WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Monday, Daily on Energy readers! Summer is officially here, as yesterday marked the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. ☀️😎🥤🥵 Be sure to stay hydrated, seek out shade, and wear sunscreen this summer, as some scientists say it will be the hottest year on record.
Today’s newsletter kicks off with the latest news on the peace talks between the United States and Iran, as well as the amount of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. 🇺🇲🚢🇮🇷 Have we been nearing pre-war levels, as the Trump administration has claimed? Read below to find out.
Plus, the administration has proposed revising some of its oil and gas policies to make it easier for fossil fuel developers to obtain federal leases under less public scrutiny. 🛢️⛽ Keep reading to learn more.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
THE LATEST ON PEACE DEAL TALKS: Vice President JD Vance traveled to Switzerland over the weekend to meet with Iranian officials and mediators as part of an effort to end the war in the Middle East.
Vance said earlier today that “we made a lot of good progress” during those negotiations. He noted that they would work to create mechanisms to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and to de-mine the waterway.
The vice president’s trip was part of a 60-day negotiation period the U.S. and Iran agreed to in their preliminary deal signed last week.
Sanctions lifted: As part of the memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran, the Treasury Department announced today that it would lift sanctions on Iran oil and oil products.
The department issued a general license that would allow Iran to produce, deliver, and sell its crude oil and other petroleum products through Aug. 21. It would also authorize the importation of Iranian-origin crude oil and petrochemical and petroleum products to the U.S. when it is necessary to complete its sale or delivery.
The lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil could allow Tehran to earn nearly $8 billion in two months, according to an estimate.
Read more about the Treasury Department sanctions waiver here.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ? There has been a noticeable increase in oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz this past weekend, marking the fastest pace since the war started in late February.
Tankers moved about 20 million barrels of crude oil through the strait from Friday to Sunday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Trump administration the past few days has touted that the waterway is now reopened.
However, the process has been rocky. Iran on Saturday announced that the strait would be closed, following the strikes launched by Israel against Lebanon. The Financial Times reported this morning that more than 400 large ships await the full reopening of the waterway.
Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority has announced several bureaucratic measures ships must obtain before moving through the waterway, including permits and insurance.
Even as traffic in the strait slowly resumes, maritime and shipping experts are raising concerns about vessel safety, as Iran has reportedly placed mines throughout the route.
Ian Ralby, a global maritime security expert and president of Auxilium Worldwide, told Maydeen that the “open-closed narrative is kind of ridiculous” because the key question is not whether the Strait of Hormuz is open or closed, but whether it is “safe and passable.”
Read more about the Strait of Hormuz transit status here.
QATARI PLANT EXPLOSION: An explosion and fire occurred at a Qatari natural gas site yesterday, leaving 13 people dead and 66 injured.
Saad Sherida al Kaabi, Qatar’s energy minister and the CEO of QatarEnergy, today confirmed that the incident was an accident. The incident occurred as workers were restarting the Barzan plant in Ras Laffan, which has been shut down since December.
The plant had been shut down due to maintenance requirements and it was first restarted two days ago. Qatar’s natural gas facilities have experienced several retaliatory strikes by Iran throughout the war.
For instance, Iran struck the Ras Laffan Industry City in mid-March, which impacted about 17% of its export capacity and cost QatarEnergy nearly $20 billion in annual revenue.
Read more by Washington Examiner’s Molly Parks here.
HOW ARE MARKETS REACTING? The Trump administration’s optimism over the U.S.-Iran talks sent another wave of confidence through the oil markets today, putting further downward pressure on prices.
Just before 3 p.m. EDT, both international and domestic benchmarks were down by around 3%. Brent crude had fallen 3.46% and was priced at $77.78 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate dropped 2.79% and was selling at $73.73 a barrel.
Still, analysts are warning that full normalization of global supply is months away, as traders are also now considering declining inventories in their pricing.
As for gasoline, prices at the pump have been steadily dropping, with the average price of gasoline declining in nearly every state over the last week, according to estimates from GasBuddy. As of this afternoon, GasBuddy recorded the average price of gasoline at $3.861 a gallon.
GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said that, while uncertainty in the Middle East negotiations could send oil prices back up, gasoline isn’t at a significant risk of a spike due to the fact that several ships have traversed the Strait of Hormuz.
“Still, should the situation worsen or escalate further, motorists could see that risk change quickly,” he said.
U.S. CRUDE STOCKS DIP LOWER: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell even lower last week, with inventories hitting 331.2 million barrels.
This marks the lowest level U.S. oil stocks have been since June 1983, when they were just above 330 million barrels. Over the last week, inventories in the SPR dropped by 9.05 million barrels.
This is a part of the Trump administration’s massive 172 million barrel drawdown, which is meant to keep gasoline prices down in the fallout of broader oil supply disruptions caused by the war in Iran.
As a reminder: The SPR has a total capacity of around 714 million barrels across four main facilities. It requires roughly 20% of its full capacity to remain operational.
