Oil dropped after four sessions of gains as investors waited for clearer signals on supplies and tracked the wider market fallout from US President Donald Trump’s attempt to oust a Federal Reserve governor. West Texas Intermediate fell by 2.4%, the biggest loss since early August, to settle near $63 a barrel, remaining within the range of $62 to $65 that prices have been locked in most of this month. Crude’s dip on Tuesday reflected a wariness toward risk assets in wider markets, driven by Trump’s bid to remove the Fed’s Lisa Cook. The Department of Homeland Security issued a notice Monday to double tariffs on all Indian imports as the US sought to penalize the country for buying Russian crude. The move — to take effect Wednesday — is billed as part of a broader effort by Trump to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. Still, Trump’s history of reneging on trade threats is leading many investors to discount the prospect that the higher tariffs will take effect. A similar sentiment is visible in the South Asian nation, where refiners plan to maintain the bulk of their purchases from Russia in the coming weeks. Crude has traded in a narrow band for most of August, with traders assessing the effect of US levies as well as the longer-term consequences of major supply hikes from OPEC+. The International Energy Agency warned earlier this month that the global oil market was on track for a record surplus next year as demand growth slows while supplies swell, though markets have been firm over the summer. Meanwhile, Trump praised oil prices “down close to $60 a barrel” at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, adding the price will be “breaking that pretty soon.” He didn’t clarify which catalyst is set to push prices below $60. Trading

PetroChina Co. has proposed buying three natural gas storage companies for 40 billion yuan ($5.6 billion) to bolster the nation’s infrastructure for the fuel. The board of China’s biggest oil and gas producer on Tuesday approved a plan to buy Xinjiang Gas Storage, Xiangguosi Gas Storage and Liaohe Gas Storage from state-owned controlling shareholder China National Petroleum Corp., according to a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The move comes as China ramps up its gas consumption in an effort to boost energy security and ease dependence on coal to reduce emissions and air quality. China’s natural gas demand is expected to rise more than 40% through 2050, according to a projection by the International Energy Agency that takes into account existing and announced policies. Buying the three companies would add about 11 billion cubic meters to PetroChina’s gas storage capacity, the company said. “This will enhance adjustment efficiency and maximize the overall benefits of the natural gas industry chain,” the company said in the filing.  PetroChina is offering to pay about 17 billion yuan for Xinjiang Gas Storage, 10 billion yuan for Xiangguosi Gas Storage and about 13 yuan for Liaobe Gas Storage.  The proposed deal comes after PetroChina’s profits have fallen from a record high in the first half of the year as crude prices dropped and domestic oil demand stagnated. The company reported 84 billion yuan ($12 billion) in net profit for the first six months of the year, compared to 89 billion yuan in the same period in 2024. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

HALEU to support deployment of next-generation reactors and domestic fuel lines WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today made conditional commitments to provide high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to three U.S. companies to meet near-term fuel needs. The second round of HALEU allocations will support the testing of two advanced reactor designs and jumpstart a new domestic advanced fuel line to unleash an American nuclear energy renaissance. “President Trump has prioritized jumpstarting a true nuclear energy renaissance, and the Department of Energy is doing everything within its power to achieve this ambitious agenda, including increasing access to materials needed to fabricate advanced nuclear fuels,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “We’re reducing our dependence on foreign-sourced minerals while giving the private sector the boost it needs to succeed. The HALEU allocation program is a win for the economy, energy security, and the American people.” HALEU is not currently available from domestic suppliers and many advanced reactors need the material to achieve smaller designs, longer operating cycles, and increased efficiencies over current technologies. To help fill this gap, DOE created a process for nuclear developers to request HALEU material from DOE sources, including material from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). DOE allocated its first amounts of HALEU to five companies earlier this year, with three of them requiring fuel delivery in 2025. Three additional companies have been selected for conditional commitments based on prioritization criteria established through the program. The three companies are: Antares Nuclear, Inc., for use in their advanced microreactor design that is looking to go critical by July 4, 2026, under the Department’s Reactor Pilot Program. Standard Nuclear, Inc., to establish TRISO fuel lines to support the Reactor Pilot Program and other TRISO-fueled reactors. Abilene Christian University/Natura Resources LLC, for use in a new molten salt research

