Phillips 66 has completed the acquisition of EPIC Y-Grade GP LLC and EPIC Y-Grade LP for about $2.2 billion, boosting its midstream footprint in the Permian Basin. The units, bought from EPIC Midstream Holdings LP, own natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines, fractionation facilities and distribution systems. “This transaction strengthens our position as a leading integrated downstream energy provider”, Don Baldridge, Phillips 66 executive vice president for midstream and chemicals, said in a company statement. “We are evolving our portfolio and enhancing our ability to provide seamless and efficient delivery of energy products. “Phillips 66 will offer producers unparalleled flow assurance, while advancing a strategy that is expected to deliver attractive returns and create long-term value for our shareholders”. The acquired operations comprise two fractionators with a capacity of170,000 barrels per day (bpd) near Corpus Christi, Texas; purity distribution pipelines stretching about 350 miles; and an NGL pipeline around 885 miles long and with a capacity of 175,000 bpd. The NGL pipeline links the Delaware, Midland and Eagle Ford basins to the fractionation complexes and Phillips 66’s Sweeny Hub, which has facilities for crude distilling, naphtha reforming, fluid catalytic cracking, alkylation and hydrodesulfurization, as well as aromatics units, a vacuum distillation unit and a delayed coking unit. The pipeline capacity is being raised to 225,000 bpd, in a project expected to be completed in the second quarter. A further expansion has also been sanctioned to grow the capacity to 350,000 bpd; completion is expected 2026. EPIC has also put in place plans to raise the fractionation capacity to 280,000 bpd. “The acquired assets connect Permian production to Gulf Coast refiners, petrochemical companies and export markets, and are highly integrated with the Phillips 66 asset base”, Phillips 66 said. Announcing the agreement January 6, the company said, “Phillips 66 does not expect

Octopus Energy has taken a 10% stake in the 714MW East Anglia One offshore wind farm, based off the coast of Suffolk. Octopus acquired the stake from Macquarie Asset Management for an undisclosed sum on behalf of Vector, Octopus’ offshore wind fund aimed at investing in fixed and floating offshore wind projects. The deal marks Macquarie’s third sale of its stake in the project, having started holding 40% of the £2.5 billion project, with ScottishPower Renewables holding the rest. It sold 20% of the project to the Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) in 2020 when the wind farm went into operations, followed by another 10% in 2024 to NTR on behalf of L&G NTR Clean Power and the Development Bank of Japan. The deal is also Octopus Energy’s fourth investment in a UK offshore wind farm and its seventh in Europe. In addition to East Anglia One, Octopus has stakes in the UK’s Hornsea One, Lincs and Walney Extension, along with Butendiek in Germany, and Borssele V and Borssele III & IV in the Netherlands. The East Anglia deal builds upon the company’s $2bn of total offshore wind investments made last year. The company has previously said it aims to invest £2bn in UK clean energy projects by 2030, with the East Anglia One deal contributing to this goal. Octopus added that it is looking at the French market as it plans to enter the country’s offshore wind tender and develop a brand-new offshore wind farm in partnership with Skyborn Renewables. Octopus Energy Generation CEO Zoisa North-Bond said: “Britain is blessed with strong winds and long coastlines – perfect conditions for offshore wind. “The sector has become a vital pillar of our energy system over the past years, and this investment will help to turbocharge this clean technology further, bringing cheaper,

OPEC+ agreed to make a larger than expected oil supply hike in May, adding the equivalent of three monthly tranches from its previous plan to revive output. The group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia will add 411,000 barrels a day to the market next month, according to a statement posted on the OPEC website. The decision followed a conference call between ministers on Thursday that was focused on member countries that had been consistently exceeding their quotas, delegates said, asking not to be identified as the talks were private. The surprise decision deepened a slump in crude prices that had been triggered by US President Donald Trump’s announcement of historic tariffs on Wednesday. Oil futures fell 5.5% to $70.80 a barrel as of 12:35 p.m. in London.  After several delays, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners finally began this month restoring output that had been halted over the past few years. It will boost production by 138,000 barrels a day this month. The acceleration of the group’s production increase in May is intended to put pressure on members that have been exceeding their quotas, while also providing them with the opportunity to make larger compensation cuts to atone for past cheating, delegates said.  While global oil markets are still fragile amid growing trade tensions, and many OPEC+ members need higher crude prices to balance their state budgets, the group has also faced external pressure from Trump to “cut the price of oil.”  WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed. MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR Bloomberg

