A diesel export ban is the kind of policy that polls well and trades poorly. With the AAA national average at about $6.53 a gallon as of September 22, 2026 — a record — and California well above $8, the political impulse is obvious: keep more barrels at home. That impulse misunderstands how U.S. refining […]
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Energy News Beat — President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping meet in Washington on Thursday, September 24. The agenda is broader than energy. For the U.S. LNG industry, the meeting is still one of the most important political events of the year. China is the world’s largest LNG importer. The United States is the […]
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The United States is not short of crude oil. It is short of spare refining capacity, spare distillate inventory, and spare time. Diesel is the pressure point. National retail diesel is printing all-time highs near $6.40 a gallon. California is above $8.30. Midwest pump prices are breaking state records after ExxonMobil’s Joliet refinery in Illinois […]
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The MOU is not a final development contract. Continental and PDVSA said they intend to convert it into a long-term Contrato de Participación Productiva (CPP) in the coming weeks. Once that agreement is signed, Continental would operate the block with a 100% working interest. The announcement was made in Houston during the G20 energy ministers […]
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American oil executives have spent months warning that a prolonged disruption of the Strait of Hormuz would eventually produce a fuel crisis rather than a simple crude shortage. They now say that moment has arrived. Commercial inventories of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel have been drawn down for more than six months. Strategic crude reserves […]
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The latest WellDatabase U.S. Rig Report dated September 11, 2026, shows 598 active rigs, down 32 week-over-week but up 22 year-over-year. Baker Hughes, which released the same day, reported 591 rigs, up 3 from 588 the prior week and up about 52–54 from 537 a year earlier. Enverus’ daily GPS-tracked count stood near 661 as […]
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The U.S. government receives a 35% equity stake in NABEP’s corporate parent via the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital, a guaranteed right to buy 20% of offtake at production cost, and a right of first refusal on the remaining 80%. U.S. governance rights include veto power over board appointments, a requirement that a […]
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President Donald Trump is scheduled to sit down Tuesday afternoon, September 1, with executives from at least 10 U.S. fuel makers and distributors. The agenda is straightforward and politically urgent: persistently high gasoline and diesel prices, what the industry can do about them, and how to expand domestic refining capacity. We hope he looks for […]
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President Trump’s administration is in advanced talks with Venezuela’s interim government for what officials describe as a “massive” energy deal: a U.S. ownership stake or long-term lease covering 17 of the country’s most promising oil and gas fields holding about 90 billion barrels of proven reserves. That is nearly a third of Venezuela’s world-leading 300 […]
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Iraq is pushing aggressively to more than double its oil production capacity, targeting 8–10 million barrels per day (bpd) within six years—up from roughly 4 million bpd before the recent Iran-related regional conflict disrupted Strait of Hormuz shipping. On August 21, 2026, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced the goal at the Baghdad Dialog conference and […]
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