The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has granted a conditional permit for non-FTA exportation to CP2 LNG, a project of Venture Global Inc. under construction in Cameron Parish, Louisiana The project had already received authorization for the FTA portion of its request to export the equivalent of about 1.45 trillion cubic feet a year of natural gas, in a DOE order April 22, 2022. A final permit for the non-FTA portion has been withheld pending a DOE review of permitting considerations concerning greenhouse gas emissions, environmental impact, energy prices and domestic gas supply, according to a department order Wednesday granting the conditional permit. While the Trump administration ended ex-President Joe Biden’s pause of pending decisions on LNG export to countries with no free-trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S., the DOE under Trump indicated it would not junk a study published by the previous government on permitting considerations. In a January 21, 2025, statement the DOE said it was extending the deadline for the comment period for the results of that study from February 18, 2025, to March 20, 2025. “DOE expects to issue a final order to CP2 LNG in the coming months”, the department said in an online statement Wednesday. “We are grateful for the Trump Administration’s return to regular order and regulatory certainty that will allow us to further expand U.S. LNG exports, which have consistently been found to be in the public interest across multiple Administrations”, Venture Global chief executive Mike Sabel said in a company statement Wednesday. “This will enable us to provide our allies around the world with American LNG in just a few years and for decades to come”. Arlington, Virginia-based Venture Global said, “To date, the initial phase of CP2 LNG has been sold through 20-year sales and purchase agreements with ExxonMobil,

Calvin Butler is president and CEO of Exelon and Kenneth Cooper is the IBEW International president. A resilient, secure and modern power grid is not only a technical achievement, it is a cornerstone of American competitiveness, national security and strength. The grid’s ingenious design has allowed it to operate in much the same way for centuries, delivering life-sustaining electricity to cities, rural towns, small businesses, manufacturing complexes and critical services across the country. Now, this dependable, age-old system is undergoing rapid change. Our country and world are experiencing unprecedented energy demand. Nonprofit energy research center EPRI predicts that data center energy consumption could more than double by 2030. And just as the data centers now powered by the grid support artificial intelligence (AI) and other complex technology, the grid itself is becoming more complex to maintain. We must ensure there is a workforce with the skills and technological know-how to ready the grid for its next iteration, supporting new demand, but built to withstand increasingly extreme weather events and natural disasters. This critical necessity was top of mind earlier this month when representatives from labor and management from across the energy industry convened for the National Labor and Management Public Affairs Committee’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. As leaders of the nation’s largest energy delivery company and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 858,000 lineworkers, generation workers and other skilled tradespeople, we represent both sides in a critical, symbiotic relationship: energy infrastructure and those who build and operate it for the benefit of customers. Partnerships between local energy companies and labor demonstrate what a robust, economy-spurring energy system requires. By prioritizing workforce development and innovation, we can continue leading the world in grid reliability and technology. It means industry can adapt and thrive, spurring prosperity through creation of

Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative intends to buy power from two solar-plus-battery-storage projects planned by AES Hawaiʻi in a move that would bring the utility’s power supply mix close to 80% renewable in 2028. KIUC has asked the Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission to approve 25-year, fixed-price power purchase agreements for the 35-MW Mānā and the 43-MW Kaahanui project, each of which include 4-hour storage capacity, the utility said Tuesday. The utility will pay $127/MWh for power from the Mānā project and $133.40/MWh for electricity from the Kaahanui project, according to filings with the PUC. The cost for power under the Mānā contract could be reduced by up to $13.50/MWh if it receives a loan under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy Program, according to the PPA application. The project was selected as a potential loan recipient. Also, the Kaahanui PPA could be reduced by $10/MWh if the Internal Revenue Service publishes final regulations on tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act for renewable energy projects that are in “energy communities,” and AES determines that the facility qualifies for the tax credits, according to the PPA application. If built, the projects will displace oil-fired generation, saving KIUC customers about $13.4 million in the first year and about $800 million over the life of the PPAs, according to the utility. “We’ve already experienced significant rate stabilization over the past five years due to the high percentage of power generation from renewable projects on fixed-price PPAs,” David Bissell, KIUC’s president and CEO, said in the press release. “Our rates have gone from being the highest in the state by a large margin, to among the lowest in just 20 years. With these projects we’ll be essentially buffered from oil-price volatility.” KIUC told the PUC it plans to dispatch the projects’ stored energy

