Bass Energy & Exploration is independently owned and operated by the Bass family.
Bass Energy & Exploration
7 NE 6th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73104
As 2025 draws to a close, the global energy matrix is defined by a sharp divergence between geopolitical instability in Eastern Europe and structural hardening of supply chains in the West. While diplomatic headlines suggest a potential de-escalation, the physical reality on the ground—characterized by kinetic strikes on critical infrastructure—tells a different story.
First, in Eastern Europe, the "War of Wattage" has intensified. Despite high-level peace talks involving the incoming US administration and Ukrainian leadership, both Moscow and Kyiv have escalated their targeting of energy assets. The simultaneous strikes on a Russian refinery and a Ukrainian heating plant serve as a stark reminder that energy infrastructure remains the primary lever of coercion, keeping a geopolitical risk premium embedded in global oil prices despite bearish long-term fundamentals.
Second, in Europe, the continent’s energy security architecture has been fundamentally redrawn. Norway has solidified its status as the indispensable guarantor of European stability, with natural gas production hitting an 11-month high. Now supplying over half of the European Union’s gas, Norway has effectively replaced the Russian monopoly with a reliable Nordic anchor, supported by aggressive efficiency measures from state-champion Equinor.
Third, in the United States, the convergence of digital infrastructure and energy production is accelerating in the Permian Basin. The consolidation of the Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC) project by New Era Energy & Digital signals a maturing market where gigawatt-scale power demand is being sited directly at the source of hydrocarbon abundance. This "molecule-to-electron" strategy is reshaping the value proposition of West Texas real estate and energy assets.
The convergence of these narratives indicates that while the world prepares for a potential supply glut in 2026, the immediate term is governed by infrastructure fragility and the voracious power appetite of the artificial intelligence sector.
Oil prices are climbing as kinetic reality overrides diplomatic optimism. While Trump and Zelensky are signaling progress on a peace plan, the physical destruction of energy assets—Russia striking a Kherson heating plant and Ukraine hitting the Syzran refinery—remains the dominant market driver in the immediate term.
The specific nature of the strikes indicates a continued strategy of mutual energy degradation. Ukraine’s strike on the Syzran refinery in the Samara region took out a primary oil processing unit, directly impacting Russia's downstream capacity and potential export revenue, while Russia continues to weaponize winter by targeting civilian heating infrastructure.
Norway has firmly established itself as the indispensable anchor of European energy security. Gas production hit 361.5 million cubic meters per day in November, an 11-month high. With the Nordic country now accounting for 51.8% of the EU’s pipeline gas imports, Brussels has effectively swapped dependence on Russia for dependence on Norway.
Norway isn't just producing more; it’s producing smarter. Equinor is utilizing subsea tiebacks, such as the Verdande field connected to the Norne FPSO, to extend the life of legacy assets. This strategy reduces capital intensity and environmental footprint while maintaining high output from fields like Johan Sverdrup.
The deal between New Era Energy & Digital and Sharon AI signals a maturation in the data center sector. By buying out its partner to take full control of the Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC) project, New Era is streamlining decision-making for a massive infrastructure buildout in the heart of the Permian Basin.
The Ector County project highlights the sheer scale of power demand coming online. Spanning 438 acres with a planned capacity of over 1 gigawatt, this facility represents the convergence of energy abundance (Texas gas) and energy consumption (AI/HPC), creating a new demand center directly at the source of fuel.
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High-level peace negotiations may be making headlines, but on the ground the conflict in Eastern Europe is increasingly defined by a war on energy infrastructure. Both Moscow and Kyiv appear intent on undermining each other’s energy security as a means of leverage, even as diplomats discuss a 20-point peace plan.
These mirror-image attacks highlight how energy infrastructure has become a primary lever of coercion. Disabling refineries chokes economic output and tax revenue; destroying heat and power plants aims to break the will of the populace. Nearly four years into the full-scale invasion, both sides are doubling down on this strategy of energy attrition.
Oil traders have been whiplashed by alternating headlines of peace optimism and on-ground escalation. Early last week, crude prices fell on optimism about peace talks and oversupply concerns, but the latest strikes quickly reversed that trend.
Looking forward, this dynamic sets up a complex start to 2026. Bullish geopolitical risks (wider war escalation or sabotage beyond Ukraine) are competing with bearish fundamentals (robust global output and the prospect of an oil glut in 2026). Until one side clearly outweighs the other, expect oil prices to oscillate within a band – with conflict news providing a price floor and oversupply fears capping the ceiling.
Even as Eastern Europe remains volatile, Western Europe’s energy security landscape has been transformed. In 2025, Norway has stepped firmly into the role Russia once played as the top gas supplier to the EU – but with the reliability and stability of a NATO-aligned partner. This section examines how Norway’s production surge and innovative field development strategy are cementing it as the cornerstone of Europe’s energy supply.
