Equinor has partnered with the University of Manchester to study how microbes in underground storage sites could impact carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. The Norwegian oil and gas firm is a world leader in carbon storage, and its Northern Lights CCS project is set to begin operations in 2025. In the UK, Equinor is also working alongside fellow North Sea operators BP and TotalEnergies on the £4 billion Northern Endurance Partnership in Teesside. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), CCS technology will be “essential to achieving the goal of net zero emissions“. However, researchers at the University of Manchester said the underground storage environments host diverse microbial ecosystems, and their response to CO2 injection “remains poorly understood”. This knowledge gap poses a “potential risk” to long-term CO2 storage integrity, the University said. While some microbial responses could provide sequestration benefits, others could potentially lead to methane production, infrastructure corrosion or loss of injectivity. Partnering with Equinor, the Manchester researchers will investigate how subsurface microbial communities respond to CO2 injection and storage. The two-year project will collect samples from saline aquifers and oil-producing sites to study how the microbes respond to high concentrations of CO2. Research ‘crucial’ for carbon storage success Project lead Leanne Walker at the University of Manchester said: “This project will help us understand the underground microbial communities affected by CO₂ storage—how they respond, the potential risks and benefits, and the indicators that reveal these changes. “Our findings will provide vital insights for assessing microbiological risks at both planned and active CCS sites, ensuring safer and more effective long-term CO₂ storage.” Principal investigator professor Sophie Nixon said that despite 20 years of CO2 storage and testing, scientists “still know little about how this affects native and introduced microbes living deep below the surface”. “Previous studies have

Harvard has lost about $89 million more in federal funding, this time from the Department of Energy (DOE), as the university defies demands from the Trump administration over its purported inaction on anti-Israeli bias on campus. The DOE action follows the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism’s freeze of $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contracts to Harvard, announced April 14, and was taken in coordination with the termination of $450 million in grants from eight government agencies. Earlier on March 31 the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration jointly announced a review of Harvard contracts and grants from the federal government, threatening to cut off around $9 billion in multi-year commitments. “DOE understands that Harvard University continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admission process, and in other areas of student life, such as access to the Law Review at Harvard Law School”, DOE told Harvard president Alan Garber in a letter, partly shared in an online statement Thursday confirming the termination of the grant from DOE’s Office of Science and Advanced Research Projects Agency. “We are also aware of recent events at Harvard involving antisemitic action that suggest the institution has a disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students. “Harvard’s ongoing inaction in the face of repeated and severe harassment and targeting of Jewish students has ground day-to-day campus operations to a halt, deprived Jewish students of learning and research opportunities to which they are entitled, and brought shame upon the University and our nation as a whole”. DOE cited a study by the university in which it acknowledged some of its schools, as per the words of the study report, “politicized instruction that mainstreamed and normalized what many

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 3.5 million barrels from the week ending May 2 to the week ending May 9, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. That EIA report was released on May 14 and included data for the week ending May 9. The report showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 441.8 million barrels on May 9, 438.4 million barrels on May 2, and 457.0 million barrels on May 10, 2024. The EIA report highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 399.7 million barrels on May 9, 399.1 million barrels on May 2, and 367.8 million barrels on May 10, 2024, the report outlined. Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.617 billion barrels on May 9, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were up 5.4 million barrels week on week and up 7.0 million barrels year on year, the report revealed. “At 441.8 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report. “Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by one million barrels from last week and are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased and blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added. “Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 3.2 million barrels last week and are about 16 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by

