Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian announced the launch of the “Delivering Oil and Gas Efficiently (DOGE) Task Force” in a statement posted on the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) website recently. DOGE is described in the statement as “a new internal initiative focused on improving processes, enhancing communication, and strengthening the Railroad Commission of Texas as a responsive, pro-business agency”. The statement noted that the DOGE initiative “is not about cutting personnel – it’s about cutting delays, confusion, and outdated systems”. “The goal is to work alongside agency staff to identify what is working, what needs improving, and where small changes could lead to big wins for both the public and the regulated community,” the RRC statement said. The statement noted that the task force will conduct a top to bottom review of permitting, compliance, communication, and internal processes, with input from both internal teams and industry and public stakeholders. This includes “organizing in-person and virtual town halls”, “standing up a dedicated casework team”, “auditing outdated or duplicative rules”, and “exploring common sense reforms to hearing procedures”, the statement outlined. “As a lifelong conservative, I believe government works best when it’s limited, efficient, and accountable,” Christian said in the statement. “The DOGE Task Force is about making sure our agency runs smarter – not bigger – and that we continue to serve the people of Texas with excellence,” he added. “Texans deserve an agency that reflects the state’s can-do spirit … That means being open to change, listening to the people we serve, and making sure we’re spending time and resources on what really matters,” he continued. “This is about working better together, breaking down silos, and making sure our systems serve the mission, not the other way around,” Christian went on to state. In a separate statement posted on its site last

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted V.C. Summer Nuclear Station Unit 1 in Jenkinsville, South Carolina, a 20-year extension to operate through 2062. “V.C. Summer Nuclear Station has provided reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy for our customers in the Palmetto State for more than 40 years”, Dominion Energy chief nuclear officer Eric Carr said in an online statement Tuesday. “With steady population growth and economic development, South Carolina will continue to need a clean and reliable workhorse like V.C. Summer to power our customers’ homes and businesses around the clock well into the future”. The 966-megawatt plant powers customers of Dominion Energy and state-owned Santee Cooper. It can serve nearly 242,000 homes according to Dominion Energy. The facility is a three-loop Westinghouse pressurized water reactor operated with oversight from the NRC. V.C. Summer had been licensed to operate from 1982 to 2022. A renewal awarded 2004 extended its life for 20 years to 2042. The new extension secures operation through August 2062. “To ensure V.C. Summer’s longevity, Dominion Energy regularly performs maintenance and conducts upgrades at the station, including recently replacing the main transformer”, the Richmond, Virginia-based utility said. “Dominion Energy will continue to invest in V.C. Summer to ensure it operates at the highest levels of safety and performance for the life of the station”. Dominion Energy – which provides regulated electricity service to 3.6 million homes and businesses in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as regulated natural gas service to 500,000 customers in South Carolina – filed a letter of intention in December 2023 on the potential license extension of two other nuclear units. The expression of intent was for Units 2 and 3 of Millstone Power Station (MPS) in Waterford Connecticut, which Dominion Energy says can power 2 million homes. MPS2 and MPS3 hold renewed licenses

Idaho Power Co. has filed a new 20-year plan that favors cleaner electricity to meet surging demand in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. The 2026-45 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) would add about 2.15 gigawatts of renewables-sourced generation: 1,445 megawatts (MW) of solar and 700 MW of wind. The plan also eyes 885 MW of battery energy storage capacity, 611 MW of gas power via coal conversions, 550 MW from natural gas, 344 MW of energy efficiency and 20 MW of incremental demand response. The company expects its peak load to grow by around 1,700 MW over the 20 years, with nearly 1,000 MW in the next five years. “Continued customer growth is driving demand, and the average annual number of metered customers is expected to increase from the December 2024 level of nearly 648,000 to 867,000 in 2045”, the plan states. “Idaho Power’s IRP analysis has shown consistent need for transmission dating back to 2009 and the 2025 IRP again includes transmission as a cost-effective way to facilitate regional energy exchange and provide capacity and energy for Idaho Power customers”, Idaho Power says. The plan targets to start work on the 500-kilovolt (kV) Boardman-to-Hemingway transmission line, which would connect the Pacific Northwest and Idaho, in December 2027; the 500-kV Southwest Intertie Project North (SWIP-N) between Idaho and Nevada, with connectivity to the Las Vegas area, in 2028; and the 500-kV Midpoint-Hemingway #2 (Gateway West segment 8) line, in 2028 for phase 1 and in 2030 for phase 2. In other near-term goals, the plan seeks to convert Valmy units 1 and 2 from coal to gas power generation, install 125 MW of solar capacity under the company’s Clean Energy Your Way (CEYW) program and add 250 MW of storage through four-hour batteries under the company’s 2026 Request for Proposal (RFP)