Norwegian gas output is surging at just the right time for Europe. Preliminary figures show November natural gas production averaged 361.5 million cubic meters per day (MMcmd) – the highest level in 11 months. This output not only rose 7.3% from October’s level but also exceeded the Norwegian regulator’s forecast by about 2.1%, underscoring Norway’s commitment to running its infrastructure full-tilt to meet winter demand. Year-on-year, November gas volumes were about the same as 2024, indicating that Norway has sustained these elevated levels over the long term.
Crucially, Norway’s share of the European gas market has hit unprecedented levels. In Q3 2025, Norway accounted for 51.8% of all gaseous natural gas imported into the European Union. This means over half of the EU’s external gas now comes from Norway, a remarkable statistic that reflects how effectively Europe has reoriented its supply away from Russia. By comparison, a few years ago Russia supplied roughly 40% of Europe’s gas; today, Norway has not just filled that gap but expanded it. European consumers, from German industries to French households, are benefiting from this stable Nordic supply line at a time when Eastern supply routes are fraught with risk.
Norway’s oil production is also contributing to its energy heft. In November, Norwegian oil output averaged about 1.9 million barrels per day, down slightly (1%) from October but up 8.8% year-on-year. It even beat official projections by over 4%. This growth is driven by new fields coming online and exceptional operational efficiency at existing giant fields like Johan Sverdrup, which together more than offset natural declines elsewhere. In short, Norway’s hydrocarbon sector is firing on all cylinders – providing a timely buffer for global markets against outages or cuts in more turbulent regions.
Behind Norway’s strong production numbers lies an important strategic shift in how new resources are developed. Equinor ASA, Norway’s state-backed energy champion, has been leveraging a development approach centered on subsea tie-backs – linking small new discoveries to existing platforms and infrastructure instead of building standalone projects.
This strategy was highlighted in Equinor’s Q3 report, where the company noted that new fields like Johan Castberg and Halten East coming onstream drove the production increase compared to the same quarter last year. By tying these fields into established infrastructure (such as regional hubs or floating production units), Equinor minimized downtime and capital expenditure, achieving faster ramp-ups. They reported 1.42 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from Norway in Q3 (equity production), up from 1.31 MMboed a year prior, thanks largely to these tie-back projects and high uptime at legacy fields.
A recent example is the Verdande field in the Norwegian Sea, which came onstream in early December 2025. Verdande was developed as a subsea tie-back to the Norne FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel) – the second such tie-back to Norne this year. With an estimated 36 million barrels of oil in reserves, Verdande’s connection to existing facilities will extend the life of the Norne production hub beyond 2030. Equinor emphasized that many new developments on the Norwegian continental shelf are indeed “smaller subsea fields tied back to existing infrastructure”, an approach that “reduces both costs and environmental footprint” while maximizing output from mature areas.
From a strategic standpoint, Norway’s embrace of tie-backs means it can continue incrementally growing or sustaining production without mega-projects or massive new discoveries. Each small field like Cape Vulture or Alve Nord East (discoveries that feed into Verdande) can be tapped relatively quickly and economically. For Europe, this translates into a more secure and resilient supply – a multitude of small taps flowing into the pipeline network, rather than over-reliance on a few giant fields. It also indicates Norway’s oil and gas output can remain robust into the late 2020s, bolstering Europe’s long-term energy stability at a time when the region is seeking to balance security with a green transition.
Can Europe realistically rely on a small group of suppliers like Norway for long-term stability? In the near term, the answer appears to be yes – Norway’s consistent overperformance and investment in new capacity have made it a linchpin of European energy. However, concentrating so much of Europe’s supply in one country (even a friendly one) means Europe will need to continually shore up storage, alternative suppliers (like LNG), and renewables to hedge against any unforeseen Norwegian shortfall. The Norwegian anchor is holding firm now, but a diversified energy mix remains key to Europe’s resilience.
Across the Atlantic, a very different energy story is unfolding – one that combines America’s shale energy prowess with the rising demand of the digital economy. In Texas, the world’s largest oil field is now giving rise to massive data centers, illustrating a trend where energy production and consumption converge in new ways. This section explores New Era Energy & Digital’s latest move in West Texas and what it means for the future of energy-intensive computing.
In late December, New Era Energy & Digital Inc. (ticker: NUAI) announced a deal to acquire full ownership of the Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC) project in Ector County, Texas. New Era is purchasing its partner Sharon AI Inc.’s 50% stake in the venture, which will give it 100% control over this under-development power-and-AI data center campus. The buyout is valued at $70 million, structured in a creative way to minimize dilution for New Era’s shareholders. According to CEO E. Will Gray II, the package includes a $10 million upfront cash payment (funded through debt), a deferred $10 million equity issuance in March 2026, and a $50 million promissory note due in mid-2026. By using debt and a time-delayed equity component, New Era limits immediate share dilution while securing the capital needed to proceed – a structure Gray says “allows us to align capital with development, accelerating the project’s execution”.
