Chevron, BP, U.S. Power Use: Your Daily Energy News

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News highlights gathered by Industrial Info and IIR Energy (Sugar Land, Texas) dealing with the energy markets.

PRODUCTION
Chevron Struggles to Replace Reserves Amid Hess Deal Limbo - Chevron Corporation's (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California) oil and gas reserves have fallen to the lowest point in at least a decade, highlighting the importance of the U.S. major's planned acquisition of oil producer Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) (New York, New York) that has stalled due to a court battle with Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Spring, Texas). If Chevron closes the Hess acquisition, it would gain a stake in the lucrative Guyana oilfields that are operated by ExxonMobil. Exxon and CNOOC (Beijing, China), the other minority partner in the Guyana field, have challenged Chevron's bid for Hess in court, saying that they have first right of refusal on Hess's equity in the project. Chevron's reserves, or the amount of oil and gas that it can potentially extract, declined from 11.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2023 to 9.8 billion by the end of 2024. The reserves also declined in part due to sales of acreage. (Reuters)

BP to Add Six Wells to Maintain Production from Caspian Sea Field - BP (NYSE:BP) (London, England) plans to add six new wells to its operation in Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea to ensure stable production in the years ahead, a senior manager at the international energy major told Reuters. BP currently operates 21 gas wells in Shah Deniz, which is developed by a BP-led consortium and which is critical to Azerbaijan's commitment to boost gas exports to the European Union, providing an alternative to dwindling Russian supplies. Under a 2022 deal, Azerbaijan is expected to double its exports to the EU to at least 20 billion cubic meters a year by 2027. (Reuters)

POWER
U.S. Power Use to Reach Record Highs in 2025, 2026 - U.S. power consumption will rise to record highs in 2025 and 2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Short Term Energy Outlook on Tuesday. The EIA projected power demand will rise to 4,179 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2025 and 4,239 billion kWh in 2026, up from a record 4,082 billion kWh in 2024. The agency forecast 2025 power sales will rise to 1,524 billion kWh for residential consumers, 1,458 billion kWh for commercial customers and 1,054 billion kWh for industrial customers. The EIA said natural gas' share of power generation would slide from 43% in 2024 to 40% in 2025 and 39% in 2026. Coal's share will ease from 16% in 2024 and 2025 to 15% in 2026, as renewable output rises. (Reuters)

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Energy asset information on power plants, oil refineries and natural gas infrastructure is now more important than ever. A unit of Industrial Info Resources, IIR Energy provides infrastructure information on these assets, as well as real-time tracking of planned and unplanned interruptions affecting the commodity-trading community. We are the number one source for information about power plant outages, refinery turnarounds and midstream natural gas disruptions.

About Industrial Info
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).