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Tag: crude oil

  • Trump loves cheap gas—but a military conflict in Iran could nearly double your price at the pump | Fortune

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    The largest U.S. military buildup since the 2003 Iraq invasion is aimed at Iran, and the outcome of a tense standoff could mean the average price at the pump falls to $2.50 per gallon or spikes astronomically to $5 in the case of war, geopolitical and energy analysts told Fortune.

    The reason for the extreme range of potential impacts is the Strait of Hormuz offshore of Iran. The narrow, 104-mile strait is the main choke point separating the Persian Gulf—and the daily flow of nearly 20 million barrels of oil—from the Indian Ocean and global energy markets. Most of the crude oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates must pass through the strait.

    “The stakes are so high,” said oil forecaster Dan Pickering, founder of the Pickering Energy Partners consulting and research firm. “The biggest risk to a disruption would be from Iran if they’re backed into a corner and have nothing to lose.”

    The Middle East “playbook” for conflicts over the last 20 years is to avoid targeting oil infrastructure, Pickering said, including during the so-called Twelve-Day War between Israel and Iran last June that culminated with the U.S. dropping bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites.

    However, a desperate Iran could bomb or plant mines throughout the strait, creating a blockade. Iran also could target its neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE. “All bets are off if the Supreme Leader (86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) decides it’s truly a fight for regime survival,” said Matt Reed, vice president of the geopolitical and energy consultancy Foreign Reports. 

    Reed said the situation today is “more alarming” than last summer because the U.S. and Iran seem far apart on any redefined nuclear deal—President Donald Trump pulled out of the previous nuclear agreement in 2018—and Iran already is under pressure as the regime violently tries to subdue civil unrest.

    “Iran is infinitely more desperate today. It’s facing an existential fight, potentially, which means it’s more inclined to lash out if only to raise the cost of U.S. intervention,” Reed told Fortune. “Back against the wall, the regime in Tehran may choose to strike its oil-rich Arab neighbors because they’re easy targets and everyone stands to lose from a massive oil price shock.”

    “The odds of diplomatic breakthrough are fading by the day,” he added. “Both sides are repeating the same tired talking points we heard a year ago.”

    Pricing out a conflict

    The U.S. benchmark for oil was hovering above $66 a barrel as of Feb. 20—up almost $10 per barrel already just from Iranian tensions. That premium suggests energy markets see a roughly 25% chance of a major Middle Eastern conflict, Pickering said.

    So, the odds still favor a peaceful outcome or a more modest military conflict with some initial strikes that force stronger negotiations.

    After all, Trump is focused on energy affordability during a midterm election year, and he has always desired bringing U.S. oil prices down to $50 per barrel—below the $60 threshold most oil producers need for profitability. The $50 level would pull the average retail price of a gallon of regular unleaded fuel down closer to $2.50. The current average gasoline price is $2.93 per gallon and rising, according to AAA.

    The numbers point to Trump wanting a deal with Iran, Pickering said. But OPEC also is talking about hiking its volumes again—led by the Saudis and the UAE—which could help partially offset a more modest military conflict, he added.

    Nothing would offset a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which is simply unsustainable over a long period for global energy markets, said Claudio Galimberti, chief economist for the Rystad Energy research firm.

    A contained Iran conflict would push oil prices up by another $15 to $20 per barrel, above $80, Galimberti said. Any impact to the strait would force a spike above $100 per barrel, potentially sending gasoline closer to $5 per gallon.

    On the other hand, a peace deal would push the U.S. benchmark below $60 per barrel. And a broader deal that would remove sanctions from Iranian oil and allow it to export to more markets could bring prices down another $5, closer to Trump’s desired $50 per barrel, Galimberti said. After all, global energy markets are currently oversupplied, and adding more Iranian barrels would trigger very low oil prices.

    “We don’t discount the fact that you could have a diplomatic resolution and a new nuclear deal,” Galimberti told Fortune. “It does look like it’s a little bit of a long shot.”

     The bottom line is “everyone in the world wants to avoid” blocking the Strait of Hormuz, he said. But either a desperate Iran or an accidental errant bomb changes the equation.

    As Pickering added, “Iran’s ability to wreak havoc is pretty high if it decides to take that step. It’s a really big step, because then you’ve poked the bear.

    “They didn’t take that step when bombs were literally falling in June.”

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    Jordan Blum

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  • Trump’s strike on Venezuela gives the U.S. 30% of the world’s oil reserves on paper and a $100 billion rebuilding job in reality | Fortune

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    President Donald Trump’s plans to restore Venezuela’s beleaguered oil industry faces a series of challenges that will cost U.S. oil companies many billions of dollars to overcome.

    Over the weekend, U.S. forces arrested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on drug trafficking charges, with Trump claiming the U.S. would “run” the country and take over the country’s nationalized oil reserves.

    “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again. Won’t happen,” Trump said on Saturday, while explicitly endorsing the “Donroe doctrine,” a social media meme/portmanteau that describes the retro-nostalgic version of imperial authority increasingly on display in his second term. The Monroe Doctrine meets the Donald.

    The move follows a series of deadly strikes on Venezuelan boats supposedly carrying drugs, attacks widely considered to be illegal. The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, the body’s top official, called Trump’s ousting of Maduro a violation of the UN’s charter. 

    Home to the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela reached its output peak in the 1970s, producing more than 3.5 million barrels of oil daily, though production has significantly tapered off to about 1 million barrels daily. Analysts have high hopes that oil companies entering Venezuela can tap back into the country’s black gold. JPMorgan predicted that with control of Venezuela’s oil, the U.S. could hold 30% of the world’s oil reserves. Other analysts said the country could double or triple its current output, returning it to its highs from 50 years ago, quite quickly.

    But experts warn that the path to dominance, at least as far as oil is concerned, will be an uphill battle following decades of mismanagement and sanctions. State-owned oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) collapsed in the mid-2010s following the loss of  foreign financial support, as well as skilled workers to maintain pipelines. In 2017, the first Trump administration escalated oil sanctions on Venezuela, restricting the country’s access to U.S. markets.

