Theme: Energy

Sub-Saharan Africa's liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports are set to grow nearly 175% to 98 billion cubic meters in 2034 from 35.7 billion in 2024, according to Fitch, as buyers flee the Strait of Hormuz. The African Energy Chamber projects about US$ 40 billion a year in exploration and production investment through 2030, lifting the continent's hydrocarbon output to 12.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. In Mozambique, TotalEnergies' US$ 20 billion LNG project, with capacity of 13.1 million tonnes per year, resumed construction in January after the end of a four-and-a-half-year force majeure and is about 45% complete.

Brent fell US$ 8.94, or 8.6%, to US$ 94.66 per barrel on Wednesday, after touching its lowest level since September 4, with traders pricing an end to the war against Iran, according to OilPrice. WTI dropped US$ 8.01, or 8.3%, to US$ 88.08, while Brent traded near US$ 118 on Friday. Gulf exports of crude and products averaged 17.1 million barrels per day in October, down from 18.9 million in September, roughly three-quarters of the pre-war level, according to Vortexa. The US Department of Energy announced the loan of 300,000 barrels from the Northeast home heating oil reserve to four companies, nearly a third of the stockpile, and heating oil futures fell about 7%.

QatarEnergy signed a 20-year agreement to buy 3 million metric tons per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Woodside Energy’s facilities in Louisiana and, a week earlier, struck deals with Cheniere for up to 4 million tons per year through 2054, according to Reuters, in a text republished by gCaptain. Deliveries under the contracts begin in 2030 and 2031 and will make Qatar the largest buyer of US LNG. Unlike its neighbors, the small Gulf state has no viable route for exporting LNG other than the Strait of Hormuz. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters he expects to sign additional supply agreements with US and other producers this year. The company declared force majeure on LNG supplies in March, after the war with Iran led to the blockade of Hormuz and attacks on its Ras Laffan facilities; the measure runs through December.

According to OilPrice, the Japan-Korea Marker, Asia’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) benchmark, topped $31 per million British thermal units this month and briefly rose above $33, compared with a little over $9 in January. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that the war between the United States, Israel and Iran cost the world some 60 billion cubic meters of LNG supply in the eight months to October. QatarEnergy has signed two long-term deals to buy US gas, 4 million tons a year from Cheniere Energy and 3 million tons a year from Woodside Energy, which will make it the biggest foreign buyer of US liquefied gas, according to Reuters. Global gas consumption fell 1%, or 35 billion cubic meters, in the first nine months of the year.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz cost Europe 127 billion euros in higher fossil fuel prices, Ursula von der Leyen said at an event in Brussels. In the same speech, she argued that imported fossil fuels had cost Europe 127 billion euros more “without bringing one extra molecule of energy”. About a fifth of the oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) transported by sea worldwide passed through Hormuz before the US-Israeli attack on Iran in late February, which led Tehran to effectively shut the strategic waterway.

Bloomberg reported plans by Abu Dhabi's state oil company, Adnoc, for a third pipeline from the western coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Fujairah that could supply Asian customers and bypass Hormuz. The existing pipeline, Habshan–Fujairah, has run since 2012 with a capacity of 1.5 million barrels a day, expandable to 1.8 million, and a second, the West-East pipeline, is expected to start operating in 2027. Adnoc told Bloomberg the report was not accurate and “purely speculative”.

Russia attacked overnight with 310 drones, including 81 jet-powered drones, according to Ukraine’s air force, which said it downed or suppressed 272 drones of various types. The attacks triggered power and water outages for hours across Kyiv and surrounding regions, and residents in the capital were urged to use public drinking water fountains before supplies were restored. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it shot down 709 Ukrainian drones the previous night. Retailer Ozon said a drone attack caused a fire at its logistics center in Adygeysk, in Russia’s Adygea region, but that there were no casualties.

Equinor halted output at its Visund oil and gas platform in the Norwegian North Sea after a fire in an electrical switchboard room; the flames are out, no one was injured and the company reported the incident to authorities. A notice from Norwegian gas system operator Gassco cut the platform's capacity to 2.5 million cubic meters per day on Wednesday and to zero for Thursday's gas day, with the duration listed as uncertain; the field's 13.2 million cubic meters per day of gas export capacity goes off the market from Thursday. Equinor moved between 70 and 80 of the 128 workers on board to nearby installations and said repairs will be needed, with no timeframe for restarting production. Visund has produced since 1999 and sent 5.1 billion cubic meters of gas to market in 2025, shipped through the Kvitebjørn pipeline to the Kollsnes plant and on to Europe.

Ukrainian drone strikes have killed three people in Russia’s Belgorod region, while attacks cut power to multiple cities in Ukraine and parts of Russian-occupied Crimea, according to officials. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s overnight attacks damaged power generation facilities and substations in nine regions, leaving emergency outages in many cities. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed on Telegram that it hit two power stations in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions and said it downed 709 Ukrainian drones across 14 regions, Crimea and the Black and Azov seas. In southern Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at a distribution facility of Ozon, in the town of Adygeysk in the Republic of Adygea, regional head Murat Kumpilov said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he hoped Trump would continue his peacemaking efforts after the Democratic victory and treated any changes in Congress as a domestic US matter: “President Trump continues to exercise his powers. We sincerely hope that he will also continue his peacemaking efforts.”

New Jersey Democratic Governor Mikie Sherrill warned port and terminal operators in the state against “purchasing or unloading the illegal Russian fuel currently bound for the east coast of the United States,” in a letter dated November 2. Sherrill said Congress banned energy imports from Russia in April 2022, in response to the country’s attack on Ukraine, and that importing Russian diesel would violate the ban and could lead to civil and criminal charges. A Treasury license authorizes transactions tied to the sale, delivery, offloading and importation of Russian diesel, including into the United States, through April 7, 2027. The White House defended the authorization: “The President secured a deal to supply global markets with diesel, lowering prices for the United States and the world,” spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said. A Phillips 66 executive said he did not believe Russia has enough distillate to make much of a difference to the global supply crunch.

Aliko Dangote on Wednesday broke ground for a planned fuel storage site in Namibia, which will serve as a fuel distribution hub in southern Africa, in an OilPrice report based on Bloomberg’s reporting. The project, expected to cost $2.5 billion, includes a fuel depot outside the main port of Walvis Bay and a 1,700-kilometer pipeline to bring fuels to Botswana and South Africa, and potentially to other countries. “We want to heavily invest so that most of the landlocked countries will be able to access petroleum products at a cheaper price,” Dangote said at the event. The initial public offering of a minority stake in Dangote’s refinery could raise as much as $2.1 billion if the company exercises its greenshoe option.

Iran’s Oil Ministry brought the private sector together on Tuesday to discuss winter gas supply, in a meeting with acting Oil Minister Hamid Bovard. Bovard said current conditions are not normal and that energy issues cannot be approached with the usual past perspective. The ministry says it is working around the clock to restore lost gas production capacity and return to the previous level as quickly as possible.

Spanish energy firm Moeve, majority owned by Abu Dhabi fund Mubadala, said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its Algerian oil assets to Indonesia’s state energy firm Pertamina. The deal includes Moeve’s minority stakes in the Rhourde el Khrouf, Bir el Msana and Ourhoud onshore oilfields in Algeria’s Berkine Basin. The company has also agreed to sell its minority stake in Algeria’s Timimoun onshore gas field, a person familiar with the matter said. The sale of its Algerian upstream assets will complete Moeve’s withdrawal from the exploration and production business.

The Hamburg Higher Regional Court has scheduled 19 more hearings between February and June 2027, extending until at least mid-2027 the trial over the sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, court press spokeswoman Judge Mareike Franzen said. Sergey Kuznetsov, a former special operations officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is standing trial, charged with a war crime, carrying out explosions, destroying structures and disrupting the operations of public utilities. He was detained in Italy in August 2025 and extradited to Germany.

Democrat Jon Rosenthal defeated Republican Bo French by 52.6% to 45.5% in the race for the Texas Railroad Commission, with 94% of the votes counted, according to the Associated Press (AP). A state representative who describes himself as a “drill-baby-drill Democrat,” Rosenthal is the first Democrat elected to the commission since Bob Krueger in 1990; no Democrat had served on the three-member commission since 1994. The commission regulates an industry that pumps more crude than every member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) except Saudi Arabia.

A first convoy of Algerian soldiers was seen in northern Niger this weekend, a week after Algeria’s Parliament approved the deployment of troops to the neighboring country. According to RFI, about sixty Algerian tankers transporting fuel and secured by Algerian soldiers crossed the border with Niger, where they were welcomed by members of the Niger Armed Forces. Algeria’s Parliament approved the deployment on October 25, paving the way for the country’s first military mission abroad since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Reports diverge on the convoy’s destination: RFI mentions the city of Agadez, while the Soufan Center says the convoy reportedly reached Arlit on October 30. Algerian Senator Belkacem Boulghiti said the troops would protect economic infrastructure and oil facilities belonging to Algerian companies, and that Algeria is “not sending our soldiers to wage war in Niger.” Algeria’s national energy company Sonatrach, the Nigerien government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation are jointly developing a 4,000-km pipeline to carry Nigerian gas through Niger and Algeria and onwards to Europe. Morocco is promoting a rival pipeline along an Atlantic route drawing on the same Nigerian gas reserves, and the United Arab Emirates has agreed to support the project financially and technically.

Euro zone inflation rose to 4.0% in October from 3.8% in September, the highest in three years, according to Eurostat, the European Union (EU) statistics agency, in a Reuters report republished by MarketScreener. Inflation has been climbing quickly above the European Central Bank’s (ECB) 2% target this year because the US war in Iran pushed energy costs higher, feeding through to retail prices for a bloc that imports the vast majority of its energy. The ECB now expects inflation to hold above 4% for much of the first half of 2027 before falling quickly toward the “low twos,” when high year-earlier figures get knocked from the data. The reading, set to rise further in the coming months, firmed up market bets for another ECB rate hike in December.

According to OilPrice, citing Bloomberg on the basis of unnamed sources, India’s coal, power and railway ministries are working jointly to raise coal stocks from 18 million to 55 million tons, with current stocks covering only six days of coal-fired generation against a requirement of at least three weeks of consumption; last month, half of the country’s coal plants had critically low stocks after August monsoon disruptions disrupted transport from producing states.

China is home to 49% of the world’s clean industrial plants, counting units in operation and under construction, accounts for $45 billion in energy transition investments this year and holds 23 of the 36 industrial decarbonization projects that reached a final investment decision, according to a Mission Possible Partnership report in an OilPrice text, which also notes that the country remains the world’s biggest coal consumer, with nearly 50% of its power generation coming from the fuel.

Russia’s Defense Ministry says, in a Reuters text republished by Investing.com, that two power stations in Ukraine’s regions of Kyiv and Zhytomyr were hit, in strikes that also targeted a cargo vessel at sea near Odesa and follow Tuesday’s missile and drone bombardments that knocked out power to swaths of Ukraine. US envoy Steve Witkoff announced that the US will bring together delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11 to discuss post-war security agreements, de-escalation and ending the war.

The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said that the US response to Iran’s seven conditions was not convincing and that the Strait of Hormuz will only reopen if Washington fully meets the demands. The indirect talks center on an Iranian proposal to reopen the waterway over two days if the United States meets the seven demands, including the lifting of sanctions and an end to the US naval blockade. Four oil tankers were destroyed after striking naval mines south of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who also said two other vessels were halted. The statement did not identify the vessels, their owners, flags, cargoes or the exact location, and there was no immediate independent confirmation of the attacks. The Guards also said they shot down a US MQ-9 drone over the strait, the 56th by their count, a claim that could not be independently verified. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that two unidentified projectiles struck a tanker’s engine room about 14 nautical miles northeast of Oman’s coastal village of Limah, with no casualties reported. US media, citing US officials, reported that Central Command had prepared plans for strikes that could begin as early as Wednesday, after the midterm elections, when three American aircraft carriers would be in the region.

The United States-mediated peace talks are scheduled for November 10–11 in Abu Dhabi. According to Zelenskiy, Russia launched 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles overnight against power plants and substations from Odesa to Rivne. Friedrich Merz said in Berlin that the talks are the right step and that Europe must take part in the process, urging Russia to engage in serious ceasefire negotiations and saying he has seen no sign of that so far. Moscow said it hit Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and in two other settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, with up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen killed.

Russia bombarded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in waves on Tuesday, with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, knocking out power across swaths of the country. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least 33 people were killed on Monday when Russia twice bombed a school used for aid distribution in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, and that about 50 people were still believed buried under the rubble. The Kyivvodokanal utility said that the capital’s water supply was suspended because the main water facilities were left without power after the attacks. Operator DTEK said the attacks knocked three of its thermal power plants completely offline. The U.S.-mediated tripartite talks in Abu Dhabi are set for November 10 and 11. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it was important that Russia seriously and effectively engage in ceasefire negotiations.

Europe’s six largest oil companies booked US$38 billion in profit in the July-to-September quarter. BP suspended its share buyback program to cut debt faster, reducing the total by as much as US$10 billion, with US$13.9 billion remaining. The majors have shied away from major new spending, a sign they do not see current market conditions as evidence of a lasting improvement in the industry’s outlook.

The war with Iran has doubled what Egypt pays for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), and Cairo has been deferring cargoes into 2027 and burning fuel oil in its power plants to hold down the bill. The country asked suppliers to push five of its 15 November LNG cargoes into 2027, on top of about 15 already deferred since July. According to a government official cited by Asharq Bloomberg, the price of a single cargo has risen as much as 100% since September and climbed above US$100 million. Domestic gas output fell to 3.63 billion cubic feet per day in August, as older fields declined faster than new wells came online.

The Africa Energy Bank, a US$ 5 billion institution set up by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO), was established to finance oil and gas projects across Africa, according to OilPrice. Oil and gas investment in Africa fell from US$ 68 billion in 2016 to about US$ 37 billion in 2025. The Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) estimates that Africa needs US$ 200 billion in annual energy investment, and around 600 million people across the continent lack access to electricity. S&P Global says the bottleneck is turning investor appetite into bankable projects and that US$ 5 billion covers only a sliver of the gap.

Europe is entering the winter heating season with its lowest natural gas storage levels in more than a decade, and tight conditions in the global market may extend well into 2027, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). In European Union countries, storage sites are entering the 2026-27 season at their lowest levels since 2013. The effective halt of liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows through the Strait of Hormuz reduced loadings from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The IEA projects a 3% fall, or almost 20 billion cubic meters, in global LNG supply in 2026. QatarEnergy extended force majeure on LNG deliveries to most customers to the end of December 2026, according to OilPrice.

Rystad Energy cut Brazil’s announced data center pipeline by roughly two-thirds, from 21 GW to about 7 GW, citing regulatory uncertainty, severe grid congestion and limited access to reliable power. Under the Redata tax regime (Law No. 15,504/2026), enacted in September, the tax exemptions are neither automatic nor permanent: they are time-bound and contingent on meeting strict operational criteria. Still pending is the decision on whether natural gas generation qualifies as low-emission power. Bill 3716/2026, which reallocates battery storage integration costs from generators to all system users, is being fast-tracked in Congress and must be approved before the Brazilian electricity regulator ANEEL holds its inaugural capacity auction in December.

