Friday, 11 September 2026

Two cylindrical semisubmersible rigs once slated to become floating LNG liquefaction plants are heading to the breakers instead. New Fortress Energy has sold both units for demolition, ending a conversion effort it began four years ago after buying them from Seadrill in 2022, Offshore Magazine reported.

The hulls were cheap when NFE took them on. Offshore Magazine put the April 2022 price at USD 18 million for Sevan Driller and USD 6 million for Sevan Brasil, with the cold-stacked pair changing hands while Seadrill was selling down assets after its own Chapter 11 restructuring. Wes Edens leads NFE.

Design work pointed each converted hull toward roughly 1.4 million tonnes per year of NFE-designed liquefaction capacity. The first conversion carried a target of the first half of 2024, according to Offshore Magazine.

Mexico was the destination for one of them. Sevan Driller had been assigned to the Lakach deepwater gas project with Pemex, a development NFE concluded in 2025 was no longer probable, per the company's latest quarterly filing cited by Offshore Magazine. Lakach sat among the assets written down in a USD 123.1 million impairment.

Offshore Magazine ties the demolition sales to a pullback from LNG expansion plans while NFE completes a balance-sheet overhaul. The UK High Court sanctioned the company's Part 26A restructuring plans on June 18-19, 2026, and the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York subsequently recognized them under Chapter 15.

What the overhaul did to leverage: corporate debt on the surviving CoreCo/New NFE business fell from about USD 5.7 billion to roughly USD 527.5 million, a cut of about 91%, Offshore Magazine reported.

A record 13.8 million b/d is what the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) now expects domestic crude output to average in 2026, topping the 13.7 million b/d record of 2025, Oil & Gas Journal reported from the agency's latest Short-Term Energy Outlook.

Output had already reached that prior record pace by mid-year. First-half 2026 crude averaged 13.7 million b/d, 0.3 million b/d above the year-earlier half and 2% higher, according to the EIA data carried by Oil & Gas Journal.

EIA projects Permian crude output at 6.8 million b/d in 2026, 3% above the 2025 average.

The steeper percentage move came offshore. Crude from the federal Gulf of Mexico rose 0.2 million b/d in the first half of 2026, a 10% gain on the same months of the prior year, per Oil & Gas Journal. Among the contributors is the Shenandoah floating production unit, running at an average of 70,000 b/d since it began producing in July 2025.

West Texas Intermediate has run well above the breakevens operators report. The benchmark averaged $84/bbl through August, against $65/bbl in 2025. The Dallas Fed Energy Survey in March put average breakeven prices at $69/bbl for the Midland basin and $63/bbl for the Delaware basin, as reported by oil executives.

Most of what offshore wind farms do to ocean ecosystem services has never been measured. A 2025 paper puts the share of possible impacts classed as unknown at 86%, Mongabay reported.

Aedan Smith, who leads policy and advocacy in Scotland for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a U.K.-based NGO, calls the contest for the best near-shore sites in the North Sea and elsewhere a "gold rush".

Scotland's Berwick Bank Wind Farm is sized at 307 turbines, enough to supply roughly six million homes when it runs, according to Mongabay.

Consent for Berwick Bank rested on a seabird compensation plan that would pay for habitat protections on land rather than at the turbine sites.

RWE, a German energy company, operates the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm, where recyclable blades are installed on half of the 100 turbines.

The Hydrogen Council tracks nearly 600 low-carbon hydrogen projects, and 90% of them are under construction, Semafor Net Zero reported, citing the council. The tracked projects make hydrogen from renewable energy or from natural gas with carbon capture.

Production capacity now being built exceeds the hydrogen demand that policy currently underwrites, the council's report says.

The report ties that finding to economics: tax credits, clean fuel standards, or other government intervention are needed to make most clean hydrogen competitive with ordinary natural gas.

Brent crude closed out its strongest week since July, with escalating Middle East hostilities and fresh threats aimed at Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure keeping supply risk in the price, World Oil reported.