    Small war, big questions

    According to Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, oil companies’ efforts to grow production, such as rebuilding infrastructure, would take about a decade. She wrote in a note to investors on Saturday that according to oil executives, these efforts will cost $10 billion annually, bringing total investments over the next 10 years to about $100 billion.

    Part of those steep rebuilding costs are also a result of the need to extract and refine heavy crude oil, which makes up about 75% of Venezuela’s reserve, most of which is in the Orinoco Belt. Venezuela’s oil boom of yesteryear was also a result of light crude oil found in the oilfields of western Venezuela, which was easy to access and therefore were depleted quickly. While heavy crude oil is what is predominantly being drilled for today, its viscous consistency and high levels of metals and sulfur mean extracting and refining this product is significantly more costly than its light crude counterpart.

    The mass undertaking to restore the Venezuelan oil industry to its peak means oil prices are unlikely to budge anytime soon, said Miguel Tinker Salas, a professor emeritus of history at Paloma College and author of The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela. It’s a hit to Trump’s “drill baby, drill” vision and, according to the historian, the president’s hope of gaining momentum ahead of the midterm elections.

    “The notion that Venezuela has the largest reserves of oil in the world—303 billion barrels of oil [in reserve]—may be a stimulant in trying to get the price of oil to drop for potentially his own electoral purposes,” Tinker Salas told Fortune. “Although [Trump] is grossly mistaken if he thinks that Venezuelan oil comes online tomorrow and will affect prices of oil before the election.”

    Several other analysts see more than a little bit of midterm maneuvering behind the U.S. strike on Venezuela, given the offyear rout that Republicans suffered in 2025 and Trump’s dismal poll ratings. Macquarie’s global analysts Viktor Shvets and Kyle Liu noted that their 2026 outlook included “start a small war” as one policy the Republicans could pursue to avoid a “meltdown” in the midterms. Maduro’s capture is about oil and the Monroe Doctrine, they added, but it also strengthens the Republican Party’s “tough on crime and drugs” image. 

    Elsewhere, UBS chief economist Paul Donovan argued in a Monday podcast that perceptions of “affordability” seem to have shaped U.S. administration policy over the past few weeks. He noted two tariff decisions in particular: a delay on a furniture levy, and a cut on planned fees for tariffs on Italian pasta. 

    “The weekend’s action in Venezuela also raises fiscal questions,” he wrote. “It is not clear how, if at all, the US intends to ‘run’ Venezuela but military adventures carry a fiscal cost. Despite the noise of social media warriors, geopolitical considerations are likely to concern investors less.”

    Risks of political instability

    The factors influencing U.S. oil companies go beyond just the infrastructure challenges plaguing the industry in Venezuela. According to RBC Capital Markets’ Croft, increasing oil production will hinge on companies feeling confident about the safety of setting up shop in Venezuela. That begins with who will be leading the country moving forward.

    That individual will likely not be Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom Trump said lacked support to fill the role; nor will it be Edmundo González, who ran against Maduro in the 2024 election, which was considered to be the fair winner of the election. González is in a self-imposed exile in Spain. Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president on Monday.

    “We don’t really know who’s in charge, who is going to be running Venezuela,” Croft told CNBC on Monday. 

    The U.S. will also have to learn from its past efforts to build up authority in the oil-rich countries of Iraq and Libya. Both endeavors included attempts to depose the countries’ respective leaders that led to political collapse and civil unrest.

    “We thought Libya was going to be an easy turnaround, post-[former Libyan Prime Minister Muammar] Gaddafi,” Croft said. “So the question is, What’s our template for a rapid recovery of an oil sector that has suffered decades of decline and mismanagement?”

    Tinker Salas argued that other factors, including an improvement in technology to extract low crude oil, could expedite production, but until there’s evidence that companies can thrive in Venezuela, there will likely be few efforts to escalate drilling.

    “I don’t think any large U.S. major company is going to want to invest without a series of guarantees, because you’re talking about billions of dollars of investment,” Tinker Salas said. “This is an investment for the long term, not for the short term.”

    Macquarie’s Shvets and Liu added an ominous warning for the long term of U.S. foreign policy, writing, that this is “another nail in the coffin of [the] global rules-based order,” marginalizing the UN “similar to the League of Nations circa 1930s.” The League of Nations was the forerunner to the UN and is famous among historians for its formation after the wreckage of World War I and its almost immediate failure to prevent the rise of authoritarianism in the 1930s that gave way to World War II.

    This could also signal that the Church Committee rules may be “obsolete,” the Macquarie analysts wrote, referring to the regulations in place since 1975 to address abuses intelligence revealed during the Vietnam era. The CIA reportedly played a critical role in ensuring the success of this military action in Venezuela, after all.

    A strong Republican midterm showing would reinforce the “unitary system of governance,” on the one hand, but Macquarie argued that it would likely further erode the “few remaining semi-independent agencies (principally the Fed).” Right on cue, a new Federal Reserve chairman is expected to be selected in the coming days.

    This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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    Sasha Rogelberg, Nick Lichtenberg

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  • Venezuela’s oil supply to rise in years ahead and depress prices, say analysts

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    Venezuela’s oil industry is in disrepair after years of neglect and international sanctions, so it could take years and major investments before production can increase dramatically. But some analysts are optimistic that Venezuela could double or triple its current output to return to historic levels fairly quickly.

    “While many are reporting Venezuela’s oil infrastructure was unharmed by US military actions, it has been decaying for many, many years and will take time to rebuild,” said Patrick De Haan, who is the lead petroleum analyst at gasoline price tracker GasBuddy.

    American oil companies will want a stable regime in the country before they are willing to invest heavily, and the political picture remains uncertain.

    “But if it seems like the US is successful in running the country for the next 24 hours, I would say there would be a lot of optimism that US energy companies could come in and revitalise the Venezuelan oil industry fairly quickly,” said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group.

    And if Venezuela can grow into an oil production powerhouse, Flynn said “that could cement lower prices for the longer term” and put more pressure on Russia.

    MAJOR SHIFT NOT EXPECTED

    A major shift in oil prices was not expected because Venezuela is a member of OPEC, so its production is already accounted for there. And there is currently a surplus of oil on the global market.