Crude oil exports from Persian Gulf producers averaged nearly 12 million barrels per day in September and the first 20 days of October, below the pre-war level of approximately 18 million bpd, Rystad Energy estimated. The consultancy assesses that the security situation in and near the Strait of Hormuz has deteriorated even as flows recovered, with a higher number of attacks on tankers in recent weeks. In Rystad’s view, a comprehensive settlement between the United States (US) and Iran would require addressing Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions, Tehran-backed armed groups in the region and the security of maritime shipping, while also taking into account Israel’s security interests.

A Russian missile destroyed Dnipro’s hospice on Monday night, and nearly 50 terminally ill patients were transferred to other facilities; the oldest was 90 years old. In Kharkiv, a hospital was hit and 73 people were wounded, most of them elderly patients, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. Russian strikes on an aid center, a hospice and a hospital killed at least 38 civilians and injured scores of others in 24 hours. Kyiv’s water supply was entirely cut off “due to enemy attacks and damage to the capital’s energy infrastructure,” the supplier Kyivvodokanal said, and the entire metro network was suspended on Tuesday. Russia also struck energy infrastructure in nine regions, affecting water and heating. Zelensky said Russia launched 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles overnight across the country, and three thermal power plants of Ukraine’s largest private energy company were out of operation, according to the company. The UN human rights monitoring mission said the aid distribution at the school in Komyshuvakha had been highly publicized and that the attack “seems to have violated the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”

Drax unveiled plans to build an artificial intelligence data center at the site of its biomass power plant in North Yorkshire, using the plant’s surplus energy capacity, in a partnership with Radiant, according to City AM, in a text republished by OilPrice. The first phase is to deliver up to 100 megawatts by 2028 and the second an extra 500 megawatts by 2031, with total capacity above one gigawatt and potential investment exceeding £20 billion, of which £2.5 billion in the first stage. Drax shares rose 8.5% to 877 pence on Tuesday morning, making the stock the biggest riser on the FTSE 250.

Egypt and Sudan reaffirmed in a joint statement on November 2, after the third round of their “2+2” consultation mechanism bringing foreign and irrigation ministers together in Cairo, that Ethiopia’s operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) without a binding agreement threatens downstream water security, according to Egyptian local media. The 1959 agreement invoked by the two countries allocated 55.5 billion cubic meters a year to Egypt and 18.5 billion to Sudan, while making no provision for Ethiopia, which was not a party to the treaty. The dam, built through domestic financing, has an installed generation capacity of approximately 5,150 megawatts and a reservoir capacity of about 74 billion cubic meters, making it Africa’s largest hydroelectric project.

ADNOC Gas will supply up to 1.6 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to TotalEnergies over five years, under an agreement announced on Tuesday by the gas unit of Abu Dhabi’s state energy firm and the French oil major. The first LNG deliveries will begin as early as this year, according to TotalEnergies. OilPrice notes that LNG flows through the Strait of Hormuz have been severely constrained for eight months and that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) remains confident that long-term global demand will stay on the upside. The Ruwais LNG project, under development in Abu Dhabi, will have 9.6 million tons per annum of capacity, most of it already committed to buyers in Asia and Europe under long-term agreements.

Shell agreed to sell its 16.67% stake in Australia's North West Shelf project to subsidiaries of XRG, the international arm of Abu Dhabi's state oil company (ADNOC), for $1.45 billion, according to Reuters, in text published by MarketScreener. The deal is expected to close in 2027 and includes an additional milestone-linked contingent payment on top of the base consideration. It is XRG's first investment in Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG); the project has 14.3 million tonnes a year of liquefaction capacity.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that EU gas stocks enter winter 2026–2027 at their lowest since 2013, that low stocks in Europe combined with limited capacity in Asia and South America could sharpen competition for liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes and pressure spot prices, and that restocking in summer 2027 could keep tensions high until the middle of next year — according to the IEA, the near-paralysis of LNG flows through the Strait of Hormuz cut cargoes from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates by more than 60 billion cubic meters between March and October 2026, with a projected 3% fall in global LNG supply in 2026, about 20 billion cubic meters, and a drop of about 1.5% in world gas demand, about 65 billion cubic meters — German stocks, the largest in Europe, stood at 61.03% on November 1, against an EU average of 74.62%, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data, and TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said Europe will face no gas shortage this winter but will pay more, and that the continent loosened storage requirements a year too early.

Aramco posted net profit of 135.9 billion riyals (about 32.3 billion euros) in the third quarter, compared with around 101 billion riyals (24 billion euros) in the same period a year earlier, a result that included a 25.9 billion riyal gain from selling its stake in the PRefChem joint venture to Malaysia’s Petronas, while the Iranian-backed Houthis have regularly attacked Saudi tankers, pipelines, storage facilities and refineries since hostilities resumed in July. Adjusted net income stood at US$ 31.2 billion, up from US$ 28.6 billion a year earlier, above the median analyst estimate of US$ 30.66 billion; downstream posted adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of US$ 10.3 billion, up 234% in a year on stronger refining margins, and the board approved a base dividend of US$ 21.9 billion, up 3.5% in a year. Chief executive Amin Nasser said geopolitical uncertainty and attacks on energy facilities kept amplifying the global supply crisis in the quarter, with serious implications for energy security.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that its forces struck facilities of Ukraine's energy complex in the Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions that supply military enterprises. The ministry said the strikes also hit port infrastructure in the Odesa region and naval vessels used for military purposes.

US exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) hit their second-highest level in history, driven by a rise in European demand ahead of the start of winter, which pushed LNG prices higher. Shipments to Europe rose by 1 million tons last month, to 6.89 million tons, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. European gas prices stood above 100 euros for the first time in four years.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang received Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tarik during a two-day state visit that began on November 1, the first by an Omani head of state to China since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1978. Li said China wants to deepen cooperation across the entire oil and gas industry chain and carry out more high-quality clean energy projects.

Germany enters winter with its gas storage at 61%, well below the European Union’s 80% target. The country has the bloc’s largest storage capacity, more than a fifth of the total. The TTF contracts for December 2026, January 2027 and February 2027 are trading above 100 euros per megawatt-hour, according to OilPrice.

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Petroleum Producers' Organization (APPO) have formally launched the Africa Energy Bank, a financial institution focused on oil and gas projects across the continent, with authorized capital of US$5 billion. The bank will support projects across the energy value chain, from exploration and production to transportation, processing, refining and distribution, and has a mandate to reduce reliance on imported petroleum products and promote intra-African trade in energy goods. The new lender is private-sector-led, with majority ownership held by APPO and Afreximbank. Its inaugural general meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, on October 31 appointed Helmy Ghazi as president and formed its first board of directors, with members from the public and private sectors and policy institutions.

The Brent fell 7.6% to close the day at $104.77 a barrel, while US crude dropped 7.3% to $96.46. On the European exchange, gas fell to nearly $1,100 per 1,000 cubic meters, the lowest level since October 29, amid news of peace talks between Iran and the United States, according to TASS.

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Supreme Leader had granted the government “certain authorities” over the peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.

Ukraine has hit three Russian refineries since Friday. The Novokuibyshevsk refinery, owned by Rosneft, was targeted in a drone attack on Friday, the first Ukrainian strike on a Russian refinery since October 15; over the weekend, drones hit a Rosneft refinery in Bashkortostan and Lukoil's Kstovo refinery in Nizhny Novgorod.

The United States proposed resuming Russian natural gas sales to Europe through Ukraine, according to The Wall Street Journal. The idea was raised by envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff during trips to Moscow and Kyiv in September and would involve selling the gas through a US intermediary to circumvent European sanctions.

A new daily record for gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline was set on November 1, according to Gazprom. The company said Russia expects to supply 39 billion cubic meters to China this year through the route.

The chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Sultan Al Jaber, said that global reserves have shrunk by nearly 1 billion barrels because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking in Abu Dhabi, he said diesel fuel reserves in some countries are at their lowest seasonal levels in 35 years and that other nations face a supply deficit of 600 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Iraq's oil exports through the Kurdistan Region's pipeline to Turkey doubled from 250,000 to 500,000 barrels a day, according to Baz Karim Barzanji, head of the Erbil-based energy company KAR Group, who wrote on X on Saturday. The crude shipped on the route is marketed by the state-run Somo. Oil Minister Basim al-Abadi said exports through all routes had risen above 3.4 million barrels a day since the start of October.

The US backs a rapid resumption of Russian natural gas exports to Europe via pipelines crossing Ukraine, as part of talks aimed at securing an energy ceasefire before winter, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Arab News. The idea, raised by envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff during trips to Moscow and Kyiv in September, would involve selling Russian gas via a US intermediary to circumvent European sanctions, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said South Korea could become a partner in developing the planned Sinop nuclear power station, according to Reuters, in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. Erdogan called South Korea an important potential partner in the project and called for broader bilateral cooperation in advanced technologies, defense, logistics and other sectors, according to Yonhap.

Oil-producing countries of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) agreed in principle to keep their December oil output targets steady at a meeting on Sunday, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in a text republished by The News Tribune. The Xinhua News Agency reported that OPEC+ would maintain oil output for the third consecutive month in December.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that his country would stop hitting Russian oil refineries — a key demand of US President Donald Trump — if Washington provides Patriot interceptor missiles. He tied the pause to one month of deliveries: if the systems are provided for a month, Kyiv would halt the attacks on the refineries for the same period, according to the Straits Times. Patriot missiles are among the most important weapons Ukraine has to intercept Russian drones and missiles.

Syria's special services said they exposed a terrorist plot against an oil refinery in the city of Homs, according to the TASS news agency. Suicide vests, makeshift explosive devices, electronic equipment for remote detonation and detailed maps of the facility were seized from the detainees.

Long-range Ukrainian drones set fire to the Kstovo refinery in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region overnight, shortly after a major strike on another large refinery in Samara owned by the state-owned energy giant Rosneft, Russian state media reported, according to The Guardian. Ukrainian officials told the Kyiv Independent that they never agreed to a demand from Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, to pause refinery strikes for 30 days.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had struck energy infrastructure in four regions overnight from Saturday into Sunday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, according to the BBC. The humanitarian ceasefire in the Kherson region, which has allowed civilians to evacuate the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, is due to end on Sunday night.

Saudi Arabia condemned on Sunday the targeting of a Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker in the Gulf and called for urgent international action to protect shipping and global energy supplies, Arab News reported. The Al-Mayeda, a Qatar Gas Transport Company vessel, was struck on Friday night; the company said in a statement that no crew member was injured and no environmental damage was reported. In a post on X, the foreign ministry reiterated its “rejection of all violations that threaten the security and safety of maritime navigation and global energy supplies”.

Venture Global began commercial operations of the first phase of its second liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project, Plaquemines LNG, and the sale of low-cost LNG to the phase’s long-term customers on October 31, 2026, according to a company release. The Malaga Knutsen LNG tanker loaded the first commercial cargo for Shell from Plaquemines and departed at 3:26 a.m. (9:26 a.m. GMT) on Sunday, according to Reuters, in a report republished by gCaptain.

Russian diesel fuel is sometimes sold on the European market under different brands, despite Europe’s ban on purchases of Russian oil and petrochemicals, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said, according to TASS. He also said gas reserves in European underground storage facilities are today at their lowest level on record, with winter ahead.

The governor of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, Gleb Nikitin, reported a “massive drone attack” during the night in which an industrial enterprise in the Kstovo district sustained significant damage, according to The Hindu. Ukrainian media treated the target as the Kstovo oil refinery, described as “one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, producing fuel and lubricants.”

A barrel of Brent crude settled at almost $118 on Friday, the highest since April, according to Reuters. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) kept December production targets steady on Sunday, confirming expectations that further policy adjustments are only expected next year, according to the agency.

Russian attacks hit the energy infrastructure of four regions of Ukraine overnight and left hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity this Sunday, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a G1 report.

The seven core members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) agreed in principle to keep production targets unchanged next month, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in an article published by Channel NewsAsia. Sunday’s online meeting of the group — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Oman — comes as Gulf members have been boosting exports disrupted for months by the conflict. Most, however, are still pumping well below their targets.

Drones belonging to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) struck the Haya electrical transformer station and a nearby oil pumping station on Saturday in eastern Sudan, setting fires and damaging the facilities. The oil facility sits on the pipeline transporting crude to the Bashayer port on the Red Sea coast. Early this Sunday, a drone strike hit the Abu Hamad power station in River Nile State in northern Sudan, setting off a fire and loud explosions, according to eyewitnesses cited by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.

The Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) confirmed that its liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Al Mayeda was hit by unidentified objects while transiting the Arabian Gulf on Friday evening, October 30, 2026. None of the crew members were injured and there was no environmental impact, according to the company. Nakilat said the vessel is operational and that an assessment of the consequences of the incident is under way, according to TASS.

Kyiv has emergency power outages because of damage to the capital’s power grid, according to the DTEK energy company, cited by TASS. About 200,000 households were without electricity on Saturday in the Dnipropetrovsk region and another 80,000 in the Kyiv region, where a thermal power plant was hit by drones, according to Le Monde.

The Lukoil oil refinery in Kstovo, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, was targeted by a Ukrainian attack overnight from Saturday to Sunday, according to Le Monde, which cited Ukrainian media including the RBC news agency. The regional governor, Gleb Nikitin, reported “a massive drone attack” during the night and on Sunday morning, in which “an industrial enterprise in the Kstovo district suffered major damage,” with no casualties according to preliminary information. Le Monde reported that the plant is one of Russia’s largest refineries, with a capacity of about 17 million metric tons of oil a year, or about 340,000 barrels per day.

Germany’s gas storage levels stood at 61.35% as of October 30, well below the 80% target the country has set for November 1, according to the German gas storage association INES, in a Reuters report published by Euronext. The association attributes the low level to the Iran war and its impact on prices, which has made filling the reservoirs over the summer uneconomical.

The UK approved the development of the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea on October 21, after years of legal battles and political uncertainty, according to OilPrice. A legal challenge by environmental campaigners led to a ruling that the earlier consent had been granted unlawfully and that a more detailed assessment of the environmental impact was needed, according to the BBC. The government says gas from Jackdaw will be in British homes and businesses this month.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that there is growing interest by the international community in facilitating a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea to ensure unfettered energy and grain shipments by Russia and Ukraine, according to Reuters, in a text republished by U.S. News. Turkey submitted proposals to Washington some time ago to ensure the safety of grain shipments through the Black Sea, and Rubio said the US is examining them, according to TASS: “We are examining proposals, for example, that were forwarded to us maybe some weeks ago, maybe a week ago from Turkey in that regard.”

In a statement on the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in the United States, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it delivered an assessment of destructive actions undermining international trade, including the interception of commercial fleets, sanctions, asset freezes and other unscrupulous methods, according to Sputnik. Lavrov laid out Russia’s view of the sources of global tension, “particularly in areas critical to the global economy: energy and food security, and the stable functioning of supply chains and shipping routes on an open and non-discriminatory basis.” The ministry also said Russia remains committed to being a reliable trading partner and a leading supplier of energy, food and fertilizers to a wide range of countries that need them, according to TASS.

