Category Archives: Oil

EPA will withdraw approval of Chevron plastic-based fuels likely to cause cancer

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The decision comes after a ProPublica and Guardian investigation revealed that the EPA had found that one of the fuels had a huge cancer risk

The US Environmental Protection Agency is planning to withdraw and reconsider its approval for Chevron to produce 18 plastic-based fuels, including some that an internal agency assessment found are highly likely to cause cancer.

In a recent court filing, the federal agency said it “has substantial concerns” that the approval order “may have been made in error”. The EPA gave a Chevron refinery in Mississippi the green light to make the chemicals in 2022 under a “climate-friendly” initiative intended to boost alternatives to petroleum, as ProPublica and the Guardian reported last year.

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If Trump wins the election, US parks and wildlife will face a new age of mining

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Intense heat in the north, epic rains in Miami, fires in New Mexico and California. Trump plans for ‘energy dominance’, removing protection from mining and drilling on public lands



This article was produced in partnership with the non-profit newsroom Type Investigations, with support from the Wayne Barrett Project.

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Louisiana town the canary in the coalmine as climate effects worsen

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Lake Charles has been battered by storms over the past 20 years – and now its most famous landmark lies in ruins

Last week, one south-west Louisiana city in particular was girding itself for Hurricane Francine’s blow: Lake Charles, located about four hours west of New Orleans and two hours east of Houston.

In the lottery of hurricane paths over the past 20 years, Lake Charles has been very, very unlucky. But Francine’s impact on the city turned out to be relatively minor, a summer storm like locals are used to.

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UK imposes sanctions on 10 ships in crackdown on Russia’s shadow oil fleet

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Tankers believed to be at heart of illicit operation transporting gas and oil to fund Moscow’s war effort

The UK has taken new steps to clamp down on Russia’s shadow fleet exporting oil and funding Moscow’s war machine, with the Foreign Office announcing sanctions on 10 ships that it believes to be at heart of the operation.

Russia has a large fleet of often unseaworthy and ageing tankers that transport Russian gas and oil products around the globe. Oil exports are Vladimir Putin’s most critical revenue source for funding the war in Ukraine, accounting for about a quarter of the Russian budget in 2023.

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Russia’s shadow oil fleet and Gaza ceasefire plan to top US-UK talks in London

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Antony Blinken to meet David Lammy in precursor to Joe Biden’s talks with Keir Starmer in Washington

Moscow’s use of a shadow fleet transporting western-sanctioned oil, Ukraine’s call to fire to fire UK-supplied missiles into Russia, and the value of publishing a new version of the US ceasefire plan for Gaza will top US-UK talks in London being attended by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state.

His meeting this week with the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, will make him the most senior US official to visit the UK since Labour’s general election victory in July. It is also a precursor to talks in Washington between Joe Biden and Keir Starmer at the end of the week.

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Sanctioned Russian oligarchs allowed to invest in UK North Sea oil producer

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Critics say Labour ‘should have run a mile’ from LetterOne after it is acquires 15% of Aberdeen-based Harbour Energy

The government faces growing criticism after a company backed by two sanctioned Russian oligarchs was allowed to become a part-owner of the UK’s largest North Sea oil producer.

Critics of the decision to allow LetterOne, the investment company part-owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, to acquire almost 15% of Aberdeen-based Harbour Energy, warned that oligarchs should have no place owning critical national assets.

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Shell to cut hundreds of jobs in oil and gas exploration operations

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Reduction of about a fifth of workforce in two subdivisions part of plan to slash up to $3bn in costs by end of 2025

Shell is to cut hundreds of jobs from its oil and gas exploration operation in the latest move by the chief executive, Wael Sawan, to slash up to $3bn (£2.3bn) in costs by the end of next year.

The energy company is to cut about a fifth of its workforce in two subdivisions of its oil and gas business responsible for exploration strategy and developing its oil and gas finds.

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Big polluters targeting esports industry with advertising deals, report reveals

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Oil firms, petrostates, airlines and carmakers ‘doubling down’ on sector that is popular with young people

Oil companies, petrostates, airlines and carmakers are among the big polluters bombarding the esports industry with adverts, a study has found.

Esports, short for electronic sports, are competitive video games watched by spectators, with multiplayer games such as League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients 2 attracting peak viewer figures in the millions.

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Countries fueling Israel’s Gaza war may be complicit in war crimes, experts warn

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Exclusive: research tracks dozens of oil and fuel shipments that could have aided Israel’s war on Gaza

Israeli tanks, jets and bulldozers bombarding Gaza and razing homes in the occupied West Bank are being fueled by a growing number of countries signed up to the genocide and Geneva conventions, new research suggests, which legal experts warn could make them complicit in serious crimes against the Palestinian people.

Four tankers of American jet fuel primarily used for military aircraft have been shipped to Israel since the start of its aerial bombardment of Gaza in October.

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Oilfield slowdown exposes political volatility in Libya and beyond

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Apparent shutdown attempt shows potential for some leaders to use such threats to enforce personal agenda

The political complexities of Libya’s oil industry were highlighted at the weekend when allies of the warlord Khalifa Haftar were said to have tried to shut down a Spanish-operated oilfield in reprisal for an arrest warrant issued by Spain for his son over alleged weapons smuggling.

Saddam Haftar, a key military figure in his father’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), was detained at an airport in Naples, Italy, for an hour on Friday after his name appeared on a common EU database. Those close to Haftar say he was questioned by Italian officials in relation to Spanish allegations, but insist he was never arrested.

