Latest news with #ExxonMobile
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Some California drivers are getting free cash in their bank accounts. What you need to know
California drivers who submitted a claim to get their cut of a $50-million settlement over price gouging at the gas pump are starting to see the payments land in their bank accounts. Starting in late April, more than a million Californians started receiving payments of $21.65, according to the attorney general's office. The money is arriving by check, direct deposit or via Venmo, depending on what the claimant chose as their preference. The payments are coming from a settlement between the state of California and three gasoline trading firms who allegedly worked together to manipulate gas prices nine years ago, violating California antitrust laws, according to the office of Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. The companies took advantage of a market disruption following an explosion in February 2015 at an Exxon Mobile refinery in Torrance 'to engage in a scheme to drive up gas prices for their own profit,' officials said. As a result, California consumers paid more for their gas. In July, the trading firms settled with the state of California and as part of the settlement, Vitol, SK Energy Americas and South Korea's SK Trading International have agreed to pay $50 million into two settlement funds. Of the total, $37.5 million would be distributed to consumers as compensation for violations of the Cartwright Act. The settlement did not include an admission of fault from the trading companies. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
American Press
08-05-2025
- Business
- American Press
Hackberry carbon sequestration project draws praise, ire
Occidental subsidiary 1PointFive has already received federal funding to go toward building the South Texas Direct Air Capture Hub. (Photo courtesy of By Ashlyn Little The Hackberry community center held a public hearing this week regarding the permitting for the proposed Hackberry carbon sequestration project. The project is expected to capture and store CO2 and potentially reduce the carbon intensity of the liquefied natural gas for Cameron LNG customers. The proposed project includes capturing CO2 from the liquefaction process at Cameron LNG and transporting it by pipeline to an underground injection well where it will be stored about 5,000 to 10,000 feet below the earth's surface. Cameron Police Juror Michael Fewell, a resident of Hackberry, told attendees that Sempra Energy — the parent company of Cameron LNG — is being 'a good community partner.' 'We've had a few meetings with them and they've really taken some comments that we've made around the location of the pipeline routes … into consideration to pretty much stay on their property and they're supposed to get back with us,' Fewell said. Jeremy Shealy, representing ExxonMobile, also showed his support of the approval of the Class 6 permit. 'ExxonMobile recognizes that LNG and CCS (carbon capture and storage) are a significant part of the oil and gas industry's future and they are thrilled to see innovative industry solutions in the state. With that I respectfully give ExxonMobile's support for approval of the permit,' Shealy said. Cameron resident Mindy Gilbert, however, voiced her opposition to the project, calling its simulations 'fake science and not based on true data.' 'The science is unfounded, unproven, it's only accurate on computer simulations, there's no way of knowing what's going to happen with the plume in subservice,' Gilbert said. A plume can migrate through different forms, including free-phase CO2, dissolved CO2 in the aqueous phase and mineral trapping, according to Gilbert said Sempra does not know if the plume is going to move, which means people who have land around that plume are not going to be able to drill if it does. It's going to decimate the small oil and gas companies over here because they're not going to be able to use their wells, she said. 'There's only one reason to do carbon capture and that's for the 45Q federal tax credits,' Gilbert said. 'It's detrimental in every way; there's nothing beneficial in doing this at all, it is only for money.' According to the 45Q credit provides incentives for carbon capture and sequestration projects for each metric ton of qualified carbon oxide captured and either stored in secure geologic formations or used for specified purposes. A direct air capture facility must capture no less than 1,000 metric tons of qualified carbon oxide during the taxable year to qualify. Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance President and CEO Scott Walker announced his support for the project during the meeting. 'One of the biggest advantages we have here in SWLA is our geology,' Walker said. 'Our region's unique geology makes it ideal for safely storing carbon dioxide.' Longville resident Michael Tritico is opposed to the project. Tritico, who was raised in Lake Charles and has since resided in other locations around the country, said he moved back to Southwest Louisiana because 'here is where the frontline of the global war is.' 'In Louisiana we've traded the old way of life for new ways of death. Hackberry is not what it used to be in 1975. Some might consider it progress, I see a lot of changes for the negative,' said Tritico — who called the project a sham. Patrick Courreges, communications Director of Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, assured attendees that DENR will be on hand to make sure the project is safe if it is approved. 'Above all, it has to stay in that injected zone where it's being pushed. If it starts moving up that's when we need to shut them down,' Courreges said. James Hiatt, representing an organization called ''For A Better Bayou' said he is also opposed to the project. 'I used to work in the industry and someone once told me, 'If you could see the rug for the amount of stuff that we've swept under it, the rug is halfway to the moon.' I think the DENR should deny this permit and we should get more information about the suitability of this exact location,' he said. Public comments will continue to be accepted through 4:30 p.m. June 5 at info@ Mail comments must be postmarked by June 5.
