** The company behind last month’s southern California oil spill is facing a U.S. Justice Department probe, seven other investigations, and at least 14 lawsuits; financial filings suggest it may not be able to cover cleanup costs.
** Rivian shares continued to soar Monday, putting the stock more than 85% above its IPO price. It hasn’t even been public for a full week. The electric truck maker has rocketed from relative obscurity to Wall Street darling, and it owes much of its breakout success to one very powerful fanboy: Jeff Bezos reported CNN Business Nightcap.
** Citgo Petroleum Corp, the eighth-largest U.S. oil refiner, reported on Monday its seventh quarterly loss in the last two years and reshuffled its board of directors, naming three new members.
** Freeport LNG and Talos Energy announced they are working together on a carbon capture project near Houston. If all goes according to plan, it could be the first active carbon sequestration project on the Gulf Coast reported American City Business Journals.
** Colorado’s biggest oil and gas producer increased its production this fall and is drilling more wells, expecting to maintain its increased pace into 2022. Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) produced 5.8% more oil and gas in its Rockies division in the third quarter this year than compared to 2020, and it has one more drilling rig operating in the region.
** General Motors dealers in metro Detroit face a new challenge to selling cars. They must inform Michigan car buyers that there’ll be no heated seats or heated steering wheels on many 2022 GM models, just as temperatures drop into the 40s and winter is weeks away.
** The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Monday it will not rewrite the first-ever standards regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes finalized in the last days of former President Donald Trump’s administration.
World
** Chinese officials reported Monday that their coal production surged to its highest level in years, the same day that officials in India’s capital readied a shutdown due to air pollution, a one-two punch from the developing world that showed the difficulty of combating global warming just after the end of a landmark U.N. conference.
** Russia and Saudi Arabia predict there will be an oil oversupply in 2022. According to Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, inventories could already begin to rise next month and into Q1 2020.
** Railroad tracks that carry goods to and from the Port of Vancouver have been shut by heavy rains and resultant mudslides in British Columbia.
** Shortages of natural gas could cause rolling blackouts in Europe this winter, one of the world’s largest commodity traders has warned, as gas prices surged after Germany suspended certification of a key new pipeline from Russia. Jeremy Weir, chief executive of Trafigura, said a prolonged cold snap could cause major problems in comments likely to spark alarm in Britain following months of soaring energy prices.
