** A federal judge on Wednesday pressed an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency about whether the agency broke the law when it swiftly terminated $20 billion worth of grants awarded to nonprofits for a green bank by allegedly bulldozing past proper rules and raising flimsy accusations of waste and fraud.
** CenterPoint Energy has completed the sale of its natural gas distribution systems in Louisiana and Mississippi to Delta Utilities for $1.2 billion, the companies announced Tuesday.
** Tesla announced that in the first quarter, it produced over 362,000 vehicles, delivered over 336,000 vehicles and deployed 10.4 GWh of energy storage products. Tesla will post its financial results for the first quarter of 2025 after market close on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
** ExxonMobil announced Karen T. McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company and vice president Exxon Mobil Corporation, will retire effective May 1, 2025. The Board of Directors has appointed Matt Crocker president, ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company and vice president Exxon Mobil Corporation. He will succeed McKee effective May 1, 2025.
** Phillips 66 announced the completion of its previously announced acquisition of EPIC Y-Grade GP, LLC and EPIC Y-Grade, LP, which own various subsidiaries and long-haul natural gas liquids pipelines, fractionation facilities and distribution systems for total cash consideration of approximately $2.2 billion.
** Legal experts say U.S. EPA Administration Lee Zeldin has so far failed to back up his claims of “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the federal “green bank” program as nonprofits challenge the clawback in court.
** Dallas-based Wing Resources VIII, LLC announced the formation of its newest mineral and royalty acquisition platform, backed by $100 million in equity commitments from NGP Royalty Partners III, L.P., the latest NGP fund focused exclusively on acquiring mineral and royalty interests.
** EnCap Investments L.P. and the team behind the Double Eagle family of companies announced they have expanded their strategic partnership with the formation of Double Eagle Energy Holdings V, LLC and Tumbleweed Royalty V, LLC with $2.5 billion of equity committed. Double Eagle V will primarily focus on investing in oil and gas properties across the Permian Basin, and Tumbleweed V will focus on royalty and mineral investments across multiple U.S. basins with its primary focus on the Permian.
** Chinese EV giant BYD’s sales grew 60% in the first quarter as it makes inroads beyond its home country, while Tesla’s global sales fell 13% over the same period amid consumer backlash against Elon Musk.
World
** Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, on Wednesday imposed restrictions on another major oil export route, suspending a mooring at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk only a day after restricting loadings from a key Caspian pipeline.
** Chinese EV giant BYD’s sales grew 60% in the first quarter as it makes inroads beyond its home country, while Tesla’s global sales fell 13% over the same period amid consumer backlash against Elon Musk.
** Repsol, S.A. REPYY, along with other oil majors like France’s Maurel et Prom and Italy’s Eni, recently received a notification from the U.S. authorities regarding their revocation of oil licenses for operations in Venezuela.
** An oil tanker and cargo ship that crashed in the North Sea did not have “dedicated lookouts” in what were “patchy conditions”, an interim report has found. The Stena Immaculate, a US-registered tanker carrying aviation fuel, was anchored 16 miles (26km) off the East Yorkshire coast when it was hit by the Portuguese-flagged Solong on 10 March.