** Israeli warplanes struck two of Iran’s petrochemical facilities responsible for 85% of exports and had “taken them out of use.” The IDF struck the South Pars petrochemical facility near Asaluyeh in southern Iran, the largest such facility in Iran, Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed on Monday afternoon.
** Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” that the U.S. was preparing to lift sanctions on approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian crude already sitting on tankers at sea. The move, he said, was designed to add supply to global oil markets and cap prices as U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran continued.
** Ukraine has appeared to defy calls from allies to stop striking Russian energy facilities amid the global oil and gas squeeze triggered by war in Iran. Russian officials claimed that Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery operated by Lukoil and a Baltic pipeline near St Petersburg.
** Swedish authorities have released a tanker sanctioned by the European Union that had been boarded and detained on suspicion of causing an oil spill in the Baltic Sea. The Swedish Coast Guard said they had not found sufficient evidence that the Flora 1 tanker was at fault for the 12-kilometer (8-mile) -long spill that had been discovered Thursday.
U.S.
**A growing number of North Carolina localities are considering temporary bans on data centers due to concern over their water and energy usage requirements.
** Eagle Nuclear Energy plans to begin a 27,000ft drilling programme at the Aurora Uranium Project, situated on the Oregon–Nevada border, in the US.
** Kentucky residents cram into three public meeting rooms to speak out against the state’s push to develop more nuclear power, with some criticizing plans for a uranium enrichment facility and another facility to re-enrich depleted uranium tails.
** Google is pursuing gas power for a massive Texas data center despite its pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2030.