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Devon Energy and Coterra Energy’s newly announced merger didn’t come as a huge surprise. They have highly complementary assets in the Permian and the Anadarko and their deal promises $1 billion or more in synergy-related savings. Finally — and this is important — their combination had been urged on by an activist investor.

For the past several years, a potent combination of market developments has incentivized PADD 2/Midwest refiners — and their midstream partners — to move increasing volumes of refined products east. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss what’s been happening lately and how it’s affecting refiners.

The arrival of a special, 460-Mbbl shipment of U.S.-sourced naphtha in Venezuela a few days ago underscored a critically important fact, namely that production of Venezuelan heavy sour crude requires steady inflows of imported diluent. Today, we’ll discuss Venezuela’s need for diluent and how it’s likely to be met.

Given the recent media focus on AI and the surge of data center construction, it comes as no surprise that the electric utility industry’s capital investment has risen to record highs. What isn’t as widely publicized is the enormous strain this historic expansion has placed on utility balance sheets. 

The evolving situation in Venezuela is rife with uncertainty. But as the outlook for Venezuelan crude oil improves, there are significant market issues at play as well, including the potential for renewed competition with Canadian heavy crudes along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The long-anticipated return of Enterprise’s Midland to ECHO 2 Pipeline to crude service is underway, bringing 220 Mb/d online for the first time since the end of 2023. This coincides with Enterprise’s new NGL line, the Bahia Pipeline, which began operations in December. 

Haynesville natural gas production is heading back to record levels thanks to growing LNG demand and new pipelines designed to move gas from north to south in Louisiana. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll preview some of the topics RBN will be covering regularly in the new NATGAS Haynesville report. 

Buoyed by record-level feedgas demand and several planned export terminals reaching important development milestones, 2025 was a banner year for U.S. LNG. Today, we’ll examine some of the sector’s near-term challenges and look at where demand could increase in the long term.

Mexico’s still-rising demand for U.S.-sourced natural gas — and new pipelines to deliver it — has been driven by the buildout of new power plants and, more recently, by planned LNG exports. Today, we discuss more private-sector midstreamers and the new gas demand that may bring them new opportunities.

NGL production in Western Canada hit an all-time high in 2025 and looks to be headed even higher in the years ahead. Major midstream players, such as AltaGas, have been undertaking infrastructure expansions to deal with all the additional gas processing, Y-grade fractionation and product exports.

The news out of Venezuela has commanded the world’s attention since early January, with the country’s highly prized heavy crude oil caught in a geopolitical tug of war. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll lay out where Venezuela’s crude oil is produced and how it differs from grades elsewhere.

Producers venturing into the substantial natural gas reserves in the far-west part of the Haynesville Shale were historically thwarted by extreme geological conditions and poor drilling economics. Now, technological advancements and bullish market conditions are once again beckoning E&Ps. 

Mexico’s process for planning new gas pipelines is very top-down, with state-owned Cenagas and CFE playing key roles. But the buildout of pipelines there has been largely accomplished by private-sector companies that are now planning another round of projects that will spur more gas exports from the U.S.

The stock market of 2025 often felt like different movies playing on adjacent screens. On one, the broader market surged. On the other, economically sensitive sectors such as oil and gas stocks slid into the background. Today, we examine the performance of the 35 public E&Ps we cover.

In Mexico, state-owned players like Cenagas and CFE continue to play central roles in planning and underpinning the development of natural gas pipelines. At the same time, however, Mexico has leveraged the participation of a handful of private-sector companies that have built a significant share of the newer pipelines there.