Oil surpassed $80 a barrel for the first time since August as US inventories tightened and fresh sanctions on Russia began to affect crude flows. Buyers of Russian oil are increasingly turning to other suppliers, with nations including India saying they would bar sanctioned tankers, following the most aggressive sanctions yet by the US. In China, companies have been snapping up cargoes from the Middle East and elsewhere in preparation for disruption. Freight costs have surged, and US physical pricing patterns have also shifted. That has added momentum to crude’s already strong start to the year. US oil inventories have dropped for eight straight weeks to the lowest since April, countering widespread expectations for a significant global surplus. Still, the rally will probably be capped at $81 a barrel, according to Dennis Kissler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial Securities. Futures are already hovering in overbought territory on the 14-day relative strength index. Gasoline futures also rallied to the highest since August after Colonial Pipeline Co. shut one of the largest US fuel lines following a potential leak in Georgia. The company’s Line 1 transports 1.5 million barrels of gasoline a day between Houston, Texas, and Greensboro, North Carolina, and is expected to remain shut through Friday. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency on Wednesday revised its outlook and now expects a smaller surplus in global oil markets, with inventories set to grow by 725,000 barrels a day versus the more than 1 million barrels a day estimated previously. Now, traders are weighing the implications of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term in the White House. These include the possibility of tighter curbs on Iranian exports, potential tariffs that could ensnare Canadian oil, as well as moves to encourage domestic production. Elsewhere, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire

Civitas Resources Inc. is exploring a sale of part or all of its assets in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, which could be valued at more than $4 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. The shale oil producer is working with a financial adviser to gauge buyer interest in the assets, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.  Civitas would be open to divesting fully from the basin in Colorado if it receives a sufficiently attractive offer, the people said. The DJ Basin assets produce roughly 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.  Shares in Civitas were up about 0.9% at 9:43 a.m. in New York, giving the company a market value of $5.2 billion. Deliberations are ongoing and Civitas could decide not to proceed with a transaction, the people said. A representative for Denver-based Civitas declined to comment. A sale of some or all of its assets in DJ Basin would free up cash that Civitas could use for acquisitions and to help pare its debt, which, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, stands at about $4.8 billion. Chevron Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. are among the producers in the DJ Basin, which is harder to operate than most other US basins because of Colorado’s regulatory requirements.  Civitas also controls a sizable business in the Permian Basin, the most productive and profitable oil basin in the US. That’s thanks in large part to its $4.7 billion acquisition of assets from companies controlled by NGP Energy Capital Management in 2022. Midsize shale producers have stepped up efforts to reshape their portfolios as they fight for survival in a fast consolidating industry. Ovintiv Inc. signed a pair of deals in November to exit the Uinta Basin and bolster its activities in Canada. Also that month, Coterra Energy

Listen to the article 19 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. The roads in and out of Delta, Utah, are dotted with ghost towns. The oldest date back to the Pony Express. The majority saw their heyday during the gold rush; now they mostly consist of stone markers and the occasional remnants of an old cabin. And like many of the towns that remain in Utah’s West Desert, Delta has faced the very real possibility that it, too, could be relegated to the dustbin of history sooner rather than later. Town mayor John Niles recalls having conversations with his city council about the possibility that they could face an exodus of residents or even a foreclosure crisis when the Intermountain Power Agency announced in 2017 that it planned to close by 2025 the 1.9 GW coal-fired power plant that accounts for roughly half the town’s total GDP. In a town of just 3,800 residents, these weren’t anonymous citizens who stood to lose their homes. Niles himself worried that his two sons, who both work at the IPP coal plant just as he did before he ran for city council, would be forced to move away to find work. Instead, the town today is experiencing something of a housing shortage. Faced with the possibility of losing its largest customer — the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power — if it continued to burn coal, the Intermountain Power Agency decided to replace the coal plant with a pair of gas-fired turbines with a combined capacity of 840 MW designed to run on 100% green hydrogen by 2045. “California got 40 years of good, reliable baseload electricity. The Utahns have got jobs, tax revenue and this sweetheart deal that gives them a front row seat at

