WASHINGTON— U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced the Department of Energy’s (DOE) final authorization for Commonwealth LNG, LLC to export up to 1.21 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas as liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries from its proposed project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Today’s action follows DOE’s conditional authorization to Commonwealth LNG, LLC in February 2025 and reflects the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) June 2025 approval for the siting, construction, and operation of the facility. It also incorporates DOE’s May 2025 response to comments on the 2024 LNG Export Study that reaffirms that U.S. LNG exports strengthen America’s energy leadership, expand opportunities for American workers, and provide allies with secure access to reliable U.S. energy. “Finalizing this authorization moves us closer to delivering more American LNG to the world, advancing President Trump’s energy dominance agenda,” Secretary Wright said. “As DOE found earlier this year and affirms again in this order, expanding America’s LNG export capacity bolsters our economy, strengthens the energy security of our allies and trading partners and ensures the U.S. can continue to lead the world in the production of affordable, reliable and secure energy.” “We are glad to do our part in Commonwealth’s recent progress toward its final investment decision and look forward to its contribution to our nation’s success.” said Tala Goudarzi, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. Commonwealth LNG, owned by Kimmeridge, has secured long-term off-take agreements for LNG with Malaysia’s PETRONAS, global energy commodities trading entity Glencore LTD, and Japan’s JERA, and recently announced an engineering, procurement, and construction contract with Technip Energies to advance the project.  Background:  The United States currently operates eight large-scale LNG export projects, with several more under construction or expansion. Under

Oil notched its first monthly loss since April, with trading dominated by concerns about a looming glut and geopolitical issues, including US-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate for October delivery slid 0.9% to settle near $64 a barrel, with the US benchmark down 7.6% this month. Brent closed above $68. Oil has lost ground in August on worries that global supplies will run ahead of demand in the coming quarters, boosting stockpiles. The commodity’s slump deepened on Friday after US consumer sentiment declined to a three-month low, reflecting concerns that tariffs will hurt the economy. Investors are also focused on Ukraine and potential shifts in crude flows from Russia. US President Donald Trump was “not happy” about Moscow’s recent strikes on Ukraine, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Washington has imposed a 50% levy on most Indian imports to punish the South Asian nation for buying Russian crude. Moscow unleashed a wave of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv earlier this week, in defiance of US calls for an end to the fighting, killing 18 people, Ukrainian authorities said. A meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russia’s Vladimir Putin was unlikely, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump has threatened “very big consequences” if Moscow doesn’t come to the negotiating table. Oil is down 11% this year on concerns that Trump’s trade war will hurt energy consumption at the same time that OPEC+ is working to restore idled capacity. “More OPEC+ oil is coming to the market amid worries over US economic growth, which keeps the market well-supplied,” said Jens Naervig Pedersen, a strategist at Danske Bank AS. Trading volumes on Friday were muted ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend in the US, contributing to exaggerated price swings. Oil Prices WTI for

Searching for oil prospects in a block bigger than Rhode Island, Travis Smithard made a last-minute decision to send the Noble Venturer drillship twice as far as originally planned to spud a well off Namibia’s coast.  The switch paid off. The 230-meter (750 feet) vessel’s journey through the Atlantic waters led to Rhino Resources Ltd. announcing a significant discovery in April. That put the privately owned company on the map in Namibia with majors like Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE, whose finds in the past three years have made the southern African nation a new exploration hotspot. Now the spotlight is on the wildcatter again as it drills another well called Volans, which it bypassed earlier this year to focus on Capricornus about 15 kilometers (9 miles) away. The market is closely watching the fortunes of each new campaign to see if Namibia — a major supplier of commodities like uranium and diamonds, but which doesn’t yet produce any crude — really has the resources to match its oil ambitions.  Rhino’s diversion to the Capricornus well was to “sort of broaden the aperture here a little bit” to understand a wider swath of the block, Chief Executive Officer Smithard said in an interview in the capital Windhoek. The decision was based on data that allowed for a quick change, he said. The area is poised to become a major African basin, with producers scrutinizing the best projects to hold as the energy transition moves the world closer to peak oil demand. Namibia aims to start output by 2030, and at one point there was optimism that it could become another Guyana — where a giant oil discovery has transformed the sparsely populated country’s economy. “We are currently very, very busy at a stage where we are now trying to cross over the path of moving Namibia from

