The US sealed a trade deal with Pakistan as their officials wrapped up talks in Washington, agreeing to develop oil reserves. The agreement involves a reduction of the so called reciprocal tariffs, especially on Pakistani exports, according to a statement by Pakistan’s finance ministry on Thursday. No details on tariffs were shared by either side. The agreement will spur US investments in Pakistan’s infrastructure, besides deepening market ties between the partners, the ministry said.  US President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the two countries will “work together on developing their massive oil reserves”, adding that officials are now selecting the company that will anchor the partnership. Relations between Islamabad and Washington have been showing signs of easing after prolonged tensions, with President Trump welcoming Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, for rare talks at the White House in June.  Pakistan, which lists the US as one of its top export destinations, had offered to boost American imports, particularly cotton and soybean. The South Asian nation sold over $5 billion worth of goods to the US as of 2024, and imported about $2.1 billion. The US has also expressed interest in sunrise sectors such as crypto currencies. Pakistan plans to legalize and regulate digital assets as the field gains traction in key Asian markets following Trump’s pro-crypto agenda, Bloomberg News reported. 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.

Rick Stockburger has been appointed as the inaugural chief executive officer (CEO) of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation (FESI). The DOE said in a media release that this is the first-ever independent agency-related foundation. The DOE added that the foundation has been established to support its mission and help accelerate energy technology commercialization, expand private-public collaboration, and strengthen America’s energy system. Stockburger is a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran and leader in energy innovation, known for helping accelerate energy technology startups and fostering public-private partnerships, the DOE said. He served in Kosovo and Afghanistan before moving to the energy sector, where he scaled innovative technologies from concept to market, according to the DOE. As president and CEO of BRITE Energy Innovators in Warren, Ohio, he expanded the organization’s budget and programming, generating over $250 million in economic impact for the Midwest, the DOE said. “Today’s announcement marks a new chapter in how the Department will deliver breakthrough technologies to market”, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said. “Rick’s proven leadership and background will help advance the Department’s efforts to move emerging technologies into real-world energy deployment – strengthening American science, innovation, and energy leadership. With him in place, FESI will be a valuable partner in expanding private-sector collaboration and delivering on President Trump’s agenda to unleash American energy and innovation”. “Rick’s decorated service to our country while in the U.S. Army, combined with his leadership in technology entrepreneurship in the private sector, makes him an outstanding choice to be FESI’s first CEO”, Anthony Pugliese, DOE chief commercialization officer and director of the Office of Technology Commercialization, said. “Together, we will strengthen America’s ability to move breakthrough research into real-world impact”. FESI has already made two initial investments in DOE initiatives aimed at enhancing America’s energy infrastructure

Five state utility commissions asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to change the classification of a $22 billion portfolio of “multi-value” transmission projects, a move that would make them ineligible for regional cost sharing, according to a complaint filed at the agency on Wednesday. The utility commissions from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and North Dakota contend that MISO overstated the benefits of multi-value projects in its Tranche 2.1 regional transmission portfolio, which the grid operator’s board approved in December. Unlike other types of transmission projects, multi-value projects have their costs shared across MISO’s footprint. The Tranche 2.1 portfolio contains 24 transmission projects, including some that form a 3,631-mile, 765-kV backbone. The projects are expected to go online from 2032 to 2034, according to MISO. The state commissions contend that MISO used flawed modeling and assumptions that inflated the value of the Tranche 2.1 portfolio. MISO, for example, said the low-end benefits of three key metrics — avoided capacity costs, mitigation of reliability issues and decarbonization — used to assess Tranche 2.1 totaled $38.3 billion in 2024 dollars over 20 years, making up about 74% of benefits in the scenario, according to the complaint.  However, after “correcting” MISO’s assumptions and analysis, a consultant for the utility commissions pegged the benefits of those metrics at $4.3 billion to $7.2 billion, according to the complaint. The benefits of the transmission portfolio are “significantly less than the costs,” making it ineligible for its MVP designation under MISO’s rules, the state commissions said. MISO’s Tranche 2.1 portfolio aims to give states with clean energy goals such as Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois access to remote sources of clean energy, according to the complaint. “Classifying the Tranche 2.1 projects as MVPs allows states with ambitious clean energy goals to shift transmission costs (to deliver their remote energy) to other

