CIR Editorial
New Year Preview: What's on the Calendar for Q1 2026
The calendar flips in three days. Before it does, here is what you need to have on your radar for Q1 2026 — the key dates, the events that will move the needle, and the questions we will be tracking in the first weeks of the new year.
January: Budgets Finalize,
Year in Review: The 10 Biggest Upstream Stories of 2025
Twelve months. Eight articles a month from CIR. Dozens of stories tracked, hundreds of data points analyzed. Here are the ten upstream stories that actually mattered in 2025 — the ones that will shape what comes next.
1. The Post-Merger Integration Test
2024 was the year of the megadeal. 2025 was
Natural Gas: 2025 Review and 2026 Setup
Natural gas producers entered 2025 with cautious optimism. They are exiting it with something approaching genuine optimism — a change in tone that reflects real fundamental improvement, not just seasonal weather effects. Here is what happened and where things stand heading into 2026.
The 2025 Review: From Pain to Recovery
Henry
2025 A&D Year in Review: Deals That Defined the Year
The 2024 M&A supercycle — anchored by ExxonMobil's $60 billion Pioneer acquisition and ConocoPhillips' $22.5 billion Marathon Oil deal — left the 2025 A&D market with a high watermark to match. It did not. But the year was far from quiet, and the deals
OPEC+ Year-End Meeting: 2026 Production Policy
OPEC+ wrapped up its year-end policy meeting in early December with an outcome that surprised very few people who have been paying attention: another extension of existing voluntary cuts, a delay in unwinding the production restraints that have been in place since late 2023, and language vague enough to provide
