Global benchmark Brent crude topped $60 a barrel last month for the first time since July 2015, while West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. marker, is set for the highest close in two years as Saudi Arabia and Russia signaled support for extending supply cuts well into 2018. The market was also buoyed by conflict between the Iraqi central government and Kurdish forces that threatened crude production from northern fields in the OPEC nation. “U.S. stock draws have been leading and continue to lead the market higher,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director at Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Switzerland. Click Read More below for additional information.

The man accused of setting fire to a California warehouse likened himself to Luigi Mangione after allegedly lighting multiple fires in the name of anti-capitalism. The warehouse, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles and owned by the consumer goods company Kimberly-Clark Corp, was set ablaze last Tuesday. Twenty employees were inside the facility when the fire was set, but no one was harmed. Abdulkarim is an employee of NFI Industries — a third-party distributor for Kimberly-Clark Corp. He is accused of intentionally starting multiple fires at the 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse. In California, aggravated arson is applicable to a crime when the damage from the fire exceeds $10.1 million, and carries a penalty of ten years to life. Based on initial estimates, the paper products were worth $500 million and the building was worth $150 million.

The trucking industry applauded the Senate’s passage of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) of 2023, which would reauthorize the DERA program through fiscal year 2029 at $100 million annually. The bill will now be considered by the House of Representatives. DERA provides federal grants and rebates to help finance the voluntary replacement or retrofits of heavy-duty diesel vehicles and engines. By helping to upgrade tens of thousands of vehicles over nearly two decades, DERA is responsible for saving more than 520 million gallons of fuel. Replacing older vehicles is critical to protecting the environment because advancements in clean diesel engine technology have resulted in substantially lower emissions. In fact, it would take 60 of today’s trucks to emit what just one truck did in 1988. A newly manufactured truck produces half the CO2 emissions of one manufactured in 2010.