Oil sank as the outlook for the world’s largest economy darkened after a barrage of poor US data and tariff announcements, weighing on the prospects for energy demand growth. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.8% to settle near $67 a barrel on Friday, the biggest plunge in a single day since June 24. Prices also came under pressure as investors widely anticipate that OPEC and its allies will decide to add more supplies to the market during an upcoming weekend meeting. US jobs growth cooled sharply over the past three months, while factory activity contracted in July at the fastest clip in nine months, in a sign the economy is shifting into a lower gear amid widespread uncertainty. The swath of bearish data increased investor concerns that the impact of US President Donald Trump’s ever-changing tariff rates — which had so far been muted — has finally begun to weigh on economic growth. The weaker data come as Trump finalized plans for tariffs on several countries, including a higher rate on neighbor Canada, though oil is exempt. “Tariffs are now officially a part of daily life. With the catalyst in the rearview, focus must shift to the fallout,” said Daniel Ghali, a commodity strategist at TD Securities. Oil traders had been forced to the sidelines in recent weeks as numerous wild cards surrounding US trade policy and OPEC+ production confounded supply-and-demand outlooks. The unpredictable environment, which initially caused wild price swings earlier in the year, has dampened risk-on sentiment and sapped volatility from the market. The potential onset of an economic slowdown threatens to coincide with a period for oversupply widely expected for later this year. Second-quarter earnings for oil industry giants blew out expectations, with record oil production blunting the impact of lower crude prices. Exxon Mobil Corp. pumped

Dive Brief: Xcel Energy has emerged from court-ordered mediation without a settlement and will go to trial for its role in the 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado, company executives said during a Thursday earnings call. A 2023 investigation by the Boulder County Sheriff attributed the fire to the merging of two independent ignitions: kindling from an old fire on a property owned by the Twelve Tribes, a religious organization, and sparks from an Xcel Energy power line. President and CEO Bob Frenzel said the company believes it can prove its equipment did not start the fire. The company is already paying claims on another fire, the 2024 Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas panhandle, on which it faces an estimated $290 million in liability. Dive Insight: Xcel Energy remains open to settling with the more than 500 parties suing the utility for the Marshall Fire. But any settlement, Frenzel said Thursday, must “start with the idea that our equipment didn’t cause that second” ignition. Hearings are set to begin on Sept. 25 and will likely continue through November now that the July 31 deadline for court-ordered mediation has passed, Frenzel said. When the fire started, he said, the embers on the Twelve Tribes property were fanned by 100 miles per hour winds for over an hour and 20 minutes, allowing it to spread into nearby towns long before the second ignition at Xcel Energy’s power line is alleged to have taken place, he said. “As we step back and think about the trial broadly and the fire broadly, we continue to maintain that our equipment didn’t start the second ignition in the wildfire, and we’re prepared to go to court,” Frenzel said, later adding that “we feel very good about the facts and circumstances of our trial.” Insurance data suggest the

Dive Brief: PPL Electric Utilities has advanced-stage agreements to interconnect about 14 GW of data centers in its Pennsylvania service territory, up 32% from three months ago, Vincent Sorgi, president and CEO of PPL Corp., said Thursday during an earnings conference call. Under signed agreements, PPL Electric Utilities’ data center load could grow from 800 MW in 2026 to 14.4 GW in 2034, according to a second-quarter earnings presentation. PPL Electric Utilities has a 60-GW data center interconnection queue, according to Sorgi. PPL’s data center strategy includes an unregulated joint venture with Blackstone Infrastructure to build power plants in Pennsylvania to directly serve data centers. “The joint venture is actively engaged with hyperscalers, landowners, natural gas pipeline companies and turbine manufacturers and has secured multiple land parcels to enable this new generation buildout,” Sorgi said. Dive Insight: However, discussions on potential electricity service agreements aren’t far enough along for the joint venture to commit to buying turbines and it is unclear when it would be able to announce any news, according to Sorgi. “We’ve made no material financial commitments to date as it relates to the joint venture,” he said. PPL intends to make sure that the joint venture’s deals don’t change the company’s credit risk profile, Sorgi said. PPL supports pending legislation in Pennsylvania — H.B. 1272 and S.B. 897 — that would allow regulated utilities like PPL Electric Utilities to build and own generation to address a resource adequacy need, Sorgi said. The bills would also encourage utilities to enter into agreements with independent power producers to help “derisk” their new generation investments, according to Sorgi.  “We are primed to act quickly once this proposed legislation becomes law,” he said. PPL Electric Utilities estimates it will need about 7.5 GW of new generation in the next five to seven

India’s largest oil refiner has snapped up millions of barrels of crude from the US and United Arab Emirates, with the South Asian nation facing mounting pressure from Washington and Europe over its purchases from Russia. State-owned Indian Oil Corp. bought at least 5 million barrels US crude, on top of 2 million barrels of supplies from Abu Dhabi, according to traders who asked not to be identified as they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. The purchases were both large and for relatively immediate delivery by the company’s usual standards. State-owned processors were told to come up with plans for buying non-Russian crude earlier this week.  An Indian Oil spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment. India’s refiners have been in the spotlight over the past two weeks, after being singled out by the European Union and the US for supporting Moscow during its war in Ukraine by buying Russian oil. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil, and in a post earlier this week singled out India for criticism, saying that it would pay an additional economic penalty for its ongoing purchases.  “We are interpreting the increased buying activity from India as a sign of diversification away from Russian supply,” said Livia Gallarati, global crude lead at consultant Energy Aspects. “Physical players are unlikely to gamble on buying Russian barrels, especially at current high prices, even if skepticism remains over whether US President Donald Trump will follow through with these threats.” This week, IOC sought crude supplies in multiple back-to-back purchase tenders, which traders said was unusual for the company and pointed to relatively urgent demand for crude. Earlier in the week, it also purchased 4 million barrels of West African barrels, as well as the UAE’s Murban crude for delivery

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The leaders of Expand Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, have trimmed the 2025 capital spending forecast by $100 million after posting record drilling performance during the second quarter. The company, formed last October via the merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, is continuing with plans to build about 300 million cu ft equivalent/day (MMcfed) of potential capacity for 2026. Expand produced an average of just over 7.2 bcfed from its operations in the Haynesville basin as well southwest and northeast Appalachia, up from nearly 6.8 bcfed in the first three months of this year. President and chief executive officer Nick Dell’Osso and his team expect third-quarter production to also be around 7.2 bcfed, with Haynesville output growing about 2% and that from Appalachia ticking down. That production will use 11 rigs, down from the 12 executives had planned 3 months ago. Expand teams are expected to turn in line the same number of wells for the year as before—they added 59 to the company’s count during the second quarter, down from 89 in the year’s first quarter—but they’re doing so more efficiently: All three of the company’s regions drilled at least 20% more ft/day in the second quarter than early this year and set records. That rising efficiency is translating into the $100 million capex cut, which includes plans to set up Expand’s growth in 2026. Three months ago, executives expected they’d spend $300 million and end 2025 with 15 rigs to set up an additional 300 MMcfed of production next year. Those figures are now $275 million and 12 rigs—and Dell’Osso said recent gyrations in the price of natural gas won’t lead to major changes. “We’re just not bothered by the volatility that we’re seeing here this summer,” Dell’Osso said. “If you think about where we are in the