** Vitol Group is said to be near a purchase of Hunt Oil Co.’s Permian Basin oil wells in what would mark the biggest independent crude trader’s first major acquisition of U.S. production assets, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

** An underground nuclear waste storage tank in Washington state that dates to World War II appears to be leaking contaminated liquid into the ground, the U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday.

** Exxon Mobil Corp on Friday topped Wall Street quarterly earnings estimates with its first profit in five quarters, boosted by higher oil prices and strong chemicals margins.

** Exxon Mobil Corp late Friday began escorting United Steelworkers (USW) union members from part of its Beaumont, Texas, complex ahead of an expected Saturday lockout, a USW official said.

** The owners of the Dakota Access pipeline said Thursday they want the U.S. Supreme Court to review lower court opinions confirming that the project deserves a thorough environmental review and is currently operating without a key federal permit.

** The Methodist Church has sold out of Royal Dutch Shell over the oil major’s “inadequate” response to climate change, weeks before a shareholder vote on the company’s energy transition plans. Epworth Investment Management, which is owned by the Methodist Church and oversees its investments, told the Financial Times it had sold almost £21m in shares because Shell’s plans were not aligned with the 2015 Paris accord.

** A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to quickly determine whether a pesticide linked to brain damage in children should be banned, saying the agency had delayed acting on the widely used bug-killer chlorpyrifos for nearly 14 years.

** 1 in 5 electric vehicle owners in California switched back to gas because charging their cars is a hassle according to new research. The main reason drivers made the switch was the inconvenience of charging.

** The amount of oil and gas shipped on Phillips 66 Partners LP pipelines fell about 6% in the first quarter as winter storms disrupted service and the COVID-19 health crisis continued to hamper fuel demand, company officials said on Friday.

** The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) again denied Mountain Valley Pipeline’s (MVP) request for a water permit for its proposed Southgate natural gas pipeline project from Virginia to North Carolina.