Dive Brief: AI applications such as predictive maintenance and digital twins could prevent 15% of projected natural disaster losses to power grids, water systems and transportation infrastructure, amounting to $70 billion in savings worldwide by 2050, according to a recently released Deloitte Center for Sustainable Progress report. Governments and other stakeholders need to overcome technological limitations, financial constraints, regulatory uncertainty, data availability and security concerns before AI-enabled resilience can be widely adopted for infrastructure systems, according to the report. “Investing in AI can help deliver less frequent or shorter power outages, faster system recovery after storms, or fewer damaged or non-usable roads and bridges,” Jennifer Steinmann, Deloitte Global Sustainability Business leader, said in an email. Dive Insight: Natural disasters have caused nearly $200 billion in average annual losses to infrastructure around the world over the past 15 years, according to Deloitte. The report projects that could increase to approximately $460 billion by 2050. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of these events, leading to higher losses, according to the report.   “Investing in AI has the greatest near-term potential to help reduce damages from storms, which include tropical cyclones, tornados, thunderstorms, hailstorms, and blizzards,” Steinmann said. “These natural disasters drive the largest share of infrastructure losses, due to their high frequency, wide geographic reach, and increasing intensity.” The AI for Infrastructure Resilience report uses empirical case studies, probabilistic risk modeling and economic forecasting to show how AI can help leaders fortify infrastructure so they can plan, respond and recover more quickly from natural disasters. “AI technologies can offer preventative, detective and responsive solutions to help address natural disasters — but some interventions are more impactful than others,” Steinmann said. Investing in AI while infrastructure is in planning stages accounts for roughly two-thirds of AI’s potential to prevent

Dive Brief: Utility commissions across the nation are “broken” and must be reformed to stop rising electric costs, a coalition of lawmakers, consumer and environmental advocates said Tuesday during a joint press conference. Speakers at the press conference said it seemed likely that the Florida Public Service Commission would “rubber stamp” a $9.8 billion base rate increase proposed by Florida Power & Light, and argued that regulators have become too deferential to utility requests. U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., reintroduced legislation on Tuesday that would prohibit utility companies from using ratepayer dollars to fund political lobbying and advertising. Dive Insight: What started as a Tuesday morning press conference drawing attention to the plight of Floridians struggling to pay rising electric bills quickly escalated to calls for legislative reforms of utility commissions across the nation. “When we have a public service commission that does not look out for the best interest of the customers but rather the utility company itself, there is a problem,” Zayne Smith, senior director of advocacy at AARP Florida, said. “This is a canary in the coal mine if the current ask is granted.” Advocates on the call argued that FPL’s request to increase base rates by 2.5% would harm Florida residents who are already struggling to pay their bills amid other rising costs. Hearings in the case are set to begin this month. Documents obtained during the rate case discovery period suggest that up to a fifth of FPL customers had their power shut off between March 2024 and February 2025 due to unpaid bills, according to Bradley Marshall, an Earthjustice attorney who is representing Florida Rising, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida in the upcoming rate case proceedings. While FPL argues that the increase would maintain base rates

Oil closed unchanged after a choppy session as investors assessed whether a prospective deal by the US and Russia to halt the war in Ukraine would receive international support and materially affect Russian crude flows. West Texas Intermediate swung in a roughly $1.80 range before ending the day flat below $64 a barrel, narrowly breaking a six-session losing streak. The US and Russia are aiming to reach a deal that would lock in Russia’s occupation of territory seized during its invasion, according to people familiar with the matter. Washington is working to get buy-in from Ukraine and its European allies on the agreement, which is far from certain. The US and the European Union have targeted Russia’s oil revenues in response to its invasion of Ukraine, with President Donald Trump just this week doubling levies on all Indian imports to 50% as a penalty for the nation taking Russian crude and threatening similar measures against China. Though investors remain skeptical that Europe would support a deal representing a major victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the renewed collaboration between Washington and Moscow has lifted expectations that the nation’s crude will continue to flow freely to its two biggest buyers. Still, the market’s focus has shifted to whether US sanctions on Russia — which have crimped Russia’s ability to sell oil and replenish the Kremlin’s war chest in recent months — will remain in place. “A possible truce would be only modestly bearish crude — assuming there is no lifting of EU and US sanctions against Russian energy — since the market does not currently price in much disruption risk,” said Bob McNally, founder of the Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official. The proposed deal resembles a ceasefire, not a full-fledged peace agreement, he added. At the same