Russia extended a ban on diesel exports by domestic producers until January 31, 2027, according to a government statement posted on its website Saturday. The extension covers diesel fuel, marine fuel and gas oils exported directly by producers, and, according to the government, it aims to maintain stability in the domestic fuel market. The earlier easing came after an agreement on October 9 between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump to supply Russian diesel to international markets.

European natural gas prices eased to €97 per megawatt-hour on Thursday after reaching €100 in the previous session, the highest level since December 2022, Trading Economics reported. Futures for the coming winter months on the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), Europe’s gas benchmark, trade at about €95 per megawatt-hour, nearly three times last winter’s average of about €36, Euronews reported.

Drone attacks left about 200,000 families without electricity in Dnipro and the surrounding region and more than 80,000 families in the Kyiv region, according to Interfax-Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian Shahed drones struck a combined heat and power plant in Kyiv and four electrical substations in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to UNN.

China has brought the world’s largest 60-megawatt liquid air energy storage demonstration project online in Golmud City, northwest China’s Qinghai Province, according to CGTN. The system uses an ultra-cold process at minus 194 degrees Celsius to turn surplus electricity into liquid air for storage. According to the broadcaster, the project can absorb 600,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean energy daily and deliver about 180 million kWh of electricity annually.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy (IRGC Navy) said four oil tankers had caught fire and exploded in the Strait of Hormuz while attempting to use what it described as unauthorized routes, Reuters reported, citing Iranian state media. The Associated Press (AP) reported that Iran said four tankers struck mines and caught fire. In its latest statement, the IRGC Navy said a fourth vessel, a tanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude oil, had hit a mine, suffered a powerful explosion and was burning.

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar criticized at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta the disruptions in global oil supplies caused by sanctions and chokepoints, saying that deliberate attacks on energy trade and infrastructure were a calculated strategy to hold prices hostage. He said the world faces an energy crisis marked by unpredictability, unaffordable costs and access challenges, rather than a lack of production, according to the Hindustan Times.

At a press conference after the first day of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russia-US diesel deal irritates US lawmakers and that Moscow is well aware of it, according to TASS. Lavrov said the sanctions imposed under former US President Joe Biden remain in place and that the current administration has added sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft.

Russia’s deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, said on Friday that Ukraine has resumed attacks on Russian oil refineries after a brief pause and warned that the strikes could reduce the diesel exports Moscow has planned, The Hindu reported. Novak also said Russia had shipped around 510,000 metric tons of diesel in October under the deal and plans a higher amount in November, around 2.15 million metric tons.

A supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of oil was among three tankers that exploded and caught fire while traveling through an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Friday, according to the Associated Press (AP). The force said the vessel had struck a naval mine. Oman’s navy evacuated 25 crew members of the merchant ship Riti, sailing under the Panamanian flag, after it was targeted and a fire broke out on board, Oman’s Maritime Security Center said in a statement. The United Arab Emirates said on Friday that the oil leak from the Gem No. 2 tanker had been stopped, with no new leakage detected, as cleanup operations continued along affected coastlines, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Ukraine has temporarily paused strikes on Russian oil refineries after weeks of pressure from US President Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported, in an article published by Türkiye Today, citing people familiar with the operations. The unofficial pause reportedly began early last week and is expected to last until after the US midterm elections, potentially extending further into November, according to the report. “Our guys tried to be a little more careful during these days. But they do not have an order” not to hit refineries, Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv.

Europe’s benchmark natural gas price topped the 100-euro mark for the first time since 2022 on Friday, at 101.82 euros (US$ 114) per MWh, according to OilPrice. European Union (EU) storage sites were 74.89% full as of October 29, well below the five-year average of about 86% for this time of year, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data cited by OilPrice.

Serbia’s incoming leadership plans to hold talks with Russia to negotiate a long-term natural gas supply agreement. According to the Russian broadcaster RT, Russia is Serbia’s dominant natural gas supplier, accounting for up to 90% of its imports in 2025.

Ukraine resumed drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, and a refinery in Russia's Samara region was struck in the new wave, according to Al Jazeera. Russian authorities say they intercepted more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions overnight, the broadcaster reported.

Russian forces carried out a massive overnight strike on Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises and the power facilities sustaining them, also hitting port infrastructure in the Odessa region, as well as drone and missile plants in Kyiv, substations in Kyiv and Dnepropetrovsk and port targets in Odessa, Russia's Defense Ministry said, as cited by TASS. Ukraine's air defense forces say they neutralized three Russian missiles and 96 drones in the overnight attack, with impacts recorded at 17 locations, Ukrinform reported.

In Atlanta, Marco Rubio will cross paths with Sergei Lavrov, already in Atlanta, according to Russian state media, and talks will address energy and supply-chain challenges, according to a US official cited by France 24; French diplomatic sources say no joint declaration is expected, reflecting divisions among members, according to The National.

European storage sites were 74.89% full on October 28, 14.79 percentage points below the five-year average for the date, according to TASS; the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) records that European Union (EU) storage stood at 75% on October 21 (https://acer.europa.eu/news/eu-gas-storage-75-filled).

Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, plus 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons immediately thereafter, according to the Associated Press (AP), which reports that US sanctions will not apply until April 2027 to diesel loaded onto tankers as of Friday and that Russia confirmed its readiness to supply oil and oil products to American and global markets.

Ukraine’s military has paused its strikes on Russian oil refineries after pressure from US President Donald Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people with knowledge of the operations. The unofficial pause is expected to last until after the US midterm elections and potentially deeper into November, according to the Jerusalem Post, which also reported that long-range strike units were told in mid-October that the campaign against refineries was on hold once missions already in motion were completed.

Brent rose 0.75% to $115.74 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 0.71% to $102.72 after the Houthis said on Thursday they had attacked Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery, the Rabigh refinery and an Aramco facility in Abqaiq, according to Reuters, in a text republished by CNBC.

Twelve European Union (EU) countries pledged on Thursday to jointly release 42.6 million barrels of oil by the end of January, in line with a G7 deal struck this month to ease concerns over global energy supply, according to AFP, in a text republished by Gulf News. European Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jorgensen said member states pledged to accelerate the release, nearly half of it diesel, according to Xinhua.

Brent futures for December 2026 delivery rose above US$ 114 per barrel on the London-based ICE, gaining 2.9% to US$ 114.01 per barrel, according to market data cited by TASS.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine halted attacks on Russian refineries for three days while Russia kept striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure during the energy truce. In an account to journalists at a closed-door briefing on Oct. 27, he said: “For three days we did not respond with strikes on Russian refineries while Russia was striking our energy sector,” and said he had proposed to respond calmly against other targets for at least 72 hours, without touching the refineries. The pace of Ukrainian attacks on refineries has fallen in recent weeks; the most recent were at Ryazan on Oct. 15 and in St. Petersburg on Oct. 18, according to the Kyiv Independent.

The Houthis said Thursday they had attacked Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery, the largest in the kingdom; the Rabigh refinery; an Aramco facility in Abqaiq; and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, according to the Jerusalem Post. There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities. The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles launched toward the capital, after AFP correspondents heard at least eight explosions in Riyadh, and the Houthi-run health ministry reported 12 killed and three critically injured in attacks it attributes to Saudi Arabia on residential areas in western Yemen.

Seven oil tankers carrying an estimated 288,000 tonnes of Russian diesel are now sailing towards the United States, the first phase of a supply deal negotiated between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin earlier this month that reverses years of sanctions on Russian oil, according to the Guardian. The newspaper reports it is still uncertain whether the vessels will be able to unload their cargo, amid a political row over the legality of the shipments. The transport is tracked by Greenpeace, which counted seven ships while previous reports had counted three. Putin agreed to supply the US with 1.8 million tonnes of diesel in a deal announced on October 9, starting with 300,000 tonnes immediately, and Trump announced a six-month waiver of existing sanctions to allow the shipments to proceed, according to the Guardian.

John Healey's Budget assumed that the government will approve North Sea exploratory drilling projects producing in excess of a billion barrels of oil and gas, according to OilPrice. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects UK oil and gas production to decline by around 10% annually through 2031, compared with 14% without new field development.

QatarEnergy is buying long-term supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States and other suppliers as part of a strategy to build a trading and arbitrage hedge that would generate revenue if exports through the Strait of Hormuz are disrupted, according to Reuters. “In a scenario where you have a closure of the strait, which is the true contingency that we're looking to have, you'd immediately see a spike in the gas price and you'll be able to generate revenue for QatarEnergy that otherwise wouldn't be generated,” CEO Saad al-Kaabi said.

Alexander Novak named agriculture, transport, mineral resources mining and electric power as key areas for cooperation with African nations, according to TASS. He cited oil, gas, gold and uranium in particular and said Russian expertise could be valuable in that area: “Our expertise can be valuable here as well.”

Israel has asked the United States for permission to strike previously untargeted energy facilities in Iran if the military campaign against Tehran resumes, according to state broadcaster Kan, cited by TASS. On Wednesday, Donald Trump told Republican supporters in Ohio, ahead of the US midterm congressional elections, that he intended to end the war against Iran very quickly.

The European Union (EU) spent an average of $30.7 billion a month on petroleum oil imports between April and July, up from $19.7 billion in the same period of 2025, according to OilPrice. Since volumes rose by just 1.2%, Euronews Business estimates the bloc paid $11 billion more on oil imports in April–July than a year earlier.

TotalEnergies booked $9.1 billion in third-quarter adjusted net income, doubling earnings from a year earlier, with historically high refining margins and the Middle East conflict driving up liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices and refining results, according to OilPrice.

Shell reported an adjusted profit of $10.8bn in the third quarter, up from $5.432bn a year earlier, and raised its buyback program to $5bn for the next three months, from $3bn in the previous quarter, the company said on Thursday. Profit doubled as the Middle East conflict drove up oil and gas prices, pushing the refining margin Shell had projected for the quarter to $42 a barrel, against $24 in the second quarter. Shell and Total posted their highest quarterly profit since 2022, according to Reuters.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Wednesday (28/10) that any military aggression instigated by Israel in the Persian Gulf region could have devastating consequences.

The Savannah River Site near Aiken declared a Site Area Emergency in the late afternoon of Wednesday the 28th, after a fire was reported at the Savannah River National Laboratory. The fire has since been extinguished and no contamination was reported outside the affected facility, according to the site’s own statement. Savannah River is a large Department of Energy nuclear site in South Carolina, in the United States.

US officials told Middle East countries and regional allies to be prepared for potential renewed military action against Iran after the November 3 midterm elections — as well as for the possibility that Iran will attempt to retaliate against them, according to two diplomats briefed on the matter who spoke to the AP. Donald Trump has not made a final decision on whether to carry out new strikes, but has repeatedly said he is weighing ordering new military action once the elections are over. The allies were also urged to take precautionary measures in anticipation that Iran's response will include retaliatory strikes on energy facilities and other crucial infrastructure.

The Dutch TTF contract, Europe's benchmark gas price, broke above €100 per megawatt-hour on Wednesday afternoon, a level last seen in December 2022, at the height of the energy crisis that followed Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The front-month contract traded at €100.37/MWh at 16:00 CET, up over 4% on the day, against around €32 before the Iran war began in late February. The benchmark briefly traded at €100/MWh at around 13:35 GMT, up around 4% from the previous session, according to data from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said the company will increase the number of Russian nuclear experts at the Bushehr plant in southern Iran to 700, according to Mehr News. An agreement has been signed for the site of several new units, and more than 500 people are planned to be added to the 192 Russian experts currently working in construction and services at the plant.

Global solar generation reached 2,778 TWh in 2025, up from 256 TWh in 2015, and is now running ahead of global nuclear output, according to OilPrice. In 2025 solar surpassed nuclear by a wide margin, producing 13 percent more electricity worldwide, according to the same outlet.

UBS raised its Brent forecast to 110 dollars a barrel by the end of 2026, its second upward revision this month, from 100 dollars, according to OilPrice. The bank says Gulf crude and condensate loadings remain below prewar levels.

QatarEnergy has extended to the end of the year the force majeure on deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG), in force since April 2026, leaving Europe and Asia without part of the contracted supply heading into the winter, according to OilPrice. Italian utility Edison confirmed it received the notice from the state firm and said it will stop receiving three cargoes at the Adriatic LNG terminal. The force majeure also covers the markets of Pakistan and Bangladesh, according to the publication.

The World Bank projects a 23 percent rise in global commodity prices by the end of 2026, with energy prices at four-year highs because of the war on Iran, according to TRT World. Food prices are expected to rise 10 percent in 2026 and another 7 percent next year, because of conflict-affected grain supply lines, the effects of an extreme El Niño phenomenon, and high fuel and fertilizer prices. Reuters reported the 23 percent projection for 2026 attributed to the Middle East war and other supply shocks.

Tanzania announced the discovery of 223 billion cubic feet (6.3 billion cubic meters) of natural gas in Mnazi Bay, in the south of the country — the first such find in a decade, according to the BBC. The Kasa-1X ST2 well, owned by state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and French firm Maurel & Prom, is expected to start production early next month. Energy Minister Juma Homera called the discovery a “major milestone” for the country's oil and gas sector.

Donald Trump announced the end of Biden-era methane rules to save consumers and producers US$45 billion, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), targeting the Super Emitter Program and rules for marginal wells and flaring of associated gas, and said the change unlocks 210 million barrels of oil, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Donald Trump showed off at a rally in Corpus Christi a tanker he claimed carried one million barrels of Venezuelan oil, calling the deal the greatest oil victory in history, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, and suggested Venezuela could one day become the 51st US state, the paper also reports. According to Reuters, Trump said he will visit the ship in Texas with the first oil under the deal made after deposing the country's former leader.

Russian President Vladimir Putin received Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Moscow for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, according to the Russian state agency TASS.

The key OPEC+ producers are expected to keep production quotas unchanged for December when they meet on Sunday, sources familiar with the plans told Reuters, in a report by OilPrice. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they had hit Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery, the biggest in the kingdom, with a ballistic missile.

The Houthis said on Tuesday they had struck Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery, the kingdom’s largest, with a ballistic missile, while Bloomberg reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, that the kingdom contained a fire near the Ras Tanura terminal earlier that day, according to the Middle East Eye. The group’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the attack caused “massive fires”, and a Houthi official said the Egyptian parliament’s authorization of defensive military support for Saudi Arabia amounted to a declaration of war. The Houthis also said they had attacked Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry in Riyadh, with no confirmation from Saudi Arabia, according to the Hindustan Times, which cited Reuters.

Qatar’s emir met with Iran’s president to review the current state of relations between Tehran and Doha, according to Mehr News. The two sides stressed the importance of expanding political and economic relations and of using existing capacities to raise the level of bilateral cooperation, the agency reported.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that supply chains for many of the technologies shaping the emerging Age of Electricity remain highly concentrated in a small number of countries. Electricity demand in ASEAN countries is rising at twice the pace of overall energy consumption, driven by industrial electrification, air-conditioning needs, electric vehicles and data centres, according to ET EnergyWorld.

