Dive Brief: The boom in AI data center development is driving significant growth in large-load interconnection requests to not-for-profit public utilities, two experts with the American Public Power Association told Utility Dive. Public power electric utilities tend to be smaller on average than investor-owned utilities,  emphasize affordability and reliability, and are often self-governing, all of which appeal to data center operators, said Patricia Taylor, APPA’s manager for regulatory policy and business programs. But smaller utilities weighing data center proposals that could dramatically increase their system loads must also take steps to protect existing ratepayers and other stakeholders, such as carefully studying the potential grid reliability impacts and ensuring fair compensation for infrastructure upgrades, said Latif Nurani, senior regulatory counsel for APPA. Dive Insight: Smaller, not-for-profit utilities have worked productively with data center operators for decades and have in some cases helped their communities evolve into significant IT hubs, Nurani and Taylor said. In north-central Oregon, Northern Wasco County People’s Utility District nearly quadrupled its annual revenues from $32 million in 2016 to $120 million in 2024 and expects to reach $300 million “in the next few years,” CEO and General Manager Roger Kline said on an APPA podcast in July. Google data centers drove much of that increase. Drawn by abundant hydropower and associated energy infrastructure, a robust workforce and a “business-friendly environment and policies,” the tech giant developed its first data center near The Dalles, Oregon, in 2006 and has since invested more than $2.4 billion in the state, it says. Google’s presence has been transformative for Northern Wasco County PUD, enabling investments in new substations, transmission lines, hydroelectric plants, advanced metering infrastructure and other projects that may have otherwise exceeded the capacity of a “small semi-rural utility” with fewer than 25,000 residential and commercial customers, Kline said last

In a release sent to Rigzone by the Enverus team late Tuesday, the company’s subsidiary, Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), revealed that U.S. upstream mergers and acquisitions (M&A) hit $17 billion in deal value in the first quarter of 2025 and highlighted that this was the second best start to a year since 2018. “However, activity was disproportionately driven by one company, Diamondback Energy, which accounted for nearly 50 percent of total value between its acquisition of Double Eagle IV and a dropdown of minerals to its affiliate Viper Energy Partners,” EIR noted in the release. “Outside of Diamondback, buyers were already feeling the pressure of limited acquisition opportunities and high asking prices for undeveloped drilling inventory,” EIR added. “On top of that, upstream companies will now have to navigate significant headwinds from falling oil and equity values,” EIR warned. In the release, EIR stated that, prior to OPEC and tariffs creating waves in oil markets, pricing for quality shale inventory was a perpetually rising tide. It added that, historically, lower crude prices have taken the wind out of the sails of upstream M&A. “Going back to the start of 2014, oil prices have fallen by more than five percent quarter over quarter 17 times,” EIR highlighted. “In 11 of the quarters with materially lower crude prices, deal activity fell compared to the prior three months with an average decline in transacted deal value of 30 percent,” it pointed out. “Asset values have also declined when crude prices moved 20 percent or more lower year over year, with the value of Permian acreage falling about one-third in 2015 compared to 2014 and losing more than half its value in 2020 over 2019, based on the average price per acre paid,” it continued. “The only exception to the trend over the last

Naftogaz Group said Wednesday it will continue delivering natural gas to households in Ukraine at the current regulated rate under its fixed tariff plan. The price will remain at UAH 7.96 ($0.19) per cubic meter until April 2026 to reflect the current moratorium on raising natural gas tariffs, the state-owned oil and gas company said in an online statement. However, the company added, “Naftogaz also encourages consumers to pay their bills on time”. Acting chief executive Roman Chumak added, “These payments help maintain the country’s energy stability in the face of ongoing attacks on critical infrastructure”. “Supplying gas to households remains a core priority. We continue to ensure stable delivery and meet our obligations to consumers, even in the most critical conditions”, said Chumak. Naftogaz said it remains a reliable gas supplier for 12.5 million households. According to the company it led Ukraine through last winter without gas blackouts. “Risks peaked in February, when large-scale Russian missile attacks on gas production facilities led to the sudden loss of nearly half of the state’s output. These events created a perfect storm that could have caused a nationwide gas blackout at any moment”, according to a company report Monday that said 34 of Naftogaz’s gas production sites had been attacked in 2024-25. The report said for next winter Naftogaz has contracted 400 million cubic meters of gas. “Since the beginning of the year, 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas have been contracted: 800 million cubic meters were urgently imported early in the year, 400 million cubic meters will be delivered to Ukraine as part of the winter readiness plan”, Chumak said. “In addition, Naftogaz purchased 300 million cubic meters of LNG from ORLEN”. Naftogaz had signed an LNG cooperation deal with Poland’s majority state-owned ORLEN SA to help Ukraine diversify its energy