Riyadh took its East-West oil pipeline offline as a precaution, a move that put the vulnerability of alternative export routes into question, according to World Oil. Saudi output slid again last month to its weakest since 1990, the kingdom said, with regional disruptions continuing.

The benchmark gave back 2.8% on Friday, having hit a four-month high days earlier. Year to date, Brent holds a gain of more than 70% as the Iran conflict keeps disrupting regional energy flows. Prices still sit under the April wartime peak of just above USD 126 per barrel.

UK Maritime Trade Operations logged a report of two vessels hit by unidentified projectiles west of Khasab, Oman, on Thursday.

The IEA expects global oil demand to record its steepest annual drop since the Covid-19 pandemic, World Oil reported.

Up to two long-term LNG sales and purchase agreements are now on the table between ADNOC and RWE Supply & Trading, after the two signed a letter of intent, World Oil reported. Deliveries under the planned contracts would start in the early 2030s, with cargoes directed to Germany, other European buyers and customers in Asia.

ADNOC's existing long-term LNG supply contracts into the German market total 1.6 MMtpa, according to World Oil.

In a second agreement, ADNOC, XRG and Germany's Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE) signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on natural gas and LNG projects, World Oil reported.

Both deals belong to a package announced by ADNOC, XRG and Masdar that could enable more than EUR 5 billion of investment in Germany's energy and industrial sectors, per World Oil. The three companies put their investment in those sectors to date at more than EUR 20 billion.

The IEA cut its 2026 world oil supply forecast to an average of 100.7 MMbpd, 1.3 MMbpd below its previous estimate, according to World Oil.

Supply is now forecast to fall 5.7 MMbpd over the year, with prolonged Middle East disruptions pushing a recovery in Gulf production into next year, World Oil reported.

August output showed the strain. Global production dropped 1.6 MMbpd month-over-month to 100.1 MMbpd, and more than 10 MMbpd of Gulf production stayed shut in amid heightened security risks, according to World Oil. Gulf oil exports averaged about 13 MMbpd during the month, nearly half their pre-war level.

Demand is contracting faster than the agency had assumed. The IEA forecasts global oil consumption will fall 2.5 MMbpd in 2026, a decline 940,000 bpd steeper than the drop projected in its August report, World Oil reported.

Inventories continue to absorb the gap. Observed oil stocks fell a further 95 million bbl in August, taking cumulative draws since February to 507 million bbl.

Prices reflected the tightening. North Sea Dated averaged USD 91/bbl in August before reaching USD 113.48/bbl on Sept. 9, according to World Oil.

"Buffers [are] shrinking and the global refining system [is] stretched to the limit," the agency said.

UOG has framed its work on rig and equipment requirements for a first well offshore Jamaica as a study rather than a decision to drill, according to Offshore Magazine. Whether anything follows depends on two conditions: the Government of Jamaica must grant the required approvals, and commercial agreements must be signed.

Across the Gulf of Mexico, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad, the company will look at logistics support infrastructure, the readiness of local ports, and the wider regional supply chain, Offshore Magazine reported.

FERC has approved an expansion of the Gator Express pipeline that will move an additional 627,000 dekatherms/day to Venture Global's Plaquemines LNG plant in Louisiana, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

The certificate lets Gator Express, also owned by Venture Global, uprate its 26.8-mile, 42-inch line from 3.9 million Dth/d to 4.6 million Dth/d, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

No new construction or modifications to the pipeline and its infrastructure are involved, per the same report, with those facilities already in service.

Protests arguing that the higher operating pressure warranted a safety study were dismissed, and the commission found that Venture Global had demonstrated need for the increased throughput, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

In a separate authorization, the commission cleared construction and operation of the USD 1.1 billion Kosciusko Junction Pipeline Project in Mississippi. That project will add 1.175 million Dth/d of incremental firm transportation capacity serving power-generation, industrial, and downstream delivery markets across the Southeast, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

A federal appeals court found that the U.S. Department of Energy exceeded its authority by directing the J.H. Campbell coal-fired station in Michigan to keep operating beyond the retirement date already set for it, Grist reported.

