The Trump administration is unlikely to provide financial support to help US oil companies revitalize Venezuela’s oil sector, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Friday, throwing cold water on hopes the multibillion-dollar effort would be subsidized by the US government.  “The capital is going to come from the capital markets and come from the energy companies,” Burgum, who also leads the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council, told Bloomberg Television. “I don’t see that these companies are going to need support from the US, other than things around security. If we can provide a secure, stable environment, the resource here is so significant and so large that it’s going to be attractive for people to go in and develop.”  Burgum’s remarks come after President Donald Trump previously suggested the effort, estimated to cost upwards of $100 billion over the next decade, could be reimbursed by the US. The president on Monday told NBC News “a tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.” Oil companies, which are set to meet with Trump, Burgum and other administration officials at the White House later Friday, have been wary of committing tens of billions of dollars to Venezuela over the next decade. Executives have sought assurances on physical and financial security amid concerns about the stability of a post-Nicolás Maduro government.  Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Fox News Friday the US Export-Import Bank could be used to provide credit support.  “I have been deluged with companies interested to go to Venezuela, and so far, no one’s asked for money,” Wright said in response to a question about providing direct grants to oil firms. “What they want is the US to use our leverage to make

The Texas oil and natural gas industry employed 495,501 Texans last year, according to the Texas Oil & Gas Association’s (TXOGA) 2025 Energy and Economic Impact report, which was released this week. The sector that employed the most workers in 2025 was ‘support activities for oil and gas operations’, with 110,612 employees, followed by ‘gasoline stations with convenience stores’, with 81,268 employees, and ‘oil and gas pipeline and related structures construction’, with 50,667 employees, the report showed. ‘Crude petroleum extraction’ ranked as the oil and gas sector with the fourth most employees in 2025, with 49,187, and ‘oil and gas field machinery and equipment’ ranked fifth, with 29,280, the report revealed. TXOGA stated in the report that “every direct job in the Texas oil and natural gas industry creates approximately two additional jobs”, outlining that “1.4 million total jobs [were] supported across the Texas economy” in 2025. Texas oil and natural gas employers paid an average of $133,095 per job in 2025, according to the report, which noted that this was 68 percent more than the average paid by the rest of Texas’ private sector. The report showed that oil and gas taxes came in at $54,481 per employee last year, while “all other sector taxes” were $7,225 per employee. “Based on the combined state and local taxes and state royalties attributable to the industry, the oil and natural gas industry pays far more per employee than the average across all other Texas private-sector industries,” TXOGA stated in its report. According to TXOGA’s latest report, in 2025, the Texas oil and natural gas industry paid state and local taxes and state royalties totaling $27.0 billion. TXOGA pointed out in the report that this equates to nearly $74 million every day. A statement sent to Rigzone by the TXOGA team this

Nodal Exchange LLC, a derivatives trading platform for North American commodity markets, saw 3.1 billion megawatt hours (MWh) of power futures and 749,222 lots of environmental futures and options traded in 2025, achieving new annual highs. Power futures traded last year on the Tysons, Virginia-based exchange rose four percent year-on-year to 3.1 billion MWh. The December volume of 235 million MWh was up 29 percent from December 2024, Nodal said in an online statement Thursday. “Nodal continues to be the market leader in North American monthly power futures having 56 percent of the open interest with 1.51 billion MWh at the end of 2025”, Nodal said. “The open interest represents over $166 billion of notional value (both sides)”. Meanwhile environmental market open interest ended 2025 at a record 391,264 lots, up one percent from 2024. “December deliveries of 37,173 lots marked the fifth-largest delivery month for environmental products on Nodal”, Nodal said. “Renewable energy certificate futures and options posted volume of 465,189 lots in 2025, up 11 percent from a year earlier and ended the year with open interest of 323,591 lots, up 10 percent. “Nodal continues to expand environmental offerings having over 68 percent of the North American Renewable Energy Certificate market measured in clean MWh generation. “Nodal, in collaboration with IncubEx, launched several new environmental futures contracts in 2025, including Auction Clearing Price contracts for California, Washington and RGGI carbon allowances.  Nodal was the first exchange to launch PJM Emission Free Energy Certificate Futures, which allow for delivery of nuclear energy certificates alongside hydro. Other new launches included Virginia In-State Compliance REC Futures, New York Environmental Disclosure Program REC Futures and Alberta TIER EPC Options”. For natural gas, traded volumes last year totaled 958 trillion British thermal units (TBtu), Nodal said. Traded gas volumes in January-November 2025 reached a

