Today’s Key Takeaways: Trump/Putin AK Meeting leads to oil price decline. Santos wins big in LNG legal dispute. U.S. GoldMining advancing critical infrastructure for Alaska gold-copper project. Bait & witch budgeting for federal regulations, wind and solar.
OIL:
Oil Prices Decline Ahead Of Putin-Trump Meet In Alaska- Ukraine, Tariffs On Agenda
Republic News, August 11, 2025
Ahead of the Putin and Trump meeting in Alaska on August 15, 2025, the global oil prices declined by 4 per cent in a week, signaling a two-month low.
Ahead of the highly anticipated meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, the global oil prices declined by 4 per cent in a week, signaling a two-month low.
Meanwhile, brent crude oil prices were up by 5 cents to USD 66.64 per barrel, and crude futures declined by 1 cents to USD 63.87.
Trump is slated to meet with his Russian counterpart on Friday with the war in Ukraine as top item on his agenda list, which reportedly is likely to involve handing over eastern Ukraine to Russia.
In a formal note, Trump has mentioned the land-swap to part of the pact that could usher peace in Ukraine.
The brent crude oil traded near USD 66 a barrel after declining 4.4 per cent last week and West Texas Intermediate was above $63, as per a Bloomberg report.
Robert Rennie, Head of Commodity & Carbon Research, Westpac Banking Corp, said curating a deal is an extremely arduous task, assuming a dela is struck brent would be below USD 65 with risks, citing a Bloomberg report.
Further, he said that prices might drop below $60 late in the fourth quarter of the year.
GAS:
Santos awarded over $450M in LNG project legal dispute with Fluor
Dragana Nikse, Offshore Energy, August 11, 2025
Australia’s energy player Santos has been declared the winner of a court case it brought against Fluor Australia, a subsidiary of Texas-based engineering firm Fluor Corporation, relating to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project on Curtis Island.
Upholding the majority of the findings of three referees from 2023, the Queensland Supreme Court ruled that Fluor must pay approximately A$692 million, or around $451 million, to Santos and its co-venturers. Additional amounts to be paid will be determined in the coming weeks.
The case relates to an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract that Santos signed with Fluor in 2011 for the development of production facilities forming part of the Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project.
As stated in the ruling, Santos sought to recover contract overpayments, damages for breach of a collateral contract or misleading or deceptive conduct in contravention of the Australian Consumer Law, and liquidated damages for the project’s late completion.
The GLNG plant is located on Curtis Island, approximately five kilometers north of the city of Gladstone, Queensland. The LNG plant consists of two trains with a combined nameplate capacity of 7.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). Construction took place between 2011 and 2014.
MINING:
U.S. GoldMining Advances Planning With State of Alaska Officials for Critical Road Infrastructure to the Whistler Gold-Copper Project, Alaska
Tim Smith, U.S. GoldMining, August 11, 2025
U.S. GoldMining Inc. (NASDAQ: USGO) (“U.S. GoldMining” or the “Company“) is pleased to provide an update with respect to discussions with representatives from the State of Alaska and Matanuska-Susitna Borough (“MSB“) regarding plans to advance the West Susitna Access Project (“WSAP“). The Company is very pleased to report, based on discussions to date, continued strong support at all levels of government for the Whistler Gold-Copper Project (“Whistler” or the “Project“) and that all critical elements of the WSAP, which will connect Whistler with existing highway, rail, power and port infrastructure, are moving forwards expeditiously with respect to design, environmental baseline studies, stakeholder engagement and permitting.
- U.S. GoldMining’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Tim Smith, was invited to meet with Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy on August 7, 2025, and with the Executive Director of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (“AIDEA“) and the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (“ADOT&PF“), along with additional industry leaders representing resource development companies which are also advancing projects in the West Susitna Mineral District.
- The meeting included an update for industry representatives by AIDEA, which recently submitted a permit application for its 78.5 miles of proposed public and industry road (see AIDEA’s news release dated July 25, 2025) that will connect Whistler with existing transportation and energy infrastructure in the eastern MSB.
- Mr. Smith also met with MSB Mayor, Edna DeVries, on August 6, 2025, to share updates on the Company’s progress at Whistler and to hear about MSB’s development plans at Port Mackenzie, located at the eastern terminus of the WSAP.
Tim Smith, Chief Executive Officer of U.S. GoldMining, commented: “We thank Governor Dunleavy and Mayor DeVries for their leadership in supporting plans to expedite the design, permitting and construction of the West Susitna Access Project. This transformative access initiative will directly connect Whistler with existing transportation and energy infrastructure within the greater Anchorage region of Southcentral Alaska; thus Whistler will be a direct beneficiary of the WSAP. As we advance our proposed initial economic assessment, which was previously announced on June 9, 2025, and mobilize teams into the field for the 2025 exploration program (see news release dated July 21, 2025), we remain committed to working collaboratively with all levels of government, regulatory agencies and other stakeholders in support of the WSAP and the long-term development of Whistler.”
About the Proposed West Susitna Access Project
The WSAP comprises two elements: ADOT&PF’s project to build 22-miles of new public road extending west from the existing road network in Southcentral Alaska, and a further 78.5-miles of public and industry road being led by AIDEA that will extend into the foothills of the Alaska Range, terminating at the Company’s exploration camp near the Whisky Bravo airstrip (see Figure 2). The WSAP will connect existing road, power, rail and port infrastructure in the eastern MSB, with multiple natural resource development projects located in the West Susitna Mining District, including the Company’s Whistler Project.
POLITICS:
B.S. Baseline Modeling
Mitch Rolling, Isaac Orr, Energy Bad Boys, August 9, 2025
The Bait & Switch budgeting tactic used to deceive the public about the federal regulations, wind, and solar.
Whenever you see a regulatory agency like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or a utility company crow about how much an energy proposal or regulation will save or cost Americans, the first thing you should do is ask: “Oh yeah? Compared to what?”
It’s important to ask this question because these entities never report the true cost of a proposal compared to today’s costs, but instead, they compare the costs to some imaginary future baseline scenario that is often even more expensive.
This deceptive bait-and-switch tactic allows utilities and regulatory agencies to hide the true costs of their onerous regulations or integrated resource plans in a B.S. baseline. It also allows these entities to dishonestly claim their preferred policies will save energy consumers money—when in reality, they won’t
In this week’s episode of Energy Bad Boys, we pull back the curtain on how the EPA used a B.S. Baseline to hide the true (and massive) costs of its regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal and new natural gas power plants.
Imagine you were at Best Buy browsing around, and you saw an advertisement for two TVs—the one on the left has a price tag of $800, and the other on the right has a price tag of $500. The sign reads: “Save $300 by choosing the one on the right!”
Sure, you can save $300 by buying the TV on the right, compared to buying the one on the left, but ultimately, you understand that you’re still spending an extra $500. You could save even more ($500) by not buying a new TV in the first place. These are the kinds of bait-and-switch shenanigans used by regulatory agencies and utilities to sell their energy proposals to the public.