** Phillips 66 announces second-quarter 2023 earnings of $1.7 billion compared with earnings of $2.0 billion in the first quarter. Excluding special items of $69 million, the company had adjusted earnings of $1.8 billion in the second quarter, compared with first-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.0 billion.
**Occidental Petroleum Corp on Wednesday reported an 83% slump in second-quarter profit, hit by lower oil and gas prices. The company said average realized price for oil fell to $73.59 per barrel for the April-June quarter from last year’s $107.72 per barrel.
** Following the deaths of multiple wild horses during public land roundups in Nevada this summer, activists are pressing for urgent changes in the way the federal government controls the West’s sprawling equine population.
** A California-led coalition of 22 U.S. states and territories is taking bipartisan legal action against a recently proposed settlement between the company 3M and water utilities affected by “forever chemicals” — arguing that the deal would shift accountability from the polluter to the providers.
** Environmental nonprofit Coltura recently found that the more than 2 million electric vehicles on the road in 2021 only reduced gasoline consumption by half a percent. The reason? Most of those cars are being driven infrequently or replacing cars that were already fuel-efficient.
** Audubon calls for accelerated transmission and clean energy infrastructure buildout, saying climate change is more harmful to birds than power lines and wind turbines.
** Big Oil companies and other offshore wind energy developers are now getting ready for the first ever offshore wind auction by the U.S. government in the Gulf of Mexico to be held on August 29. The Final Sale Notice for the auction included a 102,480-acre area offshore Lake Charles, Louisiana, as well as two areas offshore Galveston, Texas, one comprising 102,480 acres and the other 96,786 acres.
** Occidental Petroleum Corp. bought back $522 million of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s preferred stock in the second quarter, demonstrating its willingness to repay even as commodity prices drop.
World
** British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Sunak has decided to turn back on the spigots of energy production. He just announced hundreds of new oil and gas drilling permits in an effort to make Britain more energy independent and bring down the current high gas prices.
** The U.S. is eyeing Mongolia as a source of raw materials needed for clean energy manufacturing, but shipping will be a challenge as the country is completely landlocked between Russia and China.
** Exxon Mobil Corp., which once planned to bet big on Argentina’s oil and gas riches, has put all of its shale assets in the country under review.
** The operators of the electricity systems of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia signed an agreement on Aug. 2 to disconnect from the Russian power system and synchronously connect to the European grid, the Lithuanian Energy Ministry announced.
** Reports that China obstructed discussions on tackling climate change at Group of 20 (G20) meetings last week in India are “completely inconsistent with the facts”, China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.