    JPMorgan analysts led by Natasha Kaneva said in a note that with a political transition, Venezuela could raise oil production ‌to 1.3 million to 1.4 million bpd within two years and potentially reach 2.5 million bpd over the next decade, up from about 800,000 bpd currently.

    “These dynamics are currently not reflected in the back end of the oil futures curve,” the note added.

    “A regime change in Venezuela would immediately represent one of the largest upside risks to the global oil supply outlook for 2026–2027 and beyond,” analysts at JP Morgan said on Monday.

    Goldman Sachs analysts led by Daan Struyven said in a note on Sunday that any recovery in production would likely be gradual and require substantial investment.

    The analysts estimated a US$4 per barrel downside to 2030 oil prices in a ‌scenario where Venezuela crude production rises to 2 million bpd.

    “We see ambiguous but modest risks to oil prices in the short-run from Venezuela, depending on how US sanctions policy evolves,” Struyven added.

    In the short term, Venezuela’s oil production outlook this year will depend on how US sanctions policy evolves, the Goldman analysts said.

    Goldman’s 2026 oil price forecasts remained unchanged, with Brent’s average at US$56 and West Texas Intermediate at US$52 a barrel while Venezuela’s 2026 oil production is forecast to stay flat ‌at 900,000 bpd.

    Additionally, Helima Croft, RBC Capital’s head of commodities research, said full sanctions relief could unlock several hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of production.

    “All bets are off in a chaotic change of power scenario like what occurred in Libya or Iraq,” Croft added.

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  • Crews race storm to contain oil spill in Ventura County creek

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    Cleanup was underway Wednesday in a wooded, remote area of Ventura County after about 420 gallons of crude oil inundated a waterway, officials said, and crews were working to beat the upcoming storm.

    An above-ground storage tank operated by Carbon California spilled the oil into a remote tributary of Sisar Creek near Ojai, contaminating about three-quarters of a mile of the waterway, according to state wildlife officials.

    Although the waterway and spill are small compared to some other major oil spills, “everything counts,” said Kristina Meris, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

    “There’s wildlife, there’s the environment, and people live in these areas,” she said. “We want to clean up everything we possibly can as quickly as we can safely.”

    Initial reports of an oil spill were received Tuesday afternoon, Meris said. But steep terrain, limited road access and the approaching severe weather are complicating the cleanup.

    Responders reached the creek bed Wednesday and “hit it pretty hard today,” Meris said, setting up a safety zone around the site. Officials will also conduct air quality tests to evaluate health hazards.

    “It’s a super remote and super difficult area to get to,” Meris told The Times. “The only concern for the response tomorrow will be the bad weather coming in, so the safety of our responders could become an issue.”

    The spill originated from a damaged gas tank owned by Carbon California, a company that operates oil and gas wells in the state, particularly in Ventura County. Officials said the cause remained under investigation, but the company has been designated the responsible party and is participating in a unified command with state and local agencies, which also includes personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

    Cleanup teams are skimming and pumping oil from the tributary and deploying absorbent booms and pads to recover oil trapped along the creek bed. Crews have been able to contain much of the spill, Meris said, but storm conditions could hamper their efforts.

    They expect to begin reporting recovery totals Thursday morning, though those numbers will likely reflect an “oily water mixture,” not pure crude. “Sometimes it can be a little bit higher than the number [of gallons spilled] because there will be water mixed in,” she said.

    No wildlife had been reported harmed as of Wednesday evening, but Meris emphasized that swift response was critical to preventing harm.

    “The quicker you respond, the quicker you get this cleaned up, the better for the environment,” she said.

    The spill site is far from major roadways, part of what officials described as a rugged stretch of watershed feeding into Sisar Creek. Cleanup operations will pause overnight for safety but are expected to resume Thursday morning, weather permitting.

    Officials did not immediately provide a timeline for a complete cleanup but said the response would continue until the creek met “established environmental endpoints” and recoverable oil product was removed.

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    Gavin J. Quinton

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  • Pump prices could rise after US, EU hit Russian oil companies with new sanctions and oil spikes

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    Oil prices spiked Thursday after the U.S. announced massive new sanctions on Russia’s oil industry in an attempt to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and end Moscow’s brutal war on Ukraine.U.S. benchmark crude jumped 6%, to $62 per barrel midday Thursday and analysts say if the situation remains static, U.S. consumers will soon be paying more at the pump.Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said while it was difficult to predict with certainty because of the number of moving parts, consumers will likely see a bump in prices as early as next week, if not sooner.“We’ll probably start to see motorists be impacted by the sanctions at the pump in the next couple days and it might take five days for that to be fully passed along,” De Haan said, adding that the full impact also depends on whether the Russian or U.S. positions change.“Russia will feel pressure to come to the table in light of the new developments or President Trump may react when he sees oil prices rising to levels that become uncomfortable, so I don’t think this is going to be very long lasting,” De Haan said.Oil prices have been relatively low for the past few years and last week the cost for barrel of U.S. benchmark crude fell below $57, its lowest level since early 2021. The price for a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude did rise near $79 a barrel early this year, just before President Donald Trump took office, a price not necessarily considered outrageously elevated by most analysts.The broad, extended decline in oil prices pushed the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. last week under $3 for the first time since December of last year, according to GasBuddy.For much of 2025, inflation has been held mostly in check, partly due to cheaper prices at the pump. However, that could change quickly as higher energy costs have a downstream effect on prices for virtually all products and services across industries.“The impact to a lot of Americans is that products derived from crude, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel are all likely to see price increases,” De Haan said.The main reason oil and gas have stabilized at lower levels this year is that the group of countries that are part of the OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries have continued to boost production. Earlier this month, OPEC+ leaders announced they would raise oil production by 137,000 barrels per day in November, the same amount announced for October. The group has been raising output slightly in a series of boosts all year after announcing cuts in 2023 and 2024.Russia is the leading non-OPEC member in the 22-country alliance. The group’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 2.The sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil follows calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as bipartisan pressure on Trump to hit Russia with harder sanctions on its oil industry, the economic engine that has allowed Russia to continue to execute the grinding conflict even as it finds itself largely internationally isolated. The European Union on Thursday announced its own measures targeting Russian oil and gas.The price for Brent crude, the international standard, rose $3.57 on Thursday to $66.15 per barrel.

