The world’s largest international oil firms are ramping up production even as crude prices have weakened this year and global supply growth continues to outpace the demand increase, setting the stage for a glut in the coming months.   The European majors are back to investing in exploration and new oil and gas field developments after years of trying – and mostly failing – to generate profits and good returns from low-carbon energy projects, including renewable electricity, green hydrogen, and biofuels. Big Oil Output…

Oilfield service companies have faced challenges in their core OFS business due to declining markets in the U.S. and around the world. Low prices for much of the last decade and increases in efficiency have caused rig counts to plummet, and have led some companies to look in new directions for revenue and profit. Companies like Schlumberger, (NYSE:SLB), and Halliburton are refocusing away from equipment rentals and manpower in their traditional core oil related services, to AI led digital subscription revenue sources. These companies are also leveraging…

Big Oil is reporting third-quarter results this week and next. No surprises are expected—Big Oil has been having an eventful year featuring tariffs, sanctions, and glut predictions—and these events will be reflected in financial reports. Yet analysts are already looking ahead to 2036 and what Big Oil plans to do next. So far, two big oil companies have reported third-quarter figures: Norway’s Equinor and Italy’s Eni. Both demonstrated the dominant trends in the industry, likely to be seen in the reports of BP, Shell, TotalEnergies,…

In the ongoing digital transformation of the energy industry, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the most discussed — and misunderstood — tools available to operators. While the promises of AI often stretch toward the speculative, the technology’s most immediate and profound impact is already visible in how companies organize, interpret, and act upon data. For national oil companies (NOCs), this impact is potentially transformative. Unlike many private firms, NOCs sit atop immense, often underutilized data reservoirs…

Previously, we reported that Saudi Arabia is digging in for a "long and shallow" oil price war as it looks to regain market share from rivals like U.S. shale producers and OPEC+ members who have been exceeding their production quotas. This comes after Saudi Arabia made significant production sacrifices to support prices for over three years, which allowed competitors to increase their output. Saudi Arabia has also been hedging its oil price bets by rapidly diversifying its economy away from fossil fuels in recent years, expanding into areas such…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved a controversial proposal by Canadian oil and gas giant Enbridge (NYSE:ENB), to reroute an aging oil pipeline around a Wisconsin tribal reservation, saying the project "complied with all applicable federal laws and regulations." Enbridge proposed the 41-mile reroute to remove the pipeline off land held by the Bad River Band after a court ordered in 2023 that the pipeline should be removed from the tribal land by June 2026.  The judge also ordered Enbridge to pay the tribe over $5 million for trespassing.…

The global hydrogen industry came into view, specifically from importing countries’ perspective, at European Hydrogen Week earlier this month in Brussels. There was a palpable sense of frustration with what many consider an overbearing regulatory framework causing delays. But also a sense of inevitability, with hydrogen mandates in place and pipeline construction now underway. Europe is set to be the world’s largest demand center for low-carbon hydrogen. There was also a sense of determination in the face of a growing number of project…

Kazakhstan’s government has reopened talks with ExxonMobil about expanding the Kashagan oil field—the massive Caspian Sea development once hailed as the world’s biggest oil discovery in 30 years. The discussions reportedly include tapping undeveloped western sections of the reservoir and could be linked to Exxon’s Tengiz license, which expires in 2033. The timing is interesting. Kazakhstan just spent the better part of this year in court with the same group of Western oil majors that operate Kashagan—Eni, Shell, Exxon,…

Joe Biden famously declared that he wanted the US to be zero emissions by 2050. According to an AI Overview, zero emissions means a process or vehicle produces no waste products or pollutants, such as no tailpipe emissions from a car. The more conservative “net-zero emissions" means all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are balanced by removing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere through methods like reforestation or carbon capture technology. The Guardian colorfully describes what an America that achieves this goal could…

A barrage of Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure left three people dead on Wednesday, forcing nationwide power restrictions. Ukrainian officials reported that two men in the city of Zaporizhzhia were killed in the overnight strikes, while a seven-year-old girl from the central Vinnytsia region also lost her life from injuries sustained in the attacks. "Its goal is to plunge Ukraine into darkness. Ours is to preserve the light," Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram. "To stop the terror, we need…