To extend the life of the 64-year-old unit, the Trump Energy Department leaned on a short-term emergency provision of the Federal Power Act, citing outage risk and rising electricity demand from data centers as its justification for emergency powers, per Grist.

That argument failed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Judge Cornelia Pillard described the statute as "essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop," Grist reported.

The Michigan unit falls within a group of seven fossil-fueled plants ordered by the Trump administration to remain online, according to Grist.

Grist put the bill for keeping the plant running since May last year at $259 million. Consumers Energy Company wants that sum back from customers across Michigan and 10 other states.

Chevron's Anchor floating production unit started up in August 2024 with electric motors and electronic controls driving its main topsides equipment, according to Offshore Magazine.

The unit sits in Green Canyon Block 763, about 140 miles off Louisiana in roughly 5,000 feet of water, Offshore Magazine reported. Chevron operates the project with a 62.86% working interest, and TotalEnergies holds the remaining 37.14%.

Design capacity is 75,000 barrels of oil per day and 28 million cubic feet of gas per day, per Offshore Magazine. Across an expected 30-year life, the field is projected to recover about 440 million barrels of oil equivalent on a gross basis.

The industry-first claim attached to the project is not the electrification but the 20,000-psi subsea system that made the reservoir developable, according to Offshore Magazine.

Shell's Sparta, scheduled for 2028, takes the approach further with all-electric compression inside a standardized hull, targeting lower emissions and better efficiency on large power loads, Offshore Magazine reported.

A proposed federal rule would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to decide on applications for any "qualifying project" within 60 days of receipt, according to Inside Climate News, which reported the proposal was published in the Federal Register this week.

Inside Climate News reported that the Trump administration is moving to accelerate oil and gas drilling across the Western Arctic through the proposal, which would cut environmental review and public input.

The rule applies to the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, 23 million acres of public lands on the state's North Slope overseen by the BLM, according to Inside Climate News.

Environmental groups told the outlet there were few restrictions on which oil and gas projects would qualify, beyond a requirement that they lie within 25 miles of existing activity.

Ben Tettlebaum of The Wilderness Society said the rule would clear the way for Willow-sized massive oil and gas drilling projects, with no further review or public engagement for future drilling in the Western Arctic.

The BLM is accepting public comments on the proposal through Nov. 9, Inside Climate News reported.

Solar recycler We Recycle Solar (WRS) has set Q3 2027 as the opening date for a US plant built to pull critical materials out of retired panels, a facility the company describes as the country's first end-to-end operation of its kind, Electrek reported.

The plant is designed to pull out silver, copper, silicon, aluminum, and glass, and WRS says that recovery happens without shipping material abroad for downstream smelting, according to Electrek.

WRS also plans to spend around USD 100 million on four more US facilities within the next four years, Electrek reported.

Across the decommissioning, recycling, and resale work it already runs, WRS puts the count of panels kept out of landfills at more than 1 million.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast global oil demand will fall by 2.5 million b/d in 2026, according to Oil & Gas Journal. That is 940,000 b/d steeper than the agency projected in its August report.

Demand will land at 102.45 million b/d in 2026 before recovering to 105.01 million b/d in 2027, Oil & Gas Journal reported on the IEA figures. The agency said consumption will not regain its prewar level of about 106 million b/d until late 2027.

The supply side of the ledger is the constraint. Gulf oil supply dropped 2 million b/d in August to 21.9 million b/d, leaving it 10.1 million b/d below prewar levels, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

S&P Global, for the first time since the US-Iran war began, no longer expects Middle Eastern crude production to recover to prewar levels by yearend 2027, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

The firm now sees crude prices broadly in an $80-100/bbl range through 2027. Dated Brent is expected to average around $90/bbl or higher for the balance of 2026 and $86/bbl in 2027, according to S&P Global.

