John Wood Group PLC has given Dar Al-Handasah Consultants Shair and Partners Holdings Ltd. (Sidara) more time to decide on whether to pursue a proposal to acquire the energy engineering and consulting company. Emirati consultancy Sidara now has until June 30 to announce “firm intention” or withdrawal, Aberdeen, Scotland-based Wood said in an online statement Thursday. Wood has already extended the deadline several times as both parties had yet to fulfil conditions for Sidara to announce a firm offer. The new deadline may be extended on the consent of the United Kingdom’s Takeover Panel, Wood said. The possible offer is for 35 pence per Wood share, as announced April. One of the conditions requires Wood to reach refinancing agreements with lenders. Sidara has agreed that after it announces a takeover offer it would inject $450 million in new capital to help Wood convince debtees on term modifications. Wood also needs to publish audited results for 2024 to meet the conditions. In March Wood said it had received the draft of a review it commissioned from Deloitte for its January-June 2024 results. The independent review concerned exceptional contract write-offs relating to the exit from lump-sum turnkey and large-scale engineering, procurement and construction works. “Wood and Sidara are continuing to engage with Wood’s lenders and noteholders in relation to both the Debt Modifications and the Sidara Liquidity Arrangements [the potential capital injection of $450 million]”, Thursday’s statement said. “Wood is continuing to work with its auditor towards the publication of Wood’s audited accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2024”. Wood has been temporarily suspended from the London Stock Exchange since May 1 pending the release of updated financial results. In a statement March 31 announcing the receipt of the draft of Deloitte’s review, Wood said, “Wood has identified material weaknesses and failures in the Group’s

WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy (DOE) today released the following statement from U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on President Trump’s Presidential Memorandum halting the Biden Administration’s radical Columbia River Basin policy: “The Snake River Dams have been tremendous assets to the Pacific Northwest for decades, providing high-value electricity to millions of American families and businesses. With this action, President Trump is bringing back common sense, reversing the dangerous and costly energy subtraction policies pursued by the last administration. American taxpayer dollars will not be spent dismantling critical infrastructure, reducing our energy-generating capacity or on radical nonsense policies that dramatically raise prices on the American people.” Today’s Presidential Memorandum revokes the Biden Administration’s “Restoring Healthy and Abundant Fish” directive and directs federal agencies, including the Energy Department, to withdraw from costly policies that would have resulted in the elimination of over 3,000 megawatts of secure and reliable hydroelectric generating capacity – enough generation to power 2.5 million American homes. The Biden-era MOU required the federal government to spend over $1 billion and comply with 36 pages of costly, onerous commitments aimed at replacing services provided by the Lower Snake River Dams and advancing the possibility of breaching them. Breaching the dams would have doubled the region’s risk of power shortages, driven wholesale electricity rates up by as much as 50%, and cost as much as $31.3 billion to replace. ### 

Odfjell Technology AS and Oilfield Service Professionals LLC. (OSP) have joined forces to enhance operational performance efficiency and innovation across international oilfield markets. “This collaboration combines Odfjell Technology’s extensive experience in the energy industry with OSP’s agile workforce and domain expertise to deliver integrated, scalable solutions for complex well operations and project execution”, a joint statement said. “By combining our operational expertise with OSP’s specialized workforce and digital capabilities, we are promoting innovation and performance, optimizing how we deploy resources and ultimately creating greater value for our clients”, Simen Lieungh, CEO of Odfjell Technology, said. The two companies aim to deliver integrated services leveraging combined engineering, technology, and project management capabilities to streamline execution and reduce downtime. The partnership enables the two companies to expand joint services in key markets, including the North Sea, Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Brazil, and Americas, while also accelerating the adoption of advanced digital tools and remote operations to improve well lifecycle monitoring and performance, the companies said. The partnership also aims to enhance personnel’s field readiness while reducing the number of required personnel on location. “This partnership represents a major step forward in our mission to deliver industry-leading technology and best-in-class service. By aligning with Odfjell Technology, we strengthen our global footprint and expand the fully integrated service offering to our clients, bringing value to stakeholders”, Jasen Gast, President and CEO of OSP, said. The partnership is effective immediately, with joint projects already underway in selected international markets, the companies said. To contact the author, email [email protected] What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the Rigzone Energy Network. The Rigzone Energy Network is a new social experience created for you and all energy professionals to Speak Up about our industry, share knowledge, connect with peers and industry insiders

