Myles McCormick

Joe Biden has ordered some of his most senior officials, including the secretary of state, to travel to Mexico in the coming days for talks with the Mexican president amid a surge in migrants trying to enter the US that has prompted the closing of several border crossings. Biden and his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, spoke about troubles along the US’s southern border on Thursday and agreed “additional enforcement actions are urgently needed” to reopen shuttered crossings, sa…

Howdy. Welcome back to Energy Source, your final instalment of the year, coming to you from Houston. The news from Texas: Charif Souki, the godfather of US liquefied natural gas, is out at Tellurian as the developer struggles to get its Louisiana export megaproject off ground. Souki’s exit bags him $8mn. In today’s newsletter I look at US Democrats’ efforts to put energy policy — and in particular the Inflation Reduction Act — at the heart of the president’s re-election bid. And in a lighter…

Falling US petrol prices are boosting hopes that the worst wave of inflation in decades is fading, just as Joe Biden begins a campaign to convince sceptical voters that they are better off with a Democrat in the White House. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline could fall below $3 in the coming days, well below the record highs above $5/g struck in the summer of 2022 — a time when soaring costs for groceries and rent were also squeezing household budgets. In a nation of big cars, d…

It took eight months for María and her family to reach New York after leaving their home in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, a gruelling voyage during which several of her fellow travellers died. “It was dangerous, very dangerous,” says the 33-year-old mother of four, standing outside her temporary home at midtown Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel, the city’s main intake facility for new arrivals. “But the truth is we had to leave.” It is a common refrain among the thousands of people arriving daily at Amer…

US natural gas companies Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy are closing in on a merger deal that would create the biggest single producer in the country with a combined market value of about $17bn, according to people familiar with the talks. The companies are in advanced discussions on an agreement to be signed as soon as next week, according to the people, though they cautioned it could still fall apart. The potential tie-up comes as a wave of merger and acquisition activity sweeps ac…

Chesapeake Energy has agreed to buy Southwestern Energy in a $7.4bn all-share deal that will create the biggest US natural gas producer as a wave of merger and acquisition activity continues to sweep across the energy sector. The combined company, with an enterprise value of about $24bn, will be by far the largest player in upstream US gas supply as it seeks to feed the surging demand for liquefied natural gas exports along the US Gulf coast. “We combined to create an unmatched global natural…

ExxonMobil has filed a lawsuit to try to stop a shareholder climate resolution from going to a vote at its annual investor meeting, in a first for the US oil major that marks an escalation in the battle between companies and environmental activists. Exxon is suing Follow This, an Amsterdam-based investor activist group, and Arjuna Capital, a registered investment adviser, in an attempt to block a motion they have put forward calling on the company to accelerate the pace of reductions in greenho…

The biggest US renewable energy developer has expressed confidence that Republicans would not follow through on threats to rip up the Inflation Reduction Act if they win this year’s election, as the company reported record orders for 2023. Republicans have vowed to hollow out the IRA, President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law, whose extensive tax credits for clean energy projects have made it a flashpoint in the election debate. But John Ketchum, chief executive of NextEra Energy said such an…

Hello from Houston. Big Oil kicked off earnings season today. Shell was the first supermajor out of the gates reporting their full-year earnings. Analysts expect a similar slide from 2022’s highs for ExxonMobil and Chevron when they follow suit tomorrow. Ahead of their earnings, Jamie and I took a look under the hood at Chevron, which has come under fire on a number of fronts lately: from from operational hiccups in Kazakhstan and the US to criticism that it has fallen to the back of the pack…

Surging US oil production helped ExxonMobil and Chevron notch their second-biggest annual profits in a decade despite a slide in prices that tempered earnings from the records hit in 2022. America’s oil supermajors increased output sharply in their own backyard in 2023, pursuing a strategy of doubling down on oil and gas that has prompted blowback over their commitment to cutting emissions. Exxon posted full-year net income of $36bn, down from $55.7bn the previous year, but otherwise its bigge…

