The Trump administration has finalized a plan to open the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, renewing long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation’s most sensitive wilderness areas.

A head-on collision involving two semitrucks Thursday morning near Avenal in Kings County resulted in 3,000 gallons of oil spillage and an hours-long highway closure. The accident occurred at about 6:20 a.m. on Highway 33, north of South 7th Avenue in Avenal, according to Kings County spokesperson Michael Powers.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures opened at $57.50 per barrel (bbl) on October 21, 2025. Brent crude opened at $61.00 per barrel. Both benchmarks remain closely watched gauges of global energy supply and demand. WTI futures are trading at $57.21/bbl, as of 9:24 a.m. ET. That’s down 0.49% since yesterday’s close.

Get the latest news and live updates as the government shutdown continues, Trump sanctions Russia in a push for a ceasefire in Ukraine and Rubio heads to Israel amid Gaza truce.

The European Union has agreed on a new raft of sanctions against Russia targeting its shadow fleet of oil tankers and banning its imports of liquefied natural gas, the Danish EU presidency announced Thursday.

India and China’s largest refineries are looking at curbing purchases of Russian oil, as US sanctions on Russia’s largest oil companies reverberated through global energy markets yesterday.

Oil had one of its biggest days of the year after the U.S. added new sanctions on Russian energy firms, but tight futures positioning set the stage for the big move.

The strongest action was in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude climbed 4.9% to $61.35. The move came after Trump announced sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, in hopes of convincing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to end the brutal war with Ukraine.