Afentra plc said it has signed heads of terms with Angola’s National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) for the risk service contract (RSC) for offshore Block 3/24, located adjacent to its existing Block 3/05 & 5A interests in Angola. The formal award of the license is expected in the coming months following the completion of the government approval process, Afentra said in a news release. Block 3/24 contains five oil and gas discoveries all located in shallow water, with several exploration prospects identified within the acreage on existing 3D seismic, according to the release. Its proximity to Block 3/05 offers short-cycle, low-cost development potential, Afentra said. The granting of the license will increase Afentra’s gross offshore acreage position increases to 810 square kilometers from 265 square kilometers, the company said. Under the agreement, Afentra will become the operator with a 40 percent interest in the block, along with Maurel & Prom Angola S.A.S. holding a 40 percent interest and Sonangol E&P with 20 percent. There will be an initial five-year period to review the development potential for existing discoveries and exploration prospectivity with a 25-year production period that will be awarded when a discovery is developed, according to the release. Block 3/24 covers 210 square miles (545 square kilometers) and is adjacent to Afentra’s existing producing oil fields and undeveloped discoveries in Blocks 3/05 and 3/05A, the company said. The block adds a further five discoveries: Palanca North East, Quissama, Goulongo, Cefo and Kuma. The discoveries are all located in the same Pinda reservoir as the existing oil fields in Blocks 3/05 and 3/05A, Afentra said. The block also contains the previously developed Canuku field cluster, which has produced up to 12,000 barrels of oil per day. The block is estimated to include over 130 million barrels of

Malaysian energy giant Petroliam Nasional Bhd. said it was working closely with authorities after the government tightened security at one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas facilities in Sarawak state. A Petronas employee at the company’s headquarters received text messages that threatened to burn the LNG facilities from a phone number registered in Indonesia, Bernama reported, citing Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof. The matter is under police investigation, he added. The oil and gas company said there had been no impact to its operations or disruptions to its supplies, adding that the safety and wellbeing of its employees and contractors remained its highest priority. Petronas’ complex in Bintulu, on the Sarawak coast, spans 276 hectares (682 acres) and has a production capacity of nearly 30 million tons per year, according to its website. The National Security Council said on Monday it received information on a security threat against the LNG plants.  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.

Dive Brief: Hawaiʻi and Wisconsin joined the Affordable Clean Cars Coalition last week, increasing membership to 13 state governors.  Launched in May, the coalition aims to promote more affordable electric vehicles, support U.S. automotive manufacturers and preserve states’ authority under the Clean Air Act. The coalition was formed by the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan group of 24 governors. States will address their own challenges and opportunities while working together to achieve the coalition’s collective goals, the Climate Alliance said in a press release. Dive Insight: New electric vehicle sales were strong in the past two months as buyers rushed to take advantage of federal incentives before they expire Sept. 30. However, the share of EVs compared to total automotive sales declined in the second quarter both year-over-year and compared to the first quarter, according to CleanTechnica.  “Sales of EVs will likely fall dramatically when tax credits expire,” said Cox Automotive Senior Economist Charlie Chesbrough in an August 27 statement. A further blow to EVs came in June when Congress and the Trump administration ended California’s authority to set its own stronger vehicle emission standards. A 1990 federal law allows 17 additional states and the District of Columbia to follow California’s vehicle emissions regulations. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing many of the industry’s automakers and suppliers, supported the administration’s actions. “An aggressive regulatory push toward battery electric vehicles – ahead of consumer demand and without market readiness – will reduce U.S. vehicle production and auto jobs versus a more balanced approach that prioritizes and preserves vehicle choice,” said the group’s president and CEO, John Bozzella, in an April 29 blog post. The coalition’s 11 initial governors said in a May 23 statement that “The federal government and Congress are putting polluters over people and creating needless chaos for consumers

