** The Biden administration plans to sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to dampen fuel prices before next month’s congressional elections, three sources familiar with the matter said on Monday reported Reuters.
** House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) requested further information on Mississippi’s use of federal funds allocated for water infrastructure following the September water crisis in Jackson.
** Oil production in the Permian Basin is forecast to rise by ~50K bbl/day to a record 5.45M bbl/day in November, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Monday in its latest productivity report.
** A shipwreck has emerged along the banks of the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as water levels plummet — threatening to reach record lows in some areas.
** U.S. officials have made clear that allowing oil major Chevron to expand in Venezuela depends on a grand gesture: the Venezuelan government and opposition returning to election talks in Mexico at least for a first round, three people close to the matter said this week.
** Diamondback Energy announced its purchase of FireBird Energy Oct. 11, paying $775 million in cash and 5.6 million shares of Diamondback valued at about $140 a share. The transaction included about 75,000 acres in the eastern Midland sub-basin of the Permian, producing about 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), expected to rise to 25,000 boe/d.
** Enbridge Inc said on Monday it has reached an agreement on penalties over its Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project and that it will pay $11 million to various Minnesota regulators and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
** Cadillac pulled the wraps off of the Celestiq, its new super high-end electric vehicle. The long, low sedan will start at around $300,000 and each will be hand-built to customer preferences.
World
** The EU is looking to counter gas price volatility, but has so far remained divided on how to do it. A new proposal from the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, is due to be discussed this week.
** German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered ministers Monday to prepare to keep all of the country’s three remaining nuclear plants running until mid-April, putting his foot down on an issue that had threatened to split his three-party government.
** A warmer world will likely beget hurricanes that gain strength faster and exacerbate the risk of flooding along the Atlantic Coast, according to the study, published on Monday in Geophysical Research Letters.
** A preliminary investigation of damages to the two Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Danish part of the Baltic Sea shows that the leaks were caused by “powerful explosions”, Copenhagen Police said on Tuesday.