Japan and Bangladesh agreed to expand cooperation on supply chains and energy, with projected Japanese private investment of up to one trillion yen in Bangladesh over the next five years expected to create 200,000 jobs, according to The Business Standard. The two prime ministers agreed the initiative integrates the development of power, energy, a deep-sea port, and industrial and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, the newspaper reported.

A drone strike on a market in Nyala, the de facto capital of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur, killed 21 people and wounded at least 40, a medical source and witnesses told AFP, in a report published by Asharq Al-Awsat. In the country’s east, the RSF launched a coordinated drone attack against five power stations, causing mass power outages, a government official told the Guardian.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the Eighth Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit in Moscow, according to TASS — five bilateral meetings are expected during the day, including with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

European wholesale gas prices hit 97 euros per megawatt-hour on Monday as temperatures across Europe fell and traders priced in stronger demand for heating. The jump comes as fears grow of further supply disruptions in the Middle East. According to RT, European natural gas prices have surged to their highest level in four years amid the war in Iran.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s cabinet is split over whether to approve drilling at the Rosebank oilfield, west of Shetland, an £8.7 billion development that its operator says would pump about 69,000 barrels a day at peak, OilPrice reported. Energy security sits on one side, the government’s climate commitments on the other.

China’s National Energy Administration has called on PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and other domestic producers to expand production capacity, increase investment and accelerate the development of national oil and gas supply bases, OilPrice reported. The country has drawn heavily on its reserves, with inventories falling 162 million barrels since May as high oil prices discourage imports.

Trade officials told Al Jazeera that the US-Israel war on Iran is driving up fuel and fertiliser costs across Africa and threatening the continent's food security. According to the outlet, the sharp rise in fertiliser prices has led many countries to cut back on its use, which is expected to affect next year's crops and the availability of food.

The Iran war is set to make global liquefied natural gas (LNG) importers spend at least 39 billion dollars more in 2026, even as they buy 60.7 million tonnes less, as Qatari and Emirati exports are disrupted through the Strait of Hormuz, Rystad Energy estimates. Europe takes the biggest hit: its LNG bill rises at least 12 billion dollars, or 18%, even with demand falling 24 million tonnes.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Monday that authorities in Kiev have intensified targeted strikes on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and its satellite town of Energodar, according to the Sputnik news agency. Asked about the situation around the plant, Zakharova described Energodar as home to the plant's employees, who “continue to perform their duties in the most difficult conditions”, and her statement did not detail dates, locations or targets of the strikes.

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a coordinated drone attack on Monday against five power stations, causing mass power outages across the east of the country, a government official told AFP. The drones hit two power stations each in Al-Jazira and Gedaref states and one in White Nile state, leaving large parts of the three states without power, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Houthis said on Monday they had attacked pumping stations along Saudi Arabia's East-West onshore oil pipeline, the kingdom's key crude export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, according to OilPrice. As of early Monday, Saudi Arabia had not confirmed any attacks on the pipeline, which was down for two weeks in September after drone attacks damaged pumping stations.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian travels to Russia tonight to attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit, with bilateral meetings with some of the attending leaders also planned, according to Mehr News. IRNA reported that Iran, one of the world’s largest holders of gas reserves, will be represented by Pezeshkian at the forum.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy and Singapore’s Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry announced their joint intent to establish a crude oil storage arrangement in Singapore, at the Jurong Rock Caverns on Jurong Island, with storage operations expected to commence in the second half of 2027; the stored crude oil will support Singapore’s energy needs in the event of a supply disruption and enhance the Saudi supply chain in Southeast Asia.

Oil flows out of the Strait of Hormuz averaged 11.7 million barrels per day in October, up from 9.8 million barrels per day in September, according to a Kpler estimate cited by OilPrice. In the same period, at least 25 ships were hit in Hormuz in the first 20 days of the month, and outlets tracking these incidents note that many attacks go unreported.

The caretaker head of Iran’s oil ministry, Hamid Bovard, said in Moscow that broad agreements on gas exchange between Iran and Russia had reached the final stages, according to the Mehr News Agency. The initial transfer volume was estimated at around 1.8 billion cubic meters per year, and the project’s potential capacity in subsequent phases at up to 55 billion cubic meters annually, according to the same agency.

The chairman of the Iranian parliament's Energy Commission predicted that oil prices could rise above 150 dollars a barrel if the war on Iran resumes, according to the Mehr news agency. The prediction was published by the agency on Sunday.

Algeria's Council of the Nation, the upper house of parliament, approved on Sunday a proposal to deploy troops to neighbouring Niger to protect energy facilities, TRT World reported. A senator who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said 148 of the 174 seats voted in favour, and the lower house was expected to vote on the proposal later on Sunday. Al Jazeera reported the approval was unanimous. According to TRT World, any deployment abroad would be Algeria's first such military operation since it sent troops to support Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The proposal is linked to the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP), which would carry natural gas from Nigeria through Niger and Algeria to European markets.

The Prospector 5 rig, of Borr Drilling, sank during jacking operations off the coast of Gabon as it was preparing for a drilling campaign, Reuters reported on Sunday. Five of the 115 people on board remain unaccounted for, according to Reuters.

The Cuban government decided to cancel the planned time change and keep daylight saving time in effect without interruption until November 7, 2027, according to CubaHeadlines. The official statement attributes the decision to the island’s electricity crisis and to a shortage of fuels needed for electricity generation, and points to the United States (US) embargo as the cause, according to the same outlet.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group carried out seven operations with ballistic missiles and drones, according to TASS, and that the targets included King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, an Aramco facility in Yanbu, the Rabigh oil refinery, crude oil pumping stations and the East-West Pipeline, according to France 24. The Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed two ballistic missiles fired towards Yanbu and Taif on Saturday. There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities on the Houthi reports, and it was not immediately clear whether the attacks had hit their targets or been intercepted.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will travel to Moscow on Tuesday, October 27, for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit, according to Iran's ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, who spoke to RIA Novosti. The main topics will be economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, including the North-South Corridor, energy security, food security and trade, as well as geopolitical issues between the two presidents.

Indonesia cut natural gas exports to Singapore on Saturday to prioritise domestic demand, amid a dispute between the two countries over air pollution from wildfires across the archipelago, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The cut totals 31 million standard cubic feet per day, with 15 million from Natuna and 16 million from Sumatra, according to SKK Migas chief Djoko Siswanto.

The United Arab Emirates closed some beaches after detecting an oil spill from a tanker in the Persian Gulf, according to Bloomberg. The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment said in a statement that authorities detected “a tanker oil spill affecting Umm Al Quwain’s beaches”, an emirate north of Dubai, according to Euronews.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will travel to Moscow next week for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit on October 27 and is expected to meet Vladimir Putin, Iranian media reported, citing Iran’s envoy to Russia, Kazem Jalali, in a Middle East Eye report.

The US Department of Energy on Friday authorized an emergency exchange of up to 400,000 barrels of oil for Phillips 66's Lake Charles refinery, citing a temporary disruption to crude deliveries, according to OilPrice. The oil will come from the reserve's West Hackberry site in Louisiana and is available for immediate delivery. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve holds 282.7 million barrels, a level some analysts consider close to the operational minimum.

The escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis paved the way for another weekly gain of about 4%, with ICE Brent trading around $117 per barrel, according to OilPrice.

QatarEnergy signed a deal with Cheniere to buy 4 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) through 2054, according to The Cradle. Deliveries will be on an FOB basis and are expected to start in 2031, running through 2054, according to The Peninsula Qatar.

Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and KOGAS approved last month the final investment decision for the LNG Canada Phase 2 expansion, doubling capacity to 28 million tons per annum, according to OilPrice. With Cedar LNG and Woodfibre under construction, Canada is expected to export 33 mtpa of LNG by the end of the decade, also according to OilPrice.

US President Donald Trump determined this Thursday that petroleum production, refining and related activities are essential to national defence, a move that could open up US funding for fossil fuel projects. In a presidential memo, he also invoked part of the Cold War-era Defence Production Act, allowing him to provide financial incentives for oil-related activities, pipelines and storage of liquid fuels. Prices for crude oil and diesel have surged since the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran at the end of February.

Europe’s benchmark natural gas price rose on Thursday to nearly €90 per megawatt-hour, the equivalent of $29.50 per million British thermal units, as escalation in the Middle East raised concerns about European winter supply, according to OilPrice. EU storage sites were only 74% full on October 21, well below the five-year average of about 86% for this time of year, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

Brent rose US$ 3.35 (3.08%) to US$ 112.17 a barrel on Thursday, the highest level since May 18, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained US$ 2.68 (2.76%) to US$ 99.83 a barrel, according to Reuters. The Hindustan Times attributes the rise to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and disruptions to oil supply.

The Iran-aligned Houthis said on Thursday they had attacked Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry in Riyadh, Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, according to The Hindu. Saudi state oil company Aramco told staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran, on the Gulf, and to work remotely, Reuters reported, citing six people with knowledge of the matter, in a text republished by the Jerusalem Post. The instruction follows a wave of Houthi attacks on the kingdom, targeting the company and Saudi airports.

Three ballistic missiles with cluster warheads were fired at Kyiv on the night of October 21-22, and one of them struck the historic centre of the capital, according to Ukrainska Pravda. One of the missiles struck Pechersk, the area between the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Holy Presentation Monastery, and damaged monastery buildings, residential buildings, shops, cafés and other civilian infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Russia had kept targeting the country’s energy infrastructure, with more than 170 strikes on critical facilities since October 11, according to Reuters, in a text republished by the Jerusalem Post.

India’s crude imports from the Middle East jumped 32% in September to about 2.8 million barrels per day, the highest since February, as more barrels exit Hormuz, according to OilPrice. Ship tracking data showed that India’s Middle Eastern crude imports returned to pre-war levels in September, while its refiners cut purchases of Russian oil amid stiff competition with China, Reuters reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron began on Monday, October 19, a Gulf tour aimed at securing oil and diesel supplies in an effort to bring down prices, after a weekend of violent protests sparked by soaring living costs, according to Le Monde. Macron acknowledged security and intelligence failures but refused his interior minister’s resignation, after more than 2,500 people were arrested in some of France’s worst violence in years, with town halls and shops looted and set on fire, according to RFI.

Brent was trading at US$ 111.10 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at US$ 98.98, both up by around 2% from Wednesday, after the Yemeni Houthis struck an oil field in Saudi Arabia and another international airport, according to OilPrice. Gulf countries exported 24.6 million barrels per day in the week ending 18 October, above the pre-war 23.3 million, according to Kpler data, in a Middle East Eye report.

The Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that four vessels conducting illegal oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf were hit simultaneously and caught fire, according to Mehr News.

The United States and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed strikes on Iran for after the November 3 legislative elections, according to The New York Times in a text republished by The Times of Israel, with likely targets at energy sites, nuclear facilities and missile and drone arsenals — the new detail after the reports of a US veto and flights to the border. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel this week to discuss the new strikes, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The United States announced a partnership between an American company and a Paraguayan developer to build a high-performance computing facility powered by the Itaipu hydroelectric plant, on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, according to G1. According to the US State Department, the project should serve cloud computing customers in the United States and Latin America.

S&P Global warned that the energy shock around the Strait of Hormuz could turn into a global food crisis, with pricier diesel and fertilizer, strong biofuel demand and El Niño pressing on world agriculture, OilPrice reported. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects fertilizer prices up 10 percent by the end of 2026, adding 5 percent to food costs this year and another 2.4 percent in 2027. According to OilPrice, even if the strait stays open, Gulf gas output would need months or years to recover, leaving the poorest countries, where food takes about half of household spending, most exposed.

French President Emmanuel Macron made a surprise “solidarity” visit to Riyadh and became the first Western leader to land in Saudi Arabia since the Houthis intensified their attacks this month, Al Jazeera reported. The trip comes as Saudi Arabia agreed to supply extra diesel to France “for as many months as necessary”, the Elysee Palace told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday.

India’s largest state-owned refiner, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), will slightly reduce the volumes of Middle East crude it will buy under annual term deals for fiscal year 2027/2028, which starts next March, amid uncertainty of supply from the region, according to OilPrice, which cites an anonymous source who spoke to Reuters. India paid $15.4 billion to import crude oil in September, up 46% from $10.5 billion a year earlier, as international prices and the Indian import basket soared amid reignited tensions in the Middle East, according to OilPrice.

Japan booked a trade deficit of $17.8 billion (2.82 trillion yen) from April to September, almost double the figure a year earlier, as the Middle East crisis made energy imports far more expensive for a resource-poor G7 economy, according to government data released on Wednesday. The volume of petroleum imports fell 21.2 percent while the value surged 26.3 percent; the volume of petroleum products dropped 26.8 percent and the value rose 23.2 percent.

The British government approved on Wednesday the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, ending years of legal and political wrangling between climate commitments and energy security, with a peak of around 6% of domestic output expected and supply for up to 11 years, according to Reuters. The approval frustrates environmental campaigners and some Labour MPs, according to the Guardian.

The executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said he sees no credible pathway toward a normalization of the oil market in 2027, according to The Hindu. The war has lifted oil above US$100 a barrel, from below US$70 before hostilities began, with diesel at record highs on refinery damage, and the IEA has organized the release of up to 400 million barrels of strategic reserves, with further releases admitted if warranted. Brent traded at US$110.30 and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at US$99.12, both higher on Middle East supply fears, according to OilPrice, in a text published at the address recording the quotes.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said only a small number of items remain to close the bilateral trade agreement between India and the US, according to The Hindu, and expressed hope it will be sealed shortly. Rubio urged India to scale up energy trade with the US and increase purchases of American technologies and systems, according to the paper. Both sides welcomed progress in the negotiations and reaffirmed their commitment to working toward an early conclusion, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) cited in the report.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney travels to Ankara and Istanbul from October 21 to 24, the first bilateral visit to Türkiye by a Canadian prime minister, according to the prime minister's office. During the visit, Canada and Turkey are expected to sign a joint declaration to deepen bilateral cooperation in four areas, including defence and energy, Reuters reported.

Brent crude surpassed US$ 111 a barrel on Tuesday and reached its highest level in five months, amid worsening conflicts in the Middle East. Around 9 am, the barrel was trading at US$ 111.12, up 1.43%, and reached US$ 111.69 during trading, according to G1. WTI rose 5.7%, to US$ 109.60. Oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz fell to about 8.5 million barrels per day last week, from more than 20 million the week before, according to analysis firm Kpler. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it was ready to coordinate a new release of oil from member countries’ emergency reserves, if necessary.

Nigeria's national grid crashed 81% to 675 megawatts (MW), with nine plants off, according to Vanguard, in a text republished by AllAfrica.

French President Emmanuel Macron has secured the delivery of an additional 200,000 tonnes of diesel per month from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain during a tour of the Gulf, France 24 reported. With the addition of deliveries from Saudi Arabia, France has commitments for 295,000 tonnes per month, just over 10 percent of its consumption, the French presidency added.

