** The Biden administration bans new offshore oil and gas drilling on more than 265 million acres of water, including along the entire West Coast and in the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
** Alaska economic officials expect the state’s oil and gas sector to gain 600 jobs this year but still remain far below 2014 employment levels.
** Hydrogen industry analysts expect Trump to revise but not repeal the clean hydrogen rules to make it easier for fossil fuel-produced hydrogen to secure federal incentives.
** A House Republican leader says energy permitting reform is unlikely to be part of the party’s flagship spending bill currently in development.
** U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories jumped in the past week as refineries ramped up output, though fuel demand hit a two-year low.
** Nuclear power stocks are surging in the early days of 2025 amid new deal activity, with more growth on the way, analysts say. Shares of Constellation Energy climbed 4% on Friday, extending Thursday’s gain of 8% reported Business Insider.
** Advocates call on federal land managers to address evidence allegedly showing the Thacker Pass lithium mine under construction in Nevada has caused groundwater levels to drop and is threatening an imperiled snail with extinction.
World
** Europe is burning through its gas reserves at the fastest pace in seven years, leaving Germany “acutely” exposed as cold weather sweeps the Continent. Stockpiles have dropped more quickly than at any point since 2018, falling 25pc from their peak, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data compiled by Bloomberg.
** The Telegraphy reports French energy giant Total Energies has shut down a key North Sea hub amid growing concerns over the Government’s windfall tax. The firm halted production at the Gryphon terminal, which is responsible for providing around 2pc of Britain’s oil and gas supplies, on New Year’s Day.
** Russia-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea announced a regional emergency on Saturday, as oil was detected on the shores of Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city. Fuel oil spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers nearly three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, close to eastern Crimea — about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Sevastopol, which lies on the southwest of the peninsula.
** China’s independent oil refineries face a reckoning this year as Beijing tackles overcapacity in the industry, and the crude they rely on becomes a lot scarcer. Over a fifth of the country’s oil refining is handled by smaller, privately owned outfits, many of them housed in the eastern province of Shandong.
** Tariffs totaling up to 35% on imported electric vehicles (EVs) from China have posed a significant challenge for Chinese automakers in the EU. While the EU’s actions aim to level the playing field for local automakers, Chinese car manufacturers are expanding their global manufacturing footprint in a bid to circumvent the trade barriers reported Autoblog.
** Wind turbines have overtaken gas as Britain’s biggest source of electricity as the Government pushes ahead with plans to make the nation more reliant on renewable energy. Wind accounted for 29pc of the UK’s electricity last year, while gas tumbled to around a quarter. In the previous year, 2023, gas represented 32pc of the UK’s generation mix.
** The head of Moldova’s breakaway region Transnistria has urged residents to burn firewood for heating and warned that blackouts cannot be avoided, after Moscow stopped supplying gas via Ukraine.
** Sales of electric vehicles in Germany collapsed in 2024 following the cancellation of a government subsidy, official figures showed on Monday. Around 380,600 electric cars were newly registered over the course of the year, 27% fewer than in the previous year, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).