NEO JRNL

US to sell oil and gas leases in Alaska petroleum reserve for first time since 2019

March 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Wednesday will hold a sale of oil and gas drilling rights in ‌Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve for the first time since 2019, ‌the latest test of the industry's appetite for acreage in the state.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management is offering 600 tracts covering 5.5 million acres (2.2 million hectares) to oil and gas companies. The bids will be opened and read via a livestream on the BLM's website at 10 ‌a.m. Alaska time (1900 GMT).

The sale ⁠is the first of at least five mandated by President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ⁠which he signed into law last year. His administration has sought to expand domestic oil and gas production and reverse Biden-era restrictions on drilling in the Alaska reserve.

But oil and gas industry interest in snapping ‌up leases in Alaska has been tepid in recent years. Drilling in the state is a high-risk endeavor involving decades of work and billions of dollars of investment. The industry failed to show up at all for a sale of offshore drilling rights in ‌Alaska's Cook Inlet earlier this month.

The NPR-A, as the 23-million-acre reserve is known, was designated for oil and gas exploration in the 1970s to address energy ‌shortages.

The last NPR-A lease sale, in 2019, attracted $11.3 million in bids on 1.05 million acres.

Alaska state officials and some native groups support oil and gas drilling because it contributes to tax revenue ‌and creates jobs. Environmentalists argue oil and gas development destroys habitats for species such as polar bears and caribou.

(Reporting by Nichola GroomEditing by Rod Nickel)

byNeo

in

March 18, 2026

US to sell oil and gas leases in Alaska petroleum reserve for first time since 2019

March 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Wednesday will hold a sale of oil and gas drilling rights in ‌Alaska's Na...

Iran's huge Gulf gas field is struck in major escalation

By Parisa Hafezi, Rami Ayyub and Maya Gebeily

DUBAI/JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, March 18 (Reuters) - Iran's huge Pars gas field was hit on Wednesday in the first reported strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure in the Gulf during the U.S.-Israeli war, a major escalation that prompted Tehran to warn its neighbours that their energy installations would be targeted "in the coming hours".

Pars is the Iranian sector of the world's ‌largest natural gas deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar across the Gulf. Iran's Fars news agency reported that gas tanks and parts of a refinery had been hit, workers had been evacuated to a ‌safe location and emergency crews were trying to put out a fire.

The attack was widely reported in Israeli media to have been carried out by Israel with U.S. consent. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Qatar, a close U.S. ally which hosts the largest U.S. airbase in the region, called it an Israeli attack without mentioning any U.S. role. The Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson called it a "dangerous and irresponsible" escalation that put global energy security at risk.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards told Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar to evacuate several energy facilities.

"These centres have become direct and legitimate targets and will be targeted in the coming hours. Therefore, all citizens, residents, and employees are requested to immediately leave these areas and move to a safe distance without any delay," Iranian state media cited authorities as saying.

During three weeks of war, the U.S. and Israel had previously held back from targeting Iran's energy production facilities in the Gulf, a move that could invite retaliation against other ‌producers and make it harder for global markets to recover from what has ⁠already been the biggest ever interruption to energy supplies.

Iran's warning was directed at Saudi Arabia's Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex, the UAE's Al Hosn Gas Field, and Qatar's Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and Ras Laffan Refinery.

'EVERYONE IS IN THE CROSSHAIRS'

The Israeli military also hit central Beirut, destroying apartment buildings in some of the most intense airstrikes on ⁠the Lebanese capital for decades, on Israel's other front in the war it launched with the U.S. against Iran.

Israel said on Wednesday it had killed Iran's intelligence minister and his death was later confirmed by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a post on X. It was the second strike on a top leadership figure in two days.

"No one in Iran has immunity and everyone is in the crosshairs," said Defence Minister Israel Katz, who announced that Israel had killed Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib a day after killing security chief Ali Larijani.

Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had authorised the Israeli military "to target any senior Iranian official for whom an intelligence and operational opportunity arises, without the need for additional ‌approval".

It appeared to be the first time Israel has publicly stated that it would let the military target enemy officials without seeking special permission from political leaders for missions.

In Tehran, thousands of people appeared in the streets for a funeral for Larijani and other slain figures. The crowd waved Iranian flags and carried portraits of the dead as a eulogist sang: "Martyrs are leading the way, they've become more alive, burning with love."

Iran retaliated for the killing of Larijani by firing missiles at Israel, which Israeli authorities said killed two people near Tel Aviv. Tehran said it fired overnight on Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba in Israel, and at U.S. bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

ENERGY PRICES SURGE

The unprecedented disruption to global energy supplies has raised the political stakes for U.S. President Donald Trump. Diesel prices in the United States rose above $5 a gallon for the first time since the ‌2022 inflation surge that eroded support for his predecessor Joe Biden.

Israel has stepped up strikes on Lebanon and a ground assault in the south in pursuit of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which has fired across the border in solidarity with Tehran.

In central Beirut's Bachoura district, Israel warned residents early on Wednesday to leave a building it said was used by Hezbollah, which it then completely flattened.

