Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump are crafting a wide-ranging sanctions strategy to facilitate a Russia-Ukraine diplomatic accord in the coming months while at the same time squeezing Iran and Venezuela, people familiar with the matter said. The outgoing Biden administration on Friday imposed the most disruptive sanctions on Russia’s oil trade by any Western power to date. The move created an open question about how Trump views the measures, given his commitment to quickly ending the war in Ukraine. There are two main approaches under consideration by the Trump team. One set of policy recommendations — if the incoming administration believes a resolution to the Ukraine war is in sight — involves some good-faith measures to benefit sanctioned Russian oil producers that could help seal a peace deal, said the people, requesting anonymity as the deliberations are private. A second option would build on the sanctions, ramping up pressure even further to increase leverage, they said.  The approach that Trump ultimately chooses is pivotal to the global oil market. Brent futures have gained almost $5 a barrel since Biden’s measures were announced. Some analysts anticipate further gains, something that would drive up fuel costs around the world. The Trump team’s plans are in the early stages and ultimately depend on the president-elect himself, the people said. Last week, Trump said a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was being set up, raising the prospect of potential near-term negotiations to end the war. The strategy discussions include some of Trump’s cabinet nominees as well as former sanctions officials in his first administration, the people said. Several conservative-leaning think tanks are also being sounded out. The transition team has yet to announce Trump’s picks for some key roles involved in economic statecraft. Among the lingering questions are whether Brad Smith and Andrea Gacki, two US Treasury Department

Oil retreated from a five-month high as the market adjusts to new sanctions on Russian crude and digested mixed signals from President-elect Donald Trump on his intent to uphold the measures. West Texas Intermediate slid 1.7% to settle below $79 a barrel after hitting the highest since July on Wednesday. Saudi Aramco has received inquiries from Indian and Chinese buyers for as much as 750,000 barrels a day of extra crude to make up for any shortfalls caused by the Russian sanctions. Meanwhile, the amount of oil stranded off the Chinese coast has swelled as traders and shippers try to avoid being caught in the curbs. Traders are parsing mixed signals on how the incoming Trump administration will approach Russian sanctions. Scott Bessent, Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee, said he would support sanctioning Russian oil majors. Earlier, Trump’s advisers were reported to be crafting a strategy that could benefit Russian oil producers and help end the war with Ukraine. Market participants are also using the four-day stretch ahead of Trump’s inauguration to shuffle positions in preparation for potential tariffs on Canadian oil and moves to encourage domestic production. “Crude may take a pause to consolidate its recent gains as the market looks ahead to Monday,” said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. Biden’s last-minute sanctions “have shifted the landscape for Trump’s first day in office, potentially requiring adjustments to his strategy.” Futures also may be experiencing a corrective phase after spending days in overbought territory on the relative strength index. Still, West Texas Intermediate has rallied about 10% to start the year as cold weather bolsters demand for heating fuels and threatens North American output. In the US, inventories fell for the eighth straight week to hit the lowest since April 2022. Crude’s gain on Wednesday came

A blast of extreme cold is poised to descend on the central US this weekend before spreading to New York and the rest of the East Coast, testing power grids and threatening to break temperature records. Frigid conditions will sweep the Midwest and South, including Texas, starting on Saturday and then shift east early next week. The low in Dallas is poised to reach 21F (minus 6C) Monday night, while temperatures in Manhattan will drop near 10F late Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.  The cold will start in the northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains and “by Sunday spread all the way to the Gulf Coast and much of the eastern US,” said Marc Chenard, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. “There will be below-normal temperatures in Texas during the day on Saturday. Most of the state gets below freezing through Wednesday.” Bone—chilling weather across the densely populated areas of the central and eastern US will raise energy demand and could send utilities scrambling to meet the spike in consumption, since much of the South relies on electricity for heating. A winter storm four years ago killed more than 200 people and led to the collapse of Texas’ electric grid. Cold temperatures can also disrupt the production of oil and natural gas by causing water in wells and pipelines to freeze.  The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state grid, has an advisory in place for Jan. 19 through noon on Jan. 23 because temperatures are expected to stay below freezing. Power demand is forecast to reach about 78.5 gigawatts on the morning of Jan. 21, which would edge over the record set last January. Still, Ercot expects to have enough supply to meet soaring electricity usage.  PJM Interconnect, which manages the grid serving

