Today’s Key Takeaways: CA Governor shifts stance on oil drilling. Santos bid global LNG gamechanger. US transfers 28,000 acres near Ambler project to NANA. Like “zombies in a horror movie” oil market myths just won’t die.
OIL:
California Governor Proposes to Ease Permits for Oil Drilling
Nathan Risser, Bloomberg/Rigzone, July 21, 2025
California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing a bill to streamline permitting for new oil wells that environmental groups say would wipe out scrutiny of the industry.
The bill would establish “plug-to-drill” permitting until 2036 where two wells would have to be plugged and abandoned before a new one is drilled. In addition, drillers no longer would need well approval from the Geologic Energy Management Division, known as CalGem, so long as certain conditions are met.
Shares of in-state drillers climbed on the news, with California Resources Corporation jumping 4.8% and Berry Corp. up 6.9%.
The draft bill text — seen by Bloomberg News and portions of which were leaked by environmental groups — is the latest in a series of recent shifts Newsom has made in approaching the oil and gas industry after years of regulatory scrutiny.
The governor is softening his stance toward the industry this year after refineries operated by Phillips 66 and Valero Energy Corp. decided to shut operations in the state and California’s legislature placed a greater emphasis on reducing costs of living for the state’s 40 million residents.
A spokesperson for the governor said environmental groups are circulating only partial text from the bill.
GAS:
Adnoc’s bid for Santos is a global LNG gamechanger
Maten Khalid, Arabian Gulf Business Insider, July 21, 2025
The deal will have a transformational impact on Abu Dhabi’s market role
Adnoc’s $18.7 billion acquisition bid for Australia’s natural gas and LNG colossus Santos marks a milestone in the evolution of Abu Dhabi’s energy sector.
It’s also the first time a GCC state-owned national oil company has attempted to acquire an upstream E&P major listed on a Western stock exchange.
The deal is politically sensitive: Adelaide-based Santos is a main gas supplier and a major employer in South Australia, where it generates thousands of high-paying jobs.
The fact that Santos’s share price, three weeks after the deal was announced last month, implies a market capitalisation of $16.46 billion, or 12 percent below the Adnoc consortium bid, suggests that the Australian financial markets believe the deal faces significant regulatory hurdles.
Markets aren’t expecting a competing bid, making a bidding war for Santos unlikely. Woodside Energy – which previously explored a merger with Santos – is sidelined from this deal due to likely antitrust pushback from regulators.
Adnoc, meanwhile, has charted a distinct course from its GCC peers such as Saudi Aramco, Kuwait Petroleum, Qatar Energy and Oman’s OQ. Unlike others in the region, Abu Dhabi chose not to nationalise the domestic assets of American, British, Dutch and French supermajors – a decision that continues to shape its outward-facing investment strategy.
Adnoc has formed a series of joint ventures with Western and Asian oil and gas supermajors, including Total, BP, ExxonMobil, CNPC, Japan Oil, Shell and Austria’s OMV.
MINING:
US transfers acreage near proposed mining road to Alaska native group
Nicholas Groom, KITCO News, July 21, 2025
The Trump administration transferred 28,000 acres (11,331 hectares) in a remote part of Northwest Alaska to a native corporation, putting more land near a proposed mining road under local control.
The move is aligned with President Donald Trump’s pledge to remove barriers to energy and resource development in the state.
“By putting land into Alaska Native hands, we are advancing opportunity in Alaska, while reducing federal barriers to resource development,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
The acreage was conveyed to NANA Regional Corporation, which is based in Kotzebue, Alaska. The corporation is controlled by the Inupiat tribe. NANA was not immediately available for comment.
NANA supports construction of a road to the Ambler mining district, an area with copper, zinc and lead deposits, but severed ties last year to a project proposed by an Alaska state agency. The Biden administration later rejected that road, citing risks to caribou and fish populations and native communities
POLITICS:
4 Oil Market Myths That Just Won’t Die
Tsvetana Paraskova, OilPrice.Com, July 17, 2025
- Despite claims of energy independence, the U.S. remains a net crude oil importer, though it is a net petroleum exporter overall.
- Oil prices are influenced by a complex interplay of supply, demand, and geopolitical events, not solely by OPEC or U.S. presidents.
- While renewables are growing, oil is not expected to be entirely replaced soon due to its essential role in various sectors like transportation and petrochemicals.
They’ve been debunked. Repeatedly. But like zombies in a horror movie, these oil market myths just won’t stay dead. From campaign slogans to cocktail party arguments, here’s what the data really says.
1) The U.S. is Energy Independent
Energy independence has been a key slogan in the campaigns and presidential terms of President Donald Trump. Make America Great Again and Make the US Energy Independent have often been tied into one pledge or claim.
Fact: While the U.S. became a net petroleum exporter in 2020 for the first time since records began in 1949, it still imports more than 8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, refined products, biofuels, and hydrocarbon gas liquids. In 2023, about 6.48 million bpd of that was crude oil—roughly 76% of total gross petroleum imports—according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That means the U.S. exports more total petroleum than it imports, but it remains a net importer of crude oil specifically.
The top five source countries of U.S. gross petroleum imports in 2023 were Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Brazil. Canada alone accounted for more than half – 52% — of all petroleum imports into the United States. Mexico came second with an 11% share and Saudi Arabia third with 5% of all U.S. gross petroleum imports.
The common misconception probably comes from the fact that the U.S. also exports crude oil and other petroleum products—and these have exceeded the imports in the past four years.
In 2023, the United States exported about 10.15 million bpd of petroleum to 173 countries and 3 U.S. territories, per the EIA data. Crude oil exports of about 4.06 million bpd accounted for 40% of total U.S. gross petroleum exports. The resulting total net petroleum imports (imports minus exports) were about -1.64 million bpd, which means that the United States was a net petroleum exporter of 1.64 million bpd in 2023.
U.S. petroleum imports peaked in 2005 and have been declining since then as increased domestic petroleum production and increased petroleum exports have helped to reduce annual total petroleum net imports.
The U.S. became a net petroleum exporter in 2020, for the first time since in EIA data going back to 1949.
Although U.S. annual total petroleum exports were greater than total petroleum imports, the United States still imports more crude than it exports, remaining a net crude oil importer.