The US Department of Agriculture will provide $8 billion in diesel fuel relief to American farmers for this year’s harvest season, distributed as one-time payments to eligible candidates, according to OilPrice. US diesel prices remain above $6 per gallon, climbing from $6.2665 last Monday to $6.3187 yesterday.

Two tankers were set ablaze and brought to a halt south of the Strait of Hormuz after hitting Iranian mines, the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement shared by state media and cited by Middle East Eye.

Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices topped $30 per million British thermal units for the first time since December 2022, according to OilPrice, citing Bloomberg — the jump follows a report of a strike on an LNG tanker in the Gulf of Aden, off the Yemeni coast, and European storage is 74% full this week, against a five-year seasonal average of around 89%, according to the same outlet.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks in Tehran with President Masoud Pezeshkian, focusing on bilateral cooperation and regional developments — with Pezeshkian urging faster energy, transport and trade deals — and also with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei, according to TRT World.

Brent topped 110 per barrel again, with WTI back over 100 — trading at 109.68, with WTI at 98.55, its highest in five months — while the daily flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf fell to 8.5 million barrels, from more than 20 million barrels two weeks ago, according to Kpler, according to OilPrice.

China's imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) rose 44.3% year over year in January-September, reaching 7.19 million metric tons, according to TASS, citing data from China's General Administration of Customs. In September, China doubled its LNG imports from Russia compared with August to 1.85 million metric tons, and the value rose 2.2-fold to $1.18 billion.

Iran's ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, said consultations between President Masoud Pezeshkian and President Vladimir Putin will continue at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit in Moscow, according to Mehr News.

Brent stood at $109.70, up 0.15%, and WTI at $98.72, up 0.18%, according to the Times of India, after Brent had climbed to $110.70 a barrel in the previous session, its highest level since May 20.

A draft program seen by Reuters has Qatar building two gas-fired power plants within three years and QatarEnergy supplying the gas under a 20-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract, with private financing in place of Lebanese public money, according to OilPrice. The program includes two 825-megawatt combined-cycle plants, one at Deir Ammar in the north and one at Zahrani in the south.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Tehran to speed up the implementation of agreements between the two countries, citing energy, transport, trade and power generation as priority areas, according to the Tehran Times. Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow’s intention to expand cooperation in oil and gas, energy, transport, communications, media, culture, science and higher education. According to Brasil de Fato, the Russian minister discussed the crisis in Ukraine in Tehran and reinforced the partnership with Iran.

The Houthis said on Monday they had carried out multiple attacks on Saudi Arabia’s energy, airport and military infrastructure, including an Aramco facility in Yanbu, the Shaybah oilfield, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Abha airport, according to Reuters, in a report cited by the Hindustan Times.

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Kuwait on Monday, where he was welcomed by Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, TRT World reported. The four-country tour seeks additional oil and diesel and will take him to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar by Wednesday; according to the broadcaster, the trip is also meant to improve the safety of energy shipping routes disrupted by the war between the United States and Iran.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio began a three-day visit to India on Monday in the finance hub of Mumbai, before heading to Jamnagar, DW reported. The Jamnagar refinery, which can process 1.4 million barrels of crude oil a day, is a valuable exporter of diesel fuel for global markets.

Brent crude was trading at $107.84 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at $100.29, up from $105.61 and $93.37 the previous Monday, according to OilPrice. The modest dip followed US President Donald Trump signing on Friday an executive order lifting sanctions on Russian energy, according to the outlet.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy announced another oil tanker exploded after hitting a mine in Hormuz, according to Mehr News. The state-run IRNA news agency reported a third oil tanker caught fire after striking a sea mine in the strait on Sunday, citing the IRGC Navy’s public relations office.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers, each carrying about two million barrels of crude oil, caught fire after hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Al Jazeera. TASS, citing an IRGC statement, reports one tanker that struck a mine in the southern part of the strait and suffered an explosion and a fire in the engine room, and Middle East Eye, citing Iranian media, also describes one tanker on fire in the same stretch, according to the IRGC navy.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the country has become self-sufficient in gasoline supply through consumption management and public cooperation, and that it previously had to spend 12 billion dollars importing the gasoline it needed, according to the Tehran Times.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, expressed concern over tensions in the southern Arabian Peninsula and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait during talks in Bahrain, according to the Anadolu Agency. The two stressed the importance of maritime safety and the unimpeded passage of vessels through international waterways, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Both sides also highlighted the importance of continued cooperation within the OPEC+ framework.

A Yemeni military source called on employees and citizens to stay away from Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities and advised Aramco shareholders to sell their shares before it is too late, according to Mehr News. The Houthis had already warned Aramco shareholders of what they described as potential financial losses in the coming days, according to al-Masirah, cited by Xinhua.

At least one person has been killed and at least five have been injured in an overnight attack on St Petersburg that targeted two of the city’s oil facilities, according to the BBC. The region’s governor, Alexander Beglov, said fires were being extinguished at the St Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchyi oil depot, and that 12 apartment buildings and two homes were damaged, with Pulkovo Airport temporarily closed. A logistics center belonging to Ozon and a data center belonging to VKontakte were also hit. Ukraine has not yet commented on the strikes, and Russia’s defense ministry said it had shot down more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight, according to the BBC.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X on Sunday that Russia had attacked Ukraine’s energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times in the week since Donald Trump’s announcement of an energy ceasefire, according to the Associated Press (AP), in a text republished by WTOP. Trump announced on Oct. 11 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an “energy ceasefire” in the 4 1/2-year-old war, but offered no details and Kyiv reported attacks by Moscow on energy sites after his statement.

Ukrainian attacks set an oil export terminal ablaze in St. Petersburg on Sunday and left one person dead and five wounded, according to local Governor Alexander Beglov, in an Associated Press (AP) text republished by WTOP. The fires hit the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchi depot, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea, part of more than 1,000 drones Kyiv launched in one of the largest aerial bombardments Ukraine has carried out in the war.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Europe will not be able to cover its gas deficit without Russian supplies, according to TASS. He attributed the deficit to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the shutdown of the plant in Qatar as a result of attacks in March.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold talks on Monday with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Mumbai, India’s financial hub, and will then visit an oil refinery in Jamnagar in the western state of Gujarat, according to a statement from the US Department of State. Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal appeared to confirm the agenda, saying the Mumbai talks would cover energy, trade and investment, defense, and critical and emerging technologies. Rubio is arriving from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where he has been meeting with five Central Asian states at the C5+1 summit.

US Vice President JD Vance said Washington was focused on securing a “long-term” and “verifiable commitment” from Iran not to rebuild its nuclear program, while claiming the US had “in some ways decisively won” the war against Iran and destroyed its nuclear program, according to Middle East Eye. Vance blamed Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on tankers for driving up prices, saying, “We’ve never had a situation like this” in which one country was “trying to completely choke off world energy supply”.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker was attacked by several people on a skiff off the Yemeni city of Al Mukalla, and that the tanker’s armed security team fired two warning shots, forcing the skiff to alter course, according to Middle East Eye. A southbound tugboat was struck by two unidentified projectiles northeast of Khor Fakkan, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), leaving one person with minor injuries, according to Mehr News; UKMTO said the tug had sustained damage but was continuing on its route, and advised vessels to transit with caution.

The situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and in the city of Energodar remains tense, with Ukrainian drone activity despite the local ceasefire around the Zaporozhye thermal power plant, according to TASS. The local ceasefire, mediated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was announced on October 15 by Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called the United States-Russia diesel supply deal a “very risky choice” that runs counter to efforts to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table with Ukraine, according to The Hindu. The two countries agreed last week that Moscow would initially supply more than 300,000 metric tonnes of diesel to U.S. and global markets.

Ukraine hit a refinery in the Ryazan region, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Moscow, with a drone and started a fire, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry and Governor Pavel Malkov, as reported by The Hindu. Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Financial Times his patience had run out and that Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries would resume, and told Piers Morgan he felt betrayed by Trump’s deal with Putin, the energy ceasefire announcement and the Starlink limits that restricted Ukrainian drone use. Ukraine has run out of missiles for the US-made Patriot air defense system, according to a source cited by CNN in a report by the Jerusalem Post.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported an incident 140 nautical miles southwest of Al Mukalla, Yemen, according to TASS. A master of an LNG tanker reported being approached by a small skiff with seven people on board; the skiff fired two shots at the tanker, whose armed security team fired two warning shots, forcing it to alter course.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday criticized Donald Trump’s decision to pull back on sanctions against Russia, saying that a sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor and financial rewards for Putin all only encourage him to keep attacking. On Friday, Trump signed the executive order suspending the sanctions under the so-called “Lindsey Graham Act”, a law passed in September to target Russia’s energy and defense sectors, including its tanker network used to circumvent US restrictions. Washington is also weighing lifting sanctions on the “shadow fleet” of Russian and Iranian tankers to help bring down diesel prices before the midterm elections, according to The Cradle.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 332 drones and missiles overnight, of which 293 were intercepted or neutralized. At least eight people were killed and nearly 60 injured in the latest wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine, according to Al Jazeera. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia attacked more than 15 Ukrainian energy facilities in western and central regions overnight.

Pakistan’s finance minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the country has withstood the initial shock from the war against Iran but said continued attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure would delay a return to economic normalcy. In an interview on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)–World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, he said Pakistan had procured enough energy supplies to last through November 2026.

Russian attacks in Ukraine killed at least eight people and injured 60 on Friday, struck nine regions and two shopping centers and cut power to more than a million people, Ukrainian officials said. In Kharkiv, a 71-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man died and 12 were wounded in strikes on three districts, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said, in a Reuters text republished by Internazionale. The Hindu reported three people killed in strikes across several regions, and Al Jazeera said about 370,000 households lost power in Volyn.

The two-day European Union (EU) summit concluded in Brussels on Friday without a breakthrough on the bloc’s long-term budget, as rising security commitments and soaring energy costs exposed a growing gap between Europe’s ambitions and its ability to deliver, according to CGTN. Leaders ended more than five hours of debate on October 15 without narrowing their differences, according to the Brussels Signal.

Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Ryazan region, Russian officials said, hours after Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would resume attacks on Russian energy facilities, according to OilPrice. Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said in a post on Telegram that “our region came under a massive drone attack” and that “a fire broke out at the oil refinery.” In Brussels, reacting to criticism from Donald Trump, Zelensky said he is “just defending Ukraine’s interests”, according to Opera Mundi.

Iran plans to invite Gazprom to develop gas fields in the country, Deputy Oil Minister Saeed Tavakoli said at Russian Energy Week, according to TASS. Tavakoli said Tehran and Moscow have no specific program for joint gas production and that Iran will use Gazprom’s potential under contracts currently under discussion.

The squeeze in ship fuel persists despite accelerating crude exports through the Strait of Hormuz, according to TASS, which cites trading house Vitol. According to Bloomberg, a top Vitol executive said that accelerating crude exports through Hormuz are not translating into higher output of the shipping fuel, with tight supply and soaring prices.

China proposed restricting exports of 40 key technologies in artificial intelligence, biomedicine and solar power, 14 of them with a complete export ban and 26 more with restrictions, according to The Hindu. Those facing a total ban include perovskite and tandem solar-cell module manufacturing, artificial intelligence tools that can generate and mutate malicious code, and platforms related to cell and gene therapy.

US President Donald Trump called Ukraine’s fresh wave of strikes on Russian oil refineries a “disgrace” and said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “more difficult to deal with than [Vladimir] Putin”, in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, according to the BBC. Zelensky had paused the attacks for three days at Trump’s request for a ceasefire on energy targets, and said on Thursday the strikes would resume because Moscow had never stopped. The criticism follows the US announcement of a deal to import 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel to bring fuel prices down, which Zelensky called a gift to Putin.

India nearly halved its export duty on diesel for two weeks, according to OilPrice. South Korea kept its price caps on fuel products unchanged for a fourth consecutive period on Friday, amid elevated international oil prices and continued tensions in the Middle East, according to the Korea Herald.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels that the EU will not lift any sanctions unless Russia stops the war and backed more sanctions, after saying Moscow did not respect the energy ceasefire “for a single minute”, according to the BBC. EU leaders discussed Ukraine at the Brussels summit, according to The Guardian.

According to Sputnik, the EU increased imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 60% in September from August, citing a report by the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) obtained by the outlet, worth €615 million. Almost three-quarters of the physical volume, or 72%, went to French ports; the remaining shipments went to the Netherlands and Portugal.

Members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed to complete the release of 100 million barrels still outstanding from the March intervention to calm markets — the countries will accelerate distribution of the remaining volumes, including 20 million barrels of diesel as soon as possible, after a board meeting in Paris on October 15, and have so far released 330 million of the 400 million barrels pledged in March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would resume hitting Russian oil refineries. Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery after he declared that Kyiv was abandoning a ceasefire covering energy sites that Trump had announced, and US President Donald Trump told Newsmax that the resumption of strikes on Russian refineries is a “disgrace” that keeps global energy prices elevated.

US President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not a good guy for the US to deal with, according to TASS. Trump also confirmed he had asked Zelensky to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries, according to the Russian agency.

An explosion struck the Jbessa gas pipeline in southern Hasakah province in the late afternoon, hours after damage to a pipeline carrying oil products from the coastal city of Baniyas to Homs caused a fuel leak, Al Jazeera reported, citing SANA. The state-run Syrian Petroleum Company said the gas pipeline had been targeted in a “sabotage attack”, according to SANA.

Ukrainian drones struck the Ryazan refinery on Thursday, ending Kyiv’s brief pause in attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, according to OilPrice. Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov confirmed a fire at the facility following what he described as a major Ukrainian drone attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Financial Times on Thursday that the restriction on refinery attacks was finished.

Disruption to fuel and fertiliser shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is beginning to affect agricultural harvests, the head of a United Nations rural development agency warned on Thursday, according to Middle East Eye. The president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Alvaro Lario, told Reuters that the pass-through from the initial locking down of the Strait of Hormuz “is now starting to be seen”. Disruptions to fertiliser shipments and higher fuel and transport costs, compounded by El Niño and disruptions to Black Sea wheat supplies, threaten to lower farm yields.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) confirmed on Thursday the release of about 330 million barrels of emergency oil reserves, according to Middle East Eye. The release is part of a March agreement under which member countries agreed to release 400 million barrels to address the disruption to supplies amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The US military developed new strike plans that include potentially using the so-called “mother of all bombs” to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites, according to CNN, in a text republished by KWWL. The report said military planners had included the weapon among the options against Iranian targets, including Pickaxe Mountain, according to SANA, which cited CNN.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he feels betrayed by Donald Trump over a throttling of Starlink access and accused the US president of picking the other side, risking a breakdown in US-Ukraine relations. Ukraine’s military reported that the system, produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX but managed by the US government, was no longer working on terminals moving at speeds greater than 100 mph, which crippled most Ukrainian strike drones behind the lines and affected the defense against Russian drones over Kyiv, according to The Guardian. Zelensky also told the BBC that Ukraine will resume attacks on Russian refineries and that the pause came from political will and not from a technical problem.

