Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office said Thursday it has closed a $1.6 billion loan guarantee to a subsidiary of American Electric Power to reconductor and rebuild around 5,000 miles of transmission lines across Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The conditional loan commitment was announced in January as part of $23 billion in assistance DOE offered to eight utilities for investments in transmission, energy storage, grid modernization and gas pipelines. The Trump administration has been reviewing loan commitments and grants finalized in the waning days of the Biden administration, charging that many were rushed through with inadequate review. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the AEP loan will bolster reliability and “ensure lower electricity costs across the Midwestern region of the United States.” Dive Insight: DOE did not immediately respond to questions about the status of other loan guarantees announced in January. AEP is the first company to close a loan guarantee under the Energy Dominance Financing Program created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. President Trump signed the legislation into law earlier this year. The guarantee “was carefully evaluated” under new LPO guidance and “delivers on the Trump administration’s promise to responsibly steward taxpayer dollars and unleash American energy dominance,” DOE said in a statement. AEP is “experiencing growth in energy demand that has not been seen in a generation,” President, CEO and Chairman Bill Fehrman said in a statement. Customers have committed to 24 GW of electricity demand by the end of the decade, AEP said, and necessary upgrades have been identified to support data center, artificial intelligence and manufacturing development. Approximately 100 miles of transmission line across Ohio and Oklahoma are the first projects supported by

In a research note sent to Rigzone by the HSBC team late Tuesday, HSBC Senior Global Oil and Gas Analyst Kim Fustier said BP’s third quarter trading statement was “mixed to negative”. “Gas trading was ‘average’ (same as 2Q), while oil trading was ‘weak’ as oil price volatility subsided (implying a big delta vs ‘strong’ in 2Q),” Fustier said in the note. “On the positive side, 3Q oil and gas production is expected to be higher vs 2Q vs ‘slightly lower’ previously, thanks to U.S. onshore (BPX) growth. This is the second consecutive quarter when production will exceed initial guidance, which suggests good operational regularity, though the financial impact may be muted given low U.S. gas prices,” Fustier added. “In Downstream, stronger refining indicator margins ($15.8/b vs $11.9/b in 2Q) and ‘significantly lower’ turnarounds (as expected) are partly offset by environmental costs and the unplanned Whiting outage in August caused by severe weather,” Fustier continued. “Net debt is expected to be stable q-o-q at $26 billion including a working capital release, better than our forecast of a modest increase,” Fustier stated. In the research note, Fustier revealed that HSBC was raising its BP third quarter earnings forecast by four percent to $1.9 billion “as higher production and a positive refining mark-to-market are offset by weaker oil trading”. “Our updated forecast is slightly below consensus. We believe that 2Q marked the start of a recovery at BP. But as the mixed 3Q update shows, it will take several quarters of consistent delivery for BP to establish a track record,” Fustier said in the note. Rigzone has contacted BP for comment on the HSBC research note. At the time of writing, BP has not responded to Rigzone. In a release posted on its website on October 14, BP announced “updated third quarter

VoltaGrid LLC said Wednesday it has secured an agreement with Oracle Corp to deliver technology to enable the supply of natural gas-derived electricity to the information technology major’s data centers. The Houston, Texas-based gas power solutions provider will deploy 2.3 gigawatts (GW) of “cutting-edge, ultra-low-emissions infrastructure, supplied by Energy Transfer’s pipeline network, to support the energy demands of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s (OCI) next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) data centers”, it said in a press release. “The VoltaGrid power infrastructure will be delivered through the proprietary VoltaGrid platform – a modular, high-transient-response system developed by VoltaGrid with key suppliers, including INNIO Jenbacher and ABB”. “This power plant deployment is being supplied with firm natural gas from Energy Transfer’s expansive pipeline and storage systems”, VoltaGrid added. OCI executive vice president Mahesh Thiagarajan said, “AI workloads are uniquely power-intensive and highly variable, often creating swings in demand. By collaborating with VoltaGrid, we’re engineering innovations that dampen these swings, making AI’s power usage more stable, predictable and grid-friendly”. “VoltaGrid’s platform joins OCI’s broad energy portfolio to bolster our leading-edge AI infrastructure with dependable power that can be effortlessly scaled”, Thiagarajan added. Earlier this year VoltaGrid and Vantage Data Centers signed an agreement to deploy over one GW of power generation capacity across the latter’s North American portfolio using VoltaGrid’s gas microgrid technology. “This collaboration will set a new benchmark for speed, reliability and energy access, meeting the growing demand for data center energy solutions driven by hyperscalers and large cloud providers without putting additional cost or strain on grid systems”, a joint statement said February 11. Vantage Data Centers operates campuses in the United States and Canada that electrify and connect cloud providers and large enterprises, according to the company. “Cloud and AI technologies require the rapid development of additional data center infrastructure”, commented Dana Adams,

