Newly imposed requirements by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator could disqualify all of Voltus’ 450 MW of demand response resources from the grid operator’s upcoming capacity auction, according to a complaint filed on Friday by the company at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. MISO’s tariff requires that market participants give the grid operator the results of “real power tests” to register demand resources as load modifying resources for capacity auctions if they do not have performance results from an actual MISO event, Voltus said in its complaint. The market participant must also have contractual rights to the demand resources, according to Voltus. On Dec. 19, MISO changed its testing methodology days before the deadline for conducting the tests for the grid operator’s 2025/26 planning year, according to Voltus. On Jan. 15, MISO changed the testing requirements again and set contracting requirements for “aggregators of retail customers,” such as Voltus, according to the complaint. Utilities face a different standard, Voltus said. “MISO’s beyond the eleventh hour changes to these requirements will have catastrophic impacts on market participants,” Voltus said. Load modifying resources face a March 1 deadline to be registered for MISO’s next capacity auction, according to the complaint. It is unlikely that contracts between demand response aggregators and their customers will include the exact information MISO now requires, and it will be impossible to renegotiate contracts ahead of auction deadlines, Voltus said. Hundreds of megawatts will be unable to participate in the auction, reducing resource adequacy and driving up clearing prices, according to the demand response company. MISO’s changes should have been made through its tariff, not by a market notice and at a stakeholder meeting, Voltus said. The company urged FERC to order MISO to revise its demand response-related requirements by changing its tariff. Voltus asked FERC to make a decision

North Sea supporters have claimed a win despite a landmark court ruling found two major oil and gas developments were “unlawful”. Scotland’s Court of Session has overturned approvals handed out on the Rosebank North Sea oil field and the Jackdaw gas field, but allowed developers to continue working on them while they resubmit assessments on their environmental impact. Campaign groups Greenpeace and Uplift, which had lodged the case against the fields, claimed the ruling was “historic victory”. But others said decision subjects developers Shell (LON: SHEL) and Equinor (OSL: EQNR) to a “mere tick box exercise”. Norway’s Equinor and Shell, who are both planning to merge all their North Sea assets into a standalone joint venture by the end of the year, also both welcomed the ruling in Scotland’s Court of Session. The outcome of the assessment demanded by Judge Ericht depends on a review currently being undertaken by the UK government on its approach to oil and gas licensing and whether  Jackdaw, and Rosebank, currently the North Sea’s largest undeveloped field, compromise the UK’s net zero targets. At stake is billions of investment and thousands of jobs both projects could secure. Rosebank is a $3.8 billion project, targeting 300 million barrels of oil in the West of Shetland over two phases. Developer Equinor said it will create up to 2,000 jobs. Shell’s Jackdaw,  which is around 155 miles east of Aberdeen, is now set to be the first project to try out the new UK’s environmental assessment criteria when its review completes. © DC ThomsonEd Miliband (Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero of the United Kingdom) now faces having to decide on the fate of Rosebank and Jackdaw. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson Panmure Liberum analyst Ashley Kelty branded the ruling a “fudgement” which benefited the oil

Gran Tierra Energy Inc. is planning to drill 10 to 14 net development wells in 2025, including several with its new joint venture partner in Canada. The Calgary, Alberta-based company said in a news release that it plans to drill five to seven gross development wells in the Cohembi oil field located in the Southern Putumayo Basin of Colombia. Gran Tierra is also planning facility expansion, gas-to-power generation upgrades, and continued social investment in the area. The company has allotted a capital expenditure budget of $240 million to $280 million for the year. In Colombia’s Acordionero, Gran Tierra said it plans to focus on the optimization of the field through continued waterflood expansion activities, including facility expansions, and gas-to-power generation upgrades. The company is planning an active development drilling program for 2026. Meanwhile, in Ecuador’s Chanangue, the company plans to continue its appraisal program on the highly prospective Arawana/Zabaleta productive trend by drilling two to three appraisal wells. At Simonette in Canada, Gran Tierra plans to drill 2.5 net wells, “targeting two-layer co-development of the Lower and Middle Montney offering improved capital efficiency and lower proportionate infrastructure spending,” it said. Gran Tierra and its joint venture partner, Logan Energy, have started drilling the first two wells being drilled. Both wells are planned to be stimulated by the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter of 2025. For 2024, Gran Tierra reported total company average production of approximately 34,710 barrels of oil per day, an increase of 6 percent over 2023 and 13 percent compared to 2022. Gran Tierra President and CEO Gary Guidry said, “Following up on a strong 2024, which included a very successful exploration campaign and a new country entry into Canada, we are looking forward to our 2025 development and exploration program”.

