** The Saudi Energy Minister warned traders on Thursday against betting heavily in the oil market saying he will try to make the market “jumpy” and promised those who gamble on the oil price would be hurt “like hell”.
** Mesa Royalty Trust in Houston announced that there will be no distribution paid for the month ended September 2020 to holders of record as of the close of business on September 30, 2020, as costs, charges and expenses attributable to the Trust’s royalty properties exceeded the revenue received from the sale of oil, natural gas and other hydrocarbons produced from such properties, as reported by the working interest owners.
** BBVA USA, as Trustee of the San Juan Basin Royalty Trust reported that it will not declare a monthly cash distribution to the holders of its Units of beneficial interest due to prior excess production costs from the April 2020 production month. Excess production costs occur when production costs and capital expenditures exceed the gross proceeds for a certain period.
** The Ohio Power Siting Board unanimously voted last week to remove language that would require offshore turbines to shut down overnight eight months of the year to protect migrating birds and bats.
** Scientists estimate that California’s wildfires this year through mid-September put about 90 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air.
** Environmentalists want the Bureau of Land Management to suspend efforts to amend a New Mexico oil and gas development plan, citing concerns about Native American tribes and others who would be affected.
** Defenders of the Keystone XL pipeline this week urged a federal appeals court to reverse a judge’s order blocking the use of a key water permit for the crude oil pipeline.
** Ford Motor Co. announces plans to build a $700 million Detroit plant that will produce electric F-150 trucks.
** The recent hiring of a climate science skeptic atop the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has scientists worried that the newly created position will give a contrarian broad powers to shape the way the federal government studies and talks about climate change.
** More than 250 Indigenous, conservation and faith organizations signed onto a letter urging Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Hilcorp not to pursue fossil fuel development in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to withhold from bidding on any lease parcels that are offered in the Arctic refuge.
