UK Court Lets North Sea Drilling Hopes Live Another Day
A London court decision has delivered a win...
A London court decision has delivered a win for the government, dismissing a lawsuit by Oceana UK seeking to revoke 28 offshore oil and gas exploration licences. The court ruled against the claimant's assertion that officials neglected climate and marine zone impacts, clarifying that these licences are early scoping permissions, not final drilling permits. More exhaustive environmental assessments can be conducted later in the development process.
This ruling provides a small measure of clarity for the UK energy sector, which remains caught between shifting political headwinds and declining domestic production. Although the ruling prevents further entanglement, it doesn't solve the core investment crisis. Producers are grappling with punishing taxes and regulatory uncertainty, which has already stalled major developments like Shell's Jackdaw and Equinor's Rosebank.
Oil Prices Headed for Fourth Monthly Loss as Glitch Halts Trading
Crude benchmarks are poised for a fourth...
Crude benchmarks are poised for a fourth consecutive monthly decline, a negative streak not seen since 2023, amid persistent concerns over global oversupply. The price slide comes amid expectations that the OPEC+ coalition will reaffirm its decision to pause production increases through the first quarter of 2026 at their crucial meeting this weekend.
Earlier today, oil futures trading faced disruption after a technical glitch—attributed to a cooling issue at a CyrusOne data center—forced the CME Group, which includes NYMEX, to halt trading across WTI, equities, and other derivatives. Just before the outage, WTI Crude was trading up slightly at $59.08, while Brent was marginally lower at $63.27.
Industry analysts noted the brief volatility risk associated with the halt and cited rising output from both within and outside the OPEC+ alliance as the key bearish driver. Furthermore, reports of U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, and the potential easing of sanctions on Russian flows, briefly weighed on sentiment, underscoring the geopolitical sensitivity of global supply expectations. Brent remains rangebound within the broad $60–$67 corridor as traders look for more apparent demand signals heading into the new year.
EOG, Formentera Pull Permits for 12 More Pearsall Oil Wildcats
EOG Resources has...
EOG Resources has pulled a fourth permit to test the Pearsall for oil pay in South Texas. Meanwhile, the new play’s founder, Formentera Resources, IP’ed 633 bbl from a third wildcat and took 11 more permits.
The plans bring the total Pearsall oil wildcat count to 22 in the new South Texas play underlying the Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk. Among those, EOG has four, Formentera has 17 and BlackBrush Oil & Gas has one, planning its Harris-Lancaster #201H lateral on leasehold sitting between EOG and Formentera in the play’s southern Frio County epicenter.
The wildcatting targets a less-cooked—thus oily rather than gassy—window updip of where a Pearsall gas-directed play was abandoned in the mid-2010s after uneconomic results gained it the moniker “heartbreak shale.”
EOG has not reported IP or other results yet from its first two Pearsall tests in Frio County—Derby West #1H and Burns Ranch #1H, both west of Formentera’s leasehold—according to Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) files.
It has Burns Ranch listed as a shut-in producer and hasn’t filed a completion report yet for Derby West. Its newest permit is for Derby East #1H.
Its first was for Moonlight #22H that was tucked into a multi-well Eagle Ford development in northwestern McMullen County on the southeastern side of Formentera’s target. The Moonlight well found condensate.
Stocks close higher for 4th straight day, eye best Thanksgiving week since 2012
Here's your stock market summary for today, Wednesday, November 26,...
Here's your stock market summary for today, Wednesday, November 26, 2025: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 314.67 points, or 0.67%, to finish at 47,427.12. The S&P 500 climbed 0.69% to settle at 6,812.61, while the Nasdaq Composite increased 0.82% to close at 23,214.69.
Key Drivers | Fed Rate Cut Optimism Continues: The S&P 500 rose 0.9% Wednesday, extending an advance into a fourth session after reclaiming its 50-day moving average, with the Nasdaq 100 advancing as much as 1.2%. Rate cut expectations for December remain elevated at around 85%.
Light Holiday Volume: Volume on the equity benchmark was 23% lighter than the 30-day average ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Tech Stocks Lead: Oracle jumped around 4% after Deutsche Bank reaffirmed its bullish stance, while Nvidia shares rose more than 1% to recover from a recent pullback, and Microsoft traded almost 2% higher.
Alphabet's Record Run: Alphabet closed at another all-time high Tuesday for the 13th time in November. With 17 trading days in November thus far, Alphabet has closed at a record high more than 76% of the time, and it has soared more than 24% in the past month.
November Performance: Despite this week's gains, all three major averages are still on track for a losing month as concerns about elevated valuations have cooled momentum behind some high-flying tech stocks. The S&P 500 and Dow are both marginally lower on the month, while the Nasdaq is down more than 2%.
Looking Ahead: The stock market will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving, with trading resuming Friday in a shortened session that closes at 1 p.m. ET. The recent rally marks the best weekly performance since June for the major averages.