    WASHINGTON —

    Oil prices spiked Thursday after the U.S. announced massive new sanctions on Russia’s oil industry in an attempt to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and end Moscow’s brutal war on Ukraine.

    U.S. benchmark crude jumped 6%, to $62 per barrel midday Thursday and analysts say if the situation remains static, U.S. consumers will soon be paying more at the pump.

    Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said while it was difficult to predict with certainty because of the number of moving parts, consumers will likely see a bump in prices as early as next week, if not sooner.

    “We’ll probably start to see motorists be impacted by the sanctions at the pump in the next couple days and it might take five days for that to be fully passed along,” De Haan said, adding that the full impact also depends on whether the Russian or U.S. positions change.

    “Russia will feel pressure to come to the table in light of the new developments or President Trump may react when he sees oil prices rising to levels that become uncomfortable, so I don’t think this is going to be very long lasting,” De Haan said.

    Oil prices have been relatively low for the past few years and last week the cost for barrel of U.S. benchmark crude fell below $57, its lowest level since early 2021. The price for a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude did rise near $79 a barrel early this year, just before President Donald Trump took office, a price not necessarily considered outrageously elevated by most analysts.

    The broad, extended decline in oil prices pushed the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. last week under $3 for the first time since December of last year, according to GasBuddy.

    For much of 2025, inflation has been held mostly in check, partly due to cheaper prices at the pump. However, that could change quickly as higher energy costs have a downstream effect on prices for virtually all products and services across industries.

    “The impact to a lot of Americans is that products derived from crude, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel are all likely to see price increases,” De Haan said.

    The main reason oil and gas have stabilized at lower levels this year is that the group of countries that are part of the OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries have continued to boost production. Earlier this month, OPEC+ leaders announced they would raise oil production by 137,000 barrels per day in November, the same amount announced for October. The group has been raising output slightly in a series of boosts all year after announcing cuts in 2023 and 2024.

    Russia is the leading non-OPEC member in the 22-country alliance. The group’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 2.

    The sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil follows calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as bipartisan pressure on Trump to hit Russia with harder sanctions on its oil industry, the economic engine that has allowed Russia to continue to execute the grinding conflict even as it finds itself largely internationally isolated. The European Union on Thursday announced its own measures targeting Russian oil and gas.

    The price for Brent crude, the international standard, rose $3.57 on Thursday to $66.15 per barrel.

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  • Opinion | Ukraine is Starving Russia of Oil

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    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has labeled his military’s strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure “the most effective sanctions.” Meanwhile, reports indicate that alongside urging Europe and India to halt purchases of Russian oil, Washington plans to share additional intelligence with Ukraine on Russian refineries, pipelines and other energy infrastructure.

    Most discussions about these “sanctions” have focused on their financial implications for Russia. Vladimir Putin relies heavily on corruption and patronage, with oil and gas serving as key revenue streams. Disrupting the flow could force Mr. Putin to choose between sustaining the war and maintaining the payouts to oligarchs and citizens that secure his political backing—though such an economic squeeze would take some time.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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    Michael Bohnert

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  • Austin-based company fined for flaring that led to 7.6 million pounds of excess gases known to cause respiratory issues

    Austin-based company fined for flaring that led to 7.6 million pounds of excess gases known to cause respiratory issues

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    New Mexico has reached a record settlement with a Texas-based company over air pollution violations at natural gas gathering sites in the Permian Basin.

    The $24.5 million agreement with Ameredev announced Monday is the largest settlement the state Environment Department has ever reached for a civil oil and gas violation. It stems from the flaring of billions of cubic feet of natural gas that the company had extracted over an 18-month period but wasn’t able to transport to downstream processors.

    Environment Secretary James Kenney said in an interview that the flared gas would have been enough to have supplied nearly 17,000 homes for a year.

    “It’s completely the opposite of the way it’s supposed to work,” Kenney said. “Had they not wasted New Mexico’s resources, they could have put that gas to use.”

    The flaring, or burning off of the gas, resulted in more than 7.6 million pounds of excess emissions that included hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other gases that state regulators said are known to cause respiratory issues and contribute to climate change.

    Ameredev in a statement issued Monday said it was pleased to have solved what is described as a “legacy issue” and that the state’s Air Quality Bureau was unaware of any ongoing compliance problems at the company’s facilities.

    “This is an issue we take very seriously,” the company stated. “Over the last four years, Ameredev has not experienced any flaring-related excess emissions events thanks to our significant — and ongoing — investments in various advanced technologies and operational enhancements.”

    While operators can vent or flare natural gas during emergencies or equipment failures, New Mexico in 2021 adopted rules to prohibit routine venting and flaring and set a 2026 deadline for the companies to capture 98% of their gas. The rules also require the regular tracking and reporting of emissions.

    Ameredev said it was capturing more than 98% of its gas when the new venting and flaring rules were adopted, and the annual capture rate has been above 98% ever since.

    A study published in March in the journal Nature calculated that American oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and compressors were spewing more greenhouse gases than the government thought, causing $9.3 billion in yearly climate damage. The authors said it is a fixable problem, as about half of the emissions come from just 1% of oil and gas sites.

    Under the settlement, Ameredev agreed to do an independent audit of its operations in New Mexico to ensure compliance with emission requirements. It must also submit monthly reports on actual emission rates and propose a plan for weekly inspections for a two-year period or install leak and repair monitoring equipment.

    Kenney said it was a citizen complaint that first alerted state regulators to Ameredev’s flaring.

    The Environment Department currently is investigating numerous other potential pollution violations around the basin, and Kenney said it was likely more penalties could result.

    “With a 50% average compliance rate with the air quality regulations by the oil and gas industry,” he said, “we have an obligation to continue to go and ensure compliance and hold polluters accountable.”

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    Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press

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  • Use your hair to help your garden or fight pollution. A Bay Area group shows how

    Use your hair to help your garden or fight pollution. A Bay Area group shows how

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    Try answering this off the top of your head: What’s an abundant renewable resource that can spur growth in your garden and clear pollutants from bodies of water?

    The answer, according to a Bay Area nonprofit, is hair.

