** At least five people have been killed and six injured in a fire at an offshore oil platform owned by Mexico’s state-run company Pemex. Rescue workers are still searching for two people who are missing. The fire also caused work to be halted at 125 oil wells for which the platform provides gas and electricity.
** The U.S. Energy Department announced on Monday that it intends to sell up to 20 million barrels of crude oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Up to 8 million barrels each will be sold from the Bryan Mound, Big Hill and West Hackberry SPR sites and up to one million barrels from the Bayou Choctaw site, according to the DOE.
** An equipment failure led to the spill of 1,400 barrels of drilling brine in North Dakota last week, most of which was recovered.
** A company seeking to revive 19 natural gas wells in South Dakota agrees to post a higher reclamation bond than required by law.
** The U.S. and Singapore announced a new climate partnership Monday as Vice President Kamala Harris tours the country and South East Asia. The climate partnership includes collaboration on climate finance, research and development, and establishing climate standards.
** Europe will no longer need Russian gas in twenty-five years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a meeting with Ukraine’s president, Vladimir Zelenski.
** Gregg W. Johnson, the former chief financial officer of Chemstar Products Co. in Minnesota was sentenced Monday to a 2 and one-quarter year term for defrauding his Minneapolis employer out of nearly $1 million.
** Kinder Morgan, Inc. has closed the $310 million acquisition of renewable natural gas developer Kinetrex Energy. It acquired the Indianapolis-based company from a subsidiary of a private equity investment firm, Parallel49 Equity.
** Mass recalls of electric cars due to the danger of battery fires in some models risk deterring motorists from making the switch, experts have warned. David Bailey, an automotive industry expert at Birmingham University, sounded the alarm after General Motors recalled the Chevrolet Bolt in the US for the third time in less than a year.
** Maersk, the world’s largest container-shipping line is making a $1.4 billion investment in a greener fleet. The company has ordered eight new vessels each costing $175 million that can be propelled by cleanly made methanol instead of an oil-based fuel.
** State regulators correctly found a proposed $700 million natural gas plant in Superior, Wis., is necessary and “serves the public interest better than a renewable-resource alternative,” the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday.
** Chevron and Hess announce they will require offshore oil workers in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment.