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Wood Group suitor pulls out of takeover, blaming market turmoil

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Shares in FTSE 250 company slump 37% in early trading after Dubai-based Sidara cites geopolitical risk

The share price of the British oil services company John Wood Group has plunged by more than a third after a Dubai-based suitor pulled out of a purchase amid global market turmoil.

In a statement to the stock market on Monday the engineering company Sidara said it had pulled out of a bid for Wood “in light of rising geopolitical risks and financial market uncertainty”.

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‘Inexcusable’: should climate hypocrites get the petrostates label?

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Suggestions definition of petrostate is too narrow as many rich countries that could phase out fossil fuels double down

“Drill, baby, drill!” Donald Trump’s ominous avowal to pump up the oil and gas production of the US has horrified many people around the world about the intentions of the Republican candidate, who has also declared he wants to be “dictator for a day”. Rather than the prospective leader of the free world, the election frontrunner sounds more like the tyrant of a petrostate.

That should not be entirely surprising given the country’s recent record: it has ramped up fossil fuel production to become the world’s biggest producer. As a Guardian investigation reveals, the total number of projected licences by the US for 2024 could lead to an estimated 397m tonnes of planet-heating emissions.

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Cop29 host Azerbaijan seeks $1bn from fossil fuel producers for climate fund

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Countries and companies involved in oil and gas extraction to be asked to join scheme aimed at tackling global heating

Fossil-fuel producing countries and companies are being asked to pay into a new international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of the climate crisis.

The climate investment fund is being set up by the Azerbaijan government, host country of the Cop29 UN climate summit in November.

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Zelenskiy to attend UK cabinet meeting in effort to disrupt Russian oil sales

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Ukraine’s president will ask for more help to block Putin’s growing ‘shadow fleet’ of tankers carrying sanctioned crude to buyers

The Ukrainian president, Volodmyr Zelenskiy, will attend an extraordinary meeting of the British cabinet on Friday to bring fresh impetus to efforts to stop Russia evading sanctions on its oil exports.

Zelenskiy will be the first foreign leader to visit Downing Street since Keir Starmer was elected prime minister two weeks ago and the first foreign leader to address cabinet in person since the US president Bill Clinton in 1997.

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Shell to take hit of up to $2bn on Rotterdam and Singapore sites

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Oil firm’s warning comes after it had to halt work on Europe’s largest biofuel project and sell refinery in Asia

Shell has warned investors that it will take an impairment charge of up to $2bn (£1.6bn) in its next set of results after it was forced to halt work on Europe’s largest biofuel project and sell off a Singapore refinery.

The oil company told investors to expect a non-cash writedown of between $600m and $1bn when it publishes its second-quarter results next month because of trouble at a major biofuel project in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

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Ugandan oil pipeline protester allegedly beaten as part of ‘alarming crackdown’

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Stephen Kwikiriza is one of 11 campaigners against EACOP targeted by authorities in past two weeks, rights group says

A man campaigning against the controversial $5bn (£4bn) east African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) is recovering in hospital after an alleged beating by the Ugandan armed forces in the latest incident in what has been called an “alarming crackdown” on the country’s environmentalists.

Stephen Kwikiriza, who works for Uganda’s Environment Governance Institute (EGI), a non-profit organisation, was abducted in Kampala on 4 June, according to his employer. He was beaten, questioned and then abandoned hundreds of miles from the capital on Sunday evening.

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Devastating Brazil floods made twice as likely by burning of fossil fuels and trees

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Scientists say calamities on same scale as disaster that has killed 169 will become more common if emissions not cut

The unusually intense, prolonged and extensive flooding that has devastated southern Brazil was made at least twice as likely by human burning of fossil fuels and trees, a study has shown.

The record disaster has led to 169 deaths, ruined homes and wrecked harvests, and was worsened by deforestation, investment cuts and human incompetence.

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Trump attends Houston lunch to ask oil bosses for more campaign cash

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Invitation-only meeting comes on heels of controversial dinner at Mar-a-Lago where Trump reportedly offered $1bn quid pro quo

Donald Trump was continuing to ask fossil-fuel executives to fund his presidential campaign on Wednesday, despite scrutiny of his relationship with the industry.

The former president attended a fundraising luncheon at Houston’s Post Oak hotel hosted by three big oil executives.

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UK and Finland discuss further efforts to stop Russia’s shadow oil fleet

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Third parties could be required to do more to block tankers from operating in Baltic and the Channel

Britain and Finland are discussing plans to require third parties to do more to block the Russian shadow oil tanker fleet operating in the Baltic and the Channel, the Finnish foreign minister has said.

The waters around Finland act as a key choke point for the estimated 100 Russian-bought oil tankers that navigate the Baltic monthly using opaque ownership structures to carry 90m tonnes of oil.

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Cop29 at a crossroads in Azerbaijan with focus on climate finance

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Fossil-fuel dependent country hopes to provide bridge between wealthy global north and poor south at November gathering

Oil is inescapable in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The smell of it greets the visitor on arrival and from the shores of the Caspian Sea on which the city is built the tankers are eternally visible. Flares from refineries near the centre light up the night sky, and you do not have to travel far to see fields of “nodding donkeys”, small piston pump oil wells about 6 metres (20ft) tall, that look almost festive in their bright red and green livery.

It will be an interesting setting for the gathering of the 29th UN climate conference of the parties, which will take place at the Olympic Stadium in November.

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