Los Angeles Times
08-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Some California drivers are getting free cash in their bank accounts. What you need to know
California drivers who submitted a claim to get their cut of a $50-million settlement over price gouging at the gas pump are starting to see the payments land in their bank accounts. Starting in late April, more than a million Californians started receiving payments of $21.65, according to the attorney general's office. The money is arriving by check, direct deposit or via Venmo, depending on what the claimant chose as their preference. The payments are coming from a settlement between the state of California and three gasoline trading firms who allegedly worked together to manipulate gas prices nine years ago, violating California antitrust laws, according to the office of Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. The companies took advantage of a market disruption following an explosion in February 2015 at an Exxon Mobile refinery in Torrance 'to engage in a scheme to drive up gas prices for their own profit,' officials said. As a result, California consumers paid more for their gas. In July, the trading firms settled with the state of California and as part of the settlement, Vitol, SK Energy Americas and South Korea's SK Trading International have agreed to pay $50 million into two settlement funds. Of the total, $37.5 million would be distributed to consumers as compensation for violations of the Cartwright Act. The settlement did not include an admission of fault from the trading companies.
The Independent
05-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Trump wants US oil producers to ‘drill, baby, drill.' They're not interested: Report
Donald Trump's mantra during his campaign for the presidency to the American public and U.S. oil producers was: 'Drill, baby, drill.' One key problem? Oil producers aren't interested. That's the conclusion of industry experts, who point out that oil producers are wooed far more by profitability than in pumping as much oil as possible out of the ground. Too much oil lowers prices and burns up profitability, even though it might make consumers happy. American shale firms are already pumping historic amounts of oil. And there's a supply glut in the global market. "As crude prices come down, we expect the industry revenues to go down and profits to go down," ExxonMobile CEO Darren Woods told CNBC last week. Oil tycoons who flocked to support Trump want him to drop all barriers and go after alternative energy, but they also worry about an over supply of oil. 'Our stocks will be absolutely crushed if we start growing our production the way Trump is talking about it,' Bryan Sheffield, a Texas oilman who contributed more than $1 million to Trump's latest campaign, told The Wall Street Journal. American producers aren't looking now to boost supply, and likely won't be enticed to 'drill, baby drill' until prices reach an average $84 per barrel, which is close to 15 percent above current prices, according to the Kansas City Federal Reserve. U.S. crude prices fell close to an additional 2 percent on Tuesday as U.S. tariffs on China took effect and China imposed a 10 percent tax on American crude oil. But Trump is nevertheless looking to lower prices. After a phone call last month with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman he said that he planned to ask him to lower oil prices. The president called on all OPEC countries to do the same in a recent speech at The World Economic Forum at Davos. Trump argued that it would put pressure on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine as its income from oil would sink amid the dropping prices, making the war too expensive. But that's not likely to happen, according to Business Insider, and wouldn't please American producers who would also have to compete with lower prices. OPEC members have held back output in the past two years to increase market prices amid oil's price slide, but is expected to gradually roll back production curbs. Whatever OPEC does, analysts expect a major supply glut to weigh down prices through 2025, according to the Insider.
