** Mexico’s state-owned oil firm Pemex has restored part of the oil production suspended after Sunday’s fatal fire that killed seven people, but the pace of output recovery could be slower than expected because of technical issues including well re-connection, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
** An Australian company’s exploration well likely has tapped into a 1.6 billion barrel oil reservoir on Alaska’s North Slope.
** A U.S. federal judge said on Friday she will rule by Sept. 3 on whether to grant a request from Native Americans to temporarily block Lithium Americas Corp from excavating its Nevada mine site, which would become one of the country’s biggest sources of the electric-vehicle battery metal.
** ConocoPhillips stock is sitting on a big gain this year, and director R.A. Walker recently made the largest insider purchase of shares of the energy explorer and producer in years.
** U.S. Customs and Border Protection started detaining solar panel imports from Chinese companies that allegedly source products from Xinjiang forced labor, Washington Post reports.
** Special Climate Envoy John Kerry heads to China next month with plans to prod the world’s largest carbon emitter on taking stronger climate steps as the crucial United Nations summit looms this fall.
** Portland, Oregon, officials are expected to decide this week whether to allow a major oil storage and shipping terminal to continue operating in the city, testing its 2019 ban on fossil fuel infrastructure expansions.
** Wyoming’s U.S. senators call on the EPA to lower biofuel mandates to protect small refineries and reduce gasoline prices.
** A Tesla subsidiary has applied to sell electricity on Texas’ retail power grid, marking a milestone in Elon Musk’s energy ambitions for the company.
** A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a judge’s 2019 ruling that ordered Ameren Missouri to install pollution controls at its Rush Island power plant south of Festus, a decision likely to force the St. Louis-based electric utility to rethink its long-term plans or spend hundreds of millions retrofitting a 1970s-era coal plant.
** Pioneer Natural Resources Company announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash base dividend of $0.56 per share on Pioneer’s outstanding common stock. The dividend is payable October 14, 2021, to stockholders of record at the close of business on September 30, 2021.
