The Top News Clips of Today
Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday October 1, 2025
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Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – September 30, 2025
Berkshire Hathaway Near $10 Billion Deal for Occidental’s Petrochemical Unit*
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is in talks to buy Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical business for around $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, which would be Berkshire’s largest since 2022, could come together within days, the people said. Houston-based Occidental is largely known for its oil-and-gas operations. The company has a market value of around $46 billion and already counts Berkshire as its largest shareholder.
Occidental’s petrochemical division, OxyChem, manufactures and sells chemicals for use in applications including chlorinating water, recycling batteries and producing paper. The unit generated nearly $5 billion in sales in the 12 months ended in June. Assuming talks don’t fall apart, the OxyChem deal would be Buffett’s second big bet on chemicals. In 2011, Berkshire acquired specialty-chemicals producer, Lubrizol, for close to $10 billion, including debt.
The Financial Times reported on Sunday that Occidental was in talks for a $10 billion deal to sell OxyChem, without identifying the buyer. The last major deal Berkshire did was in 2022, when it agreed to pay $11.6 billion to buy insurer Alleghany. Buffett, 95, got involved with Occidental in 2019, as Chief Executive Vicki Hollub was trying to outbid Chevron to buy Anadarko Petroleum. In a trip facilitated by Bank of America Chief Brian Moynihan, Hollub traveled to Nebraska to visit Buffett, whose company agreed to buy $10 billion of preferred shares in Occidental to bolster her $38 billion offer.
Occidental’s fortunes have waxed and waned since then. The deal saddled the company with debt and attracted criticism from activist investor Carl Icahn. Buffett doubled down as Icahn exited, eventually buying up roughly 28% of its shares. The company’s shares more recently have come under pressure with oil prices lower. Occidental has been selling noncore assets to raise cash to pay down debt. As of August, it said it had repaid $7.5 billion of debt.
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The Wall Street Journal – September 30, 2025
Big Oil Is Getting Leaner and Leaner*
Exxon Mobil is slashing 2,000 jobs worldwide, it said Tuesday, the oil industry’s latest mass layoff as companies adapt to anemic oil prices and get more efficient at extracting fossil fuels. The oil giant’s layoffs, amounting to about 3% of its global workforce, culminate a yearslong push to consolidate offices and thin its ranks as it targets billions of dollars in annual structural costs. Exxon’s head count fell about 19% to 61,000 between the end of 2014 and the end of last year, regulatory filings show. On Tuesday, Exxon said consolidating workspaces “drives innovation.”
“Our global office network was established decades ago under very different circumstances,” an Exxon spokeswoman said by email Tuesday. “To support the collaboration so critical to our success, we are aligning our global footprint with our operating model and bringing our teams together.” Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP earlier this year all announced layoffs that will cut thousands of jobs. The companies have said they expect the moves to yield billions of dollars in savings. Notably, the reductions aren’t expected to affect the volumes of oil and gas that the companies produce.
The job-shedding will further shrink the industry’s rank and file after a yearslong diet of layoffs, attrition and corporate restructuring that has made Big Oil much leaner. Between the end of 2014 and the end of last year, Chevron’s workforce shrunk by more than 26% to about 45,000 employees. Over the same period, ConocoPhillips reduced total head count by about 38% to around 11,800. BP, on the other hand, has seen its average number of employees increase by more than 7% to 91,000.
All told, the number of U.S. workers in oil-and-gas extraction has dropped by nearly 80,000 since 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, U.S. oil production has climbed 45% to a record of about 13.6 million barrels a day over that same time, according to the Energy Department. “These companies are clearly the best in terms of the application of technology, the best in terms of intellectual property, intellectual capital,” said Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston. The oil industry’s workforce in the U.S. peaked in size in 2014 just above 200,000, when oil fetched more than $100 a barrel. That year, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to relinquish its role as a moderating force on crude prices, allowing prices in 2015 and 2016 to plunge to levels low enough to send scores of American drillers into bankruptcy.
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Yahoo! News – September 27, 2025
Why Advertisers Are Returning to Big Oil Despite Net-Zero Pledges
Like financial services, advertising and marketing have been at the forefront of the net-zero push, making emission reduction commitments and demonstrating a readiness to pressure the energy industry to decarbonize. Also, like financial services, ad and marketing firms are backpedaling from net zero and eager to get Big Oil’s business.
The Financial Times reported this week that advertisers are going the way of bankers in rephrasing their decarbonization messaging on websites and rediscovering the energy industry as a client – a well-paying one. The standard go-to explanation is, of course, President Trump and his anti-net-zero rhetoric and policies. Yet it seems that a much bigger reason for the pullback is simply money. Like banks before them, advertisers and marketers are discovering that the energy industry makes money and doesn’t mind paying generously for advertising.
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Reuters – October 1, 2025
Oil takes a breather with OPEC+ output hike, US government shutdown in focus*
Oil prices steadied on Wednesday after two days of declines as investors weighed OPEC+ plans for a larger output hike next month and the outcome of a U.S. government shutdown that could impact economic activity and fuel demand.
West Texas Intermediate crude rose by 26 cents to $62.63 a barrel.
Brent crude futures for December delivery rose 28 cents to $66.31 a barrel by 0500 GMT.
On Monday, Brent and WTI both settled more than 3% lower, their sharpest daily declines since August 1. On Tuesday, they each fell 1.5% further.
“The weakness stems largely from supply-side developments, with OPEC gradually reviving production … adding to market concerns over a potential supply overhang,” Sugandha Sachdeva, founder of SS WealthStreet, a New Delhi-based research firm, said.
The Latest TERse Tips
According to a recent Texas A&M study, power outages have climbed 20% since 2019, with most incidents occurring in Texas, California, and Louisiana — OK Energy Today
Texas public power utility CPS Energy on Sept. 30 announced the beginning of operations of Padua 1, a 50-megawatt, two-hour duration Battery Energy Storage System in Bexar County — Padua 1, owned and operated by Eolian, L.P., was part of an RFP seeking 50 MW of battery storage that the utility launched in 2020. CPS Energy entered into a storage capacity agreement for Padua 1 with Eolian in 2023 — American Public Power Association