Eni SpA and Egypt’s Bioenergy Association for Sustainable Development, affiliated with the Environment Ministry, signed Monday an agreement for a feasibility study on biogas production in the North African country using animal and agricultural waste. “The joint study will assess the feasibility of building a biodigestion plant capable of treating agricultural and animal waste, particularly from livestock farming”, Italy’s state-controlled energy major Eni said in a press release. “The biogas produced by biodigestion can generate renewable electricity and heat, while also producing higher-value organic fertilizers for use in agriculture, further contributing to the circular economy. The initiative would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural waste and byproducts, while generating high-quality carbon credits.  “The agreement is in line with the Ministry of Environment’s objective to promote the dissemination of biogas technology across Egyptian governorates and to develop innovative and sustainable energy solutions that contribute to emission reduction and sustainable development. “It also fits in Eni’s long-term strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through a multi-faceted approach that includes developing integrated solutions to reduce emissions and enhance resource efficiency”. Elsewhere in Africa Eni earlier this year inaugurated its first vegetable oil extraction plant in the Republic of the Congo, unlocking new feedstock capacity for its biorefineries. The facility in Loudima, in the southern part of the Central African country, can produce up to 30,000 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa) of vegetable oil. The plant will use crops grown on “degraded and underutilized land or through intercropping systems, as part of an innovative regenerative agriculture project developed in collaboration with local stakeholders”, Eni said in a statement June 28. On May 28 Eni said it had signed an agreement with Cote d’Ivoire’s Agriculture Ministry to explore the potential of cultivating biofuel crops in the West African country. The memorandum of understanding “aims to enhance the rubber

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Argonne National Laboratory, NVIDIA and Oracle today announced a landmark public-private partnership to deliver the DOE’s largest AI supercomputer and accelerate scientific discovery. The partnership will also immediately deliver world-class AI computing resources to DOE researchers while simultaneously building two next-generation AI supercomputing systems at Argonne National Laboratory. Today’s announcement is in accordance with President Trump’s Executive Orders, Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure and Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence. The Solstice system, which will feature 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, will be the largest AI supercomputer in the DOE’s lab complex. Another system, called Equinox, will feature 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Construction at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility will immediately begin for the Equinox system. It is expected to be delivered in 2026. These AI systems will be seamlessly connected with DOE’s vast network of scientific instruments and data assets to address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges in energy, security, and discovery science. As part of the partnership, Oracle will also immediately provide DOE with access to AI computing resources that use a combination of NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell architectures. Scientists from Argonne and across the country will have access to new AI capabilities to drive technological leadership for science and energy applications. “Winning the AI race requires new and creative partnerships that will bring together the brightest minds and industries American technology and science has to offer,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “The two Argonne systems and the collaboration between the Department of Energy, NVIDIA, and Oracle represent a new commonsense approach to computing partnerships. These systems will be a powerhouse for scientific and technological innovation. Thanks to President Trump, we’re bringing new computing capacity online faster than ever before and turning shared innovation into national strength.”

Last month, on the high prairie east of its hometown, Denver-based Peak Energy powered up what it says is the United States’ first grid-scale sodium-ion battery installation and “the first ever fully passive megawatt-hour scale battery storage system” anywhere in the world. Peak’s 3.5-MWh project marks a big step forward for the electrochemical battery chemistry that many experts believe is the most viable challenger to lithium-ion, which today dominates the energy storage market for discharge durations shorter than four hours.  “What’s nice about our technology is the way it looks and feels to a customer is like a new variant of a [lithium-ion battery] system,” said Landon Mossburg, CEO and cofounder of Peak Energy.  Sodium-ion batteries’ allure is growing amid volatile commodity pricing and an on-again, off-again trade war between the United States and China affecting lithium-ion batteries. Sodium-ion storage has a simpler supply chain that eschews traditional battery metals, said Evelina Stoikou, an energy storage analyst with BloombergNEF. The U.S. has the world’s largest known reserves of soda ash, a sodium precursor that is more abundant globally than lithium, nickel and cobalt. “Lithium-ion costs remain highly sensitive to raw material prices, meaning that spikes in lithium, nickel, or cobalt prices could improve sodium-ion’s relative competitiveness,” she said. But Stoikou cautioned that swingy raw materials pricing can cut in the other direction. At the moment, rapidly-falling LFP costs are driving a boom in global lithium battery deployments.  “Expectations among [sodium-ion battery] manufacturers have cooled as LFP prices continue to trend downward, leading to a reduction in our expectations for sodium-ion to scale,” she said. Sodium-ion proponents like Peak Energy believe sodium-ion chemistry, though less energy-dense than lithium, has inherent advantages that will allow it to compete on cost before the decade is done. Those include lower fire risk, higher discharge rates,