With Sharon AI exiting the joint venture (to refocus on its cloud computing business), New Era gains the flexibility to drive the project forward on its own terms. One of the first moves under full New Era control was expanding the physical footprint of the planned campus. The company acquired an additional 203 acres of land adjacent to the original site, bringing the total development area to 438 acres. This massive tract will host a multi-phase campus envisaged to support over 1 gigawatt (GW) of power capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing workloads. For context, 1 GW is on the order of a nuclear power plant’s output – an indication of just how much electricity advanced data centers may consume, especially those running energy-hungry AI models and cloud services.
New Era plans to reach a Final Investment Decision (FID) by Q1 2026, after which construction can fully ramp up. Phase 1 of the TCDC project is expected to begin operation in 2027. The past year has already seen significant progress on permitting, grid interconnection studies, engineering design, and commercial partnerships for the project. By taking full ownership now and simplifying the corporate structure, New Era is positioning itself to move faster in bringing this colossal data center online.
What makes the TCDC project especially noteworthy is its location and concept. It sits in Ector County, Texas, squarely in the Permian Basin – the most prolific oil and gas producing region in the U.S. Traditionally, West Texas energy projects have meant oil wells, gas pipelines, and refineries. Now we’re talking about gigawatt-scale data centers in the oilfield. This reflects a broader trend: the convergence of energy production with energy-intensive computing.
Several factors are driving this “molecules-to-electrons” strategy:
More broadly, the TCDC project signals how energy producers are finding new customers in the digital sector. Instead of exporting all its oil and gas out of the region, West Texas can use some of it on-site to fuel a growing tech economy. In an era where AI and cloud computing demand is skyrocketing, power-hungry data centers are becoming as critical to infrastructure as factories or petrochemical plants. We may see more partnerships where oil & gas companies team up with tech firms to build “power parks” – clusters of generation and data processing – especially in energy-rich areas.
For the Permian Basin, this evolution could mean a partial decoupling from the boom-bust oil cycle. Even if oil prices slump, a steady baseline demand for electricity (to run servers 24/7) could provide a new revenue stream for local energy producers. It’s an innovative way to future-proof an oil region for a digital age, ensuring that the energy produced under the desert soil finds use in powering the information economy.
As 2025 ends, the global energy system is pulled by two competing realities. On one side, geopolitical conflict is exposing the fragility of critical infrastructure and keeping governments on edge. On the other, technological and strategic advances are creating buffers and new demand that reshape the energy landscape. Europe’s security-first approach versus America’s innovation-driven expansion encapsulate this divergence.
In Europe, the priority is security of supply. The trauma of recent years’ gas crises means policymakers value reliability over pure market efficiency. Norway’s outsized role is a deliberate outcome of this mindset – better to depend on a friendly, stable supplier (even if it means concentration risk) than to be at the mercy of a volatile or hostile one. Europe is also investing heavily in storage, renewables, and alternate routes (like Southern Gas Corridor expansions) to fortify its position. The subtext is clear: keeping the lights on and homes heated is non-negotiable, even if it occasionally means paying a premium or turning a blind eye to monopolistic dynamics.
In the United States (and much of the competitive global market), the driver is efficiency and growth. The Texas example shows a focus on scaling up new industries (AI, cloud computing) by leveraging existing strengths (cheap shale energy and land). Security in the U.S. context comes from economic resilience – the idea that if you build enough capacity and interconnected infrastructure, market mechanisms and innovation will sort out disruptions. The abundance of domestic oil and gas allows the U.S. to be more experimental in how it uses energy, whereas Europe’s scarcity forces a cautious stance. Neither approach is “wrong”; they are tailored to different risk realities.
One insight cuts across all these stories: physical infrastructure has become the ultimate strategic moat in energy. Nations and companies that control the hard assets – pipelines, power plants, LNG terminals, drilling rigs, or data centers – hold the keys to influence and profit. In Eastern Europe, we see how destroying infrastructure can hobble an opponent without direct confrontation. In Norway, we see how maximizing infrastructure utilization (running platforms at capacity, extending field life via tie-backs) secures a dominant market share and political leverage. In Texas, we see how integrating infrastructure (aligning energy production with consumption on-site) can unlock new business models and economic efficiency.
For investors and policymakers, the takeaway is to bet on the backbone. Energy markets may obsess over barrels per day or Bcf of gas storage in theory, but real value lies in the pipes, plants, and facilities that actually deliver those volumes to where they’re needed. As the world faces a likely oversupply of oil in 2026, margins will thin and only the most efficient, well-integrated operations will thrive. At the same time, as long as conflicts rage and rivalries simmer, secure infrastructure (and the ability to quickly repair or bypass damaged parts) will command a premium.
In sum, 2025’s endgame is a study in contrasts but also complementarity. Geopolitics and technology are two sides of the energy coin. Smart strategies in 2026 and beyond will be those that bridge the two – using innovation to buffer against geopolitical shocks, and using strategic alliances to foster the next wave of energy innovation. The players who can manage this balance will build the deepest moat around their energy assets, positioning themselves to not just weather the coming glut or conflict, but to prosper from whatever comes next.
Bass Energy & Exploration is independently owned and operated by the Bass family.
Bass Energy & Exploration
7 NE 6th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73104