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The Headlines
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Gas / M&A
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~170 MMcfe/d — Marubeni buys the Barnett-to-AI gas chain
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• Marubeni acquired all of EagleRidge Energy II, making the Barnett producer a wholly owned subsidiary with ~170 MMcfe/d of gas and NGLs — which it equates to ~1.3 mtpa of LNG, or about 19 cargoes a year.
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• The buyer named its thesis out loud: AI power demand, rising Texas gas burn, and Gulf Coast LNG pull. It plugs gas near Dallas into Marubeni’s MIECO desk and global LNG book; price undisclosed, funded from the ¥200B GC2027 budget.
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Nuclear
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1.5 GW — Elementl puts Southeast Ohio nuclear into the PJM queue
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• Elementl is pursuing up to 1.5 GW in Meigs County, signed an Early Works Agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi for the 300-MW BWRX-300, and is buying the ~700-acre Letart Township site (~100 mi SE of Columbus) from American Municipal Power.
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• It filed a 600-MW PJM request (response expected later in 2026), targets 2030 construction and 2034 completion, and will privately finance the plant rather than bill ratepayers — subject to FID, NRC and Ohio Power Siting Board approvals.
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Carbon Removal
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$915M — Frontier reloads permanent carbon removal
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• Frontier committed another $915M to permanent carbon removal — lifting total commitments to $1.8B, with Stripe, Google, Shopify, Salesforce, H&M Group and Anthropic in the coalition — concentrated in ~10–15 projects on 8-to-10-year offtakes, some running to 2040.
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• The new entry rule is the story: every deal now needs a path to durable demand from compliance markets, industrial regulation or government procurement — not just voluntary buyers. (Seven companies delivered ~23K tons in 2025, ~2x prior; 2026 forecast tops 50K.)
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Critical Minerals
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$725M / 20 years — Energy Fuels gets a conditional rare-earths loan
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• The U.S. Office of Strategic Capital extended a conditional 20-year, up-to-$725M loan to fund White Mesa Mill expansion in Utah plus a planned domestic rare-earth metals and alloys facility.
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• It’s a commitment, not cash — still subject to diligence, definitive docs and closing — but it pairs with the planned Australian Strategic Materials buy, whose South Korean metal-and-alloy plants would give Energy Fuels the back half of the chain.
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