Spot pricing has already run above that band. North Sea Dated crude averaged $91.00/bbl in August, up $7.61/bbl from July, and reached $113.48/bbl on Sept. 9, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

Crude has added $24.50/bbl across a 10-day rally tied to increasing military action on both sides of the Iran war, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says regular oil flows through the Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions will not recover until next year.

The agency has cut its demand view for the year by 2.5 million b/d, to 102.4 million b/d.

Russian oil refinery capacity is running an estimated 30% below normal because of attacks by Ukraine, according to the IEA.

On the supply side, Saudi production fell 1.9 million b/d in August to about 6.0 million b/d, per Oil & Gas Journal. OPEC+ agreed at its meeting last Sunday to keep output levels unchanged for October.

US Strategic Petroleum Reserves drew down 1.2 million bbl to 285 million bbl, the lowest since 1982. US oil production rose to 13.9 million b/d.

Thirty federal actions have loosened pollution rules in ways that raise health risks as data centers multiply, according to a report issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Network, a group run by former Environmental Protection Agency staff. The report, covered by Inside Climate News, ties rising power demand from the buildout to air pollution associated with asthma and heart and lung disease.

Inside Climate News reported that the Trump administration is favoring fossil fuel generation over cleaner supply as data center electricity demand climbs.

The cost of that trajectory has been modeled. University researchers in California and New York calculated that in a high-growth case for the industry, data center air pollution could account for about 600,000 asthma symptom cases, 1,300 premature deaths and upward of USD 20 billion in public health costs in 2028, Inside Climate News reported.

EPA rejected the framing. Agency spokesperson Cora Mandy said each action taken has "returned regulations to the best reading [of] the Clean Air Act after years of overreach by previous administrations".

Public sentiment runs against the deregulatory direction the report describes. In April, a YouGov survey of registered voters commissioned by the Environmental Protection Network put support for tougher treatment of corporations that break environmental laws at 84%.

An open source dataset tracks civilian nuclear programs in 20 African countries, with one reactor fleet operating, one plant under construction, seven countries preparing and ten exploring, according to Neutron Bytes. Across those programs, 15 GW of new nuclear capacity is being explored for construction.

Construction is concentrated at Egypt's El Dabaa site on the Mediterranean coast, where four VVER-1200 units are being supplied by Rosatom, Neutron Bytes reported. The units rest on a 2015 intergovernmental agreement backed by a Russian state loan facility of roughly USD 25 billion. First concrete was poured in July 2022, and Neutron Bytes reports Unit 1 is targeted for grid connection around 2028, with all four units following by about 2030.

South Africa carries the continent's only operating capacity and the largest approved build. The government approved Integrated Resource Plan 2025 in October 2025, calling for 5,200 MW of new nuclear capacity by 2039 and an initial 1,200 MW targeted for 2036, according to Neutron Bytes. The existing fleet gained runway a month later: the regulator extended Koeberg Unit 2's operating licence to 2045 in November 2025.

Kenya set a schedule in March 2026, announcing a target of first nuclear generation by 2034 with roughly 2,000 MW of capacity planned, Neutron Bytes reported.

Zambia's interest follows a supply shock rather than a long-standing programme. A severe drought exposed the extent of the country's dependence on hydro, and in 2025 the government said it would evaluate about 1 GW of nuclear for baseload, according to Neutron Bytes.

A federal court has found that the Department of Energy overstepped its legal authority when it ordered a Michigan coal plant to keep operating, according to Canary Media.

The order at issue kept the plant running last year, Canary Media reported.

Canary Media reported that the decision could undermine the Trump administration's push to keep aging and costly fossil-fueled power plants from closing.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration's order requiring the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in Michigan to keep operating, according to Power Magazine.

Power Magazine reported that the decision could reach beyond the single plant, affecting other orders issued to hold U.S. coal-fired stations open past their scheduled retirement dates.

The U.S. District Circuit Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the Sierra Club and overturned the Department of Energy's emergency order that had overridden the decision to close the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in Michigan, CleanTechnica reported.

The order at issue was issued by Trump's Department of Energy in May 2025, according to CleanTechnica.

