The European Union’s competition chief has warned against relying “too much” on US liquefied natural gas imports as the bloc looks to diversify its energy basket.  “We know that we cannot rely on Russian gas, and that we should pay attention not to rely too much on American gas,” Teresa Ribera told RTE Radio in an interview on Tuesday.  Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe has replaced some of its lost Russian gas volumes with US LNG, and has been under pressure to bump up those purchases. A trade deal with Washington last year included a commitment to purchase $750 billion in US energy by 2028.  Ribera’s comments come as US President Donald Trump’s stance on Greenland has the continent on edge. Although he has vowed not to use force to take over the territory, his ‘framework’ deal with NATO involves stationing US missiles and mining rights aimed at keeping Chinese interests out. It also hinges on the US leader standing by his promise not to impose tariffs against European nations, Bloomberg reported. The EU agreed last year to accelerate a phaseout of Russian gas and sever ties with its once-primary supplier of the fuel. Energy companies have closely monitored the bloc’s strategy to seek alternative sources and also speed up its renewables rollout as it aims to zero-out emissions by 2050. If Europe fulfills all its supply deals for US LNG and its gas demand reduction efforts falter, as much as 80% of its imports could come from the US in 2030, up from 57% in 2025, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said in a report earlier this month. The EU still receives about 15% of its LNG supplies from Moscow, making Russia the second-largest provider of the fuel to Europe after the US. As more US

Oil rose to the highest since October as US President Donald Trump touted a growing US military presence near Iran, while traders monitored the fallout from a sweeping winter storm and a weaker dollar boosted the appeal of commodities. West Texas Intermediate gained 2.9% to settle above $62, while a gauge of the greenback fell to its lowest level in four years amid investor caution about US policymaking, making commodities priced in the currency more attractive. Oil has rebounded this year, despite widespread expectations of a glut, as setbacks to Kazakh exports tightened the European market and US threats against Iran injected a risk premium into prices. Trump reiterated on Tuesday that a “flotilla” was headed to the Middle East, adding that he’d “rather not see anything happen.” In the options market, a bullish call skew in US futures has stayed intact for nearly two weeks, marking the longest stretch since October 2024. Investors frequently turn to options as a relatively inexpensive hedge against uncertain geopolitical outcomes. In the US, freezing conditions have disrupted a number of refineries on the Gulf Coast and a smattering of domestic output, though the impact is unlikely to be prolonged. US natural gas futures retreated on Tuesday following a powerful rally due to the cold snap, as did diesel futures in New York. Concerns about Kazakh supplies, meanwhile, have eased as a key Black Sea terminal came back online, while the country’s largest producer is preparing to resume output at the giant Tengiz field. Still, Tengiz is set to restore less than half of its normal production by Feb. 7, according to Reuters, limiting downward pressure on prices. Elsewhere, Chevron Corp. is working to bring more Venezuelan crude to a market that’s mostly well supplied. US officials are working to issue a general license

Mexico’s state oil company backtracked on plans to send a much-needed shipment of crude oil to Cuba, a long-time ally of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.  Petroleos Mexicanos, which was expected to send a shipment this month, removed the cargo from its schedule, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. The shipment was set to load in mid-January and would have arrived in Cuba before the end of the month under the original schedule.  Pemex and Mexico’s Energy Ministry didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.  While it’s unclear why the cargo was shelved, the removal comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump increases pressure on the Caribbean island. “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” Trump said in a Truth Social post a week after Maduro’s capture by US forces.  Before Trump’s comments on Cuba, President Claudia Sheinbaum had said Mexico planned to continue supplying oil to Cuba as part of humanitarian aid to the island, a country plagued by chronic power outages, food and fuel shortages.  Mexico started sending oil to Cuba in 2023, when Venezuela reduced supplies amid its falling oil production. Pemex sent an average of one ship per month, or the equivalent of 20,000 barrels a day of crude oil last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  The canceled shipment was expected to load in mid-January on board the vessel Swift Galaxy, according to the document. It was removed from the schedule without an explanation.  WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

