** Oil company executives are reaching out to the White House, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance to protest allowing Iran to charge tolls through the strategic Strait of Hormuz as a condition of peace talks, said one industry consultant granted anonymity to discuss relations with the administration.
** Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline – its only major export route bypassing the Strait of Hormuz – was damaged in an Iranian attack, an industry source said on Wednesday, potentially disrupting flows of up to 7 million barrels per day.
** An oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island was targeted in an “enemy attack” on Wednesday, which caused no casualties, the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said, according to the Oil Ministry’s news outlet, Shana. The company said the facility was hit at around 10 a.m. (0630 GMT), adding that safety and firefighting teams were working to contain the blaze and secure the site.
** Nearly 200 laden tankers remain stranded around the Strait of Hormuz, with more than 1,000 vessels backed up inside the Gulf. Clearing that backlog, even under normal conditions, could take longer than the ceasefire itself. Iran’s Fars news agency said late on Wednesday that Iran stopped tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz after what it described as Israel’s “ceasefire breach.”
** The vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz – long acknowledged but rarely tested – has been starkly exposed. Iran’s demonstrated ability to virtually halt traffic through the world’s most critical energy chokepoint has transformed the strait from a theoretical deterrent into an active geopolitical fault line.
** The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has issued a warning about sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz, complicating efforts to reopen the waterway following the ceasefire between Tehran and the United States.
US energy
** New Jersey has become the sixth state in the last decade, and the second this year, to fully repeal its moratorium on building new nuclear power stations.
** Tennessee has fined an ammunition plant more than $3.1 million for a series of health and safety violations, months after an explosion at the plant killed 16 people and injured others. The fine is the largest ever issued by the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency said on Wednesday.
** A slate of liberal candidates won control of the board of Arizona’s largest public utility this week, the Salt River Project, according to preliminary results posted on Wednesday, emerging from a surprisingly contentious race that attracted national attention.
** NextEra Energy, Inc. announced that it plans to report first-quarter 2026 financial results before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, April 23, 2026, in a news release to be posted on the company’s website at www.NextEraEnergy.com/FinancialResults.
** Minnesota regulators approve Xcel Energy’s first-in-the-nation utility virtual power plant program that will invest $430 million to deploy up to 200 MW of small batteries at customer sites in an effort to bolster power supplies on the grid.
** Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker calls on Congress to allow permanent year-round sales of E15 gasoline with higher blends of ethanol to spur domestic energy production and stabilize fuel markets.