Russia is in discussions with Bangladesh to build a new phase of high-capacity units at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Rosatom CEO Aleksey Likhachev said, according to RT. Its first unit is on track to be connected to the national power grid by the end of November. The plant comprises two Russian-designed reactors with a combined capacity of 2,400 megawatts, and Moscow is financing $11.9 billion in state loans for the project.

Since October 6, Houthi strikes against Saudi Arabia have killed at least 20 people and injured almost 400, according to Middle East Eye. The Houthis vowed more attacks after hitting Aramco’s headquarters, facilities in Dhahran, a refinery in Riyadh and Riyadh’s airport over the past week.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned that Houthi strikes on Saudi infrastructure could affect the global economy and cited the near closure of Hormuz and disruptions in the Red Sea, which sharply curtailed oil and gas exports and reduced production capacity, according to OilPrice.

US forces developed strike plans against Iran that include using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, according to CNN in a text republished by the Jerusalem Post. The plans call for using the weapon against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites, including Pickaxe Mountain, if President Donald Trump orders renewed combat operations, according to US officials cited by CNN.

A Russian overnight attack damaged 26 facilities of Ukraine’s power system and four in the oil and gas sector and left at least 600,000 people without power in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. The New York Times reports that Kyiv has found itself increasingly vulnerable, with a Pentagon-funded satellite program apparently curbed without warning.

The administration of US President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Jorge Rodríguez, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly and the brother of the nation’s president, according to a notice posted on the US Treasury Department’s website on Wednesday and reported by Reuters. Caracas and Washington have cut a deal that gives the US access to 17 oilfields, and international energy firms have separately committed to expanding projects, Reuters reported.

US President Donald Trump said “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration is set to begin in Greenland early Wednesday, calling the territory “our new and beautiful Greenland”.

Russia's special presidential envoy for economic cooperation with foreign countries and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev, said he expects the first diesel contracts with the US to be signed in the coming days, according to Sputnik. The deal between the two countries, announced after a phone call between the two presidents on October 9, suspends US sanctions on Russian diesel until April 2027.

Countries of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) taking part in the oil production restraint agreement increased output by 2.31 million barrels per day in September 2026 but still fell 5.42 million barrels short of their targets, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), cited by TASS. In the month, also according to the IEA, Saudi Arabia raised output by 2.33 million barrels per day, Kuwait cut 550,000, Iraq increased 520,000, Oman added 20,000 and Russia, 70,000.

A Ukrainian man accused of helping to mastermind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines went on trial for war crimes in Germany on Wednesday, with his defence calling for the case to be dismissed, according to the South China Morning Post. The first hearing took place at the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg, according to TASS. The German Federal Prosecutor's Office says the suspect and his accomplices, also service members, acted on orders from Ukrainian government agencies.

Yemen's Houthis said on Wednesday they had targeted facilities belonging to Aramco, after Saudi officials reported a strike on a building in an area housing the energy giant's operations centre. The Houthis also said they had bombed Aramco in Dhahran, in eastern Saudi Arabia, as well as the airport and a refinery in the capital, Riyadh, without specifying the date of the attacks. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Borisenko said Russia condemns attacks on any civilian facility, citing the attacks on Riyadh International Airport.

The United States and Russia agreed last week that Moscow would initially supply more than 300,000 metric tonnes of diesel to US and global markets, according to Reuters, in a text published by The Hindu. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the deal a “very risky choice” that, according to Reuters, runs counter to efforts to force Vladimir Putin to sit at a negotiating table with Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised the accord, calling it “an investment in a war that must be ended.” Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said the deal benefits both countries and helps the global market, according to Sputnik Globe. The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that the gasoil market balance will remain tight well into 2027 and is dependent on a recovery of product supply from the Middle East, according to Türkiye Today, based on the Oil Market Report.

At least 600,000 people were left without power in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions after overnight Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Zelensky said there was significant damage to 26 facilities of the power system and four in the oil and gas sector, and highlighted a targeted ballistic missile strike against infrastructure that he said should have been covered by the energy ceasefire announced on Sunday by US President Donald Trump.

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday that the recent attacks on Saudi Arabia could impact people everywhere, as global energy costs rise. The Saudi economy is important for the region and the world, the Fund said, and these developments have potentially negative spillovers for everybody, everywhere.

Brent was trading at $106.37 and West Texas Intermediate at $94.72, while Iranian officials attributed the recent surge in tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz to new tactics and suggested they are not about to end anytime soon, according to Reuters, in text republished by OilPrice.

US President Donald Trump said at a rally on Tuesday that Taiwan has agreed to buy 30% of the liquefied natural gas from a pipeline project in Alaska, but the deal terms were not immediately clear, according to Reuters. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), in a text published by The Hindu, Trump also said that Taiwan would invest $4.4 billion into the project, as Taipei seeks Washington’s favor amid tensions with China.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) projected global oil demand growth of 2.6 million barrels per day in 2027, after growth of just 200,000 barrels per day in 2026, pushing average demand from 105.7 million to 108.3 million barrels per day, with part of the jump coming from rebuilding stocks drawn down during the Iran war – commercial stocks in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stood 177.2 million barrels below their 2015-2019 average in August, according to OilPrice.com.

The Russian agency TASS, citing German investigative journalist Oliver Schrom, said the United States (US) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was aware of the plan to sabotage the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines and had nothing against it at the operational level, and that the organizers turned to their American contacts when they decided to blow up the pipelines, according to TASS.

An administrative Aramco building in Dhahran was struck on Tuesday evening, causing a limited fire with no casualties or fatalities, while debris from two intercepted Houthi cruise missiles wounded four people – two women, a man and a child – and damaged 15 homes in the capital, according to the South China Morning Post.

Germany put a Ukrainian on trial, accused of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, according to BBC News. The defendant is a 50-year-old Ukrainian identified as Serhii K. by the German federal prosecutor’s office and suspected of being one of the main organizers of the operation, according to Le Monde. His full name, Serhii Kuznietsov, was revealed during his extradition from Italy.

Saudi Arabia has launched a series of strikes on a strategic oil depot on the outskirts of Sana’a, in a fresh escalation of the conflict between Riyadh and the Iran-backed Houthi forces, according to The Guardian. A Saudi strike on an oil company in Ras Issa near Hodeidah killed two people and wounded two others, according to the health ministry affiliated with the Houthis.

US President Donald Trump denied having suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine and said the Russian diesel deal is destined for the global market, not for the United States, according to the Jerusalem Post. Asked directly whether the United States had suspended intelligence sharing, he replied: “No, we haven’t. We help them, but we’re really helping them get to a final answer.” On diesel, he said: “That’s a diesel deal, not for us. That’s being released into the world. That’s not being released to us.”

Construction of the TRIPP corridor has yet to start, leaving the broader Middle Corridor project incomplete, according to Eurasianet, in a text published by OilPrice. The approximately 40-kilometer route would be the shortest segment of the Middle Corridor and, according to the text, would offer Armenia and Azerbaijan an opportunity to strengthen their integration into the corridor, which connects Central Asia with Europe via the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus and Turkey.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched a targeted strike on a power plant in Kharkiv, causing further damage to the country's energy system, and that Russia violated the “energy ceasefire” announced by US President Donald Trump, according to the Jerusalem Post, citing CNN. In a post on X, Zelensky said Ukraine has not carried out strikes on Russian oil refineries or the energy sector in general in the two days since the announcement.

The French navy boarded the oil tanker DF Peak, suspected of helping Russia evade Western sanctions, south of the French Indian Ocean territory of Réunion, according to RFI. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed the boarding took place on October 12, more than 450 nautical miles south of Réunion. The DF Peak, previously named Kaliningrad, sailed under the flag of Benin and is sanctioned by the United States (US), the European Union (EU), Switzerland, Canada and Japan, according to the Kyiv Independent.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarie said Aramco facilities are legitimate targets and called on employees and civilians to evacuate the sites, according to The Jerusalem Post. The French embassy in Riyadh told French nationals to avoid the airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam and to avoid travelling to those cities unless necessary, according to France 24. The Saudi-led coalition urged civilians to evacuate the Yemen Oil Company’s Sabah central station in Sanaa ahead of a planned military operation, according to France 24.

For the first time since US President Donald Trump’s weekend announcement of an “energy ceasefire”, Russia hit no Ukrainian energy targets on Tuesday and pounded cities’ transport and logistics overnight, according to France 24. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had not hit Russian refineries for two days, since Trump’s announcement, but that Russia kept up attacks on energy and critical infrastructure during that period. Four people were killed in Russian strikes in Kharkiv and at least a dozen were injured across the country, according to Ukrainian officials.

Argentina’s government said it had filed a request for provisional measures with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) seeking to halt British-authorized hydrocarbon activity near the Falkland Islands, according to The Jerusalem Post. The government said in a statement that the request aims to prevent the United Kingdom from exploiting hydrocarbon resources on the continental shelf of the Northern Falklands Basin.

US President Donald Trump defended allowing Russian diesel exports and insisted an energy ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow is in place despite a lack of confirmation from either side, according to OilPrice. The deal lifted US sanctions on Russian diesel exports to allow Russia to supply almost 2 million metric tons of the fuel, a bid to lower US fuel prices, according to France 24. According to France 24, which cites Reuters and other outlets, US officials have reportedly threatened to cut off intelligence sharing and weapons sales to Ukraine unless it halts its strikes on Russian oil refineries.

The Kremlin said it has seen only in the press The Washington Post’s report about the United States and Europe moving toward a joint peace proposal on Ukraine and said it has received no information about it, according to TASS. The Kremlin said there is no connection between the diesel agreement with the United States and Russia’s position on Ukraine, and described it as a mutually beneficial example of Russian-US cooperation. It also said European Union sanctions and other unilateral actions could hamper the implementation of the fuel deal between Russia and the United States.

The United States and Europe are working on a four-point proposal to settle the Ukraine conflict, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote, citing sources, according to TASS. Ukraine's reconstruction would be the first pillar, and negotiators asked Kiev for detailed cost estimates. A third pillar would be economic integration of Russia, Ukraine and Europe through an energy deal that could include a pipeline carrying Russian oil and gas to Europe, with Ukraine and Russia splitting the profits.

Saudi Arabia plans to raise the capacity of the East-West pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz to 10 million barrels per day within two to three years, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said, according to OilPrice. The 740-mile pipeline, also known as Petroline, has a maximum capacity of 7 million barrels per day and returned to service after a two-week suspension following drone attacks in September. Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said the company is studying “additional crude export routes” and working on “expanding overseas storage”.

Ukraine halted strikes on Russian oil refineries and on its other energy infrastructure for two days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday (13). The pause followed US President Donald Trump's announcement of an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, according to Reuters, in a text published by Al Arabiya. Zelensky said that during this time Russia attacked both Ukraine's energy facilities and its critical infrastructure, sending absolutely clear signals that it has no intention of refraining from strikes on Ukraine.

Republican Representative Michael McCaul said he fears that lifting sanctions on Russian oil will only fund the Kremlin's war machine, amid the deal announced by Trump on October 10 for Russia to immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the US and the global market, according to The Hindu; Trump also announced an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, with implications for India, which faces 50% US tariffs over its Russian oil imports.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China stands ready to work with Russia to align maritime strategies and protect each other's legitimate maritime interests, according to the South China Morning Post, in a pledge to deepen maritime and Arctic logistics cooperation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the diesel deal struck by Trump with Putin a “weak decision” and “a gift to Putin” and approved further drone strikes on Russian refineries, according to Politico Europe; according to TASS, citing Politico Europe, Trump could cut Kyiv's access to US intelligence or press Elon Musk to disable Starlink, on which Ukraine's military relies.

Brent crude was trading at $105.43 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at $92.60 per barrel, both slightly down from Monday's close, according to OilPrice. Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said there is no danger for oil exports and called Riyadh “the capital of energy security”, according to OilPrice, which cites the minister.

Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the American and global marketplace, another 500,000 tons in November and 1,000,000 tons immediately thereafter, according to The Hindu. A bipartisan group of six senators urged Trump to reverse course, saying the United States “should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline”, according to The Hindu, which cites the Associated Press (AP), while Representative Lloyd Doggett, the bill's chief sponsor, said Trump is directly violating the law.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn will discuss energy and food security, prospects for strategic partnership and efforts to address emerging challenges in the Asia-Pacific region at talks in Moscow, according to TASS. Kao Kim Hourn is visiting Russia from October 12 to 15 and will meet with senior officials from Russian ministries, including the Ministry of Energy.

Russia said it had sold more than $320 billion worth of hydrocarbons to European countries since 2022, despite sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine, according to France24. Russian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of energy Alexander Novak put the volume of energy resource deliveries to European Union (EU) countries from 2022 to today at $320.7 billion. According to Novak, European countries bought $21.3 billion worth of Russian hydrocarbons in the first nine months of 2026 alone.

Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday after climbing by nearly $2 a barrel in the previous session, with Brent at $106.04 and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at $93.27, according to Reuters, which also cites US President Donald Trump saying Russia had agreed to supply diesel and his administration had temporarily lifted US sanctions on Russian fuel. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the global economy could soon test the limits of resilience, with emergency oil stocks running low and government budgets overstretched, according to the Guardian, which adds that rerouting oil supplies away from the Strait of Hormuz and releasing strategic stocks helped contain the impact of the US-Iran war on prices.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia could reach 3.5 million tonnes per month of diesel to global markets by the end of the year, just as was the case before the crisis, and that additional Russian deliveries have already pushed global diesel prices down by about 5-6%, according to TASS.

In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy said the oil blockade by the United States forced the country to seek its own alternative solutions, using its sun, wind, tides, fuel and Cuban crude oil, and that 144 solar farms with a combined capacity of about 1,418 megawatts have been installed on the island in recent years, with China as the largest supplier of panels, according to Al Jazeera.

Residents of the city of Izyum were hit by blackouts after a Russian strike destroyed power grids, according to Ukrinform, cited by the BBC. Energy and railway infrastructure in the region of Zhytomyr, in western Ukraine, were also targeted overnight, according to the head of the region’s military administration, Vitaliy Bunechko. The state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo reported new power cuts in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia due to damage to energy equipment. President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were glide bomb strikes and strikes on energy infrastructure, and that a power plant in Kharkiv was attacked.

The administration of US President Donald Trump warned Ukraine and allies in Europe that the United States could suspend intelligence sharing and European purchases of US weapons for Kyiv if Ukraine does not halt its deep strikes on Russian energy facilities, according to CNN. Reuters, citing the Financial Times, reports the same threat to stop the procurement mechanism that supplies weapons to Ukraine, as a way to press Kyiv to halt strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said a third oil tanker caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after striking a naval mine, according to Mehr News. The IRGC said the vessel had attempted to cross through an unauthorized route despite warnings, and that it was the third super tanker in two days to try to breach the blockade and hit a mine.

Insurance costs for ships carrying oil across the Black Sea rose from about $200,000 to $2.5 million per vessel in recent months, according to OilPrice. According to the publication, the increase reflects mounting risks to commercial shipping after repeated attacks on vessels and port infrastructure. On October 6, drones struck two commercial vessels, sinking the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and damaging the Palau-flagged Able; all 18 crew members aboard the Able were rescued.

