In Case You Missed It— U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright traveled to Alaska earlier this week, where he joined U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin to advance President Trump’s bold agenda to unleash Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential. In Anchorage and on the North Slope, Secretary Wright met with state, local and tribal leaders as well as Alaskan energy workers, held bilateral meetings with foreign energy ministers to advance American energy projects like Alaska LNG, and participated in a keynote fireside chat at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference. “I was proud to join my colleagues, Doug Burgum and Lee Zeldin, in Alaska to help fulfill President Trump’s mission of unleashing Alaska to create a safe, prosperous, and opportunity-filled future,” said Secretary Wright. “Alaska has always been a big bold place, a big bold idea, full of big bold people. Unfortunately, the last administration especially and many before them sought to shut down Alaska in the name of climate nonsense. Those days are over. The Trump Administration is fully committed to restoring the rights and liberties of Alaskans, because when Alaska is unleashed, the entire country and world benefits.” Click here to watch a highlight video of the trip and here to download and view photos from the visit. Roundtable in Anchorage On Sunday, Secretaries Wright and Burgum and Administrator Zeldin joined Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) for a roundtable discussion in Anchorage with leaders from across Alaska’s resource development industry. WATCH: Alaska Resources Roundtable with Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright and Administrator Zeldin Town hall in Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska The delegation then traveled to the capital of Alaska’s North Slope Borough, Utqiagvik, Alaska, for a town hall with the predominantly Alaska-Native community. The cabinet members heard

Kenya lawmakers said a lack of detail over Tullow Oil Plc’s sale of oil assets to local company Gulf Energy “raises concerns” for the industry in the East African nation. Tullow ended a decade-long quest to develop discoveries in April, when it sold the inland fields for $120 million to Gulf Energy, a Nairobi-based oil and gas trader. Tullow has announced divestments in recent months toward reducing its debt below $1 billion this year. The deal for the assets has included few details, “which raises concerns about the continuity, governance, and strategic direction of the country’s nascent oil industry,” the national assembly energy committee said in a report tabled on Wednesday.  “There is limited information regarding the terms of the exit, the implications of the transaction on Kenya’s commercial oil prospects, and its potential impact on the completion and timely approval of the Field Development Plan,” it said. Gulf Energy is an oil supplier, electricity generator and infrastructure developer, according to its website. It didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The sale of working interests in Kenya to Gulf Energy “continues to progress well,” a Tullow spokesperson said in a reply to questions. “We have a high level of confidence in it completing with the receipt of the first two payments totaling $80 million expected during 2025.” Passage of the development plan, which is still pending, became one of the obstacles Tullow faced with the project. Partners TotalEnergies SE and Africa Oil Corp. exited the joint venture in 2023 and the company failed to find a strategic partner to replace them.      The payment profile of the Gulf Energy deal “isn’t too demanding,” though it’s unclear who is backing the company, said Ashley Kelty, an analyst at Panmure Liberum. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect

Oil rose as stronger-than-expected US jobs data eased concerns about an economic slowdown that would crimp demand, spurring algorithmic traders to reduce short positions.  West Texas Intermediate climbed almost 2% to settle above $64 a barrel, notching the largest weekly gain since November. Crude followed equities higher after US job growth in May narrowly surpassed economist forecasts, allaying concerns of near-term demand deterioration. The figures also pushed economy-sensitive diesel futures to a two-week high.  “Trading is relatively quiet today, with macroeconomic factors continuing to drive the narrative,” said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. “The unemployment data is easing concerns that demand will sharply decline due to tariff uncertainty.” The positive economic data spurred commodity trading advisers to ease off of their bearish tilt. The funds, which can accelerate price momentum, liquidated short positions to sit at negative 9% short in WTI on Friday, compared with 64% short on June 5, according to data from Bridgeton Research Group. The rally was supported by enduring risk-on sentiment from optimistic signs on trade talks between the US and China, the world’s largest importer of crude. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed to further negotiations over tariffs and supplies of rare earth minerals. The positive signals come against the backdrop of an oil market that has been increasingly rangebound in recent weeks. Prices have traded in a $5 band since the middle of May, and a gauge of volatility for US crude futures is at the lowest since early April.  Oil has been buffeted in Trump’s second term as trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies menace demand. At the same time, the OPEC+ alliance has been adding barrels back to the market at a faster-than-expected rate, further clouding an already weak outlook for the second half