Top oil industry executives have hit out at US President Joe Biden’s decision to pause approvals for new liquefied natural gas export terminals, with Shell’s CEO warning it will “erode confidence” in an industry that has become a pillar of the global energy system. The European energy major, the biggest shipper of LNG after state-owned Qatar Energy, has bet heavily on demand for the gas, which it expects to continue to grow even if consumption of other fossil fuels starts to decline. “I don’t…

ExxonMobil’s market capitalisation exceeds $400bn. Follow This, a Dutch climate activist group, controls shares in the oil supermajor that at last count were worth less than $4,000. Follow This has repeatedly tried to use its tiny holding as a lever to force Exxon to expand pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This year the oil company has had enough. Minutes after midnight in Amsterdam on January 22, Exxon hit Follow This and another investor, Arjuna Capital, with a lawsuit alleging their…

The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has sharply criticised ExxonMobil’s decision to sue two shareholders that filed a climate proposal at the US oil major, pursuing the litigation even after they dropped the resolution. Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norway’s $1.5tn oil fund, told the Financial Times he was concerned about Exxon’s action against Follow This and Arjuna Capital, which submitted the motion calling on the company to set more ambitious emissions targets at its annual meeti…

The global benchmark oil price has topped $90 a barrel for the first time since October as flaring tensions in the Middle East exacerbate an already-tight market. Brent crude oil futures rose 1.5 per cent on Thursday to settle at $90.65 a barrel as traders weighed the potential for Iran’s backlash after a suspected Israeli attack on its consulate in Damascus. Prices had been climbing steadily this year as healthy economic data from big economies such as the US and China point to further increa…

When Berkshire Hathaway announced the acquisition of MidAmerican Energy in 1999, Warren Buffett hailed the Iowa gas and electric utility as squarely in the conglomerate’s “sweet spot”. Unheralded at the time, the $2bn transaction catapulted Buffett into the energy business, kicking off a quarter of a century of dealmaking that has transformed Berkshire into a major player, operating across 28 states, transporting 15 per cent of America’s natural gas and serving 13mn customers. The $138bn of as…

Environmental groups plan to exploit new air pollution rules by the Biden administration to step up their campaign against the development of multibillion dollar natural gas export terminals in the US. New air quality standards will require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to more closely examine the impact of liquefied natural gas projects on the surrounding air quality, raising the bar for which projects will be allowed to proceed to construction. “FERC is going to have to take this…

Calpers, the largest public pension plan in the US, has decided to vote against the re-election of the ExxonMobil board of directors and chief executive in a protest against the oil major’s “reckless” legal action to “silence” shareholder voices. The announcement by the $463bn fund comes amid growing investor criticism of Exxon’s decision to sue two climate-focused investor groups to block a resolution they introduced demanding it do more to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. In a strongly-word…

Hess shareholders have approved a $53bn takeover by Chevron, advancing a controversial acquisition at the heart of a high-profile brawl between the US’s leading oil companies. Investors on Tuesday voted to accept Chevron’s offer despite concerns over an arbitration process launched by rival ExxonMobil, which argues it has a right of first refusal over any sale of Hess’s stake in a prize oil find off the coast of Guyana. “We are very pleased that the majority of our stockholders recognise the c…

Scott Sheffield, the former chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources accused of colluding with Opec to restrict oil production, hit out at the US Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday and said he had been “unjustly smeared”. Pioneer, the biggest oil producer in Texas, was acquired by ExxonMobil in a $60bn deal that closed this month. But in giving the green light to the transaction, the antitrust regulator took the unusual step of banning Sheffield from serving on the supermajor’s board, argu…

The Texas drawl rang out across the airwaves from San Diego to Sacramento: “I hear building a business in California is next to impossible. This is Texas Governor Rick Perry and I have a message for California businesses: come check out Texas.” Broadcast in February 2013, the radio advert was Perry’s boldest stunt in a campaign to lure companies from the west coast to Texas. Although it was dismissed as “barely a fart” by Jerry Brown, Perry’s Californian counterpart, the following year carmaker…