That directive overrode the state's and the utility's decision to retire the Campbell plant, CleanTechnica reported, and the court's ruling reverses it.

ONGC has awarded L&T Energy Hydrocarbon Offshore (LTEH Offshore) an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) contract covering the Additional Development of Ratna-I (ADR I) and NLM-14 projects off India's west coast, according to Offshore Magazine.

The contractor will build three new wellhead platforms and one riser platform under the award, Offshore Magazine reported.

Subsea pipelines and cables also fall within the scope, alongside brownfield modifications to offshore installations already in place, according to the same report.

Wisconsin has secured $25 million in federal grant funding through the NEVI programme for 42 new fast-charging sites, electrive reported.

That award lifts the running total under Wisconsin's NEVI programme to roughly $62 million across 120 charging projects statewide, according to electrive. Individual grants run from about $397,000 to $930,000, and the largest went to a site at Walker's Point Plaza in Milwaukee.

Pennsylvania is moving a separate tranche. The state plans to put $11 million into new EV charging infrastructure in the Central PA region, electrive reported. PennDOT said the money covers 26 counties in central Pennsylvania, with applications open until 12 March 2027.

Pennsylvania already has 50 NEVI-funded charging hubs open, with another 41 at various stages of planning and construction, according to electrive.

The Central PA round draws on the Community Charging phase of NEVI, which Pennsylvania launched in February with $100 million in federal funds earmarked for public charging outside the designated Alternative Fuel Corridors.

DPD has ordered 341 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter vans for its British delivery fleet, electrive reported. The order will lift the operator's UK electric fleet above 4,000 vehicles, according to DPD.

The first vans enter service in September, and electrive reported that all are expected to be operational by the end of October.

Delivery runs through Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle dealer eStar, which operates six locations in north-west England and North Wales, according to electrive.

On specification, Mercedes-Benz Vans sells the eSprinter panel van in the UK with 100 or 150 kW power output and a choice of 81 or 113 kWh battery, electrive reported.

DPD's electric vehicles already cover more than 7,300 UK postal code areas, concentrated in city centres where removing diesel emissions matters most, according to electrive.

The operator began electrifying its UK fleet in 2018, opening the country's first all-electric parcel depot that year, electrive reported.

Twenty-one exploration and production companies filed applications for acreage in Norway's APA 2026 licensing round, according to Offshore Magazine.

The round covers an expanded predefined area spanning the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, Offshore Magazine reported. Seventy blocks and part-blocks were added to that predefined area.

Offshore Magazine said the added acreage could help generate the discoveries needed to sustain Norwegian oil and gas production and exports.

License awards from the round are expected in early 2027, according to Offshore Magazine.

Vallourec has signed an agreement with Aramco covering the commercial, industrial and technological side of their relationship in Saudi Arabia, according to Offshore Magazine. The deal was concluded at the French-Saudi Investment Roundtable Meeting in Paris.

Offshore Magazine reported that the two companies have worked together since 1962, when Vallourec began supplying VAM premium connections for oil country tubular goods (OCTG). In 2022 the relationship moved to a long-term supply arrangement covering locally manufactured premium OCTG pipe.

Separately, Vallourec is launching an insulation manufacturing project in Brazil, according to Offshore Magazine. That project will serve ExxonMobil's Longtail and Hammerhead developments offshore Guyana.

Invenergy and HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (HASI) have formed a strategic equity partnership covering solar, storage, and wind projects, according to Solar Builder.

The portfolio holds ten projects spread across seven states and totals 2.7 GW of electrical power, Solar Builder reported.

Invenergy, a project developer and independent power producer, will keep control and majority ownership of the projects and lead day-to-day operations at each one, according to the same report.

Latvenergo, Latvia's state-owned utility, is evaluating the purchase of up to 250 MW of wind or hybrid power projects in the Baltics, according to pv magazine.

