The Norwegian Ministry of Energy announced, in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday, that it has offered 57 new production licenses to 19 companies on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in the APA (Awards in Predefined Areas) 2025 licensing round. Of the 57 production licenses offered in APA 2025, 31 are located in the North Sea, 21 in the Norwegian Sea, and five in the Barents Sea, the statement highlighted. Equinor Energy AS was offered the highest number of combined parts in licenses and operatorships, with 52, followed by Aker BP ASA, with 34, and DNO Norge AS, with 21, the statement revealed. A complete list of offers, showing parts/operatorships, as shown on the ministry’s site, can be seen below: Aker BP ASA (22/12) Concedo AS (2/1) ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS (1/1) DNO Norge AS (17/4) Equinor Energy AS (35/17) Harbour Energy Norge AS (9/4) INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (5/1)Japex Norge AS (2/0) Lime Petroleum AS (1/0) OKEA ASA (3/1) OMV (Norge) AS (4/2) Orlen Upstream Norway AS (6/0) Pandion Energy Norge AS (1/0) Petrolia NOCO AS (1/1) Repsol (2/2) Source Energy AS (2/0) TotalEnergies EP Norge AS (1/0) Vår Energi ASA (14/6) Wellesley Petroleum AS (5/5) All petroleum licensing rounds are carried out within the framework established by the Norwegian Parliament for where new production licenses may be awarded, the ministry’s statement noted, adding that APA is an annual exploration round for the Norwegian continental shelf. “The APA rounds are carried out within a fixed area, the APA area, which is expanded on the basis of petroleum professional assessments and in accordance with a fixed annual cycle,” the statement highlighted. “The APA area comprises the majority of the opened, available acreage on the continental shelf, including areas in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Barents Sea,” it

A group of banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are in talks to lend natural gas producers in Argentina roughly $1 billion to build a cross-country pipeline, according to two people familiar with the matter.  The banks, which also include Banco Santander SA, are negotiating the syndicated loan with a consortium led by Pan American Energy Group after a similar deal was struck last year for a pipeline and port dedicated to shale oil exports. That project, known as VMOS, is currently under construction. More banks may join the financing for the gas pipeline, the people added.  Pan American, which is half-owned by British oil major BP Plc, holds a 30 percent stake in the consortium, called Southern Energy SA. Argentina’s state-run energy giant YPF SA owns 25 percent. Three other companies, Pampa Energia SA, UK-based Harbour Energy Plc and Golar LNG Ltd. also have smaller stakes in the project.  Negotiations are ongoing and terms could still change before an agreement finalizes. JPMorgan and Citi declined to comment. Santander and Pan American didn’t respond to requests for comment.  Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale patch is growing fast as President Javier Milei’s free-market reforms have opened up the energy industry to global credit, unleashing investments. The $2 billion loan for the oil pipeline was the biggest project financing in Argentina’s history, according to JPMorgan. Southern Energy is now aiming to unlock the Vaca Muerta’s gas potential with Argentina’s first floating liquefaction terminal for natural gas. The pipeline would transport natural gas from Vaca Muerta to the terminal on the Atlantic coast. Argentina holds the world’s second-biggest resources of shale gas, and its daily production averaged the equivalent of about 550,000 barrels last year. The consortium’s first leased liquefaction vessel, Hilli Episeyo, is set to start production at the end of 2027.

Uniper SE said Tuesday it had sanctioned four new solar projects in Poland with a combined capacity of 219 megawatts peak (MWp). The Domanowo, Kłodawa, Krotoszyce and Pakosc projects are among five solar projects on which it made a positive final investment decision (FID) last month, the German power and gas utility said in a press release Tuesday. Uniper already announced a FID to proceed constructing its first solar project in Scotland on December 11, 2025. It said it expects the 45-MW Berryhill Solar Farm just north of Dundee to start construction “early 2026” and start operation later in the year. Berryhill’s output, from about 150,000 solar panels, would be enough “to power the equivalent of over 12,500 UK households each year, 1/5th the population of Angus – contributing to the UK’s net zero targets”, Uniper said. “The project has been developed jointly with partner Solar2 and Uniper plans to start the construction process as its sole owner”, the Düsseldorf-based company said last month. Uniper had announced two other UK solar projects in 2025: the Tamworth Solar Farm with a capacity of around 44.2 MWp and the 21.33-MWp Totmonslow Solar Farm. The two projects’ combined capacity can power about 23,300 homes a year, according to Uniper. Uniper aims to connect the projects to the grid in 2026, it said in a press release February 25, 2025. According to Tuesday’s statement, Uniper’s generation portfolio now has 568 MWp “in execution”. “Uniper’s investments in these solar projects are part of its strategic commitment to invest around EUR 8 billion [$9.31 billion] in growth and transformation projects by the early 2030s”, Uniper said Tuesday. “In addition to the five new projects, six further projects with a total capacity of up to 280 MWp are already in the construction phase”. Uniper targets a power generation capacity of