The US is using its dominance of a niche petroleum gas as a bargaining chip in its trade war with China. America supplies China with almost all of its ethane, a product of the shale boom that’s used as a building block for making plastics. But the commerce department is now ordering shippers to apply for export licenses, and has told at least one, Enterprise Products Partners LP, that it intends to withhold permits for three China-bound cargoes. The trade war is throwing a spotlight on how the US and China rely on each other for certain commodities — dependencies that both nations are seeking to leverage as they negotiate terms to resolve their dispute. In this case, America is the world’s biggest producer of ethane, which is converted into ethylene for plastics factories, and China is its largest customer. The commerce department has cited risks that petroleum products like ethane could be diverted to the military, copying the playbook deployed by Beijing in justifying restrictions on what it calls dual-use items such as rare earths and other critical minerals. “Ethane is no longer just a byproduct of shale — it’s now a geopolitical weapon,” said Julian Renton, lead analyst covering natural gas liquids at East Daley Analytics. “China bet billions building infrastructure around US ethane, and Washington is now questioning whether that bet should continue to pay off.” America’s shale revolution and China’s rapid industrialization have coincided this century to create a market where cheap energy byproducts are parlayed into millions of tons of materials used as trash bags and shampoo bottles, car seats and computer keyboards. But companies that prospered from cooperation are now caught in the crossfire of an increasingly antagonistic trade relationship between Washington and Beijing. Chinese firms such as Satellite Chemical Co. operate giant petrochemical plants that

The first round of partner selection for the planned Alaska LNG project attracted over 50 companies, lead developer Glenfarne Group LLC has said. The potential partners are from the United States, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and India. The companies “expressed interest for over $115 billion of contract value for various partnerships with the Project, including equipment and material supply, services, investment, and customer agreements”, Glenfarne said in an online statement. Alaska LNG, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission May 2020, will deliver natural gas from the state’s North Slope to both domestic and global markets. It is the only federally permitted liquefied natural gas (LNG) project on the United States Pacific Coast, according to co-developer Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC). “Alaska LNG’s economic fundamentals allow it to deliver LNG into Asia at prices that are lower than Henry Hub pricing from the U.S. Gulf Coast”, the statement said. Alaska LNG is planned to have an LNG export terminal with a capacity of 20 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa), an 807-mile 42-inch pipeline and a carbon capture plant with a storage capacity of seven MMtpa. Phase 1 aims to deliver gas about 765 miles from the North Slope to the Anchorage region. Phase 2 would install compression equipment and around 42 miles of pipeline under Cook Inlet to the Alaska LNG Export Facility in Nikiski, which would be constructed at the same time. “Glenfarne anticipates a final investment decision on the domestic portion of the Alaska LNG pipeline in late Q4 2025”, the statement said. Brendan Duval, chief executive and founder of New York City-based energy investor Glenfarne, commented, “The many expressions of interest received reinforce that the market recognizes Alaska LNG’s advantaged economics, fully permitted status, and powerful federal, state, and local support”. The project’s

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. is overstating the reliability risks faced by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, according to David Patton, president of Potomac Economics, the grid operator’s market monitor. In its 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment released in December, NERC said MISO was at a high risk of having a shortfall in electricity supplies at the peak of an average summer or winter season in the next five years — the worst ranking of all North American regions. “I’d love to work with NERC to figure out where they got their numbers from, because I don’t think they’re accurate,” Patton said Thursday during a technical conference on resource adequacy challenges in the United States held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. NERC understates MISO’s capacity for demand response, behind-the-meter generation and firm capacity imports by more than 8 GW, Patton said in written testimony to FERC. Also, NERC considered possible power plant retirements that have not occurred, according to Patton. Potomac Economics also acts as the market monitor for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ISO New England and the New York Independent System Operator. “MISO is the most reliable of any of them,” Patton said. “If I was concerned about the lights going out somewhere, it would not be MISO.” In recent winter storms, MISO exported power to neighboring grid operators to help meet their needs, Patton said, noting the exports reflected the value interconnections between grid operators can have. Further, MISO has been vastly overestimating the power supplies it will need in coming years to meet demand for electricity, Patton said. In its 2024 Regional Resource Assessment, MISO said its footprint may need 17 GW of new resources every year for the next 20 years. “That’s a result of a clearly flawed planning process,” Patton told FERC. In