NuEnergy Gas Ltd said it had completed drilling for the fourth and final well in its “Early Gas Sales” project under the initial development plan for the Tanjung Enim coalbed methane (CBM) production sharing contract (PSC) in Indonesia. “Gas shows were observed at surface via surface logging equipment, confirming the presence of methane across multiple seams”, the Australian company said in a stock filing. The TE-B01-003 well, drilled 451 meters (1,479.66 feet) deep, intersected five coal seams at depths ranging between 299 and 419 meters, according to NuEnergy. “NuEnergy has installed a progressive cavity pump system for the TE-B01-003 well and preparations are now underway to commence dewatering – a key step toward establishing stable gas flow and optimizing well performance”, the company said. “Gas will be gathered at the surface facility and delivered to the gas processing facility upon reaching target production levels”. It added, “Pursuant to the signed heads of agreement with PT Perusahaan Gas Negara Tbk (PGN), gas produced from the drilled wells, TE-B06-001, TE-B06-002, TE-B06-003 well and the TE-B01-003 well, will be delivered via an infield pipeline to PGN’s processing and distribution facility”. The Early Gas Sales project will sell one million standard cubic feet a day (MMscfd) to Indonesian state-owned gas distributor PGN, toward the 25-MMscfd initial plan for the Tanjung Enim license, according to NuEnergy. On September 8, it announced approval from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for the one-MMscfd sale through its subsidiary Dart Energy (Tanjung Enim) Pte Ltd (DETE). “With the gas allocation approval now secured, DETE will proceed with finalizing the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement with PGN”, NuEnergy said then. Meanwhile the bigger Tanjung Enim Plan of Development (POD) 1 was approved June 2021 “under a gross split scheme which will allow the PSC to proceed field development, surface facility

Dozens of workers at the Hammerfest LNG export terminal on the Norwegian island of Melkoya got ill from exposure to vented gas from tanks storing monoethylene glycol (MEG) during the one year to summer 2025, a probe by operator Equinor ASA has revealed. “We must acknowledge that we should have gone more in-depth to identify the causes when the first incidents of exposure occurred at Melkoya last summer”, Christina Dreetz, Equinor senior vice president for onshore plants, said in an online statement by the majority state-owned company. “Through measures implemented both during and after the investigation, we now have routines that enable us to manage risk more effectively”. The statement reported, “During a period of high activity at Hammerfest LNG, from summer 2024 to summer 2025, 37 people sought medical attention on four different occasions and nine people were absent from work following the exposure incidents. Some experienced health issues such as headaches, nausea and dizziness, while others noticed nothing. “Reactions to vented gas and the associated odor is a cause of the various health issues experienced by personnel, but it is unlikely that the exposure has led to long-term health issues”. Equinor’s investigation “points to insufficient risk assessment before the project start-up and follow-up as the reason why several incidents occurred during the one-year period”, the statement said. Equinor found that venting from the tanks housing MEG, a chemical used to prevent hydrate formation in pipelines from the Snohvit field to the liquefaction facility, had been the main cause of the exposure incidents. The tanks are designed so that vented gas consists of nitrogen and water vapor, according to Equinor. “Changes in the well stream in the MEG tanks or temperature fluctuations have contributed to changes in the composition of the vented gas. This has resulted in odors and,

Crude retreated after a US government report showed rising inventories of fuel and other refined products, easing supply concerns while investors tracked stalled diplomatic attempts to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate dropped 2.1% to trade above $59 a barrel, the biggest loss in a week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Turkey to “reinvigorate negotiations,” raising eyebrows among investors that had all but written off a deescalation of a conflict that has spurred restrictions on Russia’s energy sector. An Axios report that Washington has been working in consultation with the Kremlin to draft a new plan also eased supply concerns, though Moscow denied any talks. US envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to meet Ukrainian leaders in Turkey on Wednesday but postponed his trip, Axios reported. The developments may help cushion the impact of US sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil producers, Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, which are set to kick in within days. The US Treasury claimed the restrictions are already undermining Russia’s funding capacity. That’s particularly visible in surging diesel-market tightness, in which Russia is a significant player, raising concerns about shortages of heating fuel just ahead of winter. Some of those fears were allayed after the US Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that gasoline and distillate inventories in the US expanded for the first time in more than a month. Heating oil futures dropped as much as 5.2% after touching the highest since April 2024 on Tuesday, leading the energy complex lower. “Higher refining activity and lower implied demand for both helped gasoline and distillate inventories rise, albeit modestly for distillates,” said Matt Smith, Americas lead oil analyst at Kpler. The 3.4 million-barrel decline in US crude inventories last week was smaller than the American Petroleum Institute’s 4.4 million estimate, helping temper some

