U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on Monday that a ban on U.S. oil or fuel exports would be unlikely to help lower energy prices for consumers amidst the Iran war. "We would consider an export ban if we thought that actually might lower prices, but that's not the case," Burgum told reporters at a G20 meeting on energy in Houston. Burgum, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said that bans on oil, gasoline or diesel exports could lead to retaliatory actions from other countries, [Read more]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced rules to repeal former President Joe Biden's limits on carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants and to prevent future climate-focused regulations of those facilities. The agency also proposed rescinding all remaining greenhouse gas emissions requirements for power plants to prevent future climate regulations targeting the power sector, saying the EPA does not have authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate the [Read more]

Stocks of crude oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to 285 million barrels last week, the lowest level since November 1982, according to data from the Department of Energy. The drawdowns are part of a U.S. agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility. (Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru Editing by Nick Zieminski) [Read more]

A chasm in pricing crude oil has emerged — barrels constrained by choke points are being offered at sometimes massive discounts while those that can move freely command generous premiums. The gap continues to widen as the Middle East conflict worsens, with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis making rapid advances to threaten complete control of the Bab el-Mandeb strait and Saudi Arabia shutting down its pipeline to the Red Sea after an attack reportedly launched from Iraq. That's spurred Brent [Read more]

The seven-day rolling average of covert oil shipments accompanied by the U.S. Navy through the Strait of Hormuz is rising and will continue to rise, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Monday. "The trend in that seven-day rolling average has been going up and will continue to go up," he told a press conference, adding that a peak of 17 million barrels in one day he cited on Sept. 1 was in fact higher: "There was one ship not counted. It turned [Read more]

Arab states in the Gulf called off a meeting with Iran planned for Monday, while Yemen's Houthis launched a new attack on Saudi Arabia after fighting that has extended the Middle East war to another theatre and further jeopardised global oil supplies. The Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen said they fired dozens of missiles and drones on Monday at a Saudi military airbase in Khamis Mushait, near the border, hitting aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots. They described the [Read more]