James Conlin is a director of product for Sharper Shape. As power grids grow older and climate threats intensify, electric utilities face urgent pressure to modernize. Meeting today’s expectations for resilience, safety, and efficiency depends not just on upgrading physical infrastructure, but on having the right data — accurate, timely, and scalable insights into assets across vast and varied terrain. One technology is rapidly changing how utilities manage their infrastructure: LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). LiDAR captures millions to billions of precise, high-resolution 3D data points — forming what’s known as a point cloud. These point clouds create detailed digital models of utility networks and their surrounding environments, mapping everything from power lines and substations to terrain and vegetation. This level of visibility is critical for planning, maintenance, risk mitigation, and emergency response. But collecting LiDAR data is only the beginning. The real value comes from turning that data into something useful. That’s where classification comes in. Raw LiDAR point clouds are essentially unstructured spatial data. Each point marks a location in space but offers no context on its own. Is it part of a wire, a tree, or the ground? Without classification, there’s no way to know. Classification assigns meaning to these points by labeling them according to what they represent, transforming raw data into actionable information. For electric utilities, this process is essential. It enables vegetation management by identifying growth that’s encroaching on power lines before it becomes a hazard. It supports asset inspection by helping monitor conditions such as wire sag, pole tilt, or equipment degradation. It ensures compliance and safety by verifying that infrastructure meets required regulatory clearances. It aids in disaster modeling by identifying potential risk zones for wildfires, floods, or storms. And it guides system upgrades by informing the design of new infrastructure or

ENGIE North America (ENGIE) has signed an agreement with Prometheus Hyperscale, a sustainable hyperscale data center developer, to co-locate data centers at select renewable and battery storage energy facilities along the Texas I-35 corridor. Under the exclusive agreement, Prometheus will deploy its high-efficiency, liquid-cooled data center infrastructure alongside ENGIE’s renewable and battery storage assets. The first sites equipped with high-performance, AI-ready data center compute capacity are expected to go live in 2026, with more locations planned from 2027, ENGIE said in a media release. “ENGIE is focused on delivering solutions to meet the growing demand for power across the U.S., with a strategic focus on enabling data center expansion. By leveraging our robust portfolio of wind, solar, and battery storage assets – combined with our commercial and industrial supply capabilities and deep trading expertise – we’re providing integrated energy solutions that support scalable, resilient, and sustainable infrastructure”, David Carroll, Chief Renewables Officer and SVP of ENGIE North America, said. “Prometheus is committed to developing sustainable, next-generation digital infrastructure for AI”, Bernard Looney, Chairman of Prometheus Hyperscale and former CEO of BP, said. “We cannot do this alone – ENGIE’s existing assets and expertise as a major player in the global energy transition make them a perfect partner as we work to build data centers that meet market needs today and tomorrow”. ENGIE added that Prometheus will work with Conduit to meet market needs quickly. Conduit is an on-site power generation provider for near-term bridging and back-up solutions. To contact the author, email [email protected] 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. MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR

Will technical resistance for the October natural gas contract hold? That was the question Eli Rubin, an energy analyst at EBW Analytics Group, asked in an EBW report sent to Rigzone by the EBW team on Tuesday, which highlighted that the October natural gas contract closed at $3.090 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Monday. That figure marked a 4.2¢, or 1.4 percent, rise on Friday’s close, the report outlined. “The NYMEX front-month briefly tested as high as $3.198 yesterday – pushing through technical resistance at $3.13 – before falling 10.8¢ into the close,” Rubin noted in the report. “Another technical retest of $3.20 per  million British thermal units may be coming this morning, aided by a modest upturn in CDDs [cooling degree days] and decline in production readings,” he added. However, Rubin warned in the report that the near-term fundamental picture “hardly warrants extensive optimism”. “Mid to late September warmth is modestly supportive, but also partially offset by stalling heating demand,” he added. “Tropics have been quiet, for now. Storage is rising faster than at a typical seasonal pace. Pipeline maintenance appears a key support of Henry Hub spot pricing,” he continued. Rubin went on to state in the report that the medium to long term structural outlook is robust. “Natural gas has surpassed multiple technical resistance levels over the past two weeks to add to momentum,” he said. “With storage likely to surpass 3,650 billion cubic feet by October 2nd – and chances for a mild October – the durability of the recent rally is uncertain despite a bullish long-term outlook for NYMEX gas,” he added. In a separate EBW report sent to Rigzone by the EBW team on Monday, Rubin noted that “weekend weather and LNG demand gains may align with bullish technicals to pose renewed