The overseas unit of Abu Dhabi’s biggest oil company is in talks to invest in a liquefied natural gas project Argentina’s YPF SA is developing as it pushes to start exporting the fuel, according to people familiar with the matter.  XRG is eyeing a stake in the project as it considers expanding its LNG portfolio in Latin America, the US and Asia, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public.  State-run YPF is developing the floating terminal as Argentina tries to tap global LNG demand and accelerate output of vast natural gas reserves in the Vaca Muerta shale basin. The project, which requires construction of several liquefaction vessels, is designed to eventually produce 28 million tons of LNG annually. Shell Plc and Eni SpA are working with YPF on the project, but final investment decisions haven’t been made. XRG’s talks with YPF are preliminary, and the company may ultimately decide not to pursue an investment, according to the people. XRG declined to comment. On Monday, YPF’s depositary receipts traded in New York jumped as much as 38% after libertarian President Javier Milei’s party prevailed in legislative elections. The midterms were seen as a pivotal moment for foreign investors looking for opportunities in Argentina, providing a clear sign voters would continue backing Milei’s push to deregulate the economy. XRG is the international arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., backed by Abu Dhabi’s oil wealth. It has already acquired a stake in NextDecade Corp.’s Rio Grande LNG project being built in South Texas, and is in the process of taking over Germany’s Covestro AG as it bets on lasting demand for gas and chemicals in the energy transition. It’s also bought gas assets in Africa and Central Asia.  But the company also had a setback last month when it

Venezuela revoked energy deals with neighboring Trinidad and Tobago for its support of a US military offensive in the Caribbean, potentially raising the economic cost of the twin-island nation’s alliance with the Trump administration. Speaking on state television Monday evening, President Nicolás Maduro revoked an energy framework agreement with Trinidad that allowed the two countries to forge gas deals. Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodríguez had made the proposal earlier on Monday.  “Faced with the Prime Minister’s threat to turn Trinidad into the aircraft carrier of the US empire against Venezuela, against South America, there is only one alternative,” Maduro said in his weekly program on state TV. “It is completely suspended.” Maduro said he would deliver the proposal to the Supreme Court, National Assembly and State Council to receive their recommendations before taking “a structural measure” very soon. Trinidad needs Venezuelan gas to replenish supply to the industrial backbone of its fragile economy. However, when Rodríguez first made the threat on Monday, Trinidad’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told AFP that the country’s future “does not depend on Venezuela and never has.”  Trinidad’s government has developed a “hostile attitude” and a “warlike plan” against Venezuela, Rodríguez said during the afternoon, by “siding” with the US’s “military agenda.” Persad-Bissessar has previously said she welcomed the US offensive on drug traffickers, calling for them to be killed “violently.”  Her posture has alienated Trinidad from other English-language countries in the Caribbean that have insisted on maintaining the region as a “zone of peace.” Venezuelan rhetoric is escalating as the US advances a military campaign, blowing up purported drug boats and pointing a finger at Maduro and, increasingly, Colombian President Gustavo Petro for allegedly flooding the US with fentanyl and cocaine.  The US is ramping up its deployment in the southern Caribbean, with a

In a statement sent to Rigzone on Monday, KPMG noted that, according to its 2025 Global Energy, Natural Resources, and Chemicals CEO Outlook, “CEOs in the energy, natural resources, and chemicals (ENRC) sector are optimistic about growth”. “Despite inflation and regulatory headwinds, confidence among CEOs is rising, with 84 percent optimistic about mid-term industry growth – up from 72 percent in 2024,” the statement said. “This outlook is driven by strong demand for both fossil fuels and renewables, alongside innovation in energy storage, smart grids, and carbon capture,” it added. “While 78 percent remain positive about their own company’s growth, a slight dip from last year reflects concerns over shifting regulations, trade volatility, and inflationary pressures – particularly in the chemicals sector,” it continued. The statement went on to note that M&A strategies “are also evolving with just a few CEOs (36 percent) expecting to pursue ‘high impact’ deals in 2025, down from 58 percent in 2024, while 55 percent anticipate ‘moderate’ deal activity, a rise from 38 percent last year, suggesting a shift toward more cautious growth strategies”. The KPMG statement highlighted that artificial intelligence has “rapidly evolved into a core strategy in the energy sector”. It pointed out that 65 percent of CEOs now rank generative AI as a top investment, which it noted is up 12 points from 2024, and that 72 percent are planning to allocate 10-20 percent of their budgets to AI over the next year. “ROI expectations are climbing, with 66 percent anticipating returns within one to three years, up significantly in comparison to just 15 percent last year,” KPMG said in the statement. Momentum is also building around agentic AI, according to the statement, which highlighted that 51 percent of CEOs expect it to transform operations and workforce efficiency. “Yet despite growing confidence,