** Chevron is advancing plans to tap into data center power demand, with the oil major recently entering the permitting and engineering phases for multiple U.S. sites to develop the centers and the electricity to supply them, a company executive told Reuters this week.
** The rapid development of AI data centers is intensifying concerns about how well an aging U.S. electrical grid can hold up to that demand, energy executives and regulators said at the CERAWeek conference in Houston this week.
** New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and President Trump met on Friday to discuss the development of a natural gas pipeline the state blocked in 2020, but Trump is already threatening to override the state’s authority to push the project through.
** U.S. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announces plans to roll back nearly every important climate policy on the books, including recent pollution standards that target coal- and new gas-fired plants.
** A federal appeals court lifts an injunction that had blocked Indiana’s right of first refusal law that gives Indiana-based utilities first rights to build transmission projects.
World
** Cuba remained largely without power on Saturday morning after the island´s grid collapsed the night before, knocking out electricity for 10 million people and raising fresh questions about the viability of its antiquated generating system.
** India’s crude oil imports from Latin America and Africa rose marginally in February as refiners turned to alternative sources, fearing a loss of Russian oil supplies caused by tighter U.S. sanctions, data from trade sources shows. The South Asian nation became the biggest buyer of Russian seaborne oil sold at a discount after Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
** Ukrainian drone attacks triggered a massive fuel tank fire at Rosneft PJSC’s Tuapse oil refinery, one of the biggest in Russia.
** First Quantum Minerals Ltd. was cleared to begin shipping out stockpiled copper in Panama, the latest sign authorities may be willing to negotiate a restart of the company’s giant shuttered mine.
** Exxon Mobil CorporationXOM is doubling on natural gas development with its eighth oil project offshore Guyana, marking the largest gas initiative yet in the Stabroek Block. The Longtail project, led by ExxonMobil and its partners Hess Corporation HES and CNOOC, is set to produce up to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas.
** Shell Plc said it delivered record volumes of liquefied natural gas to power ships last year, boosting the use of a fuel that’s become crucial to the energy transition.