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) decreased by 2.0 million barrels from the week ending January 3 to the week ending January 10, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. Crude oil stocks, excluding the SPR, stood at 412.7 million barrels on January 10, 414.6 million barrels on January 3, and 429.9 million barrels on January 12, 2024, the EIA report revealed. Crude oil in the SPR came in at 394.3 million barrels on January 10, 393.8 million barrels on January 3, and 355.6 million barrels on January 12, 2024, the report showed. The EIA report highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding. Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.625 billion barrels on January 10, the report revealed. This figure was down 2.9 million barrels week on week and up 6.6 million barrels year on year, the report outlined. “At 412.7 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in its report. “Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 5.9 million barrels from last week and are sightly below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories increased last week,” it added. “Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.1 million barrels last week and are about four percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 4.7 million barrels from last week and are seven percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued. U.S. crude

Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday announced conditional loan commitments for eight utilities totaling almost $23 billion. If finalized, the loans would support investments in transmission, energy storage, grid modernization, gas pipelines and more. “Projects planned by the utilities announced today will add much-needed transmission capacity by building new transmission lines, reconductoring existing lines, and implementing grid-enhancing technologies that will get more out of existing grid,” DOE said. Additional investments include substation upgrades, virtual power plants and “strategically placed energy storage … New generation from wind, solar, and hydropower are planned at gigawatt scale,” DOE said. And along with investments in the power grid, the conditional loans would support replacing over 3,000 miles of “leaky natural gas distribution and main lines.” The loan guarantees would be provided through the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment program, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, and go to utilities serving almost 15 million customers across 12 states. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Energy. The largest award would go to DTE Electric, which could receive up to $7.17 billion in loan guarantees to help finance generation and battery storage in Michigan. Sister utility DTE Gas could receive up to $1.64 billion in loan guarantees to update large natural gas pipes and service distribution lines and to move metering infrastructure outdoors. Consumers Energy, a subsidiary of CMS Energy, could receive a $5.23 billion loan guarantee for investments through 2031 in solar generation, wind generation, battery storage, virtual power plant projects and the replacement of legacy natural gas pipelines. “If finalized, the loan guarantee will enable Consumers Energy to invest in reliability and energy security while significantly lowering costs for its customers,” DOE said. PacifiCorp could receive a $3.5 billion loan guarantee

Listen to the article 13 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. President-elect Donald Trump, set to be sworn in on Monday, is returning to the White House amid surging electricity demand, partly driven by planned data centers, new manufacturing facilities and electrification of the building and transportation sectors. That reality — starkly different from the flat demand growth during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021 — will drive the incoming administration’s power-related policies, according to experts. At the same time, there are more barriers to new power supply than probably during any previous era, such as state policies that make it hard to build infrastructure, according to Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the R Street Institute, a market-oriented think tank. “You just cannot reconcile massive barriers to new supply with growing demand, and the situation that you inherit in the power sector is also the same set of conditions that constrain decarbonization,” he said. Hartman contends there is significant overlap between Republican priorities for lowering energy costs and boosting reliability with Democratic desires for developing clean energy. Those goals, for example, can all be facilitated by new transmission, he said. Trump moves quickly on nominations At least three agencies — the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the departments of Energy and Interior — will play major roles in the Trump administration’s efforts to spur new power supplies and slash energy costs. The Environmental Protection Agency will also have a role in those efforts. The incoming administration moved quickly with nominations to lead Energy, Interior and the EPA all announced in mid-November. The Senate is holding hearings this week on North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, R, Trump’s Interior secretary nominee and and prospective energy czar; former Rep. Lee Zeldin,