National Grid has reported an underlying operating profit of £5.36 billion for the year up to March 31, 2025. This result represented a 12% year-on-year (y/y) increase from £4.77bn and also exceeded analyst expectations of £5.29bn, according to analyst consensus figures also released by National Grid. The gains and better-than-expected performance came despite the fact that National Grid’s gross revenue for the latest financial year declined 7% y/y to £18.38b from £19.85b. The utility’s underlying earnings came in at £0.733 per share, up 2% y/y from £0.721 per share, and its underlying pre-tax profit rose 20% y/y to £4.07b, from £3.40b in 2023-24. The latest results cover the first year of National Grid’s five-year financial framework up to 2029, over the course of which it intends to invest around £60bn across its energy networks and related businesses. Over the 2024-25 financial year, the company achieved almost £10bn of capital investment, marking a 20% y/y increase and representing a record high, according to National Grid’s CEO, John Pettigrew. This helped to drive regulated asset growth of around 10% over the year, he said. “Strong performance across all areas of the business underpins our plans to successfully invest c.£60b over five years,” Pettigrew stated. National Grid operates in both the UK and the US Northeast. In the UK, it owns the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales. Over half of its planned £60b of capital investment over 2025-29 is earmarked for the UK, with around £23bn for electricity transmission in the country and roughly £8bn for electricity distribution. In addition, £1b is earmarked over the period for National Grid Ventures, a separate unit from National Grid’s core regulated business that operates across the UK, Europe and US, investing in, developing and operating large-scale clean energy infrastructure. Over 2024-25, National Grid’s

A press notice sent to Rigzone by the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) team announced that legislation for Britain’s new publicly owned energy company, Great British Energy, has passed through Parliament. The press notice stated that the Great British Energy Bill received legislative consent from all three devolved governments, adding that it is first bill to do so under this parliament. Great British Energy will invest in clean power projects across the UK as part of the government’s Plan for Change to become a clean energy superpower, DESNZ’s press notice stated. The press notice also pointed out that Great British Energy is backed by GBP 8.3 billion ($11.02 billion) over the course of this parliament and noted that the company “will speed up the delivery of strategic energy projects and invest alongside the private sector to get new technologies like floating offshore wind up and running as part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy”. In the press notice, UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said, “Great British Energy comes from a simple idea – British people should own and benefit from our own natural resources”. “We are giving people a stake in clean energy and delivering profits for the British people,” he added. “As part of our Plan for Change, this will make us a clean energy superpower and help bring down energy bills for good,” he continued. Great British Energy Chair Juergen Maier said in the press notice, “Great British Energy was created to ensure British people reap the benefits of clean, secure, homegrown energy”. “We now have full backing to scale up the company, crowd in investment, and back clean energy projects across the country,” he added. The press notice stated that the Energy Secretary will soon outline Great British Energy’s strategic priorities, “including which

Enbridge Inc. and a partnership of 36 First Nations in British Columbia have inked a deal for the Indigenous groups to acquire a 12.5 percent ownership in a natural gas pipeline with a capacity of 3.6 billion cubic feet a day (Bcfd). Stonlasec8 Indigenous Alliance Limited Partnership will invest CAD 715 million ($512.75 million) in the Westcoast pipeline, which stretches over 2,900 kilometers (1,801.98 miles) from Fort Nelson in northeast BC and Gordondale near the BC-Alberta border to the Canada-US border. Westcoast, also known as the BC Pipeline, supplies BC and the Lower Mainland, Alberta, as well as the U.S. Pacific Northwest.  “This transaction provides an opportunity to build on our existing relationships with Indigenous communities and help advance reconciliation”, Enbridge executive vice president Cynthia Hansen, who is also president for gas transmission and midstream, said in an online statement. Previously Enbridge made one divestment and formed three partnerships as part of its Indigenous reconciliation program launched 2022. These consist of the sale of the Plaza/Wabek Pipeline in North Dakota to the MHA Nation, the Wabamun Carbon Hub emission sequestration partnership in Alberta, the Seven Stars Energy clean power partnership in Saskatchewan and the Athabasca Indigenous Investments Partnership, according to a progress report published by the company March 28, 2025. “Enbridge’s Westcoast pipeline system is a legacy asset that has operated within our traditional territories for over 65 years. Now, our Nations will receive sustained economic benefits from this asset, funding critical investments in housing, infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and cultural preservation”, commented David Jimmie, president and chair of Stonlasec8 and chief of the Squiala First Nation. “People often ask what economic reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples looks like. This is it”. Enbridge president and chief executive Greg Ebel said, “This transaction is one of several such partnerships we have undertaken in the last several years and