Around 30 percent of global oil reserves might be consolidated under U.S. influence. That’s what J.P. Morgan analysts, including the company’s head of global commodities strategy Natasha Kaneva, stated in a J.P. Morgan research note sent to Rigzone by Kaneva this week. “Combined oil reserves from Venezuela, Guyana, and the U.S. could give the U.S. about 30 percent of global oil reserves if consolidated under its influence,” the analysts said in the note. The J.P. Morgan analysts highlighted in the research note that Venezuela holds the world’s largest oil reserves, “particularly heavy crude needed by U.S. refiners”. “With 303 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, Venezuela represents nearly 20 percent of global reserves as of 2024 – more than any other country,” they pointed out. “If Guyana’s rapidly expanding discoveries are considered alongside U.S. conventional and unconventional reserves, the combined total could position the U.S. as a leading holder of global oil reserves, potentially accounting for about 30 percent of the world’s total if these figures are consolidated under U.S. influence,” they added. The analysts stated in the note that this would mark a notable shift in global energy dynamics. “With greater access to and influence over a substantial portion of global reserves, the U.S. could potentially exert more control over oil market trends, helping to stabilize prices and keep them within historically lower ranges,” the analysts said. “This increased leverage would not only enhance U.S. energy security but could also reshape the balance of power in international energy markets,” they added. In the note, the J.P. Morgan analysts revealed that they continue to maintain their view that “a regime change in Venezuela would immediately represent one of the largest upside risks to the global oil supply outlook for 2026-2027 and beyond”. “With a political transition, Venezuela could raise

Equinor revealed, in a statement posted on its website on Thursday, that it has awarded 12 framework agreements to seven supplier companies with a total value of around NOK 100 billion ($9.9 billion). The company highlighted in the statement that these new framework agreements are for maintenance and modifications on the company’s offshore installations and onshore plants. The supplier companies comprise Aibel AS, Aker Solutions AS, Wood Group Norway, Apply AS, Rosenberg Worley AS, Head Energy AS, and IKM Gruppen AS, Equinor revealed. Agreements start in the first half of this year, have a duration of five years, and include extension options of three and two years, Equinor pointed out in its statement. The company noted that the final portfolio distribution will be assigned when the contracts are signed, which it revealed “is planned in week four”. “These agreements lay the foundation for safe and competitive operations at Equinor’s offshore installations and onshore plants in the years to come,” Equinor said in the statement. “The agreements create predictability and ripple effects for the Norwegian supplier industry across the country,” it added. In its statement, Equinor revealed that, “to support the ambition of maintaining production around 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (2020 level) on the Norwegian continental shelf towards 2035”, the company is planning a series of actions. These include investing “about NOK 60-70 billion” ($5.9 billion to $6.9 billion) annually in increased recovery and new fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, drilling “around 250 exploration wells and about 600 wells for increased recovery”, performing 300 well interventions annually and “around 2,500 modification projects”, and maturing and developing over 75 subsea developments that can be tied to existing infrastructure, the statement outlined. They also include reducing the company’s own greenhouse gas emissions towards nearly 50 percent by 2030,

Iberdrola SA on Thursday declared an interim dividend of EUR 0.253 ($0.29) per share for 2025 results, up from the minimum of EUR 0.25 it announced October. Earlier the Spanish power and gas utility said it reached EUR 125 billion ($145.55 billion) in stock market value at the start of 2026, having increased its capitalization by nearly 40 percent in 2025. “The company is once again offering its shareholders three options in this edition of Iberdrola Flexible Remuneration: to receive the interim dividend amount in cash; to sell their allocation rights on the market; or to obtain new bonus shares from the group free of charge”, it said in an online statement, adding the options can be combined. Shareholders who opt for cash are to receive the interim dividend February 2. “Shareholders who opt to receive new shares must have 73 free allocation rights to receive a new share in the company”, Iberdrola said. The dividend announced Thursday would be backed by a supplementary dividend Iberdrola plans to pay in July if approved at its general shareholders’ meeting, it said. “In order to implement this new edition of the remuneration system, a capital increase with a maximum reference market value of EUR 1.713 billion will be carried out”, it said. Iberdrola said Tuesday it is now the top utility in Europe by market capitalization and the second-biggest in the world. It noted the milestone was achieved in the year marking the 125th anniversary of its founding as Hidroeléctrica Ibérica. According to its latest quarterly report, Iberdrola produced 96,047 gigawatt hours (GWh) net in the first nine months of 2025, with renewable energy accounting for 66,254 GWh. Spain led geographically, accounting for 48,794 GWh of Iberdrola’s total net production in the period. It was followed by the United States (18,436 GWh). Mexico was