A statement posted on the White House website on Tuesday said the Senate “delivered a resounding victory for American workers, farmers, and small businesses by passing President Donald J. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill”. The White House statement described the bill as “a transformative legislative package that locks in historic tax relief, delivers border security, reforms welfare, funds critical infrastructure, and more”. The statement linked to an X post by the “Official Rapid Response account of the Trump 47 White House” which noted that Vice President JD Vance “cast[ed]… the deciding vote as the Senate approve[d]… the One Big Beautiful Bill – moving it back to the House and one step closer to President Trump’s desk”. A summary of the bill on the Congress website, dated May 22, states that it “reduces taxes, reduces or increases spending for various federal programs, increases the statutory debt limit, and otherwise addresses agencies and programs throughout the federal government”. A tracker on the site showed that the bill had to pass the House and the Senate before going to the President and becoming law. In a statement sent to Rigzone late Tuesday, Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) President and CEO Jeff Eshelman said “President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill remains a win for American energy”. “The bill passed today improves the ability of independent oil and natural gas producers to supply reliable, affordable energy to the American people,” he noted. “IPAA is pleased that the legislation reinstates oil and natural gas lease sales for onshore and offshore federal lands and makes common sense reforms to the permitting and leasing process on federal lands. IPAA members, the small businesses of the oil patch, are grateful that industry tax treatments including intangible drilling costs and percentage depletion were protected, along with carried interest deductions being preserved,” he added. “While

Saudi Arabia led a surge in crude exports from stalwart oil-producing giants in the Middle East in June.  The flood may reflect a race by Riyadh – along with neighboring Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates – to expedite barrels out of the Persian Gulf while a conflict between Israel and Iran threatened the region’s shipping corridor. While the trio are entitled to raise crude production under an OPEC+ accord, their exports appear to have climbed even further. The three nations loaded 11.9 million barrels a day onto tankers in June, ship-tracking compiled by Bloomberg shows. Their collective seaborne exports were the highest since April 2023.  “Amid supply disruption concerns, Middle Eastern oil producers might have looked at additional storage locations around the world,” said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodity analyst UBS Group AG.  The boost from the three producers, who rank among the biggest and most reliable in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, signals the group and its partners are pressing on with plans to speed up the return of halted output – a strategy shift that has rattled crude traders and depressed prices, given faltering demand and an impending oversupply. The correlation between exports and production is patchy because countries load barrels from storage and can also ship them to storage. Likewise, the timing of a few large tanker shipments can have a big impact on flow rates. The bottom line, though is that the month-on-month gain from the trio – at 937,000 a day, their largest collective hike since September 2023 – means large amounts of extra supply are now en route toward buyer countries. Riyadh bolstered crude exports by 441,000 barrels a day, or about 7 percent, this month to 6.36 million a day, according to a preliminary analysis of tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Kuwait’s exports rose to the highest

Eni SpA’s chemical arm, Versalis SpA, has transferred its oilfield chemicals assets to a new company called Versalis Oilfield Solutions SRL in an expansion bid, Eni said Tuesday. “The operation aims to consolidate Versalis’ position in the oilfield services sector by bringing together key expertise and strategic activities in a single, focused and operationally efficient entity”, Italy’s state-controlled Eni said in an online statement. “Versalis’ oilfield operations encompass research and development of advanced chemical formulations, outsourcing their production and marketing solvents and additives designed for the oil drilling industry. Products are tailored to meet specific client requirements, while services include sales and after-sales support, ensuring continuous and qualified technical assistance”. Launched 2010, Eni’s oilfield chemicals business now operates in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, according to the company. Versalis Oilfield Solutions will expand “the scope of activities in terms of products and services, achieve higher revenue targets, and maintain strong profitability”, Eni said. Last year Eni finalized a plan to transform Versalis, which makes basic chemicals, chemical products including plastics and biochemical products such as biolubricants. With an investment of around EUR 2 billion ($2.36 billion), the plan “aims to reduce emissions by approximately 1 million tonnes of CO2, currently about 40 percent of Versalis’ emissions in Italy”, Eni said in a press release October 24, 2024. “It includes the set-up of new industrial plants consistent with the energy transition and decarbonization of industrial sites across sustainable chemistry, as well as biorefining and energy storage”, Eni added. “To enable the construction of the new plants, activity at the cracking plants in Brindisi and Priolo, and the polyethylene plant in Ragusa, will be phased out”. “Eni aims to significantly reduce Versalis’ exposure to basic chemicals, a sector that is facing structural and irreversible decline in Europe, and which has led