VARO Energy has agreed to buy the full share capital of Corral Petroleum Holdings AB and thereby acquire Preem Holding AB/Preem AB, a key Scandinavian oil refiner that is transitioning to renewable fuels. “On completion, we will become Europe’s second largest renewable fuel producer with an extensive distribution and storage network across major European markets with conventional fuel production capacity of 530,000 barrels per day”, VARO chief executive Dev Sanyal said in a company statement. “Combined we will serve over 50,000 business customers across 33 countries, with our future growth underpinned by a robust portfolio of mature renewable fuel projects”. Baar, Switzerland-based VARO is a joint venture of Carlyle (66.66 percent) and Vitol (33.33 percent) that produces and markets both conventional and renewable fuels. It operates in 26 countries. Stockholm-based Preem provides over 40 percent of Sweden’s and a fourth of Scandinavia’s transport fuel needs, as well as serves 17 countries in Europe, VARO noted. After investing nearly $1 billion since 2010 in renewable fuel production, as well as decarbonization initiatives, Preem now produces 300,000 metric tons a year of renewable fuels. This capacity is expected to rise to 1.3 million metric tons per annum after the completion of an upgrade at the Synsat diesel plant to enable up to 40 percent co-processing of renewable feedstocks. In Sweden Preem owns 2 refineries with 352,000 barrels a day in combined production capacity, representing 80 percent of the country’s refining capacity, VARO said. “Primarily located in Scandinavia, Preem’s assets are highly complementary to VARO’s existing operations across northwest Europe with limited overlap”, VARO said. Marcel van Poecke, chair of VARO and chair of energy at Carlyle, said, “This acquisition provides material value creation opportunities through disciplined investment in future growth projects, while enhancing VARO’s ability to deliver the reliable and secure energy

A U.S. district judge’s recent ruling against the sale of Gulf oil and gas drilling rights has major implications on future sales, according to Ellen R. Wald, the President of Transversal Consulting. “It means that environmental groups can bring lawsuits against the Interior Department just because they don’t agree with a certain aspect of their environmental impact statement,” Wald told Rigzone. The Transversal Consulting President outlined to Rigzone that interpretations of the National Environmental Policy Act, a law from 1970, have come to include “things like energy market forecasts for 30 years in the future” and said the Trump administration has an opportunity to change this. Wald pointed out to Rigzone that the administration can do this “either by overhauling the judiciary, by changing the National Environmental Policy Act to be more specific about what must be included in an environmental impact statement so that it is not open to interpretation by the judiciary, or by taking the case to higher level courts (potentially even to the Supreme Court) where they could rule that the lower court was wrong in its interpretation of the National Environmental Policy Act”. “Lower courts are supposed to follow the rulings made by higher courts and they should dismiss future cases made on these grounds,” Wald said. “Ultimately if the Supreme Court rules on it, then the issue should be put to rest. Otherwise this issue will continue to plague oil and gas development in the United States,” Wald added. Wald told Rigzone that current activity in the Gulf will not be impacted by the ruling, “only activity on the leases in question”. “It isn’t clear whether companies started drilling operations or not or whether any injunctions were issued,” Wald said. The Transversal Consulting President went on to tell Rigzone that she doesn’t see how the Trump administration can get around the ruling other

The UK government has invested £20 million into a UK nuclear fusion investment fund, which is expected to leverage up to £100m of private investment. Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “This government is taking back control of Britain’s energy by driving for clean homegrown power through our Plan for Change. “Fusion has the potential to provide us with energy security, whilst attracting the best technologies to our shores and training up the next generation of British scientists and engineers. We are backing both nuclear and fusion power, and today we take a step forward in growing this exciting industry.” The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said on Thursday that it is investing capital to unlock private sector investment and help the nascent sector scale up. It said government will receive a share of any returns made by the partnership. The department argued that successful deployment of nuclear fusion energy would be “globally transformative” and would allow the UK to export the technology to a global market that is expected to be worth trillions of pounds. It said the funding was allocated from the government’s existing research and development budget for the year 2024 to 2025. The government’s cornerstone investment in nuclear fusion will effectively “kickstart” the Starmaker One investment fund, a private vehicle set up to enable start-ups and businesses to commercialise and grow. It is the first early-stage fusion energy venture capital fund to be formed outside the US and the first of its kind to partner with the government as an investor. The energy department said it has invested £410m, unveiled in January, into UK nuclear fusion research to spur collaboration with other countries to drive economic growth through developing clean and “unlimited” power. The fusion fund is structured as a limited partnership, in which the UK government is