World petroleum and other liquid fuels production will outweigh consumption by 2.83 million barrels per day in 2026. That’s according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) January short term energy outlook (STEO), which projected that global petroleum and other liquid fuels production and consumption will average 107.65 million barrels per day and 104.82 million barrels per day, respectively, this year. A quarterly breakdown included in the EIA’s latest STEO projected that production will average 106.93 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2026, 107.52 million barrels per day in the second quarter, and 107.92 million barrels per day in the third quarter, and 108.24 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter. Another quarterly breakdown in the EIA’s January STEO forecast that consumption will come in at 103.36 million barrels per day in the first quarter of this year, 104.86 million barrels per day in the second quarter, and 105.66 million barrels per day in the third quarter, and 105.38 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter. The EIA’s latest STEO showed that world petroleum and other liquid fuels production outweighed consumption by 2.59 million barrels per day in 2025. In this STEO, the EIA highlighted that output averaged 103.67 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2025, 105.21 million barrels per day in the second quarter, 107.88 million barrels per day in the third quarter, and 108.30 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter. The STEO showed that consumption came in at 101.96 million barrels per day in the first quarter of last year, 103.68 million barrels per day in the second quarter, 104.55 million barrels per day in the third quarter, and 104.52 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter. Looking ahead to 2027 in its January STEO, the EIA

Ken West is president and CEO of Honeywell Process Technology. Over the past year, the global energy landscape has shifted in meaningful ways. Liquefied natural gas, and natural gas overall, gained momentum, while growth in areas like petrochemicals and renewables slowed. Global policy developments shaped how governments and companies make investment and innovation decisions, reinforcing the need for stable, long-term policy frameworks to support next-generation energy solutions. What became clear in 2025 is that the future will require more energy supply requiring all forms of energy, which includes making traditional fuels more efficient while adding innovative alternative fuels to the mix. Growing energy demand and evolving regulations will continue to shape 2026. Meeting the global need for more power means expanding energy infrastructure worldwide, which is becoming more challenging. As these systems become increasingly complex, digitalization is emerging as the connective tissue that links infrastructure, data and people. The next phase of progress will be defined by how technology is deployed — not only to cut costs and boost efficiency, but to enable intelligent operations, advance modular solutions and strengthen energy security for responsible growth. Here are four strategic shifts that will shape the energy sector in 2026. Digital solutions help meet rising energy demand Looking ahead, connected solutions — where AI-powered tools are integrated with digitally connected infrastructure — will accelerate the shift of energy companies toward intelligent operations. These tools help strengthen and augment workforce capabilities, extract more value from existing assets, and position energy leaders to meet rising demand with greater confidence. Early adopters are already seeing measurable gains in reliability and workforce efficiency. Skilled labor constraints remain a challenge as experienced workers retire and turnover stays high. To address this, energy companies are turning to digital solutions that upskill the workforce, maintain reliability and scale operations.

In a statement sent to Rigzone by the Enverus team recently, Enverus announced that it has released its annual list of “the top public onshore exploration and production companies in the U.S. based on gross operated production last year”. According to the list, which was seen by Rigzone and is titled Top Public Lower 48 Onshore E&P Companies of 1H25 by Gross Operated Production, ExxonMobil ranked first with 1.951 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, followed by Expand Energy, with 1.754 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, and ConocoPhillips, with 1.420 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Occidental Petroleum was ranked fourth, with 1.296 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, and EOG Resources came in fifth, with 1.250 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, the list showed. ExxonMobil’s production had an oil weighting of 53 percent and its active rig count came in at 37, according to Enverus’ list, which highlighted that the company ranked first in 2024. Expand Energy’s production had an oil weighting of one percent and its active rig count came in at eight, the list highlighted. The company ranked second in 2024, the list pointed out. In terms of oil weighted production, ConocoPhillips came in at 62 percent, Occidental Petroleum came in at 57 percent, and EOG Resources came in at 54 percent, the list revealed. In terms of active rig count, ConocoPhillips had 33, Occidental Petroleum had 30, and EOG Resources had 23, the list showed. ConocoPhillips ranked sixth in last year’s list, Occidental Petroleum was third, and EOG Resources was fourth, Enverus’ list highlighted. The list showed the Permian basin as the “primary Enverus region” of ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Occidental Petroleum. It pointed out that the “primary Enverus region” of Expand Energy was the Eastern United States and that

