Trump

President Trump on Friday granted a new presidential permit to a long-stalled segment of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL (KXL) oil pipeline, opening a potential route for the remaining U.S. portion of the 1,200-mile project to move Canadian oilsands to the Gulf Coast.

A federal district court judge in Alaska last Friday ruled an executive order (EO) issued by President Trump in 2017 opening areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans to oil and gas leasing was “unlawful and invalid,” and ordered the areas closed to leasing.

President Trump delivered a one-hour State of the Union address Tuesday night that focused on a litany of priorities, but there were scant remarks about the tremendous gains in the U.S. oil and gas industry.

President Trump said he plans to nominate David Bernhardt to lead the Department of Interior in an official capacity.

President Trump’s decision to reopen parts of the federal government for three weeks may portend a hard line in the ongoing Sino-U.S. trade war, an issue that the oil and gas industry has been watching with increasing alarm, according to analysts.

Despite impossible odds of passing the GOP-controlled Senate, House lawmakers on their third day of control Tuesday introduced seven bills designed to block the Trump administration’s plans to expand offshore oil and gas drilling.

ExxonMobil Corp. has reportedly broken ranks with some operators in the oil and gas industry over the Trump administration’s plans to amend Obama-era rules on methane emissions, arguing that the regulations are “reasonable” in their current form.

Department of Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt is said to be on the short list to take over after embattled Interior chief Ryan Zinke, who is facing a litany of congressional investigations, told President Trump over the weekend that he is stepping down.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, aka OPEC, and its Russian-led allies on Friday agreed to further reduce global oil output in an attempt to balance an overflowing market and stem falling prices.