Other energy news headlines for Monday

** The House oversight committee has invited key board members at four oil majors, Exxon, Shell, Chevron and BP, to testify in February about the industry’s role in climate change and spreading “disinformation,” turning up the heat on big oil after lawmakers grilled their CEOs last year. The hearing is set for Feb. 8.

** American Electric Power, the parent company of SWEPCO, will invest $100 million to build a new transmission control center in Shreveport that will strengthen the power grid in Louisiana, Texas and beyond. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and American Electric Power CEO Nicholas Akins announced the project  Thursday.

** U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that domestic natural-gas supplies fell by 206 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 14. That compared with the average decline of 193 billion cubic feet forecast by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts, which pegged the five-year average supply fall for the period at 167 billion cubic feet.

** The cost of two new nuclear reactors at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle site shot up from $14.1 billion in 20094 to nearly $32 billion as of last fall according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

World

** Oil majors Total Energies and Chevron Corp, partners in a major gas project in Myanmar, said on Friday they were withdrawing from the country, citing the worsening humanitarian situation following last year’s coup.

** The hottest oil countries in South America—Guyana, Suriname, and Brazil—are set to discuss later this week the setting up of a new energy alliance and building infrastructure across the countries to share their growing oil and gas resources.

** For the first time in a year, the world’s largest oil importer, China, publicly disclosed data showing it had imported crude oil from Iran, despite the U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports.

** Venezuela has doubled its oil production in recent months thanks to Iran and other players that are helping it evade U.S. sanctions, but the country’s industry is now running near the top of its capacity and it is unlikely it could go much higher than current output levels, according to industry analysts.