re cleaning it up.” Extreme weather and gas price spikes have created recent openings for coal. Coal generation increased about 13% in 2025 from the previous year as higher natural gas costs made coal more competitive, according to the Energy Information Administration. In January, coal generation soared again as a winter storm brought freezing temperatures to much of the country and natural-gas prices rose. The National Mining Association has pointed to those events and said access to coal-fired generation has helped keep the lights on and prevent greater spikes in customer bills.
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Politico – March 2, 2026
Coal is booming. Here’s what it means for climate pollution.*
Falling coal consumption has led to lower U.S. climate pollution over the last two decades. Those days could be over, at least for now. Last year, carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants increased 4 percent, according to a review of EPA data, as coal generation surged during President Donald Trump’s first year back in office. It marks the third-largest annual increase in power sector emissions over the last 20 years — and could foreshadow a future in which climate pollution is increasingly intractable.
While most of the recent jump in coal generation is owed to seasonal factors, like a cold winter and higher natural gas prices, efforts by utilities and the Trump administration to delay or prevent plant closures could buoy coal generation. It comes after years of falling coal use has accounted for the vast majority of U.S. emissions reductions since 2005.
Regulatory
North Dakota Monitor – March 2, 2026
‘A hell of a lot of royalties’: Supreme Court ruling likely to trigger litigation for oil companies
A recent North Dakota Supreme Court decision could have ripple effects for thousands of oil wells, the mineral owners who receive royalties from them and the oil industry in the state as a whole. The decision voided one order, issued by the board responsible for oil and gas regulation in North Dakota, on who should receive royalties from a particular well in McKenzie County.
Yet the outcome in the case could have implications for mineral owners who receive royalties from a growing category of oil wells in North Dakota. The attorney who initiated the lawsuit sees the court’s decision as an unambiguous victory for mineral owners he alleges are being underpaid by oil companies.