US President Donald Trump defended on Monday the diesel deal with Russia as lawmakers from both parties complained the agreement appears to violate US law barring imports of Russian energy until Moscow ends its aggression against Ukraine. On Sunday (11), a group of Republican and Democratic senators called on Trump to “reverse course” on the deal, saying it may violate a 2022 law designed to support Ukraine in its bid to repel Russian invaders. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Fox News on Monday that diesel prices depend on the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, not on Ukrainian attacks on diesel targets in Russia.

Russia hit at least six energy targets during a night and morning of deadly airstrikes across Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, according to Reuters, adding this showed Moscow had no interest in an energy ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump. Trump declared over the weekend, blindsiding Kyiv and its European allies, that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to hit each other’s energy systems. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talks were ongoing about a possible energy ceasefire and that further information would be revealed in due course, but he rejected Zelenskyy’s proposal for a full 60-day truce.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said it had struck a supertanker trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and that the vessel caught fire. The statement was published on the force’s news platform, Sepah News. According to the Guards, the ship tried to cross the area by disabling its transponders and ignoring warnings from the Guards’ navy. Al Jazeera, citing reports, said an oil tanker was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz region. Brent futures for December rose above $107 a barrel on the ICE, the first time since September 29, according to trade data cited by TASS.

Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick plans to force a House vote on legislation blocking Russian oil purchases, challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports, according to RFE/RL. Fitzpatrick said the bill will be forced to the Floor via discharge and will pass overwhelmingly. Citing administration figures, Senator Angus King said the deal covered 300,000 tons of diesel for October and 500,000 tons for November, roughly equivalent to a day’s diesel consumption in the United States.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister vowed a “serious” response to Houthi attacks on the kingdom’s airports and oil and gas facilities, according to BBC News. On Sunday, a Pakistani man was killed in an attack on a terminal at the capital’s King Khalid International Airport, a day after a Houthi missile hit another terminal, killing 12 people and forcing its closure, Saudi authorities said; the toll rose to 13 after an injured Indian national died, according to the Indian embassy. With attacks on Saudi Arabia and on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz back at the center of supply concerns, oil climbed to its highest levels in nearly two weeks on Monday morning, according to OilPrice.com.

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday an “energy ceasefire” between Ukraine and Russia; Kyiv expressed astonishment and Moscow went silent, according to France24. According to Bloomberg, in a text republished by TASS, Zelensky is reportedly “on a collision course” with Trump for continuing to ignore Washington’s calls to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a drone hit a power plant in Kyiv on Sunday, leading to power outages in the capital, and then reported a strike on a power plant in Kharkiv, saying Ukrainian skies had been infested with Russian “shaheds” all day, according to The Guardian in its Europe live. The account came after United States (US) President Donald Trump’s Sunday morning announcement of an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE” between Russia and Ukraine, effective immediately, according to the same live. European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc would welcome a truce “when it holds” and that it had not yet seen Russia stick to it, according to the same live.

The Sunday announcement by US President Donald Trump of an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine referred to a potential deal in which each side stops attacks on oil refineries — and he expects Volodymyr Zelensky to abide by it, a White House official said, according to Axios. Trump said he asked Zelensky to stop attacking Russian oil refineries and claimed Zelensky’s actions harmed American farmers; Zelensky said the announced ceasefire “was news for me.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy released on Sunday a video showing a supertanker on fire after hitting a naval mine south of the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Navy itself, it was the third “violating” oil tanker since Saturday to hit naval mines on the strait's “unauthorized” route and catch fire. Mehr News also reported the third oil tanker catching fire in Hormuz after hitting a mine.

Both main crude contracts fell more than 1% after US President Donald Trump announced an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, according to AFP. Trump wrote on Truth Social that there is an energy ceasefire “effective immediately” and that “both parties have agreed. Do not break it!”. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to express surprise, said he was seeking further details and added that “Ukraine supports the ceasefire, and it is important that Russia support it as well”. AFP also reported that Kyiv said Moscow had struck multiple power plants in the country.

The energy-ceasefire proposal only covers attacks on oil refineries, a White House official told Axios, with no official confirmation from Moscow as of yet. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the announcement was news to him, but that Ukraine will endorse it if the Russians accept, while awaiting details from the American side, according to Opera Mundi.

The director of Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, said on Sunday that the number of its employees at Iran’s Bushehr plant had reached 135. According to him, nine employees arrived the day before for scheduled maintenance at Unit 1, which is currently operational.

Republican senator Thom Tillis said the sanctions relief on Russian diesel could violate congressional law, in a Sunday interview on NBC News’s Meet the Press, according to Al Jazeera. “I do believe there’s a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law,” Tillis said. A bipartisan group of senators called for an immediate reversal of the relief, saying the United States should not provide Vladimir Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the CHPP-5 plant in Kharkiv was struck shortly after the announcement of an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine by US President Donald Trump. According to Ukraine’s Presidential Office, the attack occurred after Trump announced the ceasefire in a Truth Social post, in which he wrote that the energy ceasefire was effective “immediately”. Zelenskyy said the strike happened “just now”.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to what he described as an energy ceasefire, effective immediately. In an interview with Axios, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Trump's post was the first he had heard of the deal, but a senior Ukrainian official told Reuters that Ukraine was ready to accept the ceasefire if Russia was. Earlier on Sunday, Zelenskyy had repeated Ukraine's long-standing position that it was willing to halt attacks on Russian refineries, but only if Moscow ceased its own strikes on Ukrainian power infrastructure.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on October 11 that Ukraine is ready to halt its attacks on Russian oil refineries if Russia ceases strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and conditioned any de-escalation on reciprocity and real guarantees. A US official told Axios that President Trump decided to make a diesel deal with Russia after Zelenskyy ignored half a dozen US requests to stop attacking Russian refineries.

Under the diesel deal between the United States and Russia, Russia would release an initial 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the American and global marketplace, followed by an additional 500,000 tonnes in November, according to the BBC, citing President Donald Trump. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said suspending sanctions provides Moscow with more revenue to wage war and that Europe will not ease pressure.

Member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) expressed support for accelerating the oil stock releases announced in the March 2026 Collective Action, aiming to complete them as soon as possible, the agency said. About 325 million barrels of oil have been released under the March 2026 Collective Action, according to the IEA, which notes that some countries released greater volumes than they initially pledged.

Freight rates for supertankers topped $1.4 million per day on the Gulf-to-East Asia route, a 40% jump in the first week of October alone, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and cited by OilPrice. Ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman tie up the tankers for weeks waiting outside the Strait of Hormuz, tightening the supply of Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) vessels and also pressuring Suezmax and Aframax ships, according to OilPrice.

The Russian government has partially lifted its ban on diesel exports to implement the agreements reached by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, the cabinet said. The measure takes effect on October 10, allowing 500,000 metric tons of diesel to the global market at this stage, according to the statement.

A day after US President Donald Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel, Russian strikes killed at least 11 people in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region on Saturday, October 10, according to officials cited by The Hindu. Three children were among the dead and at least 16 people were wounded when Russian aerial bombs hit residential buildings, said Mykhailo Semikin, head of the regional military administration. Ukraine's national police said Russia targeted residential neighborhoods with five guided aerial bombs early Saturday, according to Asharq Al-Awsat. Trump wrote that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tonnes in November 2026 and 1 million tonnes immediately thereafter, with 3 million more within a short period of time. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the deal “a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners”.

Oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a seven-day average of 9.9 million barrels per day as of October 7, 42 percent below prewar levels and down from about 15.5 million in September, according to Kpler data cited by the Financial Times. Kpler said flows had recovered to prewar levels in September, but intensified attacks on vessels drove exports sharply lower this week.

US, Ukrainian and European officials met in Miami on Friday in a renewed diplomatic push to end Russia's war in Ukraine, as Washington seeks a way out of the dangerous stalemate. US envoy Steve Witkoff said the talks tackled potential avenues to de-escalate and conclude the war before winter, toward a durable peace; according to him, the meeting included the E3, the European Commission, Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and covered energy resilience, grain, security guarantees and reconstruction. The meeting follows the announcement that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, with another 500,000 tons in November, and that the US Treasury would issue a temporary license to allow Russian diesel to flow to global markets.

President Donald Trump announced that Russia will supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons shortly after, according to DW. The US Treasury Department issued a temporary license allowing Russian diesel to reach global markets through April 2027, DW reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said gifts to Russian President Vladimir Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world and that Russia will “repay” the diesel with further terror and perfidy, according to DW. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said that by launching a massive drone attack on Moscow, other cities and polling stations on the main voting day, Kyiv disrupted the possibility of an immediate resumption of the negotiation process, according to Reuters, in a text republished by SRN News.

Vladimir Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said energy and economic cooperation between Russia and the United States (US) will continue and benefit global markets, in a post on X on Friday, according to TASS. The remark responds to Donald Trump’s announcement that he coordinated with Putin, in a phone call he called “highly successful”, the supply of up to 4.8 million tonnes of Russian diesel to the world market, including the US.

United States (US) President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to the US and other global markets, with 500,000 tons in November and 1 million shortly after. The average diesel price in the US is $6.28 a gallon, down from the record $6.53 at the end of September, and the US Treasury formally issued a temporary license allowing Russian diesel into the market shortly after the announcement, according to the BBC. Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, wrote on X that Russia-US cooperation on diesel and energy will benefit the world. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov announced that Putin and Trump spoke by phone, amid renewed diplomatic efforts by Washington.

The government of Nikol Pashinyan suspended a nuclear cooperation deal with the US and committed to having Rosatom build Armenia’s next-generation reactor, according to Eurasianet, in a text published by OilPrice. According to Eurasianet, a Rosatom contract would complicate TRIPP, the US-backed transit route at the center of Armenia’s peace process with Azerbaijan, which both Russia and Iran oppose.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it struck the gas carrier MT Sunshine, later called NV Sunshine, which was attempting to transit via an unauthorized route in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz, according to TASS. The force said the vessel suffered a massive fire in the engine room and propulsion system, according to Al Jazeera. The IRGC warned that vessels violating its rules and passing through the Strait of Hormuz would be punished, according to the Hindustan Times.

With the US-Asia arbitrage closed for the time being, Asian refiners are ditching US oil and considering buying more of the United Arab Emirates’ Murban grade, according to OilPrice. The interest hiked the premium of Murban crude over the Dubai quotes to more than $11 per barrel on Thursday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Ahmad Vahidi said that no extra-regional power has the right to threaten, establish a domineering presence in, or interfere in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, according to Mehr News. Brent was trading at $102.83 and WTI at $90.33, up on the week after tanker attacks, with only seven vessels crossing the strait on Tuesday, the lowest figure since late July, according to OilPrice.

The Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on October 8 left most of Kyiv without power, with the metro shut down due to a lack of electricity and water scarce, according to the Kyiv Independent. Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed the attack on an energy facility important for Kyiv and said crews are trying to restore power. Drone strikes on October 8 killed four people and injured at least 19 in Kyiv, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. According to Le Monde, 78 people were killed and 215 wounded on October 7 and 8 alone.

Brent crude rose more than 5% to more than $105 per barrel, with U.S. crude up almost 5% to nearly $93, according to NBC News. The White House asked the Pentagon to draw up options for a possible resumption of attacks on Iran before the November 3 vote, according to NBC News and the Atlantic, cited by Quartz. In Brazil, oil prices surged on the threat of new U.S. attacks on Iran, according to Opera Mundi.

The World Bank projects a 2.1% contraction in 2026 for the economies of the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Gulf Cooperation Council states shrinking by an average of 4.3%, according to the Jerusalem Post. Qatar and Kuwait are the hardest hit, with GDP contracting 20.9% and 14.6% respectively, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia are the least affected, at 1.6% and 2.0%. The bank attributes the decline to the closure of Hormuz: Gulf oil production fell from a prewar average of about 26 million to about 16 million barrels a day in March, according to The National.

Brent crude rose by 3.8% to $104 a barrel on Thursday. The White House has asked the Pentagon to draw up options for strikes against Iran before the US midterm elections, according to a report in The Atlantic cited by The Guardian. Attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz reached their highest levels of the war, cutting traffic through the waterway.

US President Donald Trump said the conflict with Iran will end soon, bringing down global oil prices, and that there is no longer a nuclear weapon threat in Iran, according to TASS.

The number of tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz fell to a two-month low amid renewed attacks, with crude down 27% from the previous week's high to at least 10.1 million barrels a day and at least 12 tanker attacks between September 28 and October 2, according to OilPrice.

A Guardian analysis found more than 176,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel, loaded at South Korean ports onto seven tankers that made 14 voyages to Russia’s far east in July and August. South Korea said it would verify the reported shipments and act in accordance with the law if a violation of domestic rules is established.

Brent climbed back above US$ 100, trading at US$ 102.50, up more than 2% from Wednesday’s close, according to OilPrice. There were a dozen attacks between September 28 and October 2, according to data from a US Navy-led information outlet cited by Reuters, and tanker traffic dropped sharply — Tuesday’s flows were the lowest since late July, according to Kpler.

Russian and US officials, including Kirill Dmitriev and Jared Kushner, held talks about bringing an American investor into the Nord Stream pipelines, according to Reuters, in a text republished by the Jerusalem Post. A White House official said Russia would have to negotiate any deals with the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Treasury — and that they must benefit American taxpayers and companies. Germany’s Economy and Energy Ministry said any reopening would require government approval — and that it is not desired.

An adviser to the Revolutionary Guards commander, Mohammadreza Naqdi, told the Fars news agency that transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz deemed illegal by Iran will soon be closed, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Devdiscourse. According to Naqdi, those routes were opened by blasting rocky passages in the waterway and would be used by small boats to smuggle oil, according to The Telegraph India.

The Iran war pushed about 25 countries to adopt structural electrification policies since March, according to ABC News, in a text by OilPrice, after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted oil and gas flows. COP31, in Türkiye, will ask countries to meet 35 percent of global energy demand with electricity by 2035, up from 23 percent today. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that 80 million kilometres of new or retrofitted lines are needed by 2040, and a report by consultancy Bain & Company found that between 50 percent and 60 percent of renewable projects in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia were cancelled or delayed from 2021 to 2025.

Iranian armed forces will soon block illegal routes used to transport oil through the Strait of Hormuz, said Mohammad Reza Naghdi, an adviser to the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), according to TASS, citing the Fars agency. Naghdi said the volume of oil transported illegally through the strait is extremely small, carried in small vessels up to tankers.

As of October 5, Europe’s underground gas storage facilities were 72.83% full, 15.13 percentage points below the five-year average for that date and compared with 82.9% a year earlier, according to TASS. EU storage facilities contain around 79.8 billion cubic metres of gas, 11.7 billion less than a year ago and the lowest level since 2013.

Countries in Central Asia began buying oil from Iran as the Russian fuel supplies they long depended on ran dry amid Ukraine’s mounting attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, according to Al Jazeera. Tajikistan expects to receive 2.55 million tonnes of oil and petroleum products from Iran.

Marco Rubio will speak on Wednesday near the Acropolis and call for a renewal of the Western spirit, an inheritance stretching from Athens and Rome to the founding of the American Republic, according to the Associated Press (AP), in a text republished by The Hindu. In Athens to discuss economic, energy and security cooperation with Greece.

