Oil rose as hawkish rhetoric by the European Union’s top diplomat raised expectations that sanctions on Russia will tighten.  West Texas Intermediate gained 1.4% to settle under $61 a barrel on Tuesday, pushing higher after the EU’s Kaja Kallas said that Moscow’s aggression against the bloc should be considered terrorism. The comments come against a background of surging diesel-market tightness, in which Russia is a significant player, with the difference between the two nearest ICE gasoil contracts surging Tuesday. Futures for the European benchmark rose by 4.5%. Adding to bullish sentiment, the price of Russia’s flagship crude plunged to the lowest in over two years, with just days to go before US sanctions take effect against giant producers Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC over Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine.  Other impacts are emerging. Major Asian buyers paused at least some purchases. And traders making physical deliveries of diesel under ICE Gasoil contracts will soon be banned from supplying barrels made with Russian crude in third countries, ICE said. Still, US benchmark futures are down this year as expectations for a glut weigh on the outlook, with the International Energy Agency forecasting a record surplus in 2026. The oversupply is being driven by the return of idled output from OPEC and its allies, as well as more supplies from outside of the group. But for now, the price of WTI is staying stubbornly above the $60 mark, according to Frank Monkam, head of macro trading at Buffalo Bayou Commodities. “It’s going to take a lot more than just a repeat of the same negative headlines to push the market below $60 a barrel unless we see a total unraveling of risk assets, particularly equities,” he said. “Absent of that, I think we’re still very vulnerable to an upside push here in

WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) closed a loan to lower energy costs and restart a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant. The $1 billion loan to Constellation Energy Generation, LLC (Constellation) will help finance the Crane Clean Energy Center, an 835 MW plant located on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania. Today’s announcement, funded by the Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) Program created under the Working Families Tax Cut, highlights the Energy Department’s role in advancing President Trump’s Executive Order, Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base, by supporting the restart of nuclear power plants. “Thanks to President Trump’s bold leadership and the Working Families Tax Cut, the United States is taking unprecedented steps to lower energy costs and bring about the next American nuclear renaissance,” said Energy Secretary Wright. “Constellation’s restart of a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania will provide affordable, reliable, and secure energy to Americans across the Mid-Atlantic region. It will also help ensure America has the energy it needs to grow its domestic manufacturing base and win the AI race.” This announcement marks the first project to receive a concurrent conditional commitment and financial close under the Trump Administration. The loan will partially finance the restart of a reactor which ceased operations in 2019 but was never fully decommissioned. Once restarted, pending U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing approvals, the 835 MW reactor will provide reliable and affordable baseload power to the PJM Interconnection region, powering the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes. The Crane Restart project will help lower electricity costs, strengthen grid reliability, create over 600 American jobs, and advance the Administration’s mission to lead in global AI innovation and restore domestic manufacturing industries. DOE remains committed to fulfilling this mission to maximize the speed and scale of

The cost of transporting liquefied natural gas across the Atlantic Ocean surged to the highest in almost two years, as expanding exports from North America boosted demand for tankers. The spot rate to hire an LNG vessel for delivery from the US to Europe jumped 19 percent to $98,250 per day on Monday, the highest since January 2024, according to Spark Commodities, which tracks shipping prices. Costs to hire a tanker in the Pacific Ocean also jumped 15 percent to the highest in over a year, the data show. This is a stark turnaround for the market, which had languished at rock-bottom prices for most of the year amid a glut of available ships. Output from North America has increased steadily as new projects ramp up, requiring more vessels to deliver the fuel to customers in Europe and Asia. The 30-day moving average for LNG exports from North America has climbed nearly 40 percent year-to-date, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.  Higher freight rates threaten to widen the spread between Asian and European gas prices, as it will be more expensive to send US shipments to the Pacific. A company booked a vessel for December in the Atlantic for about $100,000 per day, traders said. Likewise, when freight rates were lower, companies sent some vessels to Asia, further exacerbating a shortage of ships in the Atlantic, they added. Still, the surge in charter rates is likely to have peaked and has “limited potential to run much higher,” according to Han Wei, a BloombergNEF analyst. “On the LNG tanker supply side, we’ll continue to see strong new build deliveries, which should keep spot charter rates in check,” he said. What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the Rigzone Energy Network. The Rigzone Energy Network is a new social

Scott Corwin is president and CEO of the American Public Power Association. The United States faces a complex power challenge. The rise of data centers, the return of American manufacturing and the push to electrify vehicles and homes are all driving new demands on the nation’s electrical grid. Public power utilities, which are community-owned and not-for-profit providers, are prepared to meet these needs, serving nearly 55 million Americans in more than 2,000 communities across 49 states and several territories. However, these utilities are often slowed by an outdated, unpredictable federal permitting system. This is particularly challenging for new generation projects, as regulatory barriers and red tape can prolong timelines by years and raise costs by millions. In the end, these costs are borne by communities and leave families and businesses more vulnerable to supply disruptions or delayed improvements in reliability. Permitting reform is not about diminishing environmental protections. Instead, it is about removing unnecessary and duplicative regulatory hurdles that slow the construction of new generation resources and other needed energy infrastructure. The American Public Power Association supports pragmatic legislative efforts that streamline the permitting and siting process, provide clearer federal guidance, and produce timelier decisions. Reform must maintain strong environmental oversight but deliver outcomes that allow vital energy projects to proceed without unnecessary delay. When the permitting process is lengthy or unpredictable, the difficulty and expense of building new infrastructure grows. Customers are directly affected; they may see higher energy bills or even miss economic development opportunities because the process takes too long. Projects that meet environmental standards should move through federal review with clear milestones and prompt decisions. Federal policy must also ensure reviews are coordinated, not conducted in succession, so agencies work together with established schedules. Regulatory guidance should be consistent, even as administrations change, to enable local

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The CP2 LNG plant Venture Global Inc. is building out in Cameron Parish, La., will be able to supply 30 million tonnes/year (tpy) versus its currently permitted capacity of 28 million tpy, Mike Sabel, the company’s chief executive officer and executive co-chairman said Nov. 10. Speaking after Virginia-based Venture Global reported its third-quarter results as well as the signing of a 1-million tpy supply agreement with Spain’s Naturgy, Sabel said teams have been applying learnings from the company’s Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines plants. That includes from tens of thousands data points those plants are generating every minute. “We have a dedicated team of data scientists and process engineers and AI programmers that have been incorporating that data into our current operations, but also into design changes as we’ve learned some very surprising interactions of different parts of the facilities […] that we expect will carry over into CP2,” Sabel said. “We’ll have to go back and get the export authorization moved from 28 up to 30 but we think CP2 will be doing even better than Plaquemines, which is doing the best that any project has ever done.” As of Oct. 31, eight of the 26 planned liquefaction trains at CP2—which is forecast to cost a total of $29 billion—had been completed. Sabel said more than 3,500 construction workers are active at the site, which spans 700 acres. The Venture Global team this summer took final investment decision on the project and during the third quarter won final authorization from the US Department of Energy to export LNG to non-free trade agreement nations. During the 3 months that ended Sept. 30, Venture Global exported 100 LNG cargos, up from 89 in the spring and 31 in third-quarter 2024. That translated into net income of $429 million on more than $3.3 billion in