Vista Energy SAB de CV has let a 2-year drilling contract to Archer for work in the Vaca Muerta shale play in Argentina. Under the agreement, Archer will deploy its AC drilling rig DLS-156 to support Vista’s development program in the region. The total contract value is estimated at $35-40 million over the full contract term, including the optional extension year. Vista has an inventory of about 1,470 ready-to-drill locations in Vaca Muerta, and 486 net wells already drilled at the end of third quarter 2026. In July, Vista applied to include its Bandurria Norte shale oil development in Argentina’s Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI). Bandurria Norte spans 26,500 acres in Vaca Muerta’s oil window and currently has no producing wells. Vista plans to drill and complete 332 horizontal wells and build dedicated infrastructure, including a 40,000-b/d oil treatment plant, a gas compression plant, gathering systems, pipelines, and associated infrastructure. The project would be Vista’s first large-scale development outside its core Bajada del Palo hub, where existing roads, processing capacity, and gathering networks support lower-cost drilling.

Devon Energy Corp., Houston, has concluded a strategic review of its portfolio after buying Coterra Energy and striking a deal to sell its Eagle Ford assets but president and chief executive officer Clay Gaspar said Nov. 6 that he and the company’s directors “will not hesitate” to strike other deals if they’re good for shareholders. On a conference call discussing Devon’s third-quarter results, Gaspar said the months since Devon bought Coterra and he said his team would take a fine-toothed comb through its holdings in six basins have been “taxing” for both employees and investors because of the uncertainty about the company’s strategy. Several investors have pushed Devon’s leaders to sell other assets and focus on the Permian basin or to put the entire company on the block. That’s not happening in the near future, Gaspar said on the third-quarter call while also saying his team remains open to talking to bidders for its assets. “We owe it to our investors to […] be thorough, very transparent and very open, but we also found it very important that we drew a line and said, ‘This is the close of this period, this chapter.’” he said. “This chapter being, ‘Everything’s on the table.’” Assuming the planned $4.2 billion divestiture of its Eagle Ford operations to Crescent Energy Co. goes through, Devon will control about 750,000 net acres in the Permian that produce about 900,000 boe/d as well as a group of what Gaspar called “complementary assets” in the Anadarko (177,000 boe/d), the Williston and Powder River (187,000 boe/d) and the Marcellus (about 2 bcfd).

Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. The share of new solar projects deployed with co-located battery storage this year is 16% — or about 41 GW — as of September, and may reach 19% by year’s end, said an Oct. 30 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It is likely to pass 30% in the next two years, the agency estimated. The trend has increased significantly over the last decade, as only around 2% of projects, or 5 GW, of new solar capacity was co-located with storage in 2017. In 2023, co-location jumped to 25% of projects, then fell over 2024 and 2025, according to EIA’s data — but is projected to pass 30% over the next two years, based on planned additions. “When operators co-locate battery storage with solar, they can direct solar electricity output to the grid or to the battery, depending on the wholesale prices,” EIA’s report said. “Wholesale prices in regions with large solar participation tend to fall when solar contributions are high and rise as they decrease.” “Plants with both solar and battery storage can manage the combined output of their generating resources to maximize their value in a changing wholesale price environment,” EIA added. Courtesy of U.S. Energy Information Administration An Oct. 22 report from the Solar Energy Industries Association found that from 2021 to 2026, “solar generation increased 421% in Texas and 90% in California, while battery storage capacity grew more than 26-fold in Texas and nearly sevenfold in California.” When comparing the same June to August period, SEIA found that “CAISO used 2.5% more power than the same time in 2021 with an average wholesale electricity price 40% lower after accounting for inflation. ERCOT used 30.1% more power than the

Listen to the article 7 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Seyed Madaeni is CEO and co-founder of Verse, an energy software company specializing in battery dispatch optimization for data centers. Even the best-funded project can’t operate without electricity, and the grid often can’t deliver hundreds of new megawatts as quickly as AI developers need them. Access to power has become a competitive advantage, and companies are searching for ways to get it faster. Seyed Madaeni Today, developers see two obvious options. They can wait years for traditional grid upgrades, or they can build private power plants onsite. The first can move too slowly. The second brings fuel-supply, equipment, permitting and community challenges of its own. A third path to data center interconnection is taking shape. Across the country, utilities and grid operators are creating clearer ways for large loads that can reduce the risks they bring to the system. Depending on the market, a data center might guarantee a minimum payment, agree to reduce its grid demand when the system is strained, provide better operating data or contract for new generation and storage. These policies differ, but they share one idea: If a data center wants faster or more certain access to power, it should give the grid greater certainty in return. That is a better approach than advancing projects mainly because they promise jobs or investment. Projects that make their demand more predictable, controllable and financially secure should have a clearer path to service. Ohio is asking data centers to pay for what they reserve Utilities often need to invest in substations, transmission equipment and other infrastructure years before a data center reaches full operation. They are building against forecasts that can change, and their queues may include projects that never get

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WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the Fall 2026 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I Topics, unlocking more than $200 million in federal funding to support American small businesses developing innovative technologies that strengthen U.S. energy and national security. The Phase I topics span grid innovation, nuclear detonation detection, cybersecurity, and other areas with strong commercial potential.  The Fall 2026 release marks a significant milestone for DOE’s restructured SBIR and STTR programs, now managed by DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). Through DOE’s Partnership Intermediary, ConnectWerx, the programs are streamlining management and delivery, reducing application burdens, and expanding access to funding opportunities for American small businesses.    The restructuring advances the Trump Administration’s priorities to strengthen American energy and national security, support U.S. small businesses, and accelerate the commercialization of technologies critical to maintaining U.S. technological leadership. By prioritizing projects with strong technical and commercial potential, DOE is helping move American innovation from the laboratory to the marketplace.  “Under President Trump’s leadership, we’ve fundamentally redesigned the SBIR/STTR programs from the ground up to make them more accessible, more dynamic, and much more productive,” said Anthony Pugliese, DOE Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization. “These changes will help us attract more American entrepreneurs and startups, maximize the impact of every federal dollar, and ultimately turn promising innovations into real-world solutions that strengthen American competitiveness.”  Phase I now serves as the entry point to the full SBIR/STTR funding pathway. Companies begin by submitting a pitch for a Phase I award to demonstrate the technical feasibility of their proposed innovations, with opportunities to secure follow-on funding in subsequent phases. Go/no-go decisions between phases assess technical progress and commercial potential before advancing to the next stage, ensuring federal resources are focused