Policy & Regulation
Trump accuses big oil firms of price-gouging drivers
US President Donald Trump has said he has ordered an investigation into major energy companies, accusing them of "gouging" drivers by not cutting fuel prices after wholesale oil costs fell on global markets.
Speaking to reporters in the White House on Wednesday, Trump said "gasoline prices should be much lower at the pump" as he named Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP.
His remarks come after wholesale oil prices fell from peaks reached during the US-Israel war with Iran and are now close to levels seen before the conflict started.
The American Petroleum Institute (API), which represents the oil and gas industry in the US, said fuel prices "don't move in lockstep with crude oil".
Starmer exit opens door for potential UK oil and gas policy shift
The UK could be set for an energy policy shift after Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation, with the oil and gas industry hoping his departure will open the North Sea to more drilling and lead to approvals for key hydrocarbon projects.
Technology & Operations
USGS uncovers previously undiscovered oil and gas in Texas
A new federal assessment suggests the formation isn't tapped out yet.
Geopolitics
Rubio says U.S. won’t do anything that would undermine Gulf security
“We’re going to be completely aligned with our partners in the Gulf,” Rubio told reporters in Kuwait City before departing for Bahrain. “That’s why I’ve taken these trips now, and it’s the reason why I’m here.”
“We’re not going to do anything that undermines the security of our allies, our longstanding allies in the region,” Rubio said.
The top U.S. diplomat is on a tour of three Gulf countries, seeking to reassure Gulf allies who view a proposed Iran peace deal as too soft on a regional power that attacked them in the war.
Innovation
America’s second oil boom
For more than a century, the U.S. oil industry has focused on finding new resources. From the giant conventional fields of Texas and California to the shale revolution that transformed North Dakota, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, success has largely been measured by what operators could discover and develop.
But even after decades of production, enormous volumes of oil remain underground.
Traditional production methods often recover only 10% to 40% of the oil originally in place. The remaining hydrocarbons stay trapped within reservoir rock, technically discovered but economically unreachable using conventional techniques.
That is where Enhanced Oil Recovery, or EOR, enters the picture.
BLM oil and gas lease sale in Utah generates nearly $14.8 million in revenue
The Bureau of Land Management leased 39 parcels totaling 54,114 acres in Utah for $14,757,534 in total receipts during a quarterly oil and gas lease sale. Combined lease bonus bids and rentals are distributed between the federal government and the state where the parcels are located.
This lease sale was conducted under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which resets the royalty rate for new federal onshore oil and gas production to a minimum of 12.5%, reversing the 16.67% rate set by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Exploration
Oil and Natural Gas Executives Optimistic on Waha, Fed Up With Iran War
A majority of Permian Basin exploration and production executives expect natural gas takeaway constraints out of the play to be fully resolved by next year, according to the latest quarterly energy survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Drilling
Oil and gas drilling set to restart in California
The federal government has cleared the path for oil and gas drilling to resume in California for the first time in nearly four years.
In a release sent out Tuesday by the Bureau of Land Management, the agency said it will resume leasing federal land for oil and gas development in portions of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties. It will also resume drilling at seven sites in Kern County.