More energy headlines

** Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) poured cold water on the idea of suspending the federal gas taxes as a way to reduce the costs of higher gas prices for consumers.

** Ruby Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline joint venture between Kinder Morgan and Pembina Pipeline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure its debt. Kinder Morgan will continue to operate the pipeline, which provides 1.5B cf/day of natural gas delivery capacity from the Opal Hub in Wyoming to the Malin Hub in Oregon, on the California border.

** A new company, HydroGraph Clean Power, has spun out of graphene and hydrogen research at Kansas State University. They came up with a cheaper, more environmentally friendly way to create large amounts of graphene by igniting acetylene and oxygen.

** Toyota and a proposed class of hybrid-vehicle owners have settled a class-action lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas. The case had originally been set for trial this July before the court-ordered mediation for the parties.

** The Biden administration may soon consider calls for exemptions to a ban on financing of new carbon-intensive fossil fuel projects overseas, a senior U.S. official said, as energy markets tighten on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

** The global chip shortage has been wreaking havoc on the supply chain for over a year, and now that shortage is temporarily shutting down a major U.S. automaker. Ford announced that its Flat Rock Assembly Plant near Detroit will be down this week, specifically due to the semiconductor shortage.

 

World

** Russia is on track to make $321 billion from energy exports in 2022 if trading partners keep buying its oil and gas, according to a Bloomberg analysis Friday.

** A Russian politician said two Ukrainian helicopters blew up an oil depot in Russia on Friday. The governor of Belgorod said Ukrainian helicopters launched an airstrike on the city of Belgorod. Ukrainian officials denied it.

** Greenpeace activists on Thursday blocked two oil tankers off the coast of Denmark from transferring 100,000 tonnes of Russian oil, in what the organization said was an attempt to stop funding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

** Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s announcement that he would not abandon a massive Russian gas project was decided weeks ago when he told top officials in private he wouldn’t risk Japan’s energy security, three sources said.

** Evraz, the Russian steelmaker whose biggest shareholder is Roman Abramovich, will not proceed with the separation of its coal assets, it said on Friday, citing sanctions on the country following the Ukraine invasion.

** Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday he rejected a proposal from U.S. climate envoy John Kerry for a U.S. group to monitor efforts around a contentious energy bill and chided what he described as a bid to “keep watch” over Mexico.