Nodal Exchange LLC, a derivatives trading platform for North American commodity markets, saw 3.1 billion megawatt hours (MWh) of power futures and 749,222 lots of environmental futures and options traded in 2025, achieving new annual highs. Power futures traded last year on the Tysons, Virginia-based exchange rose four percent year-on-year to 3.1 billion MWh. The December volume of 235 million MWh was up 29 percent from December 2024, Nodal said in an online statement Thursday. “Nodal continues to be the market leader in North American monthly power futures having 56 percent of the open interest with 1.51 billion MWh at the end of 2025”, Nodal said. “The open interest represents over $166 billion of notional value (both sides)”. Meanwhile environmental market open interest ended 2025 at a record 391,264 lots, up one percent from 2024. “December deliveries of 37,173 lots marked the fifth-largest delivery month for environmental products on Nodal”, Nodal said. “Renewable energy certificate futures and options posted volume of 465,189 lots in 2025, up 11 percent from a year earlier and ended the year with open interest of 323,591 lots, up 10 percent. “Nodal continues to expand environmental offerings having over 68 percent of the North American Renewable Energy Certificate market measured in clean MWh generation. “Nodal, in collaboration with IncubEx, launched several new environmental futures contracts in 2025, including Auction Clearing Price contracts for California, Washington and RGGI carbon allowances.  Nodal was the first exchange to launch PJM Emission Free Energy Certificate Futures, which allow for delivery of nuclear energy certificates alongside hydro. Other new launches included Virginia In-State Compliance REC Futures, New York Environmental Disclosure Program REC Futures and Alberta TIER EPC Options”. For natural gas, traded volumes last year totaled 958 trillion British thermal units (TBtu), Nodal said. Traded gas volumes in January-November 2025 reached a

Around 30 percent of global oil reserves might be consolidated under U.S. influence. That’s what J.P. Morgan analysts, including the company’s head of global commodities strategy Natasha Kaneva, stated in a J.P. Morgan research note sent to Rigzone by Kaneva this week. “Combined oil reserves from Venezuela, Guyana, and the U.S. could give the U.S. about 30 percent of global oil reserves if consolidated under its influence,” the analysts said in the note. The J.P. Morgan analysts highlighted in the research note that Venezuela holds the world’s largest oil reserves, “particularly heavy crude needed by U.S. refiners”. “With 303 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, Venezuela represents nearly 20 percent of global reserves as of 2024 – more than any other country,” they pointed out. “If Guyana’s rapidly expanding discoveries are considered alongside U.S. conventional and unconventional reserves, the combined total could position the U.S. as a leading holder of global oil reserves, potentially accounting for about 30 percent of the world’s total if these figures are consolidated under U.S. influence,” they added. The analysts stated in the note that this would mark a notable shift in global energy dynamics. “With greater access to and influence over a substantial portion of global reserves, the U.S. could potentially exert more control over oil market trends, helping to stabilize prices and keep them within historically lower ranges,” the analysts said. “This increased leverage would not only enhance U.S. energy security but could also reshape the balance of power in international energy markets,” they added. In the note, the J.P. Morgan analysts revealed that they continue to maintain their view that “a regime change in Venezuela would immediately represent one of the largest upside risks to the global oil supply outlook for 2026-2027 and beyond”. “With a political transition, Venezuela could raise

Equinor revealed, in a statement posted on its website on Thursday, that it has awarded 12 framework agreements to seven supplier companies with a total value of around NOK 100 billion ($9.9 billion). The company highlighted in the statement that these new framework agreements are for maintenance and modifications on the company’s offshore installations and onshore plants. The supplier companies comprise Aibel AS, Aker Solutions AS, Wood Group Norway, Apply AS, Rosenberg Worley AS, Head Energy AS, and IKM Gruppen AS, Equinor revealed. Agreements start in the first half of this year, have a duration of five years, and include extension options of three and two years, Equinor pointed out in its statement. The company noted that the final portfolio distribution will be assigned when the contracts are signed, which it revealed “is planned in week four”. “These agreements lay the foundation for safe and competitive operations at Equinor’s offshore installations and onshore plants in the years to come,” Equinor said in the statement. “The agreements create predictability and ripple effects for the Norwegian supplier industry across the country,” it added. In its statement, Equinor revealed that, “to support the ambition of maintaining production around 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (2020 level) on the Norwegian continental shelf towards 2035”, the company is planning a series of actions. These include investing “about NOK 60-70 billion” ($5.9 billion to $6.9 billion) annually in increased recovery and new fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, drilling “around 250 exploration wells and about 600 wells for increased recovery”, performing 300 well interventions annually and “around 2,500 modification projects”, and maturing and developing over 75 subsea developments that can be tied to existing infrastructure, the statement outlined. They also include reducing the company’s own greenhouse gas emissions towards nearly 50 percent by 2030,

