More energy headlines

** U.S. shale oil and gas producers Oasis Petroleum Inc and Whiting Petroleum Corp are close to agreeing an all-stock merger that could be announced as soon as this week, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

** Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy (D) said on Sunday that if the U.S. decides to ban Russian energy imports, he would like to see the gap in energy production filled with renewable energy on top of domestic fossil fuel production.

** Cowboy Midstream , a full-service midstream provider in Wyoming, announced the planned opening of its Ross Road Terminal. The Ross Road Terminal is a Crude Oil Truck Offload Facility in the Powder River Basin. The Terminal will be capable of offloading and shipping Powder River crude in volumes of up to 20,000 bbls/day.

** The Port of Corpus Christi’s top executive decried the Biden Administration during an interview broadcast on the Fox Business Network. Chief Executive Officer Sean Strawbridge told Fox host Stuart Varney, host of the weekday show Varney & Co., the oil and gas sector is being negatively impacted by the current administration’s environmental policy.

** Nissan announces it will expand a Mississippi factory to make electric vehicles even though its residents have fewer EVs registered per capita than any state.

** North Dakota’s U.S. senators use Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to promote more oil and gas activity and pipeline projects in the Upper Midwest. 

World

**  If the West bans Russian oil, international crude prices could skyrocket to $150 per barrel, analysts say.

** The U.N.’s top official for Libya on Monday called for lifting the production blockade at two oil fields including the country’s largest, as oil prices soared to over $130 a barrel.

** lberta, Canada’s main oil-producing region, can help alleviate the global oil supply crunch caused by energy disruptions, Alberta energy minister, Sonya Savage, said on Sunday. “We are the solution, not Venezuela and others,” Savage told Reuters.

** A comprehensive new United Nations-sponsored assessment of climate change finds that global warming is reshaping the world more rapidly and severely than was known several years ago. The report finds that climate change is affecting every person’s physical and mental health, and classifies nearly half of the global population as being “highly vulnerable” to climate impacts.