Thursday, 9 July 2026

Saipem is selling the shallow-water jack-up rigs held through Saudi Arabian Saipem Ltd, a fleet of three owned units and two leased ones, according to Rigzone. The owned rigs are Perro Negro 7, Perro Negro 8 and Perro Negro 10; the leased pair are Perro Negro 11 and Perro Negro 13.

Saipem said the sale fits its plan to concentrate on deepwater and harsh-environment offshore drilling.

Once the deal closes, a bareboat charter will let Saipem keep running its work in Mexico using the Perro Negro 10 rig and meet its current contract obligations.

The disposal lands as Saipem works to merge with Subsea7 SA into a combined company called Saipem7, a tie-up announced July 24, 2025 and set to complete in the second half of 2026, Rigzone reported. The terms hand Subsea7 shareholders 6.688 Saipem shares for each Subsea7 share.

A Swiss commodity trader has received approval to acquire Zen Energy's retail business and its power purchase agreement (PPA) deals, according to RenewEconomy.

Zen Energy's Templers battery energy storage system (BESS) is under construction, according to Zen Energy.

U.S. total energy consumption will drop in 2026 before climbing again in 2027, according to the latest short-term energy outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The agency puts total consumption at 95.77 quadrillion British thermal units (qBtu) this year and 97.02 qBtu next year, against 96.21 qBtu in 2025, according to the EIA.

Liquid fuels run against that dip. The EIA projects U.S. liquid fuels consumption will average 20.68 million barrels per day in 2026 and 20.73 million barrels per day in 2027, up from 20.61 million barrels per day in 2025.

Natural gas demand follows a similar upward path. The EIA sees it averaging 92.1 billion cubic feet per day in 2026 and 95.0 billion cubic feet per day in 2027, compared with 91.9 billion cubic feet per day in 2025.

Renewables post the sharpest gains in the forecast. The EIA expects renewables demand at 9.42 qBtu in 2026 and 10.04 qBtu in 2027, up from 8.78 qBtu in 2025.

Coal moves the other way across the outlook period. The agency's June short-term energy outlook sees U.S. coal demand falling from 452 million short tons in 2025 to 419 million short tons in 2026 and 403 million short tons in 2027, according to the EIA.

Magnolia is set to win the auction for WildFire Energy, a driller backed by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Kayne Anderson, according to World Oil.

Magnolia fell 1.5% to $26.78 in New York trading Friday, giving the company a market value of about $5.1 billion, World Oil reported.

WildFire's management team previously operated WildHorse Resource Development Corp. before selling to Chesapeake Energy Corp. in 2019 for $1.9 billion, according to World Oil.