Dive Brief: The Trump administration’s 50% import tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper could drive up the cost of utility grid modernization and clean energy projects while making it harder to buy transformers and other equipment, according to Morningstar DBRS. With materials typically accounting for 20% to 30% of a transmission project’s costs, the tariffs could slow or reduce the scope of transmission development, Morningstar analysts said in a report released Monday. “Some marginal projects (e.g., economic-driven grid upgrades or non-mandated resiliency projects) may no longer generate a positive net present value when significant increases in costs are taken into consideration,” the analysts said. Dive Insight: The tariffs the Trump administration has imposed this year target imported inputs that are critical to the utilities sector, including structural steel for transmission towers, aluminum conductors and copper wiring, analysts with the credit rating agency said. The tariffs also cover semi-finished and derivative copper products, such as pipes, tubes, wires and cables, rods, sheets/strips and fittings/connectors/electrical components, the analysts said. “For utilities, which consume large quantities of steel (e.g., poles, pylons, rebar), aluminum (e.g., conductors, transformer components), and copper products (e.g., finished wire/cable, connectors, fittings), these dynamics point to higher input costs for capital projects,” Morningstar analysts said. Some importers are diverting shipments away from the United States to avoid the tariffs, raising the risk of procurement delays, according to the report. “Electrical steel — a specialty steel used in transformers — remains in short domestic supply, and new tariffs could further constrain imports needed for grid equipment,” the analysts said. “The 50% steel tariff extends to the steel content of manufactured products, meaning even imported transformers are subject to hefty duties on their steel cores.” With U.S. electric bills climbing 23%, on average, from 2019 to 2024, increased utility costs may raise concerns

Shelley Hudson Robbins is senior decarbonization manager for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. All across the South, electric companies and gas pipeline companies are striking deals with each other that will increase customer electric bills for decades to come. Called “firm transportation” contracts, these agreements will require electric customers to pay for new pipelines whether or not the pipelines are fully used, and they cannot deliver the level of reliability that state regulators think they will. In the latest example, EQT is seeking firm transportation customers for a 500,000 dekatherm (Dth) per day compression expansion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline that connects Appalachian Basin fracked natural gas to the massive Williams Transco pipeline. This project is the latest in a deluge of pipeline expansion projects that are backed by long-term contracts with Southeastern electric utilities such as Duke Energy in the Carolinas, Dominion and Santee Cooper in South Carolina, Oglethorpe Power in Georgia, and Southern Company in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. These companies have contracted for more than 3 million Dth on three pipeline expansions currently underway at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project, MVP Southgate, and Kinder Morgan’s South System Expansion 4. The contracting utilities will pay for this pipeline capacity every month and every year for 20 years, regardless of how much gas they actually use for power burn. These costs are passed directly to ratepayers. At what cost? This utility rush to sign contracts for firm pipeline transportation, or FT, originates with Southeastern public utility commissions encouraging the acquisition of firm transportation for existing and planned baseload gas additions based on the mirage that it will make the electric system more reliable. Firm transportation does not guarantee that the utilities will be able to get the actual gas molecules they need on a

Listen to the article 2 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. A Monday analysis from the Energy Information Administration forecasts U.S. natural gas consumption increasing 1% in 2025, setting a record — then decreasing slightly in 2026. “Natural gas consumption was high in the beginning of the year, driving our forecast,” EIA said. “In January, U.S. natural gas consumption was a record 126.8 [billion cubic feet per day], 5% more than the previous record set in January 2024.” EIA expects natural gas consumption to average a record 91.4 billion cubic feet per day this year. Optional Caption Courtesy of U.S. Energy Information Administration “Natural gas remains the most prevalent source of electricity generation in the United States, but so far in 2025 natural gas has lost market share in the electric power sector to coal, solar, and wind,” the agency said. “We expect increases in natural gas consumed in the residential and commercial sectors to offset decreases in natural gas consumed in the electric power sector.” The anticipated 2026 decrease is due “in part to expected milder weather in the winter months and therefore less consumption in the residential and commercial sectors,” EIA said. Utilities and hyperscalers are turning to natural gas deployment as electricity demand increases, and the Trump administration is incentivizing the deployment of gas as a solution to that demand. At the same time, the increasing demand for gas is driving up the wait time for gas turbine orders to as much as seven years. “There are underappreciated risks to the current round of robust gas development for data center customers,” investment bank Jefferies said in a Monday note. During a March earnings call, NextEra CEO John Ketchum noted to investors that the cost to build a new natural gas