In a statement posted on its website, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced “another major step toward expanding offshore energy development pursuant to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act”. BOEM noted in the statement that it has released the Final Notice of Sale for Lease Sale Big Beautiful Gulf 2 (BBG2), which it said is the second of 30 Gulf of America lease sales required by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The final notice of sale will be published in the Federal Register on February 5, BOEM revealed in the statement, outlining that this satisfies the requirement for the notice to publish at least 30 days prior to the scheduled lease sale date on March 11. Lease Sale BBG2 proposes to offer approximately 15,066 unleased blocks covering about 80.4 million acres on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of America, BOEM highlighted in the statement, adding that the blocks are located three to 231 miles offshore and span water depths from nine feet to more than 11,100 feet.   BOEM noted in the statement that certain areas will be excluded from the sale, “including blocks subject to the Sept. 8, 2020, presidential withdrawal; blocks adjacent to or beyond the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone in the Eastern Gap; blocks within the boundaries of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary; [and] any block which received a bid in Lease Sale BBG1”. In the statement, BOEM Acting Director Matt Giacona said, “lease Sale BBG2 is a key step in advancing BOEM’s offshore oil and gas program in the Gulf of America”. “Following the strong industry response to Lease Sale BBG1, this proposed sale aims to ensure continued investment in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and support American energy independence,” he added. BOEM noted in its statement that the Gulf

Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos reduced its debt to the lowest level in 11 years, a hopeful sign for the struggling state-owned oil company as it seeks to reverse a decades-long production decline and revive its money-losing refining business. The company cut its total debt to roughly $84.5 billion, according to a company presentation, after receiving more than $40 billion of support last year from Mexico’s finance ministry through debt purchases and cash injections. Pemex also made about 390.2 billion pesos ($22.7 billion) of payments to partners in 2025, Chief Executive Officer Victor Rodriguez said in a press briefing Wednesday, another indication the company is making headway in whittling down its large debts to service providers. The company’s crude oil output has dropped by about 50% from its peak more than two decades ago. For years, Pemex has struggled to bring new discoveries online as production fell at many of its most prolific fields.  Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is seeking a turnaround by attracting more private investment to the nation’s aging oil and gas fields, with the aim of making Pemex self-sufficient by 2027. Sheinbaum said Wednesday that government financial assistance for the company may continue next year. Pemex also is taking steps to improve efficiency at its aging refineries, which have been hit by accidents and outages in recent years. Mexico’s flagship Dos Bocas plant is now producing about 300,000 barrels of fuel per day, Sheinbaum said, lifting total output at the country’s domestic refineries to around 1.2 million barrels a day. Separately, Pemex has drawn criticism from US President Donald Trump over its oil sales to Cuba. Sheinbaum said Mexico is holding diplomatic talks to keep supplying oil to the communist nation on humanitarian grounds. Mexico sold nearly $500 million of crude to the island in 2025, she said Wednesday. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

(Update) February 5, 2026, 9:57 AM GMT: Article updated with with shares, analyst and investor reaction and context throughout. Shell Plc profits slumped in the fourth quarter, undershooting expectations as lower crude prices, a weak oil-trading performance and struggling chemicals business overshadowed stronger refining margins. Europe’s largest oil company took on more debt, maintained its quarterly share buyback of $3.5 billion and raised its dividend even as volatile oil prices pressure its plan to boost investor returns through 2030. Gearing — the ratio of net debt to equity — rose, challenging the firm’s ability to organically stick with its level of share repurchases through this year.  Investors are increasingly focused on Shell’s growth outlook after Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan cut costs and shed underperforming assets. His goal to close a large valuation gap with Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. has become harder this year after the shares of the US rivals soared, buoyed by strong production from low-cost oil fields in Guyana, the Permian Basin and Kazakhstan.  Shell shares fell as much as 2.6% on Thursday, outpacing declines of peers BP Plc and TotalEnergies SE. Shell’s stock was the best performer among the world’s top five oil majors in dollar terms last year, but since mid-November the gains have fizzled and so far in 2026 it’s been lagging its peers. Still, it has outperformed European rivals during Sawan’s three-year tenure. Shell’s adjusted net income of $3.26 billion for the quarter was down 11% from a year earlier and lower than the average analyst estimate of $3.51 billion. A slight production rise — in line with expectations — was unable to lift earnings. The London-based company’s 2% year-on-year production growth in the quarter pales in comparison to that of the Americans. Chevron increased output by 20% in the fourth quarter

