Oil fell to a fresh five-month low after US President Donald Trump said he’ll meet with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, raising expectations that Russian crude may soon flow freely. West Texas Intermediate fell 1.4% Thursday to settle near $57 a barrel, the lowest since May. Trump announced on social media that the US and Russia will hold high-level talks focused on ending the war next week, followed by a leaders’ summit in Budapest.  The prospect of a Russia-Ukraine truce comes amid mounting pressure on Moscow’s oil infrastructure. Russian exports of refined fuels have slumped to the lowest since the onset of the war, underscoring continued strain on the country’s refineries targeted by drone attacks. At the same time, Western nations are turning the screws on Russia’s energy sector in a bid to curb the flow of petrodollars to the Kremlin and limit Putin’s ability to finance the war. The UK recently slapped sanctions on Russia’s biggest oil producers, two Chinese energy firms and Indian refiner Nayara Energy Ltd. because of their handling of Russian fuel. The development took some air out of the earlier rally after India’s oil refiners said they expect to reduce — not stop — the purchase of Russian crude, a move that could squeeze global supply, following remarks by Trump that the South Asian nation would halt all buying. India, along with neighbor China, has made the most of discounted Russian supplies accessible under a Group of Seven price cap mechanism that was designed to keep oil flowing while limiting Moscow’s access to funds.  Crude has fallen this month as increased trade tensions between the US and China raised concerns about demand in the two biggest crude consumers, and as major trading houses said a long-anticipated oversupply is already starting to emerge.  “The softness in oil demand seen in early

Canadian oil exports to China are on pace for a record month amid a surge of purchases as the Asian giant pivots away from US crude. Almost 5 million barrels have been shipped out of Vancouver so far in October, a record for the first 15 days of any month, according to Vortexa ship tracking data.  Chinese buyers were recently stockpiling more than half a million barrels a day of foreign crude to take advantage of steep price discounts for Russian and Iranian oil amid growing US pressure to economically hobble those nations. More than 70% of oil-laden vessels departing the British Columbia port have sailed for China, according to the data. The remainder headed for the US West Coast, an area off Los Angeles where cargoes typically are offloaded to larger tankers for shipment elsewhere, or had no listed destination.  Asian demand has driven Canadian heavy crude to the strongest prices since July even as prices are normally near their weakest in the fourth quarter. Western Canadian Select in Alberta was trading at $10.20 less than US benchmark West Texas Intermediate as of Thursday, according to Modern Commodities prices. Canadian oil shipments to China are surging as the country shuns US crude amid an intensifying trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies. China recently imposed retaliatory port fees on US-linked vessels, increasing freight rates to haul American crude to Asia.  The three ports that receiving the most Canadian crude this month include Ningbo, Zhoushan and Zhanjiang, Vortexa data show. Zhoushan is where the 800,000 barrel a day Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical refinery, majority owned by Rongsheng Petrochemical, receives its crude. The plant has been the biggest Chinese buyer of Canadian oil since the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline to Vancouver went into operation last year. Earlier this year, the company hired

WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) closed a loan guarantee to strengthen grid reliability and ensure lower electricity costs across the midwestern region of the United States. In accordance with President Trump’s Executive Order, Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid, the $1.6 billion loan guarantee to a subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP) will reconductor and rebuild around 5,000 miles of transmission lines across Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The project will create over 1,000 construction jobs and enhance grid reliability and capacity in rapidly growing areas. “Thanks to President Trump and the Working Families Tax Cut, the Energy Department is ensuring the American people will have access to affordable, reliable and secure energy for decades to come,” said U.S. Secretary Wright. “The President has been clear: America must reverse course from the energy subtraction agenda of past administrations and strengthen our electrical grid. This loan guarantee will not only help modernize the grid and expand transmission capacity but will help position the United States to win the AI race and grow our manufacturing base.”The loan guarantee, which was carefully evaluated under the new LPO guidance directed by Secretary Wright, delivers on the Trump administration’s promise to responsibly steward taxpayer dollars and unleash American energy dominance. The AEP financial close is also the first closed loan guarantee under the Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) Program created by the Working Families Tax Cut, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. President Trump signed the legislation into law earlier this year. All electric utilities receiving an EDF loan must provide assurance to DOE that financial benefits from the financing will be passed on to the customers of that utility. DOE remains committed to

