Ben Lefebvre

SCOOP: Trump admin will urge top oil & gas CEOs in a Thursday call to boost drilling it bid to lower oil prices. Secs. WRIGHT and BURGUM will lead the call. CEOs for leading companies (XOM, CVX, OXY, CLR) invited, among others. w/ @bjlefebvre subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026/0…

From the first looks of this cease-fire agreement, it's going to come down to what "open' means re: Hormuz. The Ohio Turnpike is "open." You just have to pay the toll.

Tl;dr: Bessent: We "could" do another SPR release. DOE: We're not doing that. Person familiar: Military's worried we're draining too much out of the SPR.

Lots to unpack here from Bessent saying the US "could" do an additional SPR release, including DOE said no such plans were on the table: politico.com/news/2026/03/1…

Wow, crude and gasoline price forecasts from @EIAgov's STEO are way up from last month. Brent crude: $79/b for 2026, ⬆️ from $58 Retail gas: $3.34/gal for 2026, ⬆️ from $2.91 Also projects US crude production ⬆️ on higher prices, but not until 2027. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026/0…

Compared to the last maximum disruption during the 1956-1957 Suez Crisis (as a percentage of total liquids demand), this represents the largest oil supply loss in history, by a factor of two. Worse, unlike in past crises, there's zero spare capacity available. @RapidanEnergy will be releasing some data with a historical perspective tomorrow.

Reposting from Friday as oil climbs over $100: Why Trump’s measures have failed to calm the oil price rise politico.com/news/2026/03/0…

New: A week into the Iran war, the Trump administration’s efforts to stem the rise in energy prices have failed to calm the markets — in fact, oil prices saw their highest one-week jump in history. I wrote about why for @POLITICO (hint: it's the Hormuz): politico.com/news/2026/03/0…

EXCLUSIVE: Trump told our @DashaBurns he's not worried that higher gas prices from the war in Iran could hurt Republicans in the midterms. “People are loving what’s happening,” he said in a phone call. More from the wide-ranging interview: politi.co/4r8ZAqB

For example:

Trump's energy hit list would halt grid projects and hydrogen hubs - including in GOP districts Awesome @politico story by @kelseytam and @jamepdx shows how targeting red/blue states isn't as neat and tidy in real life as it is in the abstract: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/1…

OPEC’s crude production climbed last month as Saudi Arabia finished the revival of an initial tranche of halted supplies, according to a Bloomberg survey bloomberg.com/news/articles/…