The current drawdown is expected to send the SPR to its lowest level since it was created, hitting as low as 243 million barrels.
INTERIOR PROPOSES SLASHING PUBLIC COMMENT ON OIL AND GAS LEASING: The Interior Department has proposed dramatically cutting the amount of time the general public has to offer input on oil and gas leasing, slashing participation periods by more than half.
The agency proposed the significant limitations for public input in its latest revision to the Bureau of Land Management’s oil and gas policy.
This proposed revision is made up of two coordinated regulatory actions focused on “modernizing federal onshore oil and gas policy,” specifically revising the agency’s oil and gas leasing rule and the waste prevention rule. Interior said the changes proposed today would “eliminate unnecessary administrative barriers.”
According to the proposed revisions, the administration appears to consider public participation one of these barriers, suggesting shortening public participation time periods from 90 days to just 10.
Under current rules for competitive leasing, BLM is required to provide a scoping period of no less than 30 days, allowing for public comment on the preliminary list of tracts of land to be made available in a lease sale. The agency is also required to draft a National Environmental Policy Act document for a lease sale, providing an additional comment period of no less than 30 days. After a notice for the lease sale is published, the BLM is then required to provide a protest period of no less than 30 calendar days to allow for additional public input. In total, this amounts to at least 90 days of public participation.
Read more from Callie on the proposed changes to Interior’s oil and gas leasing policy here.
CHEVRON STRIKES DEAL TO POWER MICROSOFT DATA CENTER: Chevron announced this morning that it struck a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft, promising to provide electricity for a massive data center being built in West Texas.
The details: The data center project, known as Project Kilby, is expected to start receiving power in 2028, and will have a capacity of around 2.67 gigawatts. For comparison, the city of San Francisco is estimated to require around 1 gigawatt of electricity during peak load.
Construction on the data center has not yet begun, but the facility will be located on more than 2,000 acres in the Permian Basin.
Under the deal with Chevron, the data center will be primarily powered by natural gas.
Chevron did not disclose how much the deal would cost, but said the company would be making its final investment decision later this year.
“AI is reshaping the global economy, and abundant, affordable, reliable energy is essential to fueling that transformation,” Chevron president of New Energies Jeff Gustavson said. “Chevron is uniquely positioned to deliver power to customers with certainty, speed and at a competitive cost, leveraging Permian natural gas and our proven execution capabilities.”
WATER-GUZZLING DATA CENTERS NOT A PROBLEM ANYMORE, NVIDIA CLAIMS: Nvidia has made the bold claim that it has solved the issue of excessive water consumption from massive data centers running artificial intelligence operations.
The Big Tech firm made the assertion at the start of London Climate Week, saying its most advanced AI systems are able to be fully cooled by a liquid that is warm enough that it lessens the need for additional chilling processes, according to Axios.
“The water consumption challenge for data centers is largely solved,” Nvidia’s chief sustainability officer Josh Parker told the outlet.
Specifically, the liquid being used by Nvidia is reportedly a recirculated mixture including water and propylene glycol and can run at 113°F. As the coolant can be used at a higher temperature, the facilities do not need to heavily rely on other chilling resources that require large amounts of water or energy.
It was not immediately clear how much this coolant technology has cost the Big Tech giant, sparking questions about how easily other data center developers would be able to use it and significantly reduce water usage across the industry.
A LOOK AHEAD:
June 20 – 28 is London Climate Action Week.
June 22 The American Petroleum Institute is hosting a program titled “Energy Security in a Volatile World,” at its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
June 23 – 25 The 2026 Infocast Transmission and Interconnection Summit is being held in Washington D.C.
June 23 – 24 Reuters’ Global Energy Forum is taking place in New York, New York.
June 23 The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is holding a hearing to examine nominations of William Hauge to be an Assistant Secretary of Interior, Kevin Lilly to be Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife, and Kaveh Farzad to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy (International Affairs).
June 24 – 26 The U.S. Sustainable Investment Forum’s Annual Conference will be held in Washington, D.C.
June 24 The United Coalition for Advanced Nuclear Power is holding a webinar featuring remarks from Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Ho K. Nieh.
June 24 The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas will release its second quarterly energy survey for 2026.
June 24 The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is also examining Lilly’s nomination to Fish and Wildlife.
June 24 The House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on Environment is holding a hearing titled, “Trash to Treasure: Examining Legislation to Support Domestic Critical Mineral Recovery and Recycling.”
June 24 The House Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on Energy is planning to vote on the “Ratepayer Protection Act,” as well as a number of other transmission related bills.
June 25 Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy is holding an event in Washington, D.C., analyzing the rising electricity prices, the grid, and effect of artificial intelligence, featuring remarks from Illinois Rep. Sean Casten and former chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Neil Chatterjee.
June 25 The House Committee on Natural Resources’ subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources is holding an oversight hearing titled, “Beneath the Surface: Earth MRI and America’s Resource Potential.”
June 25 The House Agriculture Committee’s subcommittee on Forestry and Horticulture is holding a hearing regarding management of the national forest system.
RUNDOWN
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