@import url(‘https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter:wght@100..900&display=swap’); .ebm-page__main h1, .ebm-page__main h2, .ebm-page__main h3, .ebm-page__main h4, .ebm-page__main h5, .ebm-page__main h6 { font-family: Inter; } body { line-height: 150%; letter-spacing: 0.025em; } button, .ebm-button-wrapper { font-family: Inter; } .label-style { text-transform: uppercase; color: var(–color-grey); font-weight: 600; font-size: 0.75rem; } .caption-style { font-size: 0.75rem; color: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 60%, transparent); } Artificial intelligence is moving beyond copilots and generative tools toward systems that can plan, coordinate workflows, and take action with varying degrees of human supervision. For oil and gas, that shift could have significant implications for how operations are managed. In this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, Chris Smith speaks with Gino Hernandez, head of global digital business at ABB Energy Industries, about what agentic AI could mean for the future of oil and gas operations. The discussion explores: How agentic AI differs from generative AI and today’s AI copilots. How AI agents could transform workflows in the field, control room, and plant. The importance of data quality, provenance, and context in enabling trusted AI-driven decisions. How companies can balance greater AI autonomy with operational safety, cybersecurity, and human oversight. Where agentic AI offers the greatest near-term potential and where the risks demand caution. What oil and gas executives should do now to prepare for increasingly autonomous operations. Hernandez examines how the industry could move from using AI to assist in executing individual tasks toward systems capable of coordinating entire workflows and making decisions within defined boundaries. The conversation considers what that transition will require in terms of governance, accountability, and human judgment, and how oil and gas companies can determine where greater AI autonomy creates value without introducing unacceptable risk. <!–> Gino Hernandez Gino Hernandez, head of digital business, ABB Energy Industries.  –> <!–> About our guest Gino Hernandez is head of

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO) joined Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) in Laramie, Wyoming on October 23, 2026, to recognize a three-year coal supply agreement valued at more than $100 million with Malaysia’s TNB Fuel Services, the fuel procurement subsidiary of Malaysia’s largest electric utility, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Under the agreement, NTEC, a Navajo Nation-owned energy company, will supply coal from its Spring Creek Mine in Montana to Malaysia, further strengthening energy trade ties between the two countries. The agreement builds on broader U.S.–Malaysia trade commitments announced during President Trump’s October 2025 visit to Kuala Lumpur, including $42.7 million annually in U.S. coal sales to TNB Fuel.  “This agreement is a great example of what’s possible when we bring American coal producers together with international partners,” said DOE Acting Assistant Secretary of the Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office Curt Coccodrilli. “What started with a visit to coal mines in Montana and Wyoming has turned into a major opportunity for American coal exports and regional prosperity. Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re focused on opening new markets, strengthening our coal industry, and supporting the American workers and communities that make it all possible.” Through continued coordination with American coal producers, HGEO is supporting the Trump Administration’s commitment to strengthening the U.S. coal industry, expanding American energy exports, and supporting the workers and communities that power the nation. 

The deal also includes two new oil batteries in Simonette—the first of which came online in this year’s third quarter and the second expected online by the end of first-quarter 2027—with combined capacity of 24,000 b/d, a 50% interest in a 90-MMcfd Simonette natural gas processing plant, and a 65% interest in a 57-MMcfd Pouce Coupe gas plant. Ovintiv said the infrastructure is expected to enhance margins and support future oil growth. “The Logan assets have demonstrated leading oil productivity performance and will immediately compete for capital alongside the rest of our portfolio,” said Brendan McCracken, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ovintiv. The company estimates the acquisition will generate about $60 million/year in cost synergies, primarily through reduced capital, operating, and overhead costs. Ovintiv said the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to key operational and financial metrics, including about 5% accretion to cash flow per share in 2027. Ovintiv’s acquisition of Logan assets is expected to close in first-quarter 2027, subject to shareholder, court, and regulatory approvals, after which, the operator expects its core Montney position to increase to about 720,000 net acres. Also included in the transaction is about 60,000 net acres with exposure to the Duvernay shale. Logan Oil spin-out As part of the transaction, Logan will spin out Logan Oil Corp. to existing shareholders ahead of closing. The company will include the Sawn Lake steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) project in Alberta’s Peace River region, to be acquired through a previously announced deal to acquire Andora Energy Corp. from CanAsia Energy Corp.; Clearwater assets in the Nipisi area to be acquired from Woodcote Energy Inc.; and certain undeveloped lands in northwest Alberta, including Charlie Lake lands. The assets will be excluded from the Ovintiv transaction and retained by Logan shareholders through the new company. Logan