The utility's approved Baltic renewable portfolio stood at 1,144 MW in the first half of 2026, split between 937 MW newly built and 207 MW under construction, pv magazine reported. Its medium-term strategy sets a target of 600 MW of new wind and solar by 2026.

The largest single asset delivered so far is the 265 MW Aizpute solar park in Latvia, which Latvenergo completed in 2025 and which started generating electricity by the first quarter of 2026, per pv magazine. On the wind side, the company bought the 124 MW Telšiai wind farm in Lithuania from developer Utilitas Wind in May 2024.

Battery capacity is advancing in parallel. Seven storage projects totaling 233.4 MW and 551.2 MWh were under development as of the end of June, pv magazine reported. That pipeline follows a plan announced in February 2025 to install 250 MW/500 MWh of storage by 2030 at existing hydro and combined-heat-and-power sites.

The same month, the Baltic states cut their connection to the Russian-controlled electricity grid and synchronized with the Continental European grid, according to pv magazine.

Nigeria bought about 2.9 million solar panels last year, worth more than 400 billion naira (USD 295 million), with over 70% sourced from China, Climate Home News reported. That volume makes Nigeria the second-largest African importer of Chinese panels after South Africa.

The buying is happening against a failing grid. Nigeria's national transmission system has collapsed about 22 times over the last two years, a record Climate Home News attributes to transmission constraints, gas shortages and ageing infrastructure.

More than 85 million Nigerians, roughly four out of 10, still lack reliable access to grid electricity, according to Nigeria's Rural Electrification Agency.

Mostly small-scale installations have lifted the country's cumulative solar capacity to about 6 GW, according to a report by research provider BloombergNEF.

President Bola Tinubu has framed the import dependence as a manufacturing opportunity. "We are preparing to produce in this country the solar technologies that the entire continent will use," Tinubu told a group of Chinese investors in 2024.

Geely launched the TT electric sport sedan in China at a starting price of 129,900 yuan, or about USD 19,100, according to Electrek. Every trim ships with 800V fast charging and LiDAR.

The entry version pairs a 63.8 kWh pack with a rated 640 km on China's CLTC cycle, equal to 518 km on the WLTP measure, Electrek reported. Pricing sits well below Xiaomi's new-generation SU7, which starts at 229,900 yuan, or about USD 31,870, per the same report.

Across the range, Geely fits a CATL "Shenxing TT" lithium iron phosphate cell on an 800V architecture rated for charging at up to 6C. Geely claims the system adds close to 500 km of range in 11 minutes.

The dual-motor Ultra trim delivers a combined 425 kW, or 570 hp, and covers 0-100 km/h in 3.8 seconds, according to Electrek.

Demand ahead of the launch was strong by the carmaker's own account: Geely says the TT collected more than 20,000 pre-orders in about two weeks before it went on sale.

The company has separately said it intends to enter the US EV market within two to three years, and Electrek reported that Geely is in advanced talks to take over a Ford plant in Europe.

The launch price and specification sheet are the substance of the story.

Lebanon has issued new permitting and safety provisions covering PV systems up to 1.5 MW, placing oversight with municipalities and setting technical requirements for installations, according to pv magazine.

Systems below the 1.5 MW threshold no longer need approval from the Ministry of Energy and Water, pv magazine reported, but developers must complete a defined municipal administrative and safety procedure instead.

Approvals granted under the framework are generally valid for one year, and installation must be finished within that period, according to pv magazine.

The rules land on a fast-growing installed base. Lebanon's cumulative solar capacity stood at 1,505 MW at the end of 2025, up from 1,081 MW twelve months earlier, according to figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) cited by pv magazine.

Western Australia will require 125 GWh of energy storage and 40.5 GW of renewable generation by 2035, according to a report from independent think tank Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) covered by ESS News.

Construction is running far behind those volumes. In the South West Interconnected System (SWIS), 8% of the required generation capacity and 11% of the required storage is under construction, ESS News reported.

The gap is wider in the north. For the North West Interconnected System (NWIS), the equivalent figures are 9% of needed generation capacity and 2% of needed storage, according to the BZE report.