There are more energy projects awaiting final investment decisions (FIDs) in the UK now than there have been in decades, a trade body boss has warned. While this represents a great deal of potential investment across oil and gas as well as carbon capture and storage (CCS), offshore wind and other clean energy schemes, it means development is also pent up with little to feed the UK supply chain until the commitment is made to unleash the cash. Speaking at the annual Share Fair event, Dave Whitehouse, chief executive of the trade body Offshore Energies UK pointed to the firm’s latest research into supply chain sentiment, released ahead of the annual event in Aberdeen, which found almost all companies in the UK offshore energy supply chain are instead looking elsewhere around the world for work rather than in the UK. © Supplied by OEUKOEUK CEO David Whitehouse “Almost 90% of our supply chain members are seeing that their growth opportunities lie overseas,” he said. “I think it’s good to explore their expertise. But the truth is we need to change that. We need to unlock more projects here in the UK, and that means more oil and gas projects alongside our wind, floating wind, carbon storage and hydrogen projects.” He added: “What our members are saying is, actually a significant number of them are seeing less activity. “But the truth is, when you when you look across the UK, you are seeing more projects which are in that pre-final investment decision than probably I’ve seen in my career. The opportunity now is, how do you unlock those? How do you how do we get those projects unlocked? How do we create the certainty that those projects start to move forward?” ‘Don’t get too excited’ OEUK has hosted Share Fair for

Oil prices are likely to be lower in 2025 than last year, Wood Mackenzie said in a statement sent to Rigzone this week. In that statement, Wood Mackenzie revealed that its latest monthly oil market outlook sees Brent crude oil prices averaging $73 per barrel in 2025. That’s down $7 per barrel per barrel from 2024, Wood Mackenzie highlighted in its statement. It pointed out that the $73 per barrel forecast for this year is revised down $0.40 per barrel from an early February monthly report. Wood Mackenzie noted in the statement that the outlook is primarily shaped by two factors – OPEC+ production plans and U.S. tariff policies. Highlighting several “key points” from its forecast, Wood Mackenzie said in the statement that OPEC+ plans to increase production in small monthly increments from April 2025 through September 2026 and stated that postponing this plan would support prices and could offset the impact of additional U.S. tariffs. Pointing out another “key point” from its forecast in the statement, Wood Mackenzie said global economic growth for 2025 is projected at 2.8 percent but added that this could be adjusted downward by around 0.5 percentage points depending on potential trade war scenarios. Wood Mackenzie went on to note in the statement that slower GDP growth could reduce the oil demand increase in 2025 by about 0.4 million barrels per day and said the annual average for Brent crude could be $3 to $5 per barrel lower if oil demand growth weakens. “Wood Mackenzie emphasizes that these projections are subject to change based on global economic conditions, tariff and trade policies, and OPEC+ decisions,” the company highlighted in the statement. Ann-Louise Hittle, Vice President of Oils Research at Wood Mackenzie, said in the statement, “we’re seeing a complex interplay of supply and demand factors”.

Eni SpA has increased its natural gas supply for Côte d’Ivoire’s electricity generation with new capacity unlocked in the offshore Baleine field. “The gas produced – up to 70 million cubic feet per day – will be entirely allocated to meet local demand, ensuring a reliable supply for the country’s power generation needs and further reinforcing Côte d’Ivoire’s role as a regional energy hub”, the Italian energy major said in an online statement Wednesday. Baleine has also reached its oil production plateau of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd), compared to 20,000 bpd in the first phase. Eni noted, “Baleine is the first net-zero upstream project (Scope 1 and 2) in Africa, a milestone made possible by advanced technologies to reduce its carbon footprint and innovative initiatives developed in close cooperation with the Ivorian government”. “These include a distribution program of locally produced improved cookstove, which has already benefited over 600,000 vulnerable people, and a project for the protection and restoration of 14 classified forests, contributing to the project’s overall carbon neutrality”, the company added. Phase 2 started production late last year, raising Baleine’s capacity to 70 million cubic feet of associated gas per day (MMcfd). Phase 2 uses floating production, storage and offloading vessel Petrojarl Kong. It also has floating storage and offloading unit Yamoussoukro for oil export. Meanwhile gas is supplied to the Ivorian market via a pipeline built for phase 1. Announcing the start-up of phase 2 on December 28, 2024, Eni also said then phase 3 was under study and expected to further grow Baleine’s output to 150,000 bpd of oil and 200 MMcfd of associated gas. Baleine is one of the Ivory Coast’s two biggest hydrocarbon discoveries, along with Calao, according to Eni. On September 1, 2021, it declared Baleine as the nation’s first commercial hydrocarbon discovery