Dive Brief: Significant load growth is likely to arrive as forecast, but uncertainties associated with data centers are complicating load growth estimation, as are “unrealistically high load factors for the new large loads” in some load forecasts, said John Wilson, a vice president at Grid Strategies. Wilson is one of the lead authors of a November report which found the five-year forecast of U.S. utility peak load growth has increased from 24 GW to 166 GW over the past three years — by more than a factor of six. The report concluded that the “data center portion of utility load forecasts is likely overstated by roughly 25 GW,” based on reports from market analysts. Dive Insight: Despite projected load growth, many utility third-quarter earnings reports have shown relatively flat deliveries of electricity. Wilson said he thinks a definitive answer as to whether or not load growth is materializing will come next year. “If [large loads] start to get put off or canceled, and the load doesn’t come in, then we could see a lot of revisions to forecasts that are really large,” he said. The utility forecast for added data center load by 2030 is 90 GW, “nearly 10% of forecast peak load,” the report said, but “data center market analysts indicate that data center growth is unlikely to require much more than 65 GW through 2030.” Wilson said he thinks the overestimation could be due “simply to the challenge that utilities have in understanding whether a potential customer is pursuing just the site in their service area, or whether they’re pursuing multiple sites and they’re not planning on building out all of them.” This is information that utilities haven’t typically gathered, he said, although he’s seeing a trend toward utilities making those questions part of their application process. Wilson said another factor

Listen to the article 4 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: Peak demand on the bulk power system will be 20 GW higher this winter than last, but total resources to meet the peak have only increased 9.4 GW, according to a report released Tuesday by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. Despite the mismatch, all regions of the bulk power system should have sufficient resources for expected peak demand this winter, NERC said in its 2025-2026 Winter Reliability Assessment. However, several regions could face challenges in the event of extreme weather. There have been 11 GW of batteries and 8 GW of demand response resources added to the bulk power system since last winter, NERC said. Solar, thermal and hydro have also seen small additions, but contributions from wind resources are 14 GW lower following capacity accounting changes in some markets.  Dive Insight: NERC officials described a mixed bag heading into the winter season. “The bulk power system is entering another winter with pockets of elevated risk, and the drivers are becoming more structural than seasonal,” said John Moura, NERC’s director of reliability assessments and performance analysis. “We’re seeing steady demand growth, faster than previous years, landing on a system that’s still racing to build new resources, navigating supply chain constraints and integrating large amounts of variable, inverter-based generation.” Aggregate peak demand across NERC’s footprint will be 20 GW, or 2.5%, higher than last winter. “Essentially, you have a doubling between the last several successive [winter reliability assessments],” said Mark Olson, NERC’s manager of reliability assessment. Nearly all of NERC’s assessment areas “are reporting year-on-year demand growth with some forecasting increases near 10%,” the reliability watchdog said. The U.S. West, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic — areas with significant data center development — have

WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued an emergency order to address critical grid reliability issues facing the Midwestern region of the United States heading into the cold winter months. The emergency order directs the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), in coordination with Consumers Energy, to ensure that the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in West Olive, Michigan remains available for operation and to take every step to minimize costs for the American people. The Campbell Plant was scheduled to shut down on May 31, 2025 — 15 years before the end of its scheduled design life. “Because of the last administration’s dangerous energy subtraction policies targeting reliable and affordable energy sources, the United States continues to face an energy emergency,” said Energy Secretary Wright. “The Trump administration will keep taking action to reverse these energy subtraction policies, lowering energy costs and minimizing the risks of blackouts. Americans deserve access to affordable, reliable and secure energy regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, especially in dangerously cold weather.”  Since the Department of Energy’s (DOE) original order issued on May 23, the Campbell plant has proven critical to MISO’s operations, operating regularly during periods of high energy demand and low levels of intermittent energy production. A subsequent order was issued on August 20, 2025. As outlined in DOE’s Resource Adequacy Report, power outages could increase by 100 times in 2030 if the U.S. continues to take reliable power offline. The emergency conditions that led to the issuance of the original orders persist.MISO’s service area will continue to face emergency conditions both in the near and long term. Two recent winter studies (2024 – 2025 NERC Winter Reliability Assessment and the 2023 – 2024 NERC Winter Reliability Assessment) have assessed the MISO assessment area as an elevated risk, with the “potential