Energy and Oil Sector

Centrus Energy signed a definitive contract to supply low-enriched and high-assay low-enriched uranium to reactor developer X-energy, securing customer prepayments to expand its domestic enrichment capacity. Under the agreement, Centrus will produce fuel at its Piketon, Ohio centrifuge plant and send it to X-energy's TRISO-X facility in Tennessee to support initial deployments across X-energy's commercial pipeline. The deal gives Centrus non-dilutive, non-debt capital directly from an off-taker. Centrus is layering these prepayments onto a $900 million Department of Energy award and a $3 billion contingent backlog, of which $2.4 billion is definitized. Securing domestic enrichment resolves a critical supply chain bottleneck for advanced nuclear projects backed by buyers such as Amazon and Dow. Centrus will scale its uranium production in phases as X-energy rolls out its Xe-100 small modular reactors.

Iran finalized a temporary framework with Oman to establish designated shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz, attempting to revive transit through a bottleneck that handles roughly 20% of global crude oil supply. Under the proposed two- to four-month agreement, inbound vessels will travel along routes near the Iranian coast while outbound ships use an Omani lane, with no transit or service fees imposed. Traffic through the gateway has collapsed. Consultant Kpler recorded just eight vessel crossings on August 5—five tankers and three bulk carriers—down from more than 100 ships daily before fighting broke out in late February. The drop in traffic has driven up global fuel prices, forced trade rerouting across regional logistics hubs, and left over half of recent transits operating without reliable AIS tracking signals. Normalizing flow will require consecutive weeks of incident-free transits, as an LNG tanker lost propulsion after being struck by an unknown projectile on August 2 while the U.S. maintains a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

T1 Energy signed a 641-megawatt solar module supply contract with independent power producer Clearway Energy. Under the agreement, Clearway will buy solar modules manufactured with American-made solar cells from T1’s G2_Austin plant. T1 broke ground on the Austin facility in December 2025 and expects its initial 2.1-gigawatt annual capacity to begin production in the first quarter of 2027. Combining domestic cells with its existing 5-gigawatt Dallas assembly plant allows T1 to offer modules exceeding 60% domestic content by 2027. That setup lets developers like Clearway claim federal domestic content tax credits while hedging against foreign tariffs and supply chain delays. T1 funded the move upstream by acquiring TOPCon solar cell patents from Singapore-based Evervolt Green Energy for $135 million. Domestic cell production squeezes legacy assemblers that rely on imported inputs; rival manufacturer Heliene laid off 93 workers at its Minnesota assembly plant. Clearway generated 3,585 gigawatt-hours of solar power in the second quarter of 2026, up from 2,800 gigawatt-hours in the prior-year period.