THE NUMBER

$1.75B

What NiSource now expects data-center contracts to save existing NIPSCO customers, up from $1.4 billion before Microsoft signed.

TODAY’S MENU

LEAD STORY

1,100 MW — Microsoft signs a 20-year Indiana power deal with NiSource

•   NiSource’s GenCo will serve Microsoft’s northwest Indiana campus from 2028. Microsoft funds the generation and wires it needs, and NIPSCO’s projected customer savings rise to ~$1.75 billion.

•   GenCo also signed a 20.5-year toll on a 600 MW / 2,400 MWh battery AGP Group will build and own. Payments total ~$2.2 billion; first phase is due Dec. 1, 2027 (8-K).

THE HEADLINES

OILFIELD SERVICES

~15% — Halliburton guides to better 2027 margins without a frac recovery

•   3Q revenue was $5.7 billion at a 12.8% adjusted margin. North America fell 5% to $2.2 billion on U.S. pressure pumping; international rose 3% to $3.5 billion, Middle East/Asia up 8%.

•   Its early 2027 view calls for mid-single-digit revenue growth and ~15% margins with North America flat. Free cash flow was $156 million, against ~$250 million of buybacks.

UPSTREAM

C$302M / 7,000 bbl/d — Saturn buys Corex and crosses into Manitoba

•   Saturn pays ~C$252 million cash plus C$50 million of stock, released in three tranches over 18 months. The price is 1.6x run-rate net operating income and 82% of PDP NPV10.

•   Corex adds 279 net locations next to Saturn’s southeast Saskatchewan acreage. Saturn lifts its 2026 exit guide to 54,000–56,000 boe/d, and closing is set for December.

MINERALS

$3.5B — EnCap rolls its Permian minerals into a record continuation vehicle

•   Melange anchors the vehicle, which keeps EnCap Minerals and Rock River I. The assets: ~134,000 net royalty acres in the core Permian, producing ~37,000 boe/d with no future capex.

•   EnCap calls it the largest continuation-vehicle raise yet in upstream, with demand above target. Exxon, Diamondback, Oxy and ConocoPhillips run ~48% of activity on the acreage.

NUCLEAR

960 MW — AEP, X-energy and Amazon study 12 SMRs at an old Indiana coal site

•   The plan is 12 Xe-100 units of 80 MW each, built in groups of four, at I&M’s former Breed station in Sullivan County. Amazon funds development under a separate agreement.

•   If it reaches FID, Amazon intends to buy the power long term and cover the plant’s costs. No budget or in-service date yet. We ran AEP’s Google fuel cells in Cheyenne Oct. 15.

UTILITIES

$67B — Virginia’s governor sets her price for Dominion–NextEra

•   Gov. Spanberger wants a six-year freeze on base residential rates and bill credits tripled. Her SCC witness proposes $29 a month for four years and a 60% debt share, up from 48%.

•   The attorney general and SCC staff also oppose the deal unless their own terms are met. The May deal could create the world’s largest regulated electric utility.

QUICK HITS

DATA CENTERS

$10B / 420 MW — Anthropic signs a 20-year lease in Nova Scotia

EverWind builds it at Point Tupper, a fuel terminal once slated for hydrogen and ammonia. The first 95 MW lands late 2027 and 325 MW more in 2028; $2 billion of the total goes to wind.

DATA CENTERS

50 MW — Microsoft walks from Nscale’s Loughton site

Grid delays pushed power for the 23,040-GPU Essex site into the 2030s. Microsoft says the wider partnership holds. Nscale, which filed for a U.S. IPO last month, is looking at other power sources.

FUNDS

$8.7B — Blackstone closes its fifth energy-transition fund at the cap

BETP V is 50%-plus bigger than Fund IV. It has seeded Kindle, Fisterra and Viridon and bought Flow Control, Dresser Utility Solutions and DarkVision. The strategy cites a 34% net IRR since 1997.

POWER

$600M — Google pays for Entergy Arkansas’s next West Memphis buildout

Google covers 1,400 MWh of batteries at two sites, a substation expansion, two 230 kV lines and a 440 MW solar PPA. Entergy says other customers save at least $500 million over 20 years from 2028.

ALMOST HEADLINES

PEOPLE  Expand hires Chord’s Danny Brown as CEO from Oct. 26; interim chief Mike Wichterich goes back to non-executive chairman

UPSTREAM  290.5–290.9 Mboe/d — Chord, now led by Michael Lou, beats its 3Q guide on oil, gas and NGLs; buybacks hit $205 million

FUNDS  $2.5B — Ara closes its first energy fund, with ~3 GW of NYISO, ISO-NE and PJM thermal plants among its seed assets

OIL  $4.5B — Exxon’s 8-K flags a refining-margin lift for Energy Products, against $1.3 billion lost on liquids prices

OFFSHORE  $550M — Transocean books 2027 U.S. Gulf work for Deepwater Proteus and Deepwater Conqueror

GAS  $42M — DOE puts Defense Production Act money behind the 125-mile Constitution pipeline from Pennsylvania to New York

THE READING LIST

HEATMAP

The Battleground Districts Where Electricity Bills Have Surged the Most

UTILITY DIVE

What Google’s virtual power plant in PJM says about the race for electricity

REUTERS

PetroChina set for record trading profit as war upends market, sources say

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