** The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has been illegally powering its massive Tennessee data centers through the use of a fleet of methane gas turbines. The turbines were operating without required air quality permits, but the company has been fighting the charges for a year and a half, claiming that their operations were exempt.
** Energy service giants Halliburton (HAL) and SLB (SLB) — the “gold standard” for global oilfield infrastructure — are set to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday, January 21, and Friday, January 23, respectively.
** Five Upper Midwestern utilities, led by Xcel Energy, have proposed expanding transmission between North Dakota and Minnesota to address thermal and voltage issues on an existing 345-kV line operating at capacity.
** The Trump administration and a bipartisan group of governors have asked the country’s largest wholesale electricity market to hold a one-time “emergency” auction to provide data centers with new sources of power.
World
** Energy service giants Halliburton (HAL) and SLB (SLB) — the “gold standard” for global oilfield infrastructure — are set to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday, January 21, and Friday, January 23, respectively.
** Global wind energy additions will total 160 GW in 2026, a “substantial” amount of capacity but also a 6% decline from last year, according to a new analysis from Wood Mackenize. Global wind additions in 2025 were a record-breaking 170 GW, the firm said.
** Equinor has made an oil discovery near its Heidrun field in the Norwegian Sea through the drilling of wildcat well 6507/8-12 S at the Othello South prospect in production licence 124 B. The wildcat well was drilled by the Cosl Innovator rig, roughly 4km north of the Heidrun field and around 240km west of Sandnessjøen.
** Petrobras PBR, one of Brazil’s largest energy companies, has announced a significant agreement with the Norwegian shipping giant, Odfjell, to supply B24 marine biofuel.
** DOF Group has been awarded a contract by MODEC Guyana to deliver mooring pre-lay services for the Hammerhead floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) project in Guyana. The Norwegian offshore supply shipping company did not disclose the contract value but said it is a “large turnkey” award.