Executives say that AI will lead to cheaper and faster oil production. CORRECTED.
Executives at the CERAWeek Conference in Houston explained that artificial intelligence has accelerated oil and gas drilling, and has prompted companies to reconsider areas they previously deemed too expensive or difficult to develop. AI was a major topic in several sessions of the largest energy conference. Oil producers are looking for ways to stay profitable amid a plummeting price of oil and concerns that U.S. president Donald Trump's tariffs may slow down global energy demand. Ann Davies, BP’s senior vice-president of wells, revealed that the UK oil giant BP uses AI to predict problems and steer drill bits before they occur.
Executives say AI will lead to cheaper and faster oil production.
Executives at the CERAWeek Conference in Houston explained that artificial intelligence has accelerated oil and gas drilling, and is prompting companies take a second glance at areas they previously deemed too expensive or difficult to develop. AI was a major topic in several sessions of the largest energy conference. Oil producers are looking for ways to stay profitable amid a plummeting price of oil and concerns that U.S. president Donald Trump's tariffs may slow down global energy demand. Ann Davies, BP’s senior vice-president of wells, revealed that the UK oil giant BP uses AI to predict problems and steer drill bits before they occur.
Palm oil is a weaker competitor to other oils
The price of Malaysian palm oils futures dropped for the second session in a row on Tuesday. This was due to weaker edible oils from rival producers and concerns over U.S. tariff policies. By midday, the benchmark contract for palm oil delivery in May on the Bursa Derivatives exchange fell 59 ringgit or 1.31% to 4,440 Ringgit ($1,002.71) per metric ton. David Ng, a proprietary trading at Kuala Lumpur's Iceberg X Sdn. Bhd., explained that the market was down because of soybean oil's overnight drop and Dalian weakness. This was primarily due to U.S. and China tariffs, as well as lower crude oil prices.
Aramco CEO: More likely Elvis will speak than energy transition plans to succeed
Saudi Aramco's CEO said Monday that policymakers and energy executives should rethink their energy transition plans. They must stop investing in elements of the energy transition which have failed and instead rethink the entire energy transition. The remarks from the head the world's biggest oil company comes as the administration under President Donald Trump pushes for maximum oil and gas production. This is a dramatic U turn in U.S. Energy Policy after former President Joe Biden passed legislation to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.
Statkraft, Norway's largest steel producer, reports a drop in profits and says that politics may have an impact on costs
Statkraft, a Norwegian company, reported a 56% decline in its fourth-quarter operating profit despite soaring power prices. Statkraft also warned that trade wars may increase the cost to build generation capacity. Statkraft's earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) dropped from 11.5 billion Norwegian crowns to 5.1 billion Norwegian Crowns ($459m) a year ago. It said that the benchmark Nordic System power price has fallen to an average of 31,10 euros per Megawatt-hour, down 46.3% on a year-on-year basis. The EBIT of the state-owned utility fell by 36% from 41.4 billion crowns to 26.5 billion crowns.
GE Vernova signs deal to support Amazon's data center expansion
The renewable energy company GE Vernova announced on Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with Amazon’s cloud services to support its data center expansion plans. GE Vernova stated that the agreement with Amazon Web Services would help address global energy demand and improve grid security, reliability, and carbon emissions. Big Tech has spent billions on developing AI technology, infrastructure and cleaner energy sources. The company will supply AWS a range of solutions to electrify data centers in North America, Europe and Asia and to reduce carbon emissions. Pablo Koziner is the chief commercial officer of GE Vernova.
Baker Hughes and Frontier Infrastructure form a carbon capture partnership
Baker Hughes announced on Monday a partnership between Frontier Infrastructure and the United States' largest carbon capture and storage solutions (CCS). Oilfield Services provider adds that it will provide technology solutions for carbon capture projects, power generation and datacenters. Baker Hughes announced that it will leverage key technologies in well design, carbon dioxide compressing and long-term monitoring for Frontier's Sweetwater Carbon Storage Hub to be located in Wyoming. The company said it would use gas turbines for 256 megawatts in order to meet the increasing demand of electricity across the U.S.
Vopak's profits are unlikely to change much by 2025 as one-offs have a negative impact on the 4th quarter results
Dutch tank storage company Vopak said that it expects to see little difference in its earnings by 2025, despite the fact that strong demand for energy-storage infrastructure is boosting its results. Analysts cited a missed quarterly core profit and a cautious outlook as the reason for the 7% drop in shares of this company that operates terminals and stores fuels and chemicals around world. Vopak reported a negative impact in the fourth quarter of 2024 due to technical problems at one of their LNG terminals located in…
Vopak's earnings exceeded its guidance range
The Dutch tank storage company Vopak announced Wednesday that its core earnings for 2024 were above the previously-guided range, due to strong demand across its various business units. The proportional earnings before taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), which is the measure of profit before all other costs, rose by 9%, to reach 1.17 billion euro ($1.22 billion), with its top-end annual guidance at 950 millions euros. The company that operates terminals and stores worldwide said they expected their core profit to be between 1,15 billion and 1,20 billion euros in this year. The annual sales increased by 4%, to 1,32 billion euros.
DeepSeek fears subside, US power companies spend more on data centers
U.S. Electric utilities are increasing their spending plans by tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars in order to upgrade the grid and build new power sources as artificial intelligence data centers and cloud computing drives up energy consumption. PPL Corp announced on its earnings call that it will increase capital investment by almost 40%, to $20 billion. Dominion which is the largest provider of data centers in Northern Virginia and Exelon, the utility giant, both revised their capital plans in the past week. These investments will be used for a wider range of utility customers.