Torch Clean Energy is developing two 80 MW solar arrays in Cochise County, Arizona, and has selected Fluence Energy to deliver a 160 MW / 640 MWh battery system to support the renewables, the companies announced Wednesday. The project is an example of the clean energy buildout expected across the United States. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects domestic utility-scale battery storage to more than double over the next two years, to close out 2026 at nearly 65 GW. Torch’s project, dubbed “Winchester,” is expected to be online in 2027 and will support grid balancing and the forecasted load growth for the region, as well as economic development and local infrastructure investment, the companies said. Torch is a renewables developer focused on the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Southwest, and has developed and solar more than 1.2 GW of green power assets. “Torch is excited to partner with Fluence to manufacture the energy storage system for our Winchester project,” said Torch President Travis Haggard. The battery “will allow us to shift cost-effective solar generation to be dispatched when the grid needs it most.” Fluence’s Gridstack Pro 5000 battery will include domestically manufactured enclosures, inverters and thermal management systems “to enable the full solar-plus-storage facility to qualify for domestic content tax credits,” the companies said. Fluence says it has more than 22 GWh of battery energy storage capacity deployed or contracted across projects in the U.S. “This facility is a great step toward ensuring affordable, reliable, and secure power for the local community and will support regional economic activity and expected load growth for many years to come,” Fluence Americas President John Zahurancik said in a statement.

Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office said Thursday it has closed a $1.6 billion loan guarantee to a subsidiary of American Electric Power to reconductor and rebuild around 5,000 miles of transmission lines across Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The conditional loan commitment was announced in January as part of $23 billion in assistance DOE offered to eight utilities for investments in transmission, energy storage, grid modernization and gas pipelines. The Trump administration has been reviewing loan commitments and grants finalized in the waning days of the Biden administration, charging that many were rushed through with inadequate review. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the AEP loan will bolster reliability and “ensure lower electricity costs across the Midwestern region of the United States.” Dive Insight: DOE did not immediately respond to questions about the status of other loan guarantees announced in January. AEP is the first company to close a loan guarantee under the Energy Dominance Financing Program created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. President Trump signed the legislation into law earlier this year. The guarantee “was carefully evaluated” under new LPO guidance and “delivers on the Trump administration’s promise to responsibly steward taxpayer dollars and unleash American energy dominance,” DOE said in a statement. AEP is “experiencing growth in energy demand that has not been seen in a generation,” President, CEO and Chairman Bill Fehrman said in a statement. Customers have committed to 24 GW of electricity demand by the end of the decade, AEP said, and necessary upgrades have been identified to support data center, artificial intelligence and manufacturing development. Approximately 100 miles of transmission line across Ohio and Oklahoma are the first projects supported by

In a research note sent to Rigzone by the HSBC team late Tuesday, HSBC Senior Global Oil and Gas Analyst Kim Fustier said BP’s third quarter trading statement was “mixed to negative”. “Gas trading was ‘average’ (same as 2Q), while oil trading was ‘weak’ as oil price volatility subsided (implying a big delta vs ‘strong’ in 2Q),” Fustier said in the note. “On the positive side, 3Q oil and gas production is expected to be higher vs 2Q vs ‘slightly lower’ previously, thanks to U.S. onshore (BPX) growth. This is the second consecutive quarter when production will exceed initial guidance, which suggests good operational regularity, though the financial impact may be muted given low U.S. gas prices,” Fustier added. “In Downstream, stronger refining indicator margins ($15.8/b vs $11.9/b in 2Q) and ‘significantly lower’ turnarounds (as expected) are partly offset by environmental costs and the unplanned Whiting outage in August caused by severe weather,” Fustier continued. “Net debt is expected to be stable q-o-q at $26 billion including a working capital release, better than our forecast of a modest increase,” Fustier stated. In the research note, Fustier revealed that HSBC was raising its BP third quarter earnings forecast by four percent to $1.9 billion “as higher production and a positive refining mark-to-market are offset by weaker oil trading”. “Our updated forecast is slightly below consensus. We believe that 2Q marked the start of a recovery at BP. But as the mixed 3Q update shows, it will take several quarters of consistent delivery for BP to establish a track record,” Fustier said in the note. Rigzone has contacted BP for comment on the HSBC research note. At the time of writing, BP has not responded to Rigzone. In a release posted on its website on October 14, BP announced “updated third quarter