Schlumberger N.V., the energy tech company doing business as SLB, will team up with AIQ, the Abu Dhabi-based AI specialist for the energy sector. SLB said in a media release that the two companies will collaborate to advance AIQ’s development and deployment of its ENERGYai agentic AI solution across ADNOC’s subsurface operations. Built on 70 years of proprietary data and expertise, ENERGYai integrates large language model (LLM) technology with advanced agentic AI, SLB said. This AI is tailored for specific workflows across ADNOC’s upstream value chain. Initial tests using 15 percent of ADNOC’s data, focusing on two fields, showed a seismic agent that boosted seismic interpretation speed by 10 times and improved accuracy by 70 percent, it said. In partnership, SLB and AIQ will design and deploy new agentic AI workflows across ADNOC’s subsurface operations, including geology, seismic exploration, and reservoir modelling. SLB will provide support with its Lumi data and AI platform, and other digital technologies. A scalable version of ENERGYai is under development, which will include AI agents covering tasks within subsurface operations. Deployment will commence in the fourth quarter of 2025, SLB said. “This partnership reflects our vision to harness AI for energy optimization, and we are enthusiastic that SLB shares this outlook. The collaboration between AIQ and SLB enables the development of sophisticated AI workflows that integrate seamlessly with ADNOC’s infrastructure, driving efficiency, scalability, and innovation at every stage of the energy lifecycle”, Dennis Jol, CEO of AIQ, said. “Our ENERGYai agentic AI solution is pioneering in its sheer scale and impact, and we are proud to involve other significant industry technology players in its development and evolution”. ENERGYai will power agentic AI to automate complex, high-impact tasks, increasing efficiency, enhancing decision-making and optimizing production across ADNOC’s operations, SLB said. The partnership between AIQ and SLB demonstrates a mutual

Diamondback Energy, Inc. reported a net income of $699 million for the second quarter of 2025, well below the $837 million reported in the corresponding quarter of 2024. However, the first half net income of $2.1 billion surged past the $1.6 billion reported in H1 2024. The company said in its report that production for the quarter averaged 919,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). Oil production averaged 495,700 barrels per day (mbo/d). Diamondback said it put 108 wells into production in the Midland basin, and a further eight wells into production in the Delaware Basin. During the first half of the year, Diamondback said that 224 operated wells entered production in the Midland Basin with 15 more wells entering production in the Delaware Basin. In the second quarter of 2025, Diamondback said it had invested $707 million in operated drilling and completions, $90 million in capital workovers, non-operated drilling, completions, and science, and $67 million in infrastructure, environmental, and midstream projects, totaling $864 million in cash capital expenditures. For the first half of 2025, the company spent $1.6 billion on operated drilling and completions, $111 million on capital workovers, non-operated drilling, completions, and science, and $124 million on infrastructure, environmental, and midstream activities, amounting to a total of $1.8 billion in cash capital expenditures, it said. Diamondback has also narrowed its full-year oil production guidance to 485 – 492 mbo/d and increased annual boe guidance by 2 percent to 890 – 910 Mboe/d, it said. Furthermore,  Diamondback noted that the guidance does not reflect the pending acquisition by its publicly traded subsidiary, Viper Energy, Inc., of Sitio Royalties Corp., which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, subject to stockholder approval and the fulfillment or waiver of other typical closing conditions. To contact the author,

In a statement posted on its website recently, Blackstone announced that private equity funds affiliated with the company have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Enverus from Hellman & Friedman and Genstar Capital. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed in the statement, which noted that the deal is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to customary conditions. Citi and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisors and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal advisor to Enverus and Hellman & Friedman. RBC Capital Markets, LLC served as financial advisor and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal advisor to Blackstone. Blackstone’s core private equity strategy, Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, and Blackstone’s private equity strategy for individual investors are each expected to invest in Enverus as part of this transaction, Blackstone revealed in the statement. “Enverus represents the latest in a number of recent transactions Blackstone has announced behind its high-conviction investment themes in electricity demand growth and the ongoing energy transition,” Blackstone said in its statement, highlighting its deals with Potomac Energy Center, Sediver, Westwood Professional Services, Trystar, and others. Eli Nagler and Bilal Khan, Senior Managing Directors at Blackstone, said in the statement, “as the leading energy-dedicated SaaS platform, Enverus’ advanced analytics and technology solutions are critical for its customers as they navigate unprecedented AI-driven electricity demand growth and the broader energy transition”. “We believe Blackstone’s energy market expertise and network can further enhance the company’s growth trajectory, and look forward to partnering with Manuj [Nikhanj, Enverus CEO] and the Enverus team,” they added. In the statement, Nikhanj said, “this is more than a transaction – it’s a launchpad”. “Blackstone shares our conviction that the future of energy will be defined by AI, real-time intelligence, and bold execution. Their global reach and deep expertise