** President Joe Biden used a visit to corn-rich Iowa on Tuesday to announce he’ll suspend a federal rule preventing the sale of higher ethanol blend gasoline this summer as his administration tries to tamp down prices at the pump that have spiked during Russia’s war with Ukraine.
** U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday urged Indian leader Narendra Modi not to increase his country’s reliance on Russian oil and gas.
** A man was criminally charged last week following his arrest in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, after affixing satirical stickers of President Biden onto the gas pumps at a local Turkey Hill gas station.
** Natural gas prices hit a 13-year rising 5.5% on Monday after a 10% climb last week. Demand remains strong, but natural gas arrivals at LNG terminals were flat compared to Friday. On Monday, week over week, natural gas arrivals at LNG terminals were 4% higher.
** Crusoe Energy, the bitcoin (BTC) miner that uses flared gas that would otherwise be wasted to power its miners, said Monday it was largely unaffected by an accident that occurred last week near one of its bitcoin mines in North Dakota.
** Lumber futures fell as much as 8.4% to $870 per 1,000 board feet in Chicago on Monday, extending a slump to about 30% since the start of March. The contract, which briefly slipped below $850 last week, is hovering around levels seen back in early December.
** The average cost of a gallon of regular gas went down to $4.27, marking a 10-cent decrease in the last two weeks, the Associated Press reported on Sunday, citing the Lundberg Survey.
** Oil executive Luis Giusti Lugo was removed from the board of directors of Houston-based refiner Citgo Petroleum, the chief of the company’s supervisory body said on Monday.
**A trio of fossil fuel companies are set to pay the state $15 million to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Attorney General Peter Neronha over allegations that they polluted groundwater supplies in Rhode Island with a gasoline additive that has been linked to cancer.
** Six companies tied to Chinese billionaire Liu Zhongtian were ordered by a U.S. judge to pay $1.83 billion in restitution for disguising aluminum shipments to avoid paying approximately that amount in customs duties.
World
** A decision driven by Saudi Arabia that OPEC+ should stop using oil data from the West’s energy watchdog reflected concern about U.S. influence on the figures, sources close to the matter said, adding to strain on ties between Riyadh and Washington.
** Russian oil exports are rebounding to pre-invasion levels, but cargoes are traveling on far longer delivery routes. Russian crude exports jumped to about 4 million barrels a day in the first week of April, the highest levels all year, per Bloomberg.