As we accelerate the energy transition, we face a critical juncture. While significant investment and policy focus have been directed towards strengthening renewable generation — from large-scale solar and wind farms to battery storage — the influence of subsidies for these endeavors highlights fundamental vulnerabilities. The acceleration to clean energy lies not solely in what we generate, but in how intelligently and efficiently we manage what we consume. Consumers are bringing more low-carbon devices into their home, with household spending on these types of assets reaching $184 billion in 2023, a 340% increase from the year before. Utilities need a way to manage these distributed energy resources effectively. Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are an undeniable powerhouse of the future, particularly when managed within a unified, intelligent platform. The potential of VPPs, which aggregate diverse distributed energy resources (DERs) like smart thermostats, electric vehicles (EVs), and water heaters, is immense and largely untapped. For instance, in the U.S., a mere 20% of eligible devices are currently enrolled in VPP programs, which contrasts with the 50% enrollment rates observed by the UK’s largest energy supplier, Octopus Energy, for their customers with smart meters. By addressing this gap, utilities have the opportunity to unlock gigawatts of flexible capacity, alleviate grid strain, and accelerate decarbonization without the same policy uncertainties facing large-scale generation projects. And utilities are taking notice: just last month, the Mercury Consortium met to discuss the importance of bringing customers along this journey, and how interoperability is paramount to unlocking the true potential of consumer devices. Increased demand, and driving factors like electrification of transportation and increased power needs of emerging technologies, such as AI, characterize the current energy landscape. This escalating demand, coupled with limitations on conventional supply-side expansion, highlights the urgent need for demand-side innovation. VPPs offer a powerful

Oil held steady as traders weighed renewed tariff threats from the US against the potential for widespread conflict in the Middle East.  West Texas Intermediate traded in a roughly $2.50 range before closing the session with a small drop to near $68 a barrel. The commodity temporarily inched into positive territory on an ABC report that Israel is considering taking military action against Iran in the coming days. Traders have been on edge since Iran threatened to strike American bases if nuclear talks fell through. Weighing on prices were earlier comments from President Donald Trump that he intended to set unilateral tariff rates on trading partners in the next one to two weeks, which blunted appetite for risk assets. Iran’s threats on Wednesday jolted crude out of the narrow range it had traded in for most of the past month, highlighting oil’s sensitivity to geopolitical tensions. The Middle East produces about a third of the world’s oil, driven by OPEC+ members Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Prices are up about 12% this month, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Thursday said oil could reach $130 in a worst-case scenario.  The move has also been coupled with big shifts in options pricing as traders assess the risk of escalation. Bullish call options on the global Brent benchmark are trading at premiums to bearish puts, and volatility spiked.  Oil still is down for the year on expectations the US-led trade war would erode demand as OPEC+ revives idled production.  On Iran, Trump has consistently said he wants an agreement that curbs the nation’s atomic activities and that the US could strike Iran if talks break down, before saying that he would “love to avoid conflict” with the country. Tehran says it is preparing a fresh proposal regarding the program before a sixth round of negotiations in

Dive Brief: The U.S. doubled its solar cell manufacturing capacity and added 8.6 GW of solar module manufacturing capacity in the first quarter of 2025, marking the third-largest quarter for new solar manufacturing capacity on record, according to a report by Wood Mackenzie for the Solar Energy Industries Association. Despite the strong first quarter figures, Wood Mackenzie expects the solar industry to contract about 2% annually between 2025-2030, adding an average 43 GW of new solar generation per year in that time. New solar installations are expected to decline 7% between 2025-2027. Wood Mackenzie’s projections for the solar industry do not take the proposed wind-down of clean energy tax credits that has passed the House into account. Cutting the tax credits could trigger project cancellations and a possible energy shortage, according to Sean Gallagher, senior vice president of policy for SEIA. Dive Insight: Despite growing demand for energy, the solar industry faces a rocky road over the next few years — particularly if the Senate concurs with renewable energy tax credit cuts that have already passed the House, according to this week’s report from Wood Mackenzie and SEIA. Solar manufacturing posted particularly strong growth in the first quarter of 2025, though Wood Mackenzie notes that the growth upstream manufacturing of solar components, especially polysilicon and wafers, “remains slow or non-existent.” New solar generation capacity totaled 10.8 GW, 7% lower than first quarter installations in 2024 and 43% lower than the fourth quarter of 2024 — but still the fourth largest quarter for deployment on record, according to the report. The first quarter records don’t appear to represent an attempt by the industry to wrap up projects before the potential application of new tariffs or cuts to applicable tax credits, Gallagher said. Most of the projects that came online in the