(Update) January 23, 2026, 8:33 PM GMT: Article updated. US natural gas futures for February delivery surged by 70% this week as the market braced for a historic winter storm that’s poised to send temperatures plummeting and boost demand for the heating fuel. Futures settled up 4.6%, or by 23 cents, to $5.275 per million British thermal units. That settlement was up by $2.172 per million Btu from the end of last week and capped the largest weekly percentage gain by far in records going back to 1990. Natural gas prices for near-term delivery at regional trading hubs across the US also jumped. So-called cash prices for gas at the benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana to be delivered over the weekend surged on Friday to higher than $28 per million British thermal units, according to traders. That compares with $8.42 on Thursday. Spot prices at the SoCal Citygate hub in California traded as high as $8 per million Btu as gas volumes delivered via pipeline from the Permian Basin in West Texas to the West Coast have likely been reduced, traders said. That’s up from $4.42 on Thursday. Spot prices at the Houston Chip Channel were trading at $30 per million Btu on Friday morning, traders said. The Transco zone 6 non-New York index, an indicator for prices from Baltimore to New Jersey, traded Friday afternoon at $58 per million Btu, traders said. This week’s surge has been driven by forecasts for below-normal temperatures across most of the country, threatening to boost gas consumption and drain inventories. The freeze — particularly in the southern gas-producing states — has raised concerns about water icing in pipelines, potentially disrupting output starting this weekend. One energy consultancy, Energy Aspects, raised its forecast for how much production will be lost to so-called freeze-offs over the next

ContourGlobal said it has acquired producing solar farms with a combined capacity of about 37 megawatts (MW) and an under-development battery energy storage portfolio of 500 MW/2,000 MW hours in Greece, marking the London-based green power developer’s entry into the country. “Although Greece is a relatively small power market in Europe with 24 GW [gigawatts] of installed capacity, it is the second-largest in the Balkan region and is experiencing rapid growth in renewables”, ContourGlobal said in a press release. “While historically dominated by lignite and gas, the country is accelerating renewable development, with solar and wind capacity projected to reach around 60 GW by 2060. “At the end of the current decade, nearly 70 percent of installed capacity and electricity generation are expected to come from renewable sources, increasing the need for flexible, grid-scale storage. Moreover, the country is projected to become a net exporter of electricity from 2026”. The solar purchase from QuestEnergy of Greece’s Quest Holdings comprised 26 plants commissioned between 2011 and 2022 across the Mediterranean country, ContourGlobal said. “[T]he assets are fully contracted under FiT (Feed-in Tariff) and FiP (Feed-in Premium) supporting schemes, providing both predictable and premium revenues”, it said. “The portfolio’s expected yearly generation is of approximately 51 GWh, enough electricity to power up to 15,000 Greek households per year”. “The acquisition of the Quest portfolio was one of the first transactions to be filed and approved unconditionally under the new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) directive in Greece”, ContourGlobal added. “The FDI approval process places strong emphasis on the review of acquisitions of critical assets in energy and infrastructure through foreign investors”. Additionally ContourGlobal acquired battery energy storage system (BESS) projects across the country through transactions with Greece’s Zephiros and Spain’s Fotowatio Renewable Ventures. “The first project, Taxiarches, is a 100 MW/400 MWh ready-to-build

In an exclusive interview with Rigzone on Monday, Ole R. Hvalbye, a commodities analyst at Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB), said the “massive rise” in U.S. natural gas prices today is “primarily driven by weather risk and thus tightening short-term balances, hence a continuation of the market movements we witnessed last week”. Hvalbye highlighted in the interview that “weather has re-entered the equation in force”, noting that “forecasts show a broad cold spell across large parts of the U.S., particularly the Midwest and East, with temperatures as low as 10 degrees below the 30-year normal for the end of this week”. “That has materially lifted heating demand expectations at a time when the market is already sensitive,” he added. “This is clearly reflected in Henry Hub, which has jumped to another level, and is now trading around $6.2 per MMBtu [million British thermal units], up more than 100 percent from … [around] $3 per MMBtu on January 16”, he continued. Citing Bloomberg data, Hvalbye highlighted to Rigzone that around “10 percent of U.S. gas production is estimated to be offline”. “At the same time, LNG terminal feedgas flows dropped largely to 11.1 Bcfpd [billion cubic feet per day] yesterday and are estimated at … [around] 12.5 Bcfpd today, which is well below the 18.58 Bcfpd average last week,” he said. Hvalbye went on to tell Rigzone that storage is adding some fuel to the move higher in U.S. natural gas. “U.S. inventories have been drawing faster than normal lately, and while stocks are not critically low, the drawdown rate has increased fast,” he noted. Finally, Hvalbye told Rigzone that positioning is amplifying the price action. “The market was leaning bearish after a long period of low prices, and today’s move has been intensified by short-covering (just like the spike last