Ukraine’s General Staff claimed a strike on Rosneft PJSC’s Saratov refinery as NATO allies ramp up pressure on Russia’s energy industry to bring President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. Ukrainian military forces attacked the facility in Russia’s Volga region overnight, the General Staff said in a statement on Telegram, without providing details on the extent of any damage. Bloomberg couldn’t independently verify the claim and Rosneft didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment. In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure, from refineries to crude pipelines and sea terminals. The attacks come as the Kremlin has intensified its own assaults on Ukraine and shown little intention of negotiating an agreement to end the war. A number of countries are exerting pressure on Moscow to stop military actions and resume peace talks. The UK on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil producers — Rosneft and Lukoil PJSC — as well as Chinese energy firms importing Russian crude and liquefied gas. Meanwhile US President Donald Trump said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had vowed to halt purchases of Russian oil, even though the government in New Delhi later said consumer interests remain its top priority in shaping energy-import policy. The Saratov refinery is able to process about 140,000 barrels of crude a day. It’s a key supplier of gasoline and diesel to Russia’s European regions, where most of the country’s population lives. The facility has been a target of Ukrainian drones several times this year, most recently on Sept. 20. Since the start of August, Kiyv has carried out at least 30 attacks on Russian refineries, compared with 21 from January to July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It will continue such strikes, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated

In a report sent to Rigzone by the Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) team on Tuesday, SEB Chief Commodities Analyst Bjarne Schieldrop outlined that SEB expects the OPEC group to cut production soon. “We … expect OPEC to implement cuts to avoid a large increase in inventories in Q1-26,” Schieldrop said in the report. “The group will probably revert to cuts either at its early December meeting when they discuss production for January or in early January when they discuss production for February,” he added. “The oil price will likely head yet lower until the group reverts to cuts,” Schieldrop warned. In the report, Schieldrop highlighted that, in its recently released monthly report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) “estimates that the need for crude oil from OPEC in 2026 will be 25.4 million barrels per day versus production by the group in September of 29.1 million barrels per day”. “The group thus needs to do some serious cutting at the end of 2025 if it wants to keep the market balanced and avoid inventories from skyrocketing – given that IEA is correct that is,” he added. “We do however expect OPEC to implement cuts,” Schieldrop highlighted in the SEB report. “We think OPEC(+) will trim/cut production as needed into 2026 to prevent a huge build-up in global oil stocks and a crash in prices but for now we are still heading lower. Into the $50ies per barrel,” he added. In a separate SEB report sent to Rigzone on October 7, Schieldrop said “the message from OPEC+ over the [October 4-5] weekend was we are still on a weakening path with rising supply from the group”. He added, however, that “there is nothing we have seen from the group so far which indicates that they will close their eyes, let the world drown

In a statement posted on its website recently, Great British Energy (GBE) announced that it has launched the “Aberdeen Energy Taskforce”. The taskforce is defined in the statement as “a new leadership group designed to ensure that the energy transition delivers for the Northeast of Scotland – securing good local jobs, investment, and opportunity as Britain moves to clean power”. In the statement, GBE said the taskforce will act as a bridge between national ambition and local opportunity. “It will advise the company’s board and executive team on how to ensure GBE’s investment reflects the strengths, needs, and aspirations of Aberdeen and the wider region,” the statement noted. “The move supports the Government’s Clean Power Mission to secure home-grown energy and achieve clean power by 2030, while ensuring that communities are not left behind in the transition,” it added. GBE highlighted in the statement that Aberdeen has been the energy capital of Europe for decades but said job losses and market volatility in oil and gas have hit the region hard. “The taskforce will help ensure the wealth of skills and experience developed in oil and gas fuels Britain’s next generation of clean energy industries – from offshore wind and green hydrogen to carbon capture and storage (CCUS),” the statement noted. According to the GBE statement, the taskforce’s core objectives include; “championing Aberdeen’s global role in the clean energy transition across offshore wind, hydrogen, CCUS, and workforce reskilling”; “securing a fair transition, ensuring that GBE investment delivers secure, well-paid, low-carbon jobs and skills for oil and gas workers, young people, and underrepresented groups”; maximizing regional value by helping shape capital and procurement decisions that unlock local supply chains, innovation, and manufacturing”; “embedding community benefit at the heart of GBE delivery, through engagement with local authorities, anchor institutions, and residents”; and