🌨️ Winter Storm Recovery — Production Bouncing Back
U.S. Oil Output Recovering After 2 Million bpd Hit
Winter Storm Fern caused up to 2 million barrels per day of U.S. oil production losses — approximately 15% of total output (OilPrice)
Permian Basin saw 1.5 million bpd in peak outages; now recovered to ~700,000 bpd offline and improving (OilPrice)
Rystad Energy estimates January average impact of 390,000 bpd for the full month
ConocoPhillips Permian production was down 175,000 bpd at peak disruption
ExxonMobil, Occidental, and Chevron all reported freeze-related production trouble
Oil prices settled 3% higher Tuesday; Gulf Coast crude exports dropped to zero over weekend (Reuters)
Natural gas prices surged to $6/MMBtu — highest since late 2022 (CNBC)
🔬 Technology & Low-Carbon Initiatives
ExxonMobil Accelerates Carbon Capture Buildout
ExxonMobil doubling down on CCS across Gulf Coast — multiple projects moving to operations in 2026 (OilPrice)
Will capture 3 million metric tons of CO₂ annually from Nucor (steel) and Linde (industrial gases) starting H2 2026
CF Industries partnership already moving 2 million tons/year from Louisiana ammonia plant
Total CCS portfolio now at 9 million tons/year contracted across 6 customers
Targeting FID by late 2026 on first Low Carbon Data Center — natural gas power + CCS for hyperscale data demand
Expanding into methanol and power generation sectors
⚠️ Safety Incident — Alaska
"The Beast" Rig Remains Unstable
Doyon Rig 26 — one of North America's largest mobile drilling rigs (10 million lbs) — remains too unstable for responders to access (Alaska Public Media)
Rig toppled Friday while being transported on ice road 6.5 miles from Nuiqsut village
8 workers treated and released; no serious injuries
8,400 gallons diesel capacity on board; DEC monitoring for spill but can't access scene