A barrage of Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure left three people dead on Wednesday, forcing nationwide power restrictions. Ukrainian officials reported that two men in the city of Zaporizhzhia were killed in the overnight strikes, while a seven-year-old girl from the central Vinnytsia region also lost her life from injuries sustained in the attacks. "Its goal is to plunge Ukraine into darkness. Ours is to preserve the light," Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram. "To stop the terror, we need…

A barrage of Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure left three people dead on Wednesday, forcing nationwide power restrictions. Ukrainian officials reported that two men in the city of Zaporizhzhia were killed in the overnight strikes, while a seven-year-old girl from the central Vinnytsia region also lost her life from injuries sustained in the attacks. "Its goal is to plunge Ukraine into darkness. Ours is to preserve the light," Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram. "To stop the terror, we need…

US diplomats intend to set up working groups with their Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts to accelerate implementation of the US-brokered provisional peace plan signed in August in Washington, according to a state-connected media outlet in Azerbaijan. The Report.az outlet queried the State Department about the status of the peace deal, the centerpiece of which is the establishment of a corridor connecting the Azerbaijani mainland with its Nakhchivan exclave across Armenian territory, dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace…

CNOOC Ltd, China’s top offshore crude oil and gas producer, on Thursday said its net profit fell by 12.2% from a year earlier in the third quarter, amid a decline in oil prices.  CNOOC, which specializes in offshore oil and gas developments in China and internationally, reported a third-quarter net profit of $4.6 billion (32.4 billion Chinese yuan) for the July-September quarter, down by 12.2% on the year.  The lower Brent crude prices this year couldn’t offset the rise in CNOOC’s oil and gas production in China and…

CNOOC Ltd, China’s top offshore crude oil and gas producer, on Thursday said its net profit fell by 12.2% from a year earlier in the third quarter, amid a decline in oil prices.  CNOOC, which specializes in offshore oil and gas developments in China and internationally, reported a third-quarter net profit of $4.6 billion (32.4 billion Chinese yuan) for the July-September quarter, down by 12.2% on the year.  The lower Brent crude prices this year couldn’t offset the rise in CNOOC’s oil and gas production in China and…

The Zimbabwe government has finally approved the involvement of independent power producers (IPPs) and private companies to generate, sell, and distribute electricity in the country, marking a significant policy shift for a country that has been struggling with high power demand but low supply. The government also plans to launch a competitive bidding process in 2026, further liberalizing the sector.  According to a public notice issued by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA), the move will help attract more investments into the…

The world’s electricity demand is expected to surge by 30% over the next decade as data centers, electric vehicles, and demand for heating and cooling drive increased consumption, a new report by Rystad Energy says.  Renewable power generation, especially solar energy, is expected to be crucial to meeting the electricity demand growth, found the report cited by Bloomberg.   Renewable energy is forecast to provide 55% of all electricity globally by 2035, raising its share from 34% today, according to the energy intelligence…

There’s an exciting new development in the global race to discover next-gen battery tech. Iron-air batteries are finally ready to be tested in real-world applications, with major disruptive potential for the energy storage sector. These batteries use rust to create electricity and have the potential to deliver long-term energy storage at a time when such a breakthrough is desperately needed.  Iron-air batteries function by running air through a negatively charged cathode toward a positively charged iron anode to react with a water-based…

NNPC, the state-owned Nigerian oil company, is looking to revive the three state refineries in Africa’s top crude producer and plans to select technical equity partners to help resume operations at the facilities that have been idled for years.   In an update on Nigeria’s refineries, NNPC said that it “continues to make measured progress in the comprehensive technical and commercial review of the nation’s three refineries — Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna.”  These three refineries have a total…

NNPC, the state-owned Nigerian oil company, is looking to revive the three state refineries in Africa’s top crude producer and plans to select technical equity partners to help resume operations at the facilities that have been idled for years.   In an update on Nigeria’s refineries, NNPC said that it “continues to make measured progress in the comprehensive technical and commercial review of the nation’s three refineries — Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna.”  These three refineries have a total…