That’ll be the case particularly in Appalachia, where many EQT and Range operations sit side by side and where new power generation facilities are being built to serve demand from data centers and other users. Rice said EQT today is exposed to 3 bcfd of demand from local markets. “That’s before we think about adding the sustainable growth,” Rice added. “We’ve got a significant amount of supply that we’re going to be able to support with gas supply contracts. This long-duration inventory that we have is going to allow us to continue to extend that opportunity set.” EQT CEO Jeremy Knop added that Range’s acreage along and near parts of the Ohio River is “almost like beachfront real estate” as economic development leaders in the region look to capitalize on long-term tailwinds from the data center, energy and advanced manufacturing sectors. Those factors, Rice said, helped kick EQT-Range talks into gear from a timing perspective. He told analysts that the long-term prospect of Range assets growing their capacity to 5 bcfd from today’s roughly 2.5 bcfd and EQT growing its productive capacity to more than 12 bcfd will allow the combined organization to be more aggressive in the market. “Seeing how we can put these companies together and take a significant piece of this opportunity, I think to me was the compelling catalyst for us to act now,” Rice said. Another contributor to making the deal work is Range’s natural gas liquids production, which accounts for about 30% of the company’s total output. Andrew Dittmar, principal analyst at Enverus Intelligence Research, said working more liquids into its profile has been a key strategic priority. “It helps lower the cost of supply relative to gas prices and improves cash flow when gas struggles, as it has through 2026,” Dittmar wrote. “That

Equinor ASA and Aker BP ASA have entered into a strategic collaboration on tight reservoirs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Through technology development, standardization, and greater scale, the companies aim to enable development of more discoveries and increase oil and gas recovery. The collaboration covers prospects, discoveries, and projects across the NCS, with the companies agreeing to contribute relevant opportunities from their respective portfolios and jointly identify where technology development, standardization, and exchange of experience can create the greatest value. The collaboration also includes resource maturation and well stimulation solutions. The ambition is to establish a sufficient and predictable activity level to support a competitive value chain, with the expertise and supplier capacity required to develop more tight reservoir discoveries. The collaboration will be governed through a joint steering structure and multidisciplinary working groups comprising representatives from both companies. Regional opportunities Large volumes of oil and gas remain in tight reservoirs on the NCS, with the Norwegian Offshore Directorate estimating a recoverable resource potential of about 2.8 billion boe in mapped tight reservoirs, comparable in size to the expected recoverable resources of Johan Sverdrup field. Many of the nearly 90 discoveries that have yet to receive a development decision are located in such reservoirs. Tight reservoirs have low permeability, meaning that oil and gas flow very slowly through the rock. Using conventional methods, only a limited share of the resources can be recovered, and many discoveries are too costly to develop on a standalone basis. The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has therefore encouraged companies to work together.

Ghana’s Petroleum Hub Development Corp. (PHDC) has entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an international consortium for a proposed $28-billion second phase of the country’s multiphased petroleum hub to be built in the Jomoro municipal district of the country’s Western Region. Signed with a consortium led by UAE-based Global Sphere FZE on behalf of investors from South Korea, Mali, and the UAE, the MOU covers development of Phase 2’s planned 300,000-b/sd refinery, two petrochemical plants, 4 million cu m of storage, and a multi-berth jetty under a build-own-operate model that—if approved—would lead to start of construction within 6 months of the agreement’s Oct. 19 signing, PHDC said in a release. Phase 2 will be the second tranche of the three-phased project that collectively aims to add three grassroots refineries totaling 900,000 b/sd, five new petrochemical plants, fresh storage capacity of 10 million cu m, and at least two jetties supporting imports and exports. Dr. Toni Aubynn, PHDC’s chief executive officer, described the MOU as an opportunity to develop Ghana’s industrial capacity and create jobs. Investor representative Boubacar Belco Bah said the consortium would work with PHDC, AMS Technologies, the project development consortium, and technical and financial institutions on project preparation and risk allocation, including plans for participation by Ghanaian contractors, professionals, and service providers. While its confirmation of this latest agreement sets out Phase 2’s proposed installations and construction window, PHDC did not specify financing commitments, detailed partner responsibilities, or a commissioning schedule. The precise identity of AMS Technologies was neither revealed nor could be confirmed, but PHDC previously announced an investment consortium dubbed “AMS/Double Tree Capital Bank” visited PHDC offices in early December 2025 with an expression of interest in exploring investment opportunities for Phase 2 of the project. Advancing the project Previously estimated at a combined cost