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.

Halliburton is partnering with nuclear waste startup Deep Isolation to adapt horizontal oil-drilling technology to bury radioactive waste two miles underground, according to fortune.com. The initiative targets more than 95,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel currently stranded across roughly 80 temporary sites in over 30 states. With federal plans for a centralized repository at Yucca Mountain deadlocked, power producers face a waste bottleneck just as tech firms push for a nuclear expansion to supply power-hungry AI data centers. Deep Isolation bypasses traditional mined repositories by drilling directional boreholes directly near existing power plants. Rigs will drill vertically before curving roughly four degrees every 100 feet, sliding 5,000-pound canisters into rock formations isolated from the surface for a million years. The technology is already proven in oil fields. Halliburton plans to drill its first demonstration test well early next year to prove a crane can lower and retrieve the heavy canisters at depth. The Department of Energy recently named five finalist states—Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah—to host new nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses.

Iran announced the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States satisfies six sweeping demands, including total compensation for war damage and a complete end to the naval blockade. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, stated the waterway will not reopen until Washington permanently ends military action, lifts sanctions, releases frozen assets, and withdraws its forces from the region. The conditions effectively halt expectations of a swift resolution following an interim deal signed in June. Shipping traffic is already seizing up. Only 33 vessels transited the strait between Monday and Thursday, down from 50 during the same period the previous week, with just six crude tankers clearing outbound. Violence continues to disrupt transit; state-owned oil firm ADNOC reported an Iranian missile strike on one of its vessels on Saturday, marking over a dozen attacks on its fleet since February. A sharp disconnect has emerged between both sides. Vice President JD Vance signaled Washington expects Gulf energy flows to eventually return to pre-war levels, but Tehran’s demand for direct financial reparations leaves oil markets facing an unresolved standoff over global supply lines.