Friday, 24 July 2026

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has opened a funding opportunity to advance domestic oil and natural gas production and delivery, with an application deadline of September 22, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

DOE Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit said the funding will help American producers eliminate waste, improve efficiency, and deliver affordable, reliable, and secure energy that powers the economy and strengthens national security.

According to the DOE, the funding opportunity supports President Trump's Executive Order, "Unleashing American Energy," and advances the administration's commitment to ensuring Americans have access to affordable, reliable, and secure energy through the responsible development of the nation's oil and natural gas supplies.

Horizon Petroleum has signed a drilling and services deal covering the re-entry, recompletion and production testing at its Lachowice-7 well and won final regulatory clearance to begin field work, according to World Oil. Exalo Drilling S.A. holds the contract, with operations set for the company's wholly owned Bielsko-Biała concession.

Rig mobilization is due to start July 27, and field operations should get under way around Aug. 1, World Oil reported. If the workover succeeds, stimulation and production testing are expected to run from late August into early September.

Horizon Petroleum CEO David Winter said the test aims to determine whether the reserve can move toward commercial production, with a target of initial cash flow in early third-quarter 2027.

The company estimates the Lachowice field holds more than 1.2 Tcf of gas in place.

A King County judge rejected oil companies' bids to throw out Misti Leon's wrongful death suit, clearing the case to move toward trial, according to Grist.

Leon's mother died of overheating on Washington's hottest recorded day, in June 2021, as temperatures hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit, Grist reported. Across the Pacific Northwest, roughly 1,200 people died during that week under the heat dome, according to Grist.

The Leon suit sits among many now moving through US courts. Columbia Law School's Sabin Center counts nearly 40 climate cases pending against oil companies nationwide. Five have reached discovery, where each side gathers evidence for trial, in filings from Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and Honolulu, Grist reported.

The American Petroleum Institute has named stopping "extreme climate liability policy" as one of its priorities for 2026, according to Grist.

Utah, Iowa, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have each signed laws that shield fossil fuel companies from suits tied to greenhouse gas emissions, Grist reported.

In May, the Justice Department filed its own suit against Minnesota's climate case targeting Big Oil, timed as that state action moved into discovery, according to Grist.

Brent crude gave back close to $4 on Friday, dropping 3.96% to trade at $96.70 a barrel by 0946 GMT, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. Even after the retreat, the benchmark was tracking a 9.7% gain across the week.

The drop came one session after Brent closed above $100 for the first time since May, OEDigital reported. That prior surge followed reports that Iran-aligned Houthis had hit two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) shed $3.15, or 3.42%, to $89.04 a barrel, heading for a weekly rise of nearly 8%, OEDigital said.

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed "major military punishment" for Iran and its Houthi allies over the Red Sea attacks.

JPMorgan analysts projected that every extra month of supply disruption would add roughly $7 to $8 a barrel to Brent, a path that could push monthly averages to about $114/bbl should the interruptions run for three months.

Shipping traffic showed no sign of a broad shutdown at one key chokepoint. Commodity vessel transits at the Bab el-Mandeb strait reached 32 on July 23, up from 26 a day earlier, according to Kpler data.

Elsewhere on the supply side, Kazakhstan's energy ministry said producers temporarily cut output after suspected Ukrainian drone strikes shut the country's main Black Sea export terminal, OEDigital reported.

Allseas has completed one of the most extensive renewal and upgrade programs in the history of its pipelay vessel Solitaire, clearing the ship to return to commercial operations after 10 months of work in Rotterdam, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The program modernized the vessel's propulsion, power generation, automation and hybrid power systems, according to OEDigital. It also upgraded the double joint factory, a component of Solitaire's pipelay operations for more than 25 years.

OEDigital reports that Solitaire will return to commercial service in the Gulf of Mexico following sea trials, where it is scheduled to work on a major ultra-deepwater pipeline project. The vessel will then begin a two-year campaign covering West Africa, Taiwan and Australia.

That campaign is expected to include the installation of more than 1,250 kilometers of pipeline, according to OEDigital.

Solitaire was launched in 1998 and has been one of the offshore industry's flagship pipelay vessels, OEDigital reports.