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced more than $35 million for 42 projects through DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) to help move emerging energy technologies related to grid security, artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and advanced manufacturing from DOE National Laboratories, plants, and sites to market. The selected projects will leverage over $21 million in cost share from private and public partners, bringing total funding to more than $57.5 million.  The TCF program, managed through the Office of Technology Commercialization’s Core Laboratory Infrastructure for Market Readiness (CLIMR) Lab Call, strengthens America’s economic and national security by supporting public-private partnerships that maximize taxpayer investments, advance American innovation, and ensure the United States stays ahead in global competitiveness.  “The Energy Department’s National Labs play an important role in ensuring the United States leads the world in innovation,” said Secretary Wright. “These projects have the potential to accelerate technological breakthroughs that will define the future of science and help secure America’s energy future.”  This year’s selections span across 19 DOE National Labs, plants, and sites. Highlights include:  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will launch America’s Cradle to Commerce (AC2C), building on the Cradle to Commerce (C2C) program, providing wraparound support for lab-to-market innovation. In just 18 months, C2C has proven impact with more than $15M raised by participating startups and five commercial pilots launched.   Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will strengthen and expand the free-to-use Visual Intellectual Property Search (VIPS) tool through a VIPS 2.0 project. The updated platform will provide seamless search capabilities across a comprehensive list of National Lab innovations available for licensing or open-source use. Argonne National Laboratory will advance commercialization of the OpenMC Monte Carlo particle transport code through the Exascale Computing Project, supporting nuclear safety and analysis code, addressing remaining barriers to market readiness and helping accelerate

The Daenerys discovery is a game changer for Talos in the Gulf of America (GoA). That’s what Wood Mackenzie said in a note sent to Rigzone by the Wood Mackenzie team this week, adding that the find could add more than 50 million barrels of oil equivalent to Talos’ net proved reserves. “For Talos, the discovery is a game changer,” Miles Sasser, Wood Mackenzie Upstream Senior Research Analyst, said in the note. “The company’s GoA portfolio was ageing, but Daenerys could add more than 50 million… barrels of oil equivalent [to] net proved reserves. That would increase its YE2024 proved reserves of 194 million barrels of oil equivalent more than 25 percent,” he added. “This is the company’s largest discovery to date in the GoA. While Talos has not released volumes, a 200 million barrel of oil equivalent discovery would make Daenerys GoA’s biggest find since Shell’s Whale in 2017,” he continued. In the note, Wood Mackenzie highlighted that the discovery well was drilled to a total vertical depth of 33,228 feet and pointed out that it was finished 12 days early and $16 million under budget, “demonstrating strong operational execution by the Talos-led consortium”. Wood Mackenzie stated in the note that its preliminary prospect valuation suggests peak production could reach 65,000 barrels per day. The company added in the note that the discovery “marks a strategic shift for Talos, which has traditionally focused on lower-risk infrastructure-led exploration (ILX) projects”. “Beyond Daenerys, the company has two additional large exploration projects in its pipeline – Enterprise and Hershey – both with pre-drill estimates exceeding 100 million barrels of oil equivalent each, signaling Talos’ embrace of a more aggressive high-impact exploration strategy,” Wood Mackenzie said in the note. Combined with BP’s Far South discovery in April, 2025 is the best year for

The Alberta Utilities Commission has certified the need for Canadian Utilities Ltd.’s multi-billion-dollar Yellowhead natural gas pipeline project. The project is proposed to carry over 1,200 terajoules, or 1.1 billion cubic feet, per day through over 230 kilometers (142.92 miles) of pipeline from the Peers area to Fort Saskatchewan. “The Need Assessment Application is the first of two key regulatory filings that require approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission to advance the project”, parent company ATCO Ltd. said in a statement online. “Canadian Utilities’ operating entity ATCO Energy Systems will file a separate facilities application later this year to seek AUC approval for construction and operation of the physical infrastructure and expects construction to commence in 2026”. Nancy Southern, chair and chief executive of ATCO, said, “This Alberta Utilities Commission decision affirms the strategic importance of the Yellowhead Pipeline in supporting Alberta’s long-term energy resilience with infrastructure that will empower communities, enable industrial growth and reinforce our commitment to responsible development across the province”. Southern said consultation had been conducted with communities along the proposed route and that the proposed project “reflects both local priorities and broader energy needs”. ATCO’s initial investment estimate for Yellowhead is CAD 2.8 billion ($2.04 billion). “The project is expected to create 2,000 direct jobs and support an average of 12,000 jobs annually through related downstream investments”, ATCO added. “Once operational, the downstream investments are estimated to contribute CAD 3.9 billion annually to Alberta’s GDP”, it said, citing an internal study by Oxford Economics. In its quarterly report last month Canadian Utilities said it continued to pursue engagements with prospective Indigenous partners for equity arrangements. Yellowhead “continues to advance on-going stakeholder consultation, land acquisition, long-lead pipeline materials procurement and design work”, the report said. Canadian Utilities is progressing another project, the Central East Transfer-Out power transmission line (CETO), which started construction in the third