PHMSA proposed updating its LNG facility safety rules to adopt National Fire Protection Association standards for siting, design, construction, operation and maintenance. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the newer technologies it allows will save about $100 million a year. Projects still need FERC permits and environmental approvals, so this speeds one lane, not all of them.
FERC staff will issue an environmental assessment on January 8, 2027 for ETC Tiger's Franklin Farms Project, with a federal decision deadline of April 8, 2027. The project adds about 13.2 miles of 36-inch lateral and 1,000,000 dekatherms per day of capacity for a new AI data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana. Gas is now being piped straight to data center campuses, and the permit calendar sets the pace.
ANYbotics says ANYmal X, a legged inspection robot built to meet the ATEX and IECEx explosion-protection standards, is now shipping to oil, gas and chemical companies including Equinor and DSM-Firmenich. BP, Equinor, Shell, PETRONAS, Petrobras, BASF and SLB have tested it since 2023 through an early access program, and it carries thermal, visual, acoustic and gas sensors that log readings to each asset. Robot rounds in hazardous zones are moving from pilots to deliveries.
Xplore AI's new RWE-bench tested 11 AI models on 20 engineering tasks, including crankshaft design, DDR3 board routing and turbine vane CFD, each graded by a deterministic verifier with no human or AI judge. The top model, GPT-6 Astra, averaged a 37% pass rate. The hard design work is still mostly done by people.