The UK needs to focus on decarbonising the North Sea energy industry “damn hard and damn fast”. A panel of industry specialists at a conference discussed what Energy Industries Council (EIC) president Campbell Keir called an “urgent necessity” to “reshape industries, create new partnerships, generate sustainable jobs and secure a future where energy and environment responsibilities built together”. In the first session of the North Sea Decarbonisation conference, RV Ahilan Ahilan, chief energy transition officer of ABL Group, admitted annoyance with UK energy policy. ABL, is headquartered in London but listed on the Oslo stock exchange which gives the global firm insight into both sectors of the North Sea. “Even looking across the pond to Norway, we have a completely inconsistent policy about oil and gas development between the two countries. “One is ready to have no oil and gas licenses. The other one is saying we should have more “We have to somehow find a way to attract industry that can work on both sides of this agenda, and that’s the bit that I’m consistently having to struggle with. “The second part is that I think it’s also very annoying that we have a decarbonisation target and yet heavy subsidies for fossil fuels and subsidies for renewables without actually redirecting those in an efficient manner across the country’s GDP. That’s a big problem. It’s putting the foot on the accelerator and on the break at the same time and expecting decarbonisation to happen. And that’s very provocative. Matt Abraham, head of operations for James Fisher and Sons, called for acceleration of North Sea decommissioning as a means of driving carbon reduction and industry innovation while also maintaining oil and gas production “We could lead the world in the decommissioning of installation. Genuinely, there’s a whole lot of new different

Preliminary official figures released Wednesday showed Norway produced 351.3 million standard cubic meters a day (MMscmd) of natural gas in March, dropping month-on-month and year-on-year but beating the official forecast by 0.4 percent. The Nordic country, which has displaced Russia as the European Union’s top source of pipeline gas in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, sold 10.9 billion standard cubic meters (Bscm) in March. That is up 100 MMscm from February, according to figures published online by the Norwegian Offshore Directorate. According to the latest quarterly gas market report of the European Commission, Norway accounted for 50 percent of gas imported into the EU by pipeline in the fourth quarter of 2024. In March Equinor ASA said it has put the Halten East field in the Norwegian Sea onstream, unlocking new gas for Europe. “We are starting up Halten East at a time where piped gas from Norway is in high demand and important for energy security”, Geir Tungesvik, executive vice president for projects, drilling and procurement at Equinor, said in a company statement March 17. Halten East, a tie-in to be developed in two phases, holds about 100 million barrels of oil equivalent recoverable reserves, according to the Norwegian majority state-owned energy company. “The second phase is planned in 2029”, Equinor said. Meanwhile Norway’s oil production in March 2025 averaged 1.76 million barrels per day (MMbd), up sequentially but down year-over-year. In late March Equinor achieved first oil at the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea, growing Norway’s production capacity by 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) at peak. “The Johan Castberg field will contribute crucial energy, value creation, ripple effects and jobs for at least 30 years to come”, Tungesvik said. Recoverable volumes are estimated to be 450-650 million barrels, Equinor said. “Johan Castberg opens a

Energy security is national security, industry body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) stated in a release sent to Rigzone by the OEUK team on Tuesday, which highlighted that OEUK is holding a Security and Resilience Conference in Aberdeen at the end of the month. In the release, OEUK noted that “specialists from industry, defense policy, the security services, and academia” will address the “high-level” conference, which is being held  in the Union Kirk in Scotland on April 30. OEUK said in the release that the conference will hear from leading defense specialists at the cutting edge of technological solutions, including the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for the enhancement of maritime security. It added that delegates will also be given an overview of approaches to defense used by other countries in protecting offshore energy supply chains. “The event will underline why energy security is national security and will give offshore energy operators and supply chain companies an overview of the collaborative approach being taken to possible risks and help them develop strategies to protect energy distribution installations from potential threats,” OEUK stated in the release. “The offshore energy industry is highly regulated with close lines of communication to the various agencies of national defense, but sharing information to protect vital UK offshore energy producers from deliberate damage to their operations is of paramount importance,” it added. In the release, Mark Wilson, OEUK’s director of health, safety, environment, and operations, who is also a former army officer, said, “this is the first event of its kind to be held by OEUK”. “Given the current geopolitical instability and the potential risks to subsea infrastructure, we believe it is important for the offshore energy industry to take seriously the need for optimum security,” he added. “We have an unbeatable line-up of leading