** General Motors (GM) has agreed to place battery manufacturing for electric vehicles (EVs) under its main agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, UAW President Shawn Fain announced on Friday.
** Exxon Mobil is expecting a third-quarter operating profit of between $8.3 billion and $11.4 billion, as increases in oil, gas and fuel prices have reportedly boosted the oil major’s earnings.
** Exxon Mobil is in advanced talks to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources in a deal that could value the Permian shale basin producer at about $60 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
** According to Cox Automotive, the average price of a new electric vehicle was sold for around $53,469, a price that is not entirely attractive to most buyers.
** Expect lower prices at the pump in the coming months, as Saudi Arabia’s production cuts sent crude prices too high, energy expert Paul Sankey told CNBC on Thursday.
** Federal regulators have rejected a request from two environmental groups to immediately shut down one of two reactors at California’s last nuclear power plant.
** Texas-based Tesla still accounts for 61% of all electric vehicles ever sold in the U.S., and its new price cuts this year have prevented competitors from gaining much traction.
** Federal officials set a November date for the next offshore oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico after previously postponing it due to a court order.
** A court orders federal marshals to seize a helicopter owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies to enforce a judgment of more than $10 million a firm says it’s owed.
World
** South Korea’s LG Energy Solution will invest about $3 billion “to establish new production lines for battery cells and modules exclusively for Toyota” following a supply deal struck between the two companies.
** Germany’s small and mid-sized companies, the backbone of Europe’s largest economy, are urging the government to ease burdens like notorious bureaucracy and high energy costs, which they see as being partly self-inflicted.
** Bangladesh on Thursday received the first uranium shipment from Russia to fuel the country’s only nuclear power plant, still under construction by Moscow. Once finished, the plant is expected to boost Bangladesh’s national electrical grid and help the South Asian nation’s growing economy.
** France blocked a deal that would have seen the takeover of two Canadian-owned French maker of valves used in nuclear reactors because it did not think commitments made by U.S. bidder Flowserve were sufficient, a finance ministry source said.
** Talks between Ford and a potential investor in its plant in Saarlouis, Germany have fallen through, the carmaker said on Thursday, plunging workers back into uncertainty over the future of the site and their jobs.
** Developed countries pledged $9.3 billion to help poor nations tackle climate change at a conference held in the German city of Bonn on Thursday, authorities said. However, nongovernmental groups criticized the outcome, saying the funds fall short of what is needed to tackle climate change.