The U.S. is projected to produce almost a quarter of the world’s petroleum and other liquid fuels output in 2026 in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest short term energy outlook. According to the EIA’s January STEO, which was published last month, the EIA sees U.S. petroleum and other liquid fuels production averaging 23.88 million barrels per day in 2026. The EIA forecasts in the STEO that global production this year will come in at 107.65 million barrels per day, putting the U.S. contribution at 22.18 percent of the overall figure. A quarterly breakdown included in the EIA’s latest STEO outlined that the EIA sees U.S. petroleum and other liquid fuels production making up 22.18 percent of the world’s total petroleum and liquid fuels production in the first quarter of this year, 22.25 percent in the second quarter, 22.15 percent in the third quarter, and 22.14 percent in the fourth quarter. The U.S. share of global petroleum and other liquid fuels production is projected to drop to 21.84 percent in 2027 in the EIA’s latest STEO, which forecasts that U.S. output will average 23.63 million barrels per day and that global production will average 108.18 million barrels per day. Back in 2025, the U.S. share of global petroleum and other liquid fuels production came in at 22.22 percent, the EIA’s January STEO showed. U.S. output averaged 23.62 million barrels per day in 2025 and global production came in at 106.28 million barrels per day, the STEO highlighted. OPEC+ is projected to contribute 44.93 million barrels per day, or 41.73 percent, to the 2026 total, and 45.07 million barrels per day, or 41.66 percent, to the 2027 total, the EIA pointed out in its STEO. OPEC+ contributed 43.80 million barrels per day, or 41.21 percent, to the 2025 total, the

Oil edged higher as traders parsed conflicting reports on the status of nuclear talks between the US and Iran, clouding the outlook on whether Washington will proceed with military strikes against the major oil producer. West Texas Intermediate rose 3.1% to settle above $65 a barrel. Prices pared gains in post-settlement trading as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed in a social media post that negotiations will be held in Oman on Friday. The commodity surged earlier on reports that the US told Iran it will not agree to Tehran’s demands to change the location and format of talks planned for Friday, Axios said, citing two US officials. Adding to bullish momentum, US President Donald Trump said that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “should be very worried” in an interview with NBC. Traders have been closely monitoring the risk of possible US military intervention in Iran, which could disrupt key shipping lanes as well as the country’s roughly 3.3 million barrels-per-day oil production. Doubts over whether talks surrounding Iran’s nuclear program would proceed as planned have intensified since Tuesday, when US and Iranian forces appeared to square off in the sea and air. An Iranian drone approached an American aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea and was shot down just hours after a US-flagged oil tanker was hailed by small armed ships in the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast. Concern over a potential conflict in the Middle East, a source of about a third of the world’s crude, helped lift prices last month despite signs of a growing oversupply. It has also kept the cost of bullish options high relative to bearish ones for the longest stretch in more than a year. “Geopolitical tensions are really driving it,” Equinor Chief Financial Officer Torgrim Reitan said in a Bloomberg

Trafigura Group Chief Executive Officer Richard Holtum said the liquefied natural gas industry needs a “bit of innovation” when it comes to financing projects. “I feel sorry for LNG projects in the US,” Holtum said on a panel at the LNG 2026 conference in Doha. “They would only get bank financing when they show that they’ve sold 80%-90% of their volume on long-term projects.”  LNG developers are scrambling to fully finance their projects to export more of the fuel, with the next wave of production from terminals under construction in the US and Qatar due to enter the market over the next decade. In the US, several projects including Delfin LNG off the coast of Louisiana, are working to finalize the debt and equity commitments. The current approach of LNG financing contrasts with oil, where banks are more comfortable with the inherent value of the commodity, the CEO said. “Whilst if your project financing some oil exploration, it’s simply the bank takes a view that, okay, oil is worth $40, $50, $60, $70, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter, they take a view, that’s what it’s worth in the long term,” he said. A similar model for LNG, where project financing is based on a long-term price forecast for the fuel, doesn’t seem to be developing, Holtum said. Still, global LNG capacity is set to rise by about 50% by the end of the decade — the biggest build-out in the industry’s history — led by the US.  The current arrangement, where 90% of LNG is sold to utilities under long-term contracts, risks running into difficulties because many companies and countries have made net-zero commitments, according to the Trafigura CEO. “If they have made those commitments, signing a 20-year contract or a 25-year contract that starts in 2030 is inherently problematic,” Holtum