Iberdrola SA on Thursday declared an interim dividend of EUR 0.253 ($0.29) per share for 2025 results, up from the minimum of EUR 0.25 it announced October. Earlier the Spanish power and gas utility said it reached EUR 125 billion ($145.55 billion) in stock market value at the start of 2026, having increased its capitalization by nearly 40 percent in 2025. “The company is once again offering its shareholders three options in this edition of Iberdrola Flexible Remuneration: to receive the interim dividend amount in cash; to sell their allocation rights on the market; or to obtain new bonus shares from the group free of charge”, it said in an online statement, adding the options can be combined. Shareholders who opt for cash are to receive the interim dividend February 2. “Shareholders who opt to receive new shares must have 73 free allocation rights to receive a new share in the company”, Iberdrola said. The dividend announced Thursday would be backed by a supplementary dividend Iberdrola plans to pay in July if approved at its general shareholders’ meeting, it said. “In order to implement this new edition of the remuneration system, a capital increase with a maximum reference market value of EUR 1.713 billion will be carried out”, it said. Iberdrola said Tuesday it is now the top utility in Europe by market capitalization and the second-biggest in the world. It noted the milestone was achieved in the year marking the 125th anniversary of its founding as Hidroeléctrica Ibérica. According to its latest quarterly report, Iberdrola produced 96,047 gigawatt hours (GWh) net in the first nine months of 2025, with renewable energy accounting for 66,254 GWh. Spain led geographically, accounting for 48,794 GWh of Iberdrola’s total net production in the period. It was followed by the United States (18,436 GWh). Mexico was

Shell Plc said its oil trading performance worsened in the fourth quarter as crude prices slumped, adding to signs that Big Oil is heading into a tougher earnings season.  Oil trading results for the year’s final three months are “expected to be significantly lower” than the previous quarter, Shell said in an update on Thursday, ahead of an earnings report due early next month. At the company’s troubled chemicals division, a “significant loss” is expected. The update comes at a time when the oil market is lurching into an oversupply that could make for challenging trading conditions in the months ahead. The international benchmark Brent plunged 18 percent last year and has been largely unaffected by turmoil in Venezuela, where the country’s president Nicolás Maduro has been captured by US forces. It’s a “rough end to the year” for Shell, RBC Capital Markets analyst Biraj Borkhataria said Thursday in a note. He had expected “a relatively weak quarter, and this looks worse than expected.” Shell’s shares fell as much as 2.3 percent in early London trading. Shell’s massive in-house trading business deals in oil, gas, fuels, chemicals and renewable power – trading both the company’s own production as well as supply from third parties. The energy major doesn’t disclose separate results for its traders, but the performance is closely watched as it can be a key driver of earnings. A strong trading performance in the third quarter was one of the reasons Shell cited for earnings that beat estimates.  Since taking over the London-based energy giant three years ago, Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan has sought to cut costs and offload under-performing assets to improve the company’s balance sheet. This is his first test in a lower oil-price environment that will pressure the firm’s ability to maintain its level of share buybacks. US rival Exxon Mobil

National Grid PLC on Thursday announced route changes for the proposed LionLink cable to the Netherlands, a project with TenneT BV. The interconnector is designed to carry up to two gigawatts of wind electricity, enough for about 2.5 million British homes, according to National Grid. LionLink would connect a wind farm offshore the Netherlands to the Dutch and UK grids, with a targeted start of operation in 2032, National Grid says on the project webpage. The power transmission and distribution operator said in an online statement Thursday it would launch an eight-week public consultation for its new plan for the cable to start underground in Suffolk’s Walberswick, “a decision made following an assessment of the environment and local residents’ concerns around access constraints and traffic impacts”. “An alternative underground HVDC [high-voltage direct current] cable corridor to the north of Southwold was discounted following the consultations”, National Grid said. “NGV is also working closely with local authorities to ensure no construction takes place on the beach, and there is no visible infrastructure once the project is complete”, it added, referring to National Grid Ventures, its unit tasked with building and operating LionLink. “84 percent of the UK section of the LionLink cable will be offshore, and all onshore sections will be buried underground”. The new plan was based on non-statutory consultations in 2022 and 2023, LionLink project director Gareth Burden said. “We are coordinating with other developers in Suffolk on a regular basis so that where possible, we can work together to ensure construction is carried out in manageable sections, and we can avoid long-term disruption in any one area”, Burden added. National Grid noted, “LionLink is set to be one of the first projects of its kind, helping to shape the future of offshore renewable energy by combining wind generation and