President Donald Trump warned Iran to make a nuclear deal with the US or face military strikes far worse than the attack he ordered last June, increasing pressure on the regime and propelling oil prices higher. In a social-media post on Wednesday, Trump said the fleet of US ships he’d ordered to the region, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, is “ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary.” “Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties,” Trump wrote. In response, Iran said it stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests but warned that “IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE,” the country’s mission to the United Nations said in a post on X. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a series of calls with top regional officials to discuss the escalating situation.  Trump has repeatedly warned Iran that the US might launch another attack, but those threats have recently been linked to Tehran’s deadly crackdown on protests rather than its atomic activities. The US leader has previously said Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated” in the strikes last June that targeted three facilities across the country. Iran has long said it doesn’t want to develop nuclear weapons. Notably, in his latest post, Trump didn’t demand that Iran end uranium enrichment, its ballistic-missile program or its funding of anti-US proxy militias, all conditions Iran has balked at previously. Trump said this month that Iranian officials had reached out to resume negotiations over a deal, which in the past have focused on limits to the country’s nuclear development in exchange for sanctions relief. Signs have emerged in recent months that

Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. The U.S. electric grid leaned heavily on fossil fuels during Winter Storm Fern, with coal generation in particular jumping 31% for the week ended Sunday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Tuesday. Beginning Friday, Fern brought snow, ice and frigid temperatures to a swath of the U.S. from Texas to New England. Retrieved from U.S. Energy Information Administration. Coal generation has surged in the second half of January, from a mid-month low of around 70 GWh/day to about 130 GWh/day, according to EIA data. During the week of Fern, gas generation in the Lower 48 also increased 14% from the previous week while generation from solar, wind, and hydropower declined. “Grid operators can call upon the coal fleet to increase electricity generation in extreme weather events and other times when demand surges or output falls from other generation sources, a pattern also evident in severe cold snaps in February 2021 and January 2025,” EIA said. The U.S. Department of Energy on Saturday and Sunday issued emergency orders to keep some generation sources running during Winter Storm Fern, regardless of emissions limits, in New England, Texas and the Mid-Atlantic. Additional 202(c) waivers were issued Monday as cold temperatures remained and the outlook turned arctic. ISO New England and PJM Interconnection have authorizations to run necessary generation through Saturday, and the New York ISO has similar approvals through Monday, according to DOE’s list of waivers published this year. On Monday, the New England grid operator said it anticipates operating conditions “will continue to tighten in the coming days.” The latest 21-day forecast “indicates narrow energy margins from Friday, Jan. 30, through Sunday, Feb. 1, although the region is still expected to meet consumer demand and required

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 2.3 million barrels from the week ending January 16 to the week ending January 23. That’s what the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on January 28 and included data for the week ending January 23. According to the report, crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 423.8 million barrels on January 23, 426.0 million barrels on January 16, and 415.1 million barrels on January 24, 2025. The report highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 415.0 million barrels on January 23, 414.5 million barrels on January 16, and 394.8 million barrels on January 24, 2025, the report revealed. 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 1.715 billion barrels on January 23, the report highlighted. Total petroleum stocks were down 6.3 million barrels week on week and up 107.7 million barrels year on year, the report pointed out. “At 423.8 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in its latest weekly petroleum status report. “Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.2 million barrels from last week and are about five percent above the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased, while blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added. “Distillate fuel inventories increased by 0.3 million barrels last week and are about one percent above the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased 4.7 million