TE Connectivity to Acquire Richards Manufacturing
TE Connectivity entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Richards Manufacturing Co. from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. and members of the Bier family, long-standing owners and leaders of the business. The transaction will strengthen TE's position in serving electrical utilities in North America by combining complementary product portfolios and adding the expertise of the Richards team, enabling TE to benefit from strong growth trends in underground electrical networks.Richards is widely recognized as a best-in-class provider of utility grid products and…
Shell's scenarios predict significant LNG growth within the next few years
Shell published scenarios on Wednesday that showed a rapid rise in global demand for liquefied gas. Gas will probably have a gradual increase, and oil could peak at the start of the next decade. The British energy company created three scenarios to model energy security on a long-term basis, but said that these do not reflect their strategy or business plans. Surge is the most optimistic outlook for economic growth. It assumes that artificial intelligence will be used widely to boost productivity and increase energy demand.
Shell's scenarios predict significant LNG growth within the next few years
Shell published scenarios on Wednesday that showed a rapid rise in global demand for liquefied gas. Gas will probably have a gradual increase, and oil could peak at the start of the next decade. The British energy company created three scenarios to model energy security on a long-term basis, but said that these do not reflect their strategy or business plans. Surge is the most optimistic outlook for economic growth. It assumes that artificial intelligence will be used widely to boost productivity and increase energy demand.
VEGOILS - Palm flat ahead of MPOB and exports; demand concerns weigh
Malaysian palm futures were in a narrow range on Monday, ahead of important data on the country’s stocks. Weak demand from key markets was offset by gains due to flood fears and Indonesia’s potential increase in export taxes. At the midday break, the benchmark palm oil contract on Bursa Malaysia's Derivatives exchange for April delivery fell 7 ringgit or 0.16% to 4,497 Ringgit ($1,006.72) per metric ton. Anilkumar bagani, commodity researcher at Mumbai's Sunvin Group, explained that crude palm oil futures were trading sideways before the Malaysian Palm Oil Board data. This was due to short-covering following Friday's gains.
Minister says Canada's Alberta is looking to Japan for new LNG contracts amid US tariff threats
Rebecca Schulz is the minister for environment and protected areas in Canada's Alberta, which is a major producer of gas. She said that expanding into Japan was an important goal in light of a U.S. Tariff threat. Schulz, in an interview with a Japanese journalist in Tokyo on Wednesday evening, said: "The United States is a good example of why we need to diversify the markets we export to. Over the last week, she has met with officials, business lobbies, and company representatives. These include JERA, Japan’s largest LNG buyer, JOGMEC (Japan Gas Association), which is chaired by a Tokyo Gas executive.
METI Japan says it is difficult to predict the impact of DeepSeek on electricity demand.
The Japanese industry ministry knows that the expansion of data centers may increase electricity demand, but it's difficult to predict what will happen with the advent of DeepSeek. The government published a draft version of its basic energy policy, which is a major document that is reviewed every three years. It projected an increase in electricity production between 10-20% from 2040, and also cited a higher AI usage. Analysts are divided on whether or not the rise of Chinese startup AI DeepSeek will lead to a decrease in electricity demand. Or, if it could increase, as the technology becomes more accessible and affordable.
Chevron will build gas plants for data centers in the AI boom
The oil and gas company Chevron announced on Tuesday that it will build natural gas power plants near data centers in the U.S. as the energy demand for artificial intelligence growth is expected to grow. The second largest U.S. oil and gas producer has partnered with Engine No. The project is a partnership between Engine No. 1 and electric service company GE Vernova. Chevron announced the project a day after Chinese startup DeepSeek revealed an AI model it claims uses much less computing power than leading models in the United States.
Japan's JERA plans on expanding US LNG purchases in order to diversify the energy supply
JERA, Japan's largest LNG buyer, is planning to increase its purchases from the United States in order to diversify their supply and meet the demand growth spurred on by data centres and AI. U.S. president Donald Trump promised to unleash the U.S. industry of energy to boost production and threatened the EU if it did not purchase more gas. This could mean that JERA would have to compete against other buyers to get more U.S. natural gas. Japan's largest utility, which handles between 30-35 millions metric tons of LNG per year, sources almost half of it from Asia Pacific, including Australia and Malaysia. This is a very high exposure.
Executive: Bolivia and Argentina in talks to restart gas supply due to spike in demand
Bolivia's state energy company YPFB has begun talks with Argentina to resume gas exports, amid a spike in demand sparked by a heatwave this summer. This highlights the challenges facing the government of Buenos Aires in its quest to become self-sufficient in energy. Armin Dorgathen Tapiea, the YPFB's chief, told a reporter by phone on Friday that "we are in a discussion with Argentina about creating a spot contract." These talks were previously unknown. In September, after nearly two decades of exports to Argentina from Bolivia…
Argentina negotiates gas imports with Bolivia and Chile after heatwave increases demand
Bolivia and Chile have begun talks to resume gas exports to Argentina, amid a spike in demand sparked by a heatwave this summer. This highlights the challenges facing the government of Buenos Aires in its quest to become self-sufficient in energy. Armin Dorgathen Taia, the head of Bolivia's state energy company YPFB told me by phone on Friday that "we are in a negotiations with Argentina to create a contract spot". These talks were previously unknown. In a Friday statement, Chilean authorities also stated that they expected to reach a new deal with Argentina for the supply of gas to Chile's remote northern region.