    Matter of Trust, an ecologically focused group in San Francisco, has been using hair for more than two decades to clean up oil spills and other pollution from bodies of water. Its latest project is encouraging the growth of vegetation in the Presidio in San Francisco, a national park site.

    Matter of Trust is using hair to encourage the growth of vegetation in the Presidio in San Francisco.

    (Matter of Trust)

    The group got its start after learning about Phil McCrory’s hairy idea in the ’90s.

    The inspiration came to McCrory, a hair stylist in Alabama, when he was washing a client’s locks as CNN was showing images of otters covered in crude oil from the Exxon Valdez tanker that slammed into an Alaskan reef in 1989.

    McCrory realized that in his hands was a fiber that soaks up oils, according to Lisa Gautier, founder of Matter of Trust. But after the haircut, it would be swept up, trashed and dumped in a landfill.

    Gautier and McCrory became partners. He developed a way to turn hair, fur, wool or fleece into mats to absorb petroleum. Later, they discovered that the material could be stuffed into recycled burlap sacks and pantyhose to make booms or mats that would soak up oil.

    The idea was put to the test in 2007, when a 926-foot cargo ship, the Cosco Busan, sideswiped a support on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The collision opened a nearly 100-foot-long gash on the side of the ship, causing 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel to leak into the ocean.

    Within hours, Gautier said, she and her team coordinated hundreds of volunteers to place hair-infused booms and mats along San Francisco’s beaches.

    To try to get rid of the waste the booms and mats collected, the team subjected them to two composting methods: worms and thermophilic fungi, or heat-loving bacteria and fungi that can kill pathogens by generating high temperatures. After about 18 months, the hazardous waste was turned into healthy compost, Gautier said.

    The hair mats’ latest job, at the Presidio, will test their fertilizing capabilities.

    The Matter of Trust team places hair into the soil of its vegetables to aid in composting and vegetation

    Hair can be formed into mats that soak up oil or can be used as mulch.

    (Matter of Trust)

    In a pilot study, the hair mats are being used as a mulch on the patchy park land. The results surprised the Presidio Trust’s associate director, Lew Stringer, SFGate reported.

    “The sections we planted using that material as substrate clearly grew more robustly than the control areas,” Stringer said.

    Bay Area and Los Angeles residents who compost or want to boost the vegetation on their property can use human or pet hair. It’s lightweight, and you can put it on top of the soil in your flower pots and garden, Gautier said. If the hair is longer than 2 inches, bury it in the soil to avoid entangling birds’ feet, she recommends.

    If you want to donate hair to Matter of Trust, sign up on the organization’s website, the Hum Sum. Gautier said the group accepts all human, pet and synthetic hair but asks that the various types be packaged separately.

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    Karen Garcia

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  • Exxon scraps plan for new pipeline after 2015 spill — but may try to resurrect old one

    Exxon scraps plan for new pipeline after 2015 spill — but may try to resurrect old one

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    Central Coast environmentalists are celebrating ExxonMobil’s recent decision to scrap plans to replace miles of pipeline through Santa Barbara County, key to revitalizing a local network of petroleum energy production shuttered since the catastrophic 2015 Refugio oil spill.

    But at the same time, the oil giant has raised fresh concerns, saying it is instead exploring the possibility of repairing existing, damaged pipeline.

    The years-long effort by oil companies to replace two major segments of pipeline could have allowed the company to restart offshore oil platforms along Santa Barbara County’s coast and an onshore processing plant. These possibilities have been long reviled by local environmental groups and some residents, especially after the catastrophic 2015 spill, which continues to loom large in the region.

    “This [pipeline] replacement has been hanging over the community’s head for five years now,” said Jonathan Ullman, director of the Sierra Club’s Santa Barbara-Ventura chapter. “I was very happy to hear this news; it felt like their withdrawal signified that the writing was on the wall that they could not continue.”

    Ullman said the construction project — had it been approved — had major implications for the environment, wildlife and public health, with heightened risks of oil spills and increased fossil fuel emissions.

    The 2015 spill, caused by “extensive” corrosion on a section of pipeline, hemorrhaged more than 140,000 gallons of crude oil along the Gaviota Coast, much of which ended up in the ocean and along the region’s prized coastline, closing Refugio and El Capitan state beaches for weeks and affecting countless seabirds and marine life. Oil heavily coated a stretch of Santa Barbara County’s coast, with small tar balls reaching as far south as Redondo Beach in Los Angeles County.

    Officials for Pacific Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Texas-based ExxonMobil, wrote to Santa Barbara County leaders that it had found “the potential environmental impacts associated with the major construction of a second pipeline unnecessary and avoidable,” according to an Oct. 24 letter, withdrawing its proposal from the county’s permitting process.

    The letter, however, also opened the door for another complicated fight in Santa Barbara County, with Exxon officials announcing that the oil giant would change its focus from building replacement pipeline to trying to restore old, damaged pipeline.

    “Recent inspections and analysis affirms … the existing pipeline can be responsibly restarted,” the letter said. It also mentioned that during the replacement pipeline’s environmental review, “staff from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicated that restart of the existing pipeline is likely the Least Environmentally Damaging Practical Alternative under the Federal Clean Water Act.”

    Exxon officials did not release additional information about those reviews but clarified that any “formal decision on the [Least Environmentally Damaging Practical Alternative] cannot be made until the entire environmental review and permitting process is completed.”

    Exxon officials did not respond to questions from The Times requesting further details about such an undertaking, including any analysis of environmental impacts.

    “Pacific Pipeline Company and ExxonMobil have assets that we intend to leverage to deliver reliable energy to Californians and others,” Exxon spokesperson Julie King said in a statement.

    Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta, a spokesperson for Santa Barbara County, said Exxon and its subsidiaries do not have any current applications under review regarding the pipeline, noting that another recent proposal to upgrade multiple valves along the line was not approved this summer. However, any plans to restart the lines would fall under the jurisdiction of the California State Fire Marshal, she said, making it clear that county officials would still be paying attention.

    “The County does have concerns with the integrity of restarting the existing pipeline but we are confident in the California State Fire Marshall’s ability to ensure that these concerns are addressed through their review authority,” Buttitta said in a statement.