Listen to the article 12 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission faces a challenging year as it comes under pressure from the Trump administration to accelerate data center development amid rising concerns about energy affordability and grid reliability.  At the same time, FERC must also oversee compliance with fast-approaching deadlines for new rules on transmission planning and cost allocation. “Between those two things, it’s going to eat up so much bandwidth at FERC,” said Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the R Street Institute, a free market-oriented think tank. “It’s going to be hard to do much else, especially on the policy front,” he said. The keen focus on data center development by the Trump administration comes amid questions about FERC’s status as an independent agency. The two most recent additions to the five-person commission were nominated by President Donald Trump as he has also sought to impose new requirements on regulatory agencies via executive order. Laura Swett, FERC’s new chairman, echoed the administration’s priorities when she said at her first open meeting in November that connecting data centers to the grid is her top priority — along with the agency’s mandate of ensuring grid reliability at fair rates. “I would expect Chair Swett to track more closely with White House priorities than perhaps any chair has ever done,” Hartman said. Former Chairman Willie Phillips, now a law partner at Holland & Knight, expressed faith in commissioners’ independence, however.  “If you value energy dominance, if you value reliability and having a FERC that is a referee that calls balls and strikes, then you have to value independence, and I believe that we have a FERC that does that,” he said. In the end, for Swett

In a market update sent to Rigzone by the Rystad Energy team recently, Rystad noted that global upstream merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is expected to be lower in 2026 than in 2025. Rystad highlighted in the update that, according to its analysis, “nearly $152 billion worth of opportunities [are] on the market as of January this year”. The company added that “timing and execution will determine whether several mega deals will go through, with numerous high value assets still on the market waiting for the right buyers”. According to a chart included in the update, which showed annual upstream M&A activity by continent and deal count, global upstream M&A deal value came in at $170 billion in 2025, $204 billion in 2024, $255 billion in 2023, $152 billion in 2022, $184 billion in 2021, $103 billion in 2020, and $154 billion in 2019. This chart highlighted that it excluded “government mandated deals and production sharing contract awards/expiry”. Rystad noted in its update that global upstream M&A activity “dipped 17 percent year on year to approximately $170 billion in 2025, with deal count decreasing 12 percent to 466”. “Consolidation within North American shale plays, LNG investments across U.S. and Argentina, and majors’ spinning off assets in Asia and the UK to form new regional joint ventures emerged as key themes last year,” Rystad said. “A few key deals across these themes include SM Energy and Civitas’ merger, Cenovus Energy’s acquisition of MEG Energy, a Blackstone-led consortium’s acquisition of a 49.9 percent stake in the Port Arthur LNG phase 2 project from Sempra Infrastructure Partners (SIP), Eni and Petronas merging certain assets in Indonesia and Malaysia, and TotalEnergies merging its UK operations with NeoNext Energy to form NeoNext+,” it added. In the update, Rystad highlighted that North America led activity in

OKEA ASA and its partners have discovered more hydrocarbon deposits in the producing Brage field on Norway’s side of the North Sea. “Preliminary estimates indicate additional resources for Brage of between 0.5 and 1.5 million standard cubic meters (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalent (o.e.) if the discovery is oil”, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) reported Wednesday. “If it is gas, the preliminary volume estimate is between 0.4 and 0.9 million Sm3 of o.e.” The discovery was made in development well 31/4-A-15 D, which targeted the Knockando Fensfjord prospect, the upstream regulator said. The well was drilled from the Brage installation, it said. “The licensees are now considering opportunities for developing ‘Knockando Fensfjord’”, the NOD added. “Development well 31/4-A-15 D was drilled into the reservoir section in the lower Fensfjord Formation of Late Jurassic age on its way to the ‘Talisker’ production target in the Brent Group of Middle Jurassic age”, the NOD said. “A 38.5-meter [126.31 feet] column of hydrocarbons was proven in an interval of multiple sandstone layers with moderate to good reservoir quality. The petroleum/water contact was not encountered”. Drilling reached a measured depth of 10,009 meters (32,837.93 feet) and a vertical depth of 2,309 meters below sea level. It was terminated in the Oseberg Formation in the Middle Jurassic, according to the NOD. The well is part of production license 055, awarded 1979 and valid through 2040. OKEA is license operator with a 35.2 percent stake. Lime Petroleum AS owns 33.84 percent, DNO Norge AS 14.26 percent, Petrolia NOCO AS 12.26 percent and M Vest Energy AS 4.44 percent. Brage, which sits in the northern part of the North Sea 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) east of the Oseberg field, started producing 1993 with an integrated production, drilling and accommodation facility, according to field information on government website Norskpetroleum.no. It produced 0.81