In a recent joint release, Chevron U.S.A Inc. and Engine No. 1 announced “the formation of a partnership to build a new company to develop scalable, reliable power solutions for U.S. based data centers running on U.S. natural gas”. The release highlighted that the joint development is “in conjunction with GE Vernova” and “aims to establish the first multi gigawatt-scale co-located power plant and data center during President Trump’s second term”. The first projects are expected to leverage seven U.S. made GE Vernova 7HA natural gas turbines, secured under a slot reservation agreement, on an accelerated timeline, the release noted. The projects are expected to serve co-located data centers in the U.S. Southeast, Midwest, and West regions, the release added, stating that power generation is not designed to flow initially through the existing transmission grid, “reducing the risk of increasing electricity prices for consumers”. According to the release, the joint development plans to deliver up to four gigawatts, “the equivalent of powering 3-3.5 million U.S. homes, with initial in-service targeted by the end of 2027 and potential for project expansion beyond this capacity”. The release noted that the projects are expected to be designed with the flexibility to integrate lower carbon solutions. The release said the companies’ plans directly address the need for affordable, reliable energy to meet the significant demand for electricity to power U.S. data centers, enabling current and future generations of AI to be developed in the United States. The joint release also stated that the joint development is expected to create thousands of jobs and help the reindustrialization of the United States. Rigzone has asked Chevron, Engine No. 1, and GE Vernova what kind of jobs these are likely to be and roughly when recruitment will take place. At the time of writing, none of the

Tamboran Resources Corp. has launched what it says is the biggest well stimulation campaign in the Beetaloo Sub-Basin onshore Australia’s Northern Territory. The campaign consists of the Shenandoah South 2H sidetrack (SS-2H ST1) and Shenandoah S2-4H (SS4H), with up to 119 stimulated stages planned across the two wells. “The SS-2H ST1 well is planned to include 43 stages over a 5,427-foot (1,654-meter) horizontal section and the SS-3H well is planned to include 76 stages over a 9,766-foot (2,977-meter) horizontal section”, Tamboran said in a regulatory filing. The wells are planned to supply the proposed Shenandoah South Pilot Project, which is expected to produce 40 million cubic feet of natural gas a day with production expected to start mid-2026. An additional four-well campaign is planned for 2025 to complete the project’s drilling phase. For the new stimulation campaign, Tamboran has deployed Liberty Energy Inc.’s modern stimulation equipment, which it said is “the first 80,000-hydraulic-horsepower frac spread imported into the Beetaloo Basin from the US”. “The increased horsepower of this equipment is expected to deliver a step change in stimulation efficiency and proppant intensity compared to previous wells completed in the Basin”, commented Tamboran managing director and chief executive Joel Riddle. “This stimulation campaign is planned to be the largest in the Beetaloo Basin to date, with up to 119 stages over a full lateral length of 15,193 feet (~4,631 meters) across the two wells, an average of ~127 feet per stimulated stage. “Importantly, these wells are planned to be among the first to provide reliable energy to the Northern Territory”. “We have successfully undertaken stimulation programs during the wet season in the Basin over the last two years, with campaigns at Amungee 2H (2022/23) and Shenandoah South 1H (2023/24)”, Riddle added. “This experience gives us confidence in our ability to safely and

Trinidad and Tobago signed Wednesday two new production sharing contracts (PSCs) with EOG Resources Ltd., which is already producing in the Caribbean country. The licenses are part of shallow water areas offered in a 2023-24 bidding round in the twin islands, which opened October 2023 and closed May 2024, according to an online statement by the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI). “EOG continues to be very important to the fabric of the energy sector here in Trinidad and Tobago”, said Energy and Energy Industries Minister Stuart R Young. “We at the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries have to continue to ensure the relationship is as we have built it to be, with open communication and then we proceed to get more done”, Young added. EOG managing director George Viera said, “The last time we signed a PSC was in 2005 so it has been a while, approximately 20 years ago and we are excited to get this going”. The new PSCs are Lower Reverse L and NCMA 4(a), out of three for which the United States oil and gas exploration and production company bid. Block Lower Reverse L is on the southeast coast of Trinidad island. It has water depths of about 80-200 meters (262.47-656.17 feet). It is near existing EOG infrastructure and producing assets, the MEEI said. NCMA 4(a) sits on the North Coast Marine Area with water depths of around 100-200 meters. “Entry into NCMA marks a significant milestone for EOG, as it ventures into an area predominantly operated by other companies”, the ministry said. NCMA hosts seven gas fields to the north of Trinidad: Bougainvillea, Chaconia, Heliconia, Hibiscus, Ixora, Poinsettia and Poinsettia Southwest. The fields, discovered between the late 1970s and the early 1980s and put into production twenty years later, lie on trend with