    Environmental groups also shared overwhelming concerns about Exxon’s portrayal of restoring the existing pipeline, which was found to be heavily corroded in 2015.

    “At this stage of the climate crisis, building new oil infrastructure is reckless, to say the least,” said Maggie Hall, deputy chief counsel at the Environmental Defense Center, a nonprofit law firm that advocates for environmental protection in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.

    “However, restarting a corroded and compromised pipeline that already caused one massive oil spill is even worse,” she said in a statement. “There is no way for the pipeline owners to credibly claim it will be safe. If this pipeline is allowed to restart, it’s not a question of if, but when, it will be responsible for another catastrophe.”

    Ullman said he is hopeful that Exxon continuing to show interest in further construction in Santa Barbara County is simply a ploy by the company to keep investors interested, because he doesn’t believe such a plan could be successful.

    “That pipeline cannot be repaired,” Ullman said. “It must be abandoned for the safety of the people who travel on the Gaviota Coast, but also for the massive amount of wildlife and sea life that’s there now.”

    The ruptured pipeline that created the 2015 spill was built in 1987 and extended about 11 miles along the Gaviota Coast. It is part of a larger oil transport network that expands into Kern County, which Exxon had hoped to rebuild almost entirely, for a total of more than 120 miles through Santa Barbara County.

    With the replacement project now halted, Ullman hopes to see the existing lines — still not in operation — removed.

    “We’re still dealing with the consequences and the threats,” Ullman said. “The Gaviota Coast is really a special place … and worth protecting.”

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    Grace Toohey

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  • Here’s what the Israel-Hamas war has done to U.S. gasoline and diesel prices

    Here’s what the Israel-Hamas war has done to U.S. gasoline and diesel prices

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    Fuel prices, with the cost of gasoline and diesel at the pump both down from a month ago, don’t appear to be fazed by the escalating risks to oil supplies in the Middle East from the Israel-Hamas war, but they are.

    The decline in fuel prices seen nationally is actually a “bit above what would be ‘normal’ for this time of year,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. However, he believes “prices won’t fall as far as they would have had the attacks on Israel not happened.”

    On Friday, the average retail price for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $3.528, down 5.7 cents from a week ago, while the average retail diesel price was at $4.465 a gallon on Friday, down 7.8 cents from Sept. 30, according to data from GasBuddy.

    U.S. retail gasoline prices have fallen so far this month.


    GasBuddy

    “Geopolitical risk is now heightened, changing the calculus” for the fuel market, said Brian Milne, product manager, editor and analyst at DTN.

    ‘Seasonal component’

    In considering retail gasoline prices during the fourth quarter, the “seasonal component is less pronounced than in years past,” said Milne. Demand for gasoline tends to fall following the summer travel season. Combined with a “strong slate of refinery maintenance,” which led to less fuel supply on the market, the rise in crude oil prices has slowed the decline in fuel prices, said Milne.

    If not for the heightened geopolitical risk in the Middle East, he said he might have expected to see gasoline prices decline by another 30 cents to 40 cents per gallon into late December because of lower demand.

    Retail gas prices may fall another 20 cents a gallon or more, depending on the location within the U.S., if we avoid broader hostilities in the Middle East, said Milne.

    However, if a conflict breaks out beyond Israel and the Gaza Strip, gasoline prices are likely to move sharply higher because of a spike in crude costs, he said.

    For its part, oil has seen volatile trading following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, with futures prices for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude
    CLZ23,
    -0.42%

    CL.1,
    -0.39%
    higher for the week, but lower for the month.

    California prices ‘plummet’

    For now, California, which typically is among the states that pays the most per-gallon for gasoline partly due to taxes on the fuel, is seeing prices “plummet” — down nearly 60 cents in the last three weeks, said GasBuddy’s De Haan.

    “The West Coast is certainly seeing a much larger decline than is ‘normal’ and it’s due to the refinery situation now improving drastically,” as well as California’s RVP waiver, he said.

    The California Air Resources Board allowed gasoline sold or supplied for use in California that exceeds the RVP, or Reid Vapor Pressure, limits through the end of Oct. 31, marking an early transition for the state from the lower RVP gas used in the summer to help cut gasoline emissions to the higher RVP gas used in the winter.

    On Friday, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in California sold for $5.476, GasBuddy data show. That’s down 16.7 cents in just the last week.

    Gas price outlook

    De Haan said he does not expect to see a spike in gas prices nationally at this point, and there’s still room for prices to fall — just not as much following the Hamas attack on Israel.

    “If we get to November and Iran gets involved in the situation, then we certainly could see gas prices impacted in some way as the current drops will likely be fully passed on by then, giving stations no ‘room’ to absorb higher prices reflected by a potential rise in oil,” said De Haan.

    Still, falling demand, as well as “seasonality in general,” are what are pushing prices down, “enhanced by refinery improvements in areas” that saw price surges, he said.

    Prices may even fall further after refinery maintenance season wraps up in mid-November, and refiners have to find places to put even more gasoline output, said De Haan.

    He’s comfortable with the gasoline price forecasts GasBuddy issued in December of last year, which predicted a monthly national average for the fuel of $3.53 for October — matching the current price. The forecast also called for an average of $3.36 a gallon for November and $3.17 for December.

    GasBuddy doesn’t have a forecast for 2024 yet, but prices may look similar to this year, as long as the situation in the Middle East doesn’t further crumble,” said De Haan.

    View on diesel

    Diesel, however, is another story.

    Price for that fuel have dropped by 85.5 cents a gallon from a year ago to Friday’s $4.465 level, GasBuddy data show.

    U.S. retail diesel prices are sharply lower than a year ago.


    GasBuddy

    While down from a year ago, diesel prices are currently at a “very high level historically” because global supply is low, said DTN’s Milne.

    At this time in 2022 diesel fuel inventory was even tighter than it is now, and Europe was heading into winter without Russian natural gas after it was cutoff following the invasion of Ukraine, he said.

    That led to a spike in natural-gas prices and prices for gasoil, a European heating oil, also surged, lifting heating oil and diesel prices globally, explained Milne.