UK energy secretary Ed Miliband says the government will soon launch a consultation with industry on Labour’s North Sea oil and gas licensing policy. The government is also aiming to launch a prototype of the long-delayed offshore skills passport before the end of January, he said. Appearing before a Westminster committee hearing today, Miliband said the offshore industry and government share “common ground” on the future role of oil and gas. He also said the UK has a “heaven sent” opportunity to lead in carbon capture and storage (CCS) and said North Sea workers “will decarbonise Britain”. Miliband said the Labour government is focused on delivering its clean power by 2030 target, aiming to “plan and build, not neglect and delay”. He added that the British public “doesn’t want a culture war on climate”, in reference to a rising net zero scepticism amongst the Conservative and Reform UK parties. North Sea licensing and just transition Prior to the 2024 general election, Labour pledged in its manifesto to deliver “phased and responsible” transition in the North Sea. As part of this, Labour said it will not revoke existing North Sea licences and will work with operators to “manage our existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan”. The party pledged not to issue exploration licences for “new fields”, and said it will manage North Sea production “in a way that does not jeopardise jobs”. Since taking office, Labour increased the windfall tax on oil and gas firms and removed associated investment allowances, but has stopped short of banning new North Sea drilling. © Andrew Milligan/PA WireFile photo dated 15/02/16 of an oil platform standing amongst other rigs that have been left in the Cromarty Firth near Invergordon in the Highlands of Scotland. Miliband told the committee that the Department for Energy

EDF Group’s chief executive Luc Rémont has hit back at the national French auditor’s claims that the energy company should delay its investment in UK nuclear power project Sizewell C. He said the regulated asset base (RAB) model for financing the Suffolk nuclear power station, where the cost of development is shared with the consumer, should not be correlated with the refinancing of the Hinkley Point C project in Somerset. The French state-owned energy company has started a search for financiers to help refinance the delayed project at Hinkley Point C, following the French state auditor’s findings yesterday, according to Rémont. In October, the energy company issued £500m of senior bonds to help finance investments in two nuclear reactors at the site. Rémont said that the funding model for the Sizewell C nuclear power project on the Suffolk coast “limits” EDF’s capital exposure. “This [regulated asset base] model therefore limits EDF’s exposure to its capital and allows decision-making on the FID of the Sizewell C project to be decorrelated from the refinancing issues of the HPC [Hinkley Point C] project,” he said in a response to the auditor’s report. “For the latter, EDF has initiated an active search for financiers.” © Supplied by EEEGR / EDFAerial view of Sizewell C plans. By contrast to the Sizewell C RAB method of financing, Hinkley Point is financed through a contract-for-difference (CfD) scheme. The project secured a fixed price of power through the CfD mechanism guaranteed for 35 years in 2016. Hinkley Point C is majority-owned by EDF, which reported efficiency improvements of about 30% between the first and second reactor units at the Somerset site. French auditor Cour des Comptes concluded in a report released yesterday that state nuclear power company EDF should delay a final investment decision for the Sizewell nuclear

Picture a postwar industrial building in a West Sussex town, between London and Brighton. It was 2013, the Conservative coalition government led by David Cameron asked colleagues to get rid of the ‘green crap’, three years after pledging to be the ‘greenest’ government ever. When chief executive Phil Caldwell joined Ceres Power (LON:CWR) that year, it was a £35 million-market cap company listed on the smaller AIM subsection of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Nearly two decades later, and the Horsham-based fuel cell company on Foundry Lane was admitted to the main market of the London Stock Exchange in June 2023. It made the index of top 250 mid-cap companies for six months before being nudged out, then readmitted in September 2024, holding its spot until last month. It is now nearly ten times larger than when it first listed, with a market capitalisation of £320.8m. Ceres was one of the first cleantech companies to achieve the prestigious FTSE 250 index. It remains one of four purely alternative energy companies on the LSE main market, excluding trusts. Today, it specialises in licensing electrolysers for green hydrogen power projects, which convert renewable electricity into the low-carbon gas. “Green hydrogen is zero carbon at production,” Caldwell said in an interview. “If you’re combusting hydrogen, the only byproduct’s water.” © Supplied by CeresCeres chief executive Phil Caldwell. Caldwell said Ceres is projecting revenue this year of between £50m and £60m; its market has grown ten-fold in 12 years. In 2021, it raised over £180m, “at a time where public markets were working really well” to plough into electrolysers. “We’ve grown a lot,” he said. “We originally focused on the fuel-cell side, which is where you take in hydrogen or natural gas, and convert that into electrons for power generation. In 2019, we started