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United Steelworkers is asking workers at BP's 440,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Whiting, Indiana, to prepare for a strike or lockout, the union said on Thursday after weeks of negotiations with the British oil major that did not yield results. The comments come after 98% of members at the refinery voted to authorize a strike. The local USW union represents around 800 workers at Whiting, the largest refinery in the U.S. Midwest. “We have heard from many of our members who are ready to [Read more]

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has departed for the Omani capital Muscat at the head of a diplomatic delegation for nuclear talks with the U.S. due to be held on Friday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson said. The U.S. and Iran have agreed to hold talks in Oman on Friday, officials for both sides said, even as they remain at odds over Washington's insistence that negotiations must include Tehran's missile arsenal and Iran's vow to discuss only its nuclear programme. Iran [Read more]

Phillips 66 is set to lay off 277 employees as operations at the 139,000-barrel-per-day Los Angeles-area refinery wind down ahead of closure, filings to California's employment regulator show. The Houston-based refiner will terminate 122 employees at the Los Angeles-area refinery in April, a notice filed with the regulator on Monday showed. In a separate notice filed last month, the company said it will lay off 155 employees at the refinery. Phillips 66 confirmed the WARN notices are in [Read more]

The Trump administration on Thursday said it would hold a sale of oil and gas drilling rights across 5.5 million acres of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve on March 9. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The sale is the first of at least five mandated by President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he signed into law last year. The U.S. has not offered tracts in the Alaska reserve, which is known as the NPR-A, since 2019. KEY QUOTE "The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska plays a [Read more]