Dynegy will pay $38 million to settle allegations that it manipulated the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s 2015/16 capacity auction, driving up capacity prices in Illinois, according to an agreement filed Wednesday at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The agreement stems from complaints filed by Public Citizen, former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Southwestern Electric Cooperative over the auction results. Dynegy — now owned by Vistra — continues to dispute the allegations, according to the “black box” settlement. Dynegy will pay MISO $38 million within ten days of the agreement taking effect, according to the agreement. The grid operator will distribute $1.1 million to Southwestern; $1.3 million to the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency; $2 million to Illinois Industrial Energy Consumers; and $33.5 million to Ameren Illinois, according to the agreement. IMEA, IIEC and Ameren Illinois will then distribute the money to its member municipalities, members or default supply customers, respectively. The settlement amounts are based on how much capacity Southwestern (65.1 MW), IMEA (78.7 MW) and Ameren Illinois (2,104.8 MW) bought in the auction from MISO’s Zone 4. IIEC is receiving a refund for capacity charges its members paid. The parties asked FERC to approve the agreement by Aug. 29. FERC responded to the complaints over the capacity auction with two decisions. In December 2015, the commission ordered MISO to change its tariff provisions related to market power mitigation and how it calculates capacity import limits, which the agency said were no longer just and reasonable. In a 3-1 July 2019 decision, FERC found the Zone 4 auction results to be just and reasonable. Then-FERC Commissioner Richard Glick dissented from the second decision and criticized then-FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee for unilaterally ending the enforcement office’s investigation into Dynegy’s market behavior. However, in 2021, an appeals court agreed with Public Citizen

Arushi Sharma Frank advises NVIDIA Inception startup Emerald AI, which develops software to help data centers become grid assets, as well as technology firms working with utilities to integrate grid-edge solutions. The same planning instincts, operational conversations and system design principles that helped distributed energy earn its place on the grid must now be applied to the infrastructure demands of artificial intelligence. We’ve already lived through the work of proving that resources outside the substation fence can be real contributors to grid reliability — building controls, thermostats, batteries, rooftop solar, virtual power plant portfolios. What mattered wasn’t the technology alone, but its ability to deliver visibility, control and verifiable response when it counted. We are entering a similar moment with AI data centers, which arrive with load profiles that are shaping up to be large and urgent, but also increasingly dispatch-aware to the grid and power efficiency-aware to the providers of software and hardware behind the fence. The architecture is different. The topology is different. But the “ask” is familiar: allow us to participate in grid stress management — not just consume — and the capital will flow to the solutions that enable flexible, grid-supportive outcomes. With the right planning framework, flexible assets can be integrated into the grid’s living system. That vision requires us to extend the same logic we’ve spent a decade refining — how we plan for flexibility, how we model load shapes, how we co-invest in infrastructure, and how we compensate response — across all sides of the grid, not just at the edge. We’ve certainly spent years proving that distributed energy can perform, so let us spend only months achieving the same for large load users. The opportunity awaits to unlock a different grid future, in which AI systems and human communities are powered by

In an EBW Analytics Group report sent to Rigzone by the EBW team today, Eli Rubin, an energy analyst at the company, outlined that “another Freeport LNG outage reverse[d a]… relief rally attempt” in natural gas on Wednesday. The report pointed out that the September natural gas contract closed at $3.405 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) yesterday. It highlighted that this represented a drop of 9.7 cents, or 3.1 percent, compared to Tuesday’s close.   “Although the September natural gas contract reached $3.186 [per MMBtu] yesterday, another Freeport LNG outage slashed Gulf Coast physical demand 1.8 billion cubic feet per day and sent the NYMEX front-month down to test the $3.00 per MMBtu psychological level,” Rubin said in the report. The EBW analyst warned in the report that, with “breaking key technical support at $3.06 per MMBtu, mild near-term weather, natural gas storage surpluses vs. the five-year average primed to achieve new heights, and ongoing LNG weakness, September appears positioned for another leg lower in search of support”. Rubin highlighted that Henry Hub at $2.97 per MMBtu yesterday “will remain critical to monitor during near-term weather weakness in potentially helping to define near-term downside risks”. “Consensus expectations anticipate a 36-40 billion cubic foot build with this morning’s EIA [U.S. Energy Information Administration] storage report,” Rubin went on to note in the report. “Following last week’s bullish surprise, a wide range of outcomes is possible –  potentially introducing additional volatility risks at the front of the curve,” he added. Rigzone contacted Freeport LNG for comment on EBW’s report. In response, a Freeport LNG spokesperson told Rigzone, “one important thing to be noted here is that the Freeport LNG outage was caused by an external factor; an apparent power outage yesterday that affected the town of Freeport and some of the surrounding