Energy Giants Are Betting Billions on a World of Longer Oil Routes

Cyril Widdershoven

Sat, September 19, 2026 at 4:00 PM PDT 9 min read

Global maritime and energy markets are currently showing two significant developments. Both indicate they should not be treated as separate market stories, but as an intertwined sector. Abu Dhabi's ADNOC investment arm, XRG, is reportedly considering acquiring up to 50% of Energos Infrastructure, a floating-LNG company valued at around $3 billion. At the same time, shipowners have ordered more VLCCs in 2026 than in any comparable period for at least the last 25 years. One transaction is about gas infrastructure; the other is about crude transportation. However, together they expose the same strategic reality: geopolitical fragmentation, chokepoint insecurity, and the redrawing of energy trade routes are triggering a global race to own the ships, terminals, and floating infrastructure needed to control physical energy flows, raising concerns about supply stability and market resilience for stakeholders.

No, it doesn't mean that the energy transition has disappeared. It only makes clear that it is no longer setting the investment tempo. Security of supply is.

At present, Apollo Global Management seems to be exploring strategic options for Energos. The latter includes a full or partial sale. XRG is slated to be among the prospective bidders, trying to acquire as much as half of the company. Energos operates 13 floating LNG assets, including floating storage and regasification units and LNG carriers deployed under long-term arrangements in Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico and the Netherlands. Neither XRG, Apollo nor Energos has formally confirmed a transaction yet. The discussions are still to be treated as preliminary. The logic and strategy behind it are, however, clear. Energy, according to Reuters, could be even looking at a valuation above $3 billion.

There is an important technical distinction, as it is not simply a potential purchase of floating LNG production plants. The target is primarily a floating storage, regasification and LNG-shipping platform. For companies such as ADNOC, this will maybe even more strategically valuable because floating regasification infrastructure offers rapid deployment and flexibility, enabling quicker responses to supply disruptions. Liquefaction projects create supply at fixed locations, while floating regasification infrastructure not only determines where LNG can enter a market, but also how swiftly an importing country can adapt to geopolitical or operational disruptions, enhancing energy security and market stability.

As has been seen directly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an FSRU can transform a coastal location into an LNG import gateway much faster than a major land-based terminal. Looking at the current post-Ukraine, post-Hormuz, and increasingly post-Bab el-Mandeb security environment, this speed and flexibility carry, and will be for a long time, a very high premium. Floating infrastructure allows capacity to be repositioned, contracted to governments and utilities, or redeployed when regional price differentials and security requirements change. It is not merely a collection of vessels. It is a portfolio of mobile strategic access points.