    Like gasoline, diesel prices could move “sharply higher if the war in Israel expands, and oil flow is put at greater risk,” he said.

    De Haan, meanwhile, said diesel prices could climb closer to $5 a gallon if there’s a “squeeze,” with relief then [coming] in the spring/summer” seasons.

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  • Here’s how to play oil-industry stocks for long-term growth of 20% or more

    Here’s how to play oil-industry stocks for long-term growth of 20% or more

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    Oil demand is likely to hold up longer than many people expect during the anticipated transition to electric vehicles. And changes in the industry point to oilfield services companies as good long-term growth investments as offshore production ramps up.

    Below is a list of oil producers and related companies favored by two analysts who have followed the industry for decades.

    U.S….

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  • Icahn Enterprises’ stock choppy as company moves earnings release to next week

    Icahn Enterprises’ stock choppy as company moves earnings release to next week

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    Trading in shares of Icahn Enterprises LP was choppy Thursday amid the continued fallout from a short seller’s report that was critical of the investment arm of activist investor Carl Icahn.

    The stock IEP was moving between gains and losses, but has lost 36% of its value and $6.5 billion of market cap this week in the wake of the report, which accused Icahn Enterprises of inflating its value. On Wednesday, the company said it is moving the release of first-quarter earnings to before market open on May 10. The earnings were…

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  • Icahn Enterprises sheds $4.5 billion of value as short seller Hindenburg puts Carl Icahn’s company in crosshairs

    Icahn Enterprises sheds $4.5 billion of value as short seller Hindenburg puts Carl Icahn’s company in crosshairs

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    Icahn Enterprises LP stock tumbled 25% Tuesday to put it on track for a record one-day decline, after short seller Hindenburg Research issued a negative report against the investment arm of activist investor Carl Icahn.

    The stock’s previous one-day record decline was a loss of 19.5% on Nov. 20, 2008. The market cap loss today is about $4.48 billion.

    Icahn…

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  • ExxonMobil: Eyes on the Permian Prize

    ExxonMobil: Eyes on the Permian Prize

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    ExxonMobil: Eyes on the Permian Prize

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  • The surprise OPEC+ oil production cuts will increase gas prices — here’s how much

    The surprise OPEC+ oil production cuts will increase gas prices — here’s how much

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    Surprise crude oil production cuts from Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries shouldn’t produce worries of skyrocketing gas costs for U.S. drivers still smarting from last year’s pump price shocks, according to fuel industry experts.

    At a time when gas prices are already increasing because of rising seasonal demand, the slashed crude oil output that Saudi Arabia announced Sunday will translate into higher prices, they say. But compared to last year — when energy markets were absorbing the initial impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — the altitude on those gas price increases may not feel so steep.

    On Monday, the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.50, according to AAA. That’s around 10 cents more than a month ago, but almost 70 cents less than the $4.19 average cost one year ago.

    The effects of decreased oil production could translate into initial price increases of up to 15 cents per gallon, according to two different energy sector watchers.

    There’s Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

    At OPIS, an outlet focused on energy sector news and analytics, Chief Oil Analyst Denton Cinquegrana said he was previously expecting summer gas prices to average around $3.60.

    “This move probably boosts that by about 10 – 15 cents to about $3.70-3.75/gal.” Cinquegrana told MarketWatch.

    OPIS is owned by Dow Jones, which also owns MarketWatch.

    It’s possible for gas price averages to hit around $3.60 in the next week or so, he said. The other 10 to 15 cents might filter into retail pump prices later this month or in early May, according to Cinquegrana.

    The surprise move came from Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, including Russia. In Saudi Arabia, officials were reportedly “irritated” by recent remarks from U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

    After the Biden administration tapped the country’s strategic petroleum reserve to combat last year’s high gas costs, Granholm said it will difficult to restock the reserve.

    By May, more than 1 million barrels of oil a day will be slashed from output in the global energy markets. That’s in addition to OPEC+ production cuts announced last fall.

    In cost breakdowns for a gallon of gas, the price of crude oil is responsible for more than half the price tag, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

    In Monday morning trading, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery jumped 6% to just over $80 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

    For context, when gas prices were breaking records last year, the costs of West Texas Intermediate crude were in the triple digits. While retail prices surged in early March 2022, West Texas Intermediate crude briefly traded for more than $130 during the trading day on March 7, 2022.

    The national average for a gallon of gas hit a record $5.01 in mid-June, according to AAA. In the current context, Cinquegrana doesn’t see a return to $5 gas averages, he said. Gas prices vary across the nation. California drivers are paying $4.80 on average while Mississippi drivers are paying $3.02 per gallon. 

    Even if price increases are not as sharp as last year, hot inflation is retreating slowly. So any extra costs are unwelcome to millions of American drivers who are living their lives and more frequently commuting to the office.

    Like last year, oil prices are poised to increase, said AAA spokesman Devin Gladden.

    But the economy’s background noise right now could dampen the impact as downturn worries keep sticking around, he added. Furthermore, there can be discrepancies in the announced production reductions and the amounts that are actually reduced, Gladden said.

    “If recessionary concerns persist in the market, oil price increases may be limited due to the market believing lower oil demand will lead to lower prices this year,” he said.

    On Monday, energy sector stocks and related exchange traded funds were climbing after the production cut news. In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    +0.81%
    was up more than 200 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500
    SPX,
    -0.03%
    is little changed and the Nasdaq Composite
    COMP,
    -0.98%
    dropped 100 points, or 0.8%.

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  • Biden approves Willow oil-drilling permit in Alaska. It’s a ‘carbon bomb,’ one group says.

    Biden approves Willow oil-drilling permit in Alaska. It’s a ‘carbon bomb,’ one group says.

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    The Biden administration approved the large-scale and controversial Willow drilling project for ConocoPhillips on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope on Monday.

    The approval, although with some conditions, is one of President Joe Biden’s most consequential climate choices of his first administration.

    It’s a blemish, say environmental groups, to…

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  • Three Oil Stocks Exposed to Natural-Gas Plunge

    Three Oil Stocks Exposed to Natural-Gas Plunge

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    Natural-gas prices have tumbled this year because of warm weather and high levels of gas in storage in Europe and elsewhere. U.S. prices are down 45% to $2.46 per million British thermal units.

