** Honda is reportedly preparing to significantly expand its US manufacturing footprint by up to 30% over the next two to three yearsin response to the Trump administration’s sweeping new tariffs on foreign imports. The Japanese automaker is considering shifting production of several key models from Mexico and Canada to the US.
** Dallas-based Vaquero Midstream, a natural gas gathering and processing midstream company operating in the Delaware Basin, closed on an expanded $400 million credit facility led by BOK Financial®. This increased credit facility will support multiple system expansion projects that are planned for 2025 and 2026.
** Impossible Metals, a pioneering California-based deep-sea mining company, has submitted a request to commence a leasing process for exploration and potential mining of critical minerals in the deep sea off the coast of American Samoa. Impossible Metals is the first company to request a lease of critical minerals under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which is regulated by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
** Liberty Energy Inc., which Energy Secretary Chris Wright led until his appointment to Trump’s cabinet, has tumbled 43% this year, one of the most precipitous declines among US energy stocks. The value of Wright’s stake in Liberty has fallen by nearly half to about $30 million over that period.
** North Carolina lawmakers advance legislation that would require solar power companies to pay property taxes on nearly $6 billion in equipment around the state.
** The Trump administration grants at least 66 coal-fired power plants operated by Dominion Energy, Southern Co., the Tennessee Valley Authority, and other utilities a two-year exemption from federal requirements to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic chemicals.
** Two Ameren coal plants around St. Louis receive air pollution exemptions from the Trump administration.
World
** Halliburton and Nabors Industries achieved the first fully automated surface and subsurface execution of rotary and slide drilling operations in Oman. This collaboration between Halliburton and Nabors in the Middle East led to drilling performance optimization and reduction of well construction time.
** Paris-basedTotalEnergies has signed an agreementwith Energia Natural Dominicana, the Joint Venture between AES Dominicana and Energas in the Dominican Re public, for the delivery of 400,000 tons of LNG per year. Subject to the finalization of the SPAs, this agreement is set to start in mid-2027, for 15 years, with the price indexed to Henry Hub.