Baker Hughes Co has reported record orders of $14.87 billion from its industrial and energy technology (IET) business for 2025, including $4.02 billion for the fourth quarter. “IET achieved a record backlog of $32.4 billion at year-end, and book-to-bill exceeded 1x”, chair and chief executive Lorenzo Simonelli said in an online statement. “For the second consecutive year, non-LNG equipment orders represented approximately 85 percent of total IET orders, which highlights the end-market diversity and versatility of our IET portfolio”. IET delivered $3.81 billion in revenue for October-December 2025, up 13 percent from the prior quarter and nine percent year-on-year. “The increase was driven by gas technology equipment, up $189 million, or 11 percent year-over-year, [and] gas technology services, up $86 million, or 11 percent year-over-year”, Baker Hughes said. Q4 2025 IET orders totaled $4.02 billion, down three percent against the prior three-month period but up seven percent compared to Q4 2024. “The [year-over-year] increase was driven by continued strength in climate technology solutions, industrial technology, and gas technology services”, the Houston, Texas-based company said. Segment EBITDA came at $761 million, up 20 percent sequentially and 19 percent year-on-year. “The year-over-year increase in EBITDA was driven by productivity, volume, price and FX [foreign exchange], partially offset by inflation”, Baker Hughes said. Its other segment, oilfield services and equipment (OFSE), logged $3.57 billion in revenue for Q4 2025, down two percent quarter-on-quarter and eight percent year-on-year. That was driven by declines in its main markets, North America and the Middle East/Asia, with both regions registering quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year drops in revenue. OFSE orders in Q4 2025 totaled $3.86 billion, down five percent quarter-on-quarter but up three percent year-on-year. OFSE EBITDA landed at $647 million, down four percent quarter-on-quarter and 14 percent year-on-year. IET “more than offset continued macro‑driven softness in OFSE, where margins remained resilient

In separate exclusive interviews with Rigzone on Tuesday, Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at the PRICE Futures Group, and Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at B. Riley Wealth, explained today’s U.S. natural gas price drop. “Natural gas is pulling back after the worst of the cold has passed,” Flynn told Rigzone. “We’ve lifted some of the winter storm warnings, and this should allow some of the freeze-offs in the basins to get production back up,” he added. “We saw [a] significant drop in production because of the cold weather and now some of that will be coming back online,” he continued. In his interview with Rigzone, Flynn warned that the weather is still going to be “key”. “Some forecasters are predicting a warm-up, but then after that another blast of the cold,” he said. “If that’s the case … these huge moves in natural gas may be far from over”, Flynn told Rigzone. He added, however, that, “at least in the short term, [a] return to more moderate temperatures from what we had experienced should allow for the market to recover as far as production goes, and exports”. When he was asked to explain the U.S. natural gas price drop today, Hogan told Rigzone that “trees don’t grow to the sky”. “U.S. natural gas prices dipped today amid profit-taking by traders, after soaring by over 117 percent in the five days to Monday,” he said. “The benchmark jumped by 30 percent on Monday alone. Last week, gas prices went up by as much as 70 percent amid frigid weather that apparently took gas traders by surprise,” he added. “This surprise led to frantic short-covering and position exits at a hefty loss. Currently, natural gas is trading at over $6.60 per million British thermal units [MMBtu], which is the highest in

Listen to the article 13 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Rising demand and new technologies are forcing utilities to coordinate distributed energy resources on an unprecedented scale, a trend likely to continue in 2026, analysts and stakeholders say. But intimidating demand forecasts from power-hungry data centers, coupled with aggressive policy shifts away from renewables and efficiency standards, are turning power providers toward large-scale generation like nuclear, geothermal, gas and coal — possibly to the detriment of aggregation and demand response programs, they say.  “Utilities are shifting away from DER to focus on [utility-scale] wind and solar in the near term and then new natural gas, [extending the life of] aging coal, and [restarting] shuttered nuclear plants,” said Sally Jacquemin, vice president of power and utilities at AspenTech Digital Grid Management, Emerson.  Investment in distribution system modernization is also growing, but DER “is a lower priority,” she added. But grid advocates and utility leaders say distributed resources could provide crucial benefits at a time of rising prices and accelerate the interconnection of large loads, which is a priority of the Trump administration. In order to do that, virtual power plants must evolve and scale more rapidly or skyrocketing electricity demand and costs will force attention to traditional resources, industry sources say. The value of DER to the system will be determined by policies set by states, grid operators, federal regulators and officials in the Trump administration. Allison Wannop, vice president of regulatory affairs and wholesale markets for Sparkfund, predicted that demand growth and affordability challenges will drive innovation to make the most of distribution system resources. “20th century solutions will not build a 21st century grid,” she said.   ‘Visibility will be key to VPP proliferation’ 2025 was a good year for distributed energy