Abu Khalil, who lives in the area, said he had helped people flee nearby homes after the Israeli warning. "It's just an operation to hurt, to terrify people, ‌to terrify children," he told Reuters, insisting there were no military targets nearby.

No similar warnings were given for strikes that hit apartment buildings in two other central districts, killing at least 10 people, according to Lebanese authorities.

Inside Israel, the ambulance service reported that a 44-year-old man and two children, aged 13 and 12, in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, were hospitalised with blast injuries following an Iranian missile attack. In a separate incident, an Iranian missile tore a crater into the pavement and set cars ablaze in a residential area of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv.

"There was an alarm, we went into the shelter, we ‌heard a crazy boom," resident Leah Palteal told Reuters.

U.S.-based Iran human rights group HRANA said on Monday that an estimated 3,000-plus people had been killed in Iran since the U.S.-Israeli attacks began on February 28. Authorities in Lebanon say 900 people have been killed there and 800,000 forced to flee their homes.

Iranian attacks have killed people in Iraq and across the Gulf states. Fourteen have been killed in Israel.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux, Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Ros Russell and Gareth Jones)

byNeo

in

March 18, 2026

Iran's huge Gulf gas field is struck in major escalation

By Parisa Hafezi, Rami Ayyub and Maya Gebeily DUBAI/JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, March 18 (Reuters) - Iran's huge Par...

Arizona 'built for' March Madness, says one expert. Call it proof of Big 12 surge

Fran Franschilla's job calling Big 12 games gives him a front-row seat to the best action incollege basketball, but that's where he stops you. Don't label broadcasting Big 12 hoops work.

"They pay me to travel, not to work," Fraschilla, ESPN's veteran color commentator and a former coach, says affably. "I've been blessed, because I've watched the league grow up over 20 years."

Along the way, Fraschilla became ESPN's voice of the Big 12 and an unofficial conference advocate. It's easy to advocate for the Big 12 in a season when the conference supplied peak entertainment and premier performance.

TheSECled all conferences with 10NCAA Tournamentbids, a show of its depth, but ball-knowers recognize the best batch of hoops lived inside the Big 12.

Now, to back that up on the final exam that is the NCAA Tournament.

Bold predictions:Best March Madness upset picks, Final Four sleeper

Toppmeyer:If Jon Scheyer feels any Duke pressure, at least Coach K can relate

The Big 12 earned eight bids. Fraschilla counts three with Final Four potential: No. 1 seedArizonaand No. 2 seeds Houston and Iowa State.

That list would be bigger, he says, if not for injuries toTexas Tech's JT ToppinandBrigham Young's Richie Saunders, a pair of big-time ballers who went down in February.

As for national championship potential? Start with Arizona.

"I give Arizona as good of chance as anybody in the field to cut down the nets in Indianapolis," Fraschilla, who coached Manhattan toa mammoth NCAA Tournament upsetof Oklahoma in 1995, told me.

Why Arizona is a top March Madness championship contender

Two of Arizona's key bench players started on last year's team that reached the Sweet 16. That speaks to the quality of a starting lineup in which every player averages in double digits scoring.

"They are as complete a team as there is in college basketball," Fraschilla said. "First of all, they are an old-school, bludgeon-you-inside team with three terrific post players. They have as good of a leader at point guard, (Jaden Bradley), as any team in the country."

Oh, we've yet to mention dynamite freshman guard Brayden Burries, the team's leading scorer.

Try to go devil's advocate and point outArizona's history of March Madness shortcomingsthe past 25 years, and Fraschilla uncorks the ultimate comeback.

"I can say the same thing about an entire league: the Big Ten," he says.

Fair point.

Anyway, why should these Wildcats fret about what happened to the 2023 team, which lost to15th-seeded Princetonin the first round? Or, the 2018 team thatgot blasted by 13th-seeded Buffaloin the first round? The past three times Arizona earned a No. 1 seed in the past quarter-century, it got bounced before the Final Four. That's for you to consider as you fill out your bracket, but whispers of the past are not for these Wildcats to fuss over.

"They play like they're in a cocoon," Fraschilla said, "so I'm not sure how much of the noise they hear."

If you need more than one man's opinion, there's also Ken Pomeroy's rankings. BasketballnerdsciteKenPomas if it's college basketball's holy literature. His metrics rank Arizona, Houston and Iowa State among the six best teams, making the Big 12 the only conference with more than one team tucked inside the top six.

The Big 12's "Big Monday" games, with Jon Sciambi and Fraschilla on the call, showcased premier teams in elite environments with future NBA stars.

"Big Monday has become must-watch TV," Fraschilla said.

The Big 12's TV audience on "Big Monday" doubled this season, according to commissioner Brett Yormark, to average1.7 million viewers.

Consider it evidence of how the Big 12 survived conference realignment.

University of Akron:
Yvette Nicole Brown, Alexa Bliss, Dominique Moceanu, The Black Keys and George Wallace