** A British man has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison by a Florida federal judge after he was convicted of attempting to smuggle an engine to Iran. The engine could be used to provide energy Iranian oil fields.
** Exxon Mobil Corporation is expected to invest more than $240 million in the Baton Rouge refinery to make it ready for a potential expansion, per reports. Exxon reportedly intends to make the site more competitive by modernizing it.
** Cooler than normal weather on the East Coast has driven natural gas prices up. It came after a larger than normal draw reported by the Energy Department.
** Oil workers in Alberta are falling victim to a growing spread of the pandemic in the Canadian province’s remote north, with a Chevron Corp. site among the latest to be struck reported Bloomberg.
** Reuters reports oil giant Aramco, whose dividend remains vital to helping Saudi Arabia contain a huge deficit, may have to sell assets and borrow more to fulfil its fiscal role amid uncertainty in oil prices, market specialists said.
** Canada wants deeper environmental ties with the United States and one result could be a North American ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks, a senior cabinet member said this week according to Reuters.
** The Japanese operator of a bulk carrier that struck a coral reef and caused an extensive oil spill off the coast of Mauritius said Friday that the accident occurred after the ship shifted its course two miles (3.2 kilometers) closer to shore than planned so its crewmembers could get cellphone signals reported the Associated Press.
** A new study finds more than 80% of Texans believe in climate change, and that most support policies to reduce carbon emissions according to E&E News.
** An Ohio legislative bill that would increase criminal charges against fossil fuel protesters and threaten religious groups or nonprofits that support them is expected to land Monday on the desk of Gov. Mike DeWine. The legislature quietly passed it last week on the state Legislature’s final day of the session.