    The drop has impacted stocks of some natural-gas producers, though not nearly as much as the price of the commodity itself. As natural-gas prices stay low, however, the impact could widen and pressure a larger group of companies. Stocks of oil producers that also produce significant amounts of gas are vulnerable to the decline, too. Overall, free cash flow for large-cap producers could fall 33% from 2022 levels, according to Citi analyst Scott Gruber. That could keep some oil companies from being able to boost their dividends and buybacks as much as they did last year.

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  • Shell adjusted profit of $9.8 billion beats forecasts, boosted by soaring energy prices

    Shell adjusted profit of $9.8 billion beats forecasts, boosted by soaring energy prices

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    LONDON–Shell PLC became the latest oil giant to post record annual profit last year, joining U.S. peers in surging back from early pandemic losses on soaring energy prices.

    Shell’s
    SHEL,
    +3.00%

    SHELL,
    +2.24%

    SHEL,
    -0.83%
    $41.6 billion full-year profit surpassed the London-based company’s previous record of $31.4 billion in 2008, measured on a net current-cost-of-supplies basis–a figure similar to the net income that U.S. oil companies report.

    The results bring to more than $132 billion the combined profit last year of the three big majors including historic results from Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp., reported during the past week. Their hauls, driven by strong global energy demand, erase billions of dollars of losses incurred during Covid lockdowns as global travel and economic activity sputtered.

    Shell’s earnings included fourth-quarter profit on a net current-cost-of-supplies basis of $11.4 billion, compared with $11.2 billion in the year-ago period. Results were boosted by strong performance in Shell’s liquefied natural-gas business, which benefited from soaring global demand after Russia cut off pipeline gas supplies to Europe.

    Adjusted fourth-quarter earnings, which strip out certain commodity-price adjustments and one-time charges, were $9.8 billion. That beat the consensus forecast of $8 billion for the quarter in a survey of 28 analysts compiled for Shell by an outside firm.

    Shell’s results are the first reported under Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan, who took over the role Jan. 1 from longtime boss Ben van Beurden. The 48-year-old Mr. Sawan, a dual Lebanese-Canadian national who joined Shell in 1997, rose through the ranks to oversee Shell’s natural-gas business, which has driven record profits, and more recently renewable energy.

    Write to Jenny Strasburg at jenny.strasburg@wsj.com

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  • U.S. stocks climb as GDP report shows economy taking Fed’s rate hikes in stride

    U.S. stocks climb as GDP report shows economy taking Fed’s rate hikes in stride

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    U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday as optimism over Tesla’s earnings results and a stronger-than-expected GDP report left investors in a better mood following Wednesday’s intraday selloff.

    How are stocks trading
    • The S&P 500
      SPX,
      +0.40%
      rose by 34 points, or 0.8%, to 4,049.

    • Dow Jones Industrial Average
      DJIA,
      +0.05%
      gained 145 points, or 0.4%, to 33,889.

    • Nasdaq Composite
      COMP,
      +0.89%
      advanced 174 points, or 1.5%, to 11,487.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Wednesday’s session up 10 points after falling roughly 400 points at the lows earlier in the session. The S&P 500 finished little-changed after erasing its early losses, while the Nasdaq ended lower.

    What’s driving markets

    Stocks opened higher after a flurry of economic data including a fourth quarter GDP report that came in stronger than expected, but the focus was on the latest batch of earnings, which helped to revive investors’ optimism following disappointing guidance from Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    +1.35%
    earlier in the week.

    The economy grew at a robust 2.9% annual pace to close out 2022, according to the first estimate of fourth quarter GDP, released Thursday morning — the latest sign that the U.S. economy is holding up well despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest-rate hikes.

    “Thursday’s GDP report suggests that the economy is relatively strong even in the face of aggressive measures by the Federal Reserve to calm inflation,” said Carol Schleif, chief investment officer, BMO Family Office, in emailed commentary.

    Stocks rose after the data were released as investors found solace in the latest signs that a soft landing for the U.S. economy — a scenario where growth slows, but a recession is avoided — remains possible, or even likely.

    “This is a bit of a relief rally,” said Christopher Zook, chairman and chief investment officer of CAZ Investments.

    However, corporate earnings and guidance are still the primary concern for investors, along with expectations about when the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates, Zook said.

    The labor market also showed signs of strength despite more reports of layoffs in the tech, finance and media spaces, as the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level since April. Investors also digested durable goods orders for December. New home sales for December will be published at 10 a.m. ET.

    Investors also celebrated a surge in Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    +9.64%
    shares premarket after the firm released well-received results that showed record quarterly profits.

    Disappointing guidance from technology behemoth Microsoft had clobbered stocks on Wednesday as traders worried it signaled not just difficulties for the sector but also broadly worsening economic conditions.

    However, before the end of Wednesday’s session, Microsoft shares had recovered most of their 4.5% loss and the S&P 500 finished the session almost exactly where it began, according to data from FactSet.

    As for the Federal Reserve, the central bank is expected to slow the pace of interest rate hikes when it next week raises its policy rate by 25 basis points to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%.

    Companies announcing results on Thursday include: McDonald’s
    MCD,
    -0.28%    ,
    Intel
    INTC,
    -0.34%    ,
    Comcast
    CMCSA,
    +0.86%    ,
    Visa
    V,
    +0.15%    ,
    Dow
    DOW,
    -1.16%    ,
    Whirl pool
    WHR,
    -0.91%    ,
    Western Digital
    WDC,
    +3.72%
    and Northrop Grumman
    NOC,
    -0.90%    .

    Companies in focus

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  • 5 Energy Stocks Poised to Keep Growing Earnings

    5 Energy Stocks Poised to Keep Growing Earnings

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    Several energy companies are expected to post record earnings in 2022.


    Exxon Mobil


    alone is on track to make about $60 billion. But 2023 is a different story. While the setup is still very strong for most oil-and-gas companies, many are expected to see their earnings per share fall from 2022 levels.

    Oil prices have fallen well below last year’s highs, and natural gas has slipped too. Producers of oil and gas are also expecting higher costs this year, with oil services companies raising their rates. 

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