Monumental Energy Corp said Tuesday it had signed a definitive deal to help fund New Zealand Energy Corp’s (NZEC) planned increase of oil and gas production in the Taranaki basin onshore New Zealand. The agreement extends a partnership that already saw the restart of production in the nearby Copper Moki field in 2025. “The agreement will enable the company [Monumental] to participate in certain mutually agreed upon appraisal and development workover projects with NZEC to increase oil and gas production” in the Waihapa-Ngaere area, Vancouver, Canada-based Monumental said in an online statement. NZEC, a 50 percent owner in the relevant licenses, and Monumental must agree on the budget for each project, the statement said. “In consideration for Monumental funding NZEC’s share of any additional project, NZEC grants to Monumental a royalty applicable to such additional project effective upon satisfaction of all conditions precedent and commencement of production”, said Monumental, already a shareholder in NZEC. “In summary, the initial royalty will be payable in an amount equal to 75 percent of net receipts, on a quarterly basis, until such time as a sum equal to the costs that have been paid by Monumental has been paid back, and thereafter the final royalty will commence and will be payable by NZEC to Monumental in an amount equal to 25 percent of net receipts”, it said. The companies expect the first project under the funding agreement to start in the first quarter of 2026 subject to conditions including the receipt of regulatory approvals. On November 18, 2025, Monumental said it had completed a capital raise with gross proceeds of CAD 810,000 ($583,000) “to fund cost overruns on Copper Moki 1 oil and gas well, to fund the costs and expenses to formally enter into and fund additional workover projects with New Zealand Energy

China accounted for 54 percent of last year’s record global energy storage installations and looks set to maintain its dominant position in the sector beyond the decade despite policy headwinds, Wood Mackenzie said Tuesday. Worldwide energy storage installations in 2025 totaled 106 gigawatts (GW), up 43 percent from 2024. Global capacity now stands at about 270 GW, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based energy consultancy firm said in an insights piece on its website. “Energy storage has established itself as a critical component of the global energy transition”, WoodMac said.  By 2034 global energy storage capacity is expected to reach 1,545 GW, with China poised to contribute around half of additions in the 10-year period from 2025. “However, the Chinese market faces considerable challenges entering 2026-27”, it said. “The removal of mandatory renewable-storage coupling requirements and the absence of established revenue frameworks create substantial uncertainty”. Nonetheless the world’s second-biggest economy is growing renewable energy and storage to displace the more expensive gas power, WoodMac said earlier. “China’s battery costs have dropped by over 50 percent in the last three years while its 42 GW of grid-connected energy storage additions last year (excluding pumped hydro installations) were double that of gas power in 2024”, WoodMac wrote October 30, 2025. “Consequently, China’s gas power generation share of output has remained broadly flat in 2025 as energy storage eats into gas’s market share.  The global LNG industry should take note”. U.S. Growth WoodMac said Tuesday the United States energy storage market appears to also continue displaying resilience against a backdrop of policy reversals, with installations growing 53 percent year-on-year in 2025. “The passage of reconciliation legislation introduced supply chain restrictions for projects seeking federal tax credits, creating initial market uncertainty”, it said. “However, U.S. large-scale forecast actually increased following the bill’s passage, driven by announcements of domestic cell manufacturing

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) will turn over 30-50 million bbl of oil to the US to refine and sell, President Trump said late Jan. 6, just days after the US launched an airstrike in the oil-rich South American country and captured its leader, Nicolas Maduro. “I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez agreed to the deal because the country “can’t move oil because of US sanctions and the enforcement of those sanctions.” Speaking on Capitol Hill between classified briefings to Senate and House lawmakers, Rubio said the US would work with PDVSA to get the oil on the market “as quickly as possible.” Venezuela holds the world’s largest cache of untapped oil, with over 300 million bbl of proven reserves. Mismanagement, underinvestment and sanctions have limited production to roughly 1.1 million b/d from a peak of about 3.5-million b/d in the late 1990s, according to the US Energy Information Administration. China purchases a large share of Venezuela’s exported oil. Rubio said PDVSA asked the US to include the oil the US seized from Venezuela-linked tankers on Jan. 7 in the sales agreement. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced the tanker seizures—the third and fourth such seizure by the US in the past month—with a post on X of a video of the