Brent rose 93 cents, to $101.51 a barrel, according to Mehr News. The gains reflected supply fears from a storm heading for US oil-producing regions and attacks by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement on Saudi Arabia, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Mehr News. Brent for December delivery stood at $101.45 as of 02:30 GMT, up 0.87%, according to Al Jazeera.

A Liberian-flagged oil tanker caught fire off Russia's Black Sea coast, near Sochi, after being attacked by unmanned boats, according to Russia's Transport Ministry. All 23 crew members, Indian nationals, were rescued with no injuries, the ministry said. The ship was identified as the Aframax Rio and was hit by “naval drones” on Tuesday, in a Times of India report citing Reuters.

Venezuela’s Cardón refinery halted after a fire, according to sources cited by Reuters. Authorities managed to fully extinguish and control the fire, which started at 3:25 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6, according to Noticia al Día.

Vitol’s chief executive said around 14 million barrels per day are leaving the Middle East — 12 million barrels per day of crude and 2 million of products —, according to Reuters. Executives say the world has nearly burned through its oil stockpile buffer, according to Reuters.

Argentina's Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said that preventing the Falkland Islands from exploiting their offshore oil is part of a strategy to recover sovereignty peacefully, in a speech to an audience that included the British ambassador. Quirno accused the UK of refusing to negotiate and of advancing the Sea Lion project in the North Falkland Basin. On 28 September, Milei gave the UK a two-week deadline to stop the oil project or face arbitration and a binding decision under annex VII of the UN convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS).

ASEAN energy ministers are meeting this week to discuss regional energy security against supply disruptions caused by the US-Israel war on Iran, and the 11 members imported about half of their oil needs from the Middle East before the war that began in late February and were left exposed to the effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Al Jazeera. Saudi Aramco chief Amin Nasser said the conflict reduced oil supply from the region by nearly 3bn barrels, with over 1bn barrels released from reserves, and estimated that less than 6bn barrels of commercial inventories remain, according to the Middle East Eye.

The Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said drone and missile attacks targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. The same statement said the Aramco refinery in Rabigh was also hit, along with military installations and smaller airports in the country’s south. According to Middle East Eye, the group targeted King Khalid International Airport for the second time on Monday. The Houthis declared Saudi airspace an open theatre for their operations, except the holy airspaces of Makkah and Madinah. UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern over the “strong escalation” of the fighting in Yemen and condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi territory, according to AFP.

US President Donald Trump blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries for high gasoline prices on Monday, according to G1. Trump said, in a post on the Truth Social network, that gasoline is being driven up by Russia's refineries hit by Ukraine, and no longer by the Strait of Hormuz, from which record numbers of barrels are coming out on an almost daily basis, according to Gulf News, in a text from the AFP. Prices have been high since the start of the year, when the United States launched its attack against the Iranian regime alongside Israel and Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation, according to G1.

A Kpler analyst suspects there is a toll being paid to Iran for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Al Jazeera. Provisional data from the consultancy show crude exports from the region exceeded pre-war levels on four days in the final week of September, reaching between 19.5 and 22.5 million barrels per day. Abdul Khalique, head of the Liverpool John Moores University Maritime Centre, told Al Jazeera that no public proof confirms a systematic, state-run Iranian toll system.

Saudi Aramco’s chief executive said, according to Reuters, that replenishing global crude and fuel stocks could take two years. According to Nasser, Saudi Arabia’s maximum sustainable production capacity of 12 million barrels per day could be made available within days, and Aramco is studying new routes to bypass Hormuz.

Russia's state nuclear company (Rosatom) says two buildings at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant — the laboratory and the radioactive waste facility — were attacked overnight, with roof damage, according to TASS. Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev said there is no threat to nuclear safety, according to TASS.

Crude exports from the Middle East exceeded pre-war levels on September 24 and between September 27 and 29, rising to between 19.5 million barrels per day and 22.5 million bpd, according to Reuters, in text republished by The Hindu; the 7-day moving average stood at 18.5 million bpd on October 1, with at least seven incidents reported, according to a Marisks report on Saturday, October 3.

The Houthis said they launched ballistic missiles and drones at an Aramco facility in Riyadh, in a statement posted on X on Saturday by military spokesman Yahya Saree. The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Turki al-Maliki, called the claims of an attack on Riyadh “misleading”. Early on Sunday, the coalition said it carried out 97 “precise targeting operations” against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha front and the Taiz axis, using warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers. A tanker reported seeing several explosions about 60 nautical miles south of the Yemeni port city of Mocha in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). The Houthis also said they forced two Saudi F-15 formations to withdraw from Taiz’s airspace with locally made anti-aircraft missiles.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Germany will provide another aid package worth more than 1.3 billion euros, including weapons and support for the energy sector, after his meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Kiev, according to TASS. The amount includes 1 billion euros for interceptor drones and long-range weapons production and 350 million euros for energy, according to German government sources cited by DPA.

OPEC+ is expected to keep its oil production targets steady for November, according to a Reuters report cited by Mehr News. Gulf producers have seen exports fluctuating between 60 and 80 percent below normal levels in recent months, according to the same report.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country will double down on attacking Russian oil refineries in response to a new policy of airstrikes by Moscow, according to CNBC. Zelensky said intelligence documents show an order from Vladimir Putin to expand attacks on infrastructure, logistics, roads, schools and hospitals to pressure civilians into leaving cities, according to ABC News. According to him, Ukraine's response will target Russian energy, especially refineries, without indiscriminately attacking civilian objects, according to The Independent.

Crude shipments from the Gulf region returned to pre-war levels between September 1 and 28, with at least 16.5 million barrels per day, according to maritime intelligence and research firm Kpler, in a report by The Times of India. Before the war, 83% of the region’s crude crossed the Strait of Hormuz; in September, 40% was exported through pipelines in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without crossing the strait. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said member countries had released 325 million barrels of oil and oil products from strategic reserves, out of 400 million barrels pledged in March.

Flames and smoke were seen rising from a facility belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco south of Riyadh on Saturday, an AFP journalist at the scene said. A large plume of smoke and fire was seen in the vicinity of an Aramco facility in the Saudi capital, a witness told Reuters, in a text republished by Middle East Eye.

Talks between the United States and Russia to end the war in Ukraine have expanded to include a proposed multibillion-dollar deal for Lukoil’s international oil assets, according to the New York Times, in a text republished by the Times of India. Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the proposed transaction when he met Witkoff and Kushner at the Kremlin, on September 5, according to people familiar with the meeting. A group led by US investor Todd Boehly has emerged as the leading bidder, alongside Middle Eastern investors and the US government.

The Group of Seven (G7) has agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil and diesel to ease the supply pressures that have sent prices soaring, according to BBC News. The coordinated release through the International Energy Agency (IEA) begins immediately and runs for four months, with a substantial share of diesel frontloaded into the first 20 days, according to the BBC. The group's members also agreed to refrain from export restrictions on energy and energy products among themselves. US President Donald Trump took credit on Friday for the release of European diesel and said he asked allies to help bring down soaring fuel prices, the Associated Press reported.

US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that South Korea would invest up to $200 billion in energy projects across the US, including a liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline in Alaska, according to The Hill. According to Yonhap Infomax, he said that if Seoul does not want to take part, he will charge more: “If they don’t want to do it, that’s fine with me. I’ll just charge them more.” And he sent word: “Tell them that if they don’t sign soon, I will double it.” Asked about a premature announcement, Trump said he was not premature because South Korean representatives were present.

US President Donald Trump said the country will not ban diesel exports: “And we’re not going to be doing the export ban.” The statement came after the Group of Seven (G7) agreed to release up to 100 million barrels of oil and diesel within four months, according to the BBC.

The Group of Seven (G7) agreed to release 100 million barrels of their energy reserves to help bring down diesel prices. The release begins immediately, over four months, and includes a frontloaded substantial diesel release. The group also reiterated its commitment to avoid export restrictions on energy products between G7 countries, condemned Iran’s attack on its neighbours and said it will maintain sanctions against Russia.

The United States asked the European Union to release 120 million barrels of diesel from national strategic reserves over 180 days, according to Al Jazeera. EU countries agreed that further diesel stock releases should include a US commitment to avoid a unilateral diesel export ban.

US President Donald Trump announced an $8.4bn oil recovery project under the deal with South Korea, according to Middle East Eye. He provided no location or explanation of how the project would operate, according to Middle East Eye. The deal committed South Korea to investing $350 billion in the United States in return for lower US tariffs, according to Yonhap.

The European Union rejected the US threat to ban any diesel exports unless the bloc releases more of its fuel stocks, France 24 reported. “We fully reject any ban on diesel. A ban would not be beneficial to anyone. It would undermine our trust in the United States as a reliable partner,” European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said. The 27-nation bloc was ready to work with the International Energy Agency (IEA) on the possible release of fuel reserves to contain prices, she added. Average US diesel prices have surged more than 70 percent to $6.39 a gallon since the start of the Iran war, according to motorists’ association AAA.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) delayed its production capacity review that will set members’ 2027 oil output quotas, after the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted expansion projects in the Middle East, according to Reuters. Completion was due by the end of September 2026 and is now expected by mid-November, one of the sources said.

The United Kingdom relies on the United States for about 30% of its diesel and holds reserve supplies for 42 days, and transport minister Keir Mather said on Friday that the country has a wide range of fuel sources and is in talks with other European countries, according to The Guardian. Europe is weighing the release of new diesel stocks under pressure from the United States, according to sources cited by Reuters.

Chinese refiners suspended oil product exports planned for October, four people briefed on the matter told Reuters, to preserve domestic stocks. China canceled some October exports, including diesel and gasoline, to ensure domestic demand, according to Sputnik Globe, citing Bloomberg.

The United States deployed two additional Patriot air defense batteries to protect oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to TASS, citing an Axios report. According to that report, Washington wants to assure its allies that it will protect their key energy sites in case a decision is made to resume a full-fledged operation against Iran.

US President Donald Trump said the US could ask European countries to release diesel reserves amid rising prices linked to the war on Iran. US diesel hit a record of $6.53 per gallon a week ago, while 12 EU member states recorded new all-time highs, according to European Commission data cited by Al Jazeera. France and Germany hold more than a third of the EU’s strategic diesel reserves, according to Reuters, as cited by Al Jazeera.

The Government of Canada officially listed the new West Coast oil pipeline, now known as Pacific Link, as a project of national interest, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced. According to the government, the project will allow Canada to export an additional one million barrels a day to growing markets in Asia, reducing its dependence on the United States. Al Jazeera described Pacific Link as the pipeline Canada intends to fast track to diversify its economy away from the US.

The Trump administration told Germany and France to draw down emergency diesel inventories or face a potential US ban on exports of the fuel, according to Reuters, citing three people close to the discussions. The threat to ban diesel exports set off global alarms over prices and supply, according to The New York Times.

Crude oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz have largely returned to levels seen before the Iran war, and about 40% of the region’s crude is now transported without transiting the strait, compared with 17% before the war, through Saudi and Emirati pipelines, according to The Guardian. At least 16.5 million barrels per day (bpd) left the region in September, equalling the pre-war average, excluding Iran, according to the global trade intelligence firm Kpler.

The average price of diesel in Europe hit an all-time high of 2.24 euros ($2.53) per litre, according to European Commission data cited by Mehr News. Since the US-Israeli war on Iran, gasoline and diesel prices have rocketed due to decreases in supply and pauses in refining.

The Trump administration has told Germany and France to draw down emergency diesel inventories to help ease global fuel prices or face a potential US diesel export ban, according to Reuters. The request was reported by three people close to the discussions.

Russia launched the heaviest combined attack on Ukraine's energy sites in months, hitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions, according to France24. Seven people were killed in the strikes, according to Ukrainian officials. Ukraine's state power grid operator Ukrenergo said it had imposed emergency power cuts in Kyiv and three surrounding regions.

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, September 30, $200 billion in South Korean energy investments in the United States, including $54 billion toward a long-discussed liquefied natural gas project in Alaska, according to Le Monde, in a report with Agence France-Presse (AFP). The package includes eight new nuclear plants and a large natural gas-fired plant in Texas supported by the South Korean government, the newspaper said. The investments follow a July 2025 trade deal under which Seoul had agreed to invest $350 billion in the United States and boost its purchases of American energy; the deal set 15 percent tariffs on South Korean goods.

The Deir Ali, Nasiriyah and Tishreen power plants went out of service after an explosion on a gas line at the Tishreen thermal power plant, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). The shutdown of the three plants will temporarily reduce electricity generation and increase power rationing hours. A gas pipeline in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, which borders Iraq, exploded and caught fire after an isolation valve blast, interrupting gas flows to power stations, in an incident Syrian authorities attribute to sabotage, according to The National.

Three vessels were struck by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz on September 29, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said, according to TASS. The vessels include a crude oil tanker and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, according to the Hindustan Times, which also cites UKMTO. There are currently no reports of casualties, and the ships’ names and ports of registry were not reported.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi said Russia launched the largest attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the spring, primarily targeting Kyiv and the surrounding region, according to the BBC. At least six people were killed and 33 injured in the overnight attacks across the country, including a child in the Kyiv region, according to local authorities cited by the BBC. DTEK, a major private Ukrainian energy company, said crews had restored electricity to about 8,000 households after the attacks, according to Al Jazeera. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had struck power infrastructure in the Kyiv region, according to Al Jazeera.

The CEO of the Russian state corporation Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, said Russia is discussing with Iran the construction of new small-capacity or high-capacity nuclear power plants, according to TASS.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he expects a formal answer on Tuesday from the United States (US) to Tehran’s proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, according to France 24, citing Iranian state media. Araghchi said the current focus is solely on the Strait of Hormuz and the reopening depends on conditions communicated to the other side. US President Donald Trump called reports of an offer to Iran untrue and a hoax and said he offered nothing, according to the Hindustan Times.

Argentina's president, Milei, has threatened to launch a legal challenge against the British government unless oil exploration off the coast of the Falkland Islands is halted, the BBC reported. Milei said he had instructed the Foreign Ministry and legal teams to initiate arbitration proceedings against the United Kingdom for what he called the illegal sacking of resources through the Sea Lion Project in the North Falklands Basin, France 24 reported. The project's companies, Israel's Navitas and Britain's Rockhopper, shrugged off Argentina's threats, insisting they have valid exploration licenses issued by the United Kingdom.

Oil pushed higher as Iran and the US appeared far apart on a new ceasefire deal for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Bloomberg, in a text republished by the Hindustan Times. Brent was near $108 a barrel, climbing more than 3%, after discussions between the two sides appeared to hit fresh snags.

QatarEnergy extended force majeure notices and will not be able to deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes to Italian utility Edison or some Asian clients while the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, according to Reuters. Edison said QatarEnergy would cancel a further six cargoes, taking the total undelivered shipments to 35. Qatar exported just 18 LNG cargoes to end-August, down from 509 in the same period last year, according to data intelligence firm ICIS.

The chief of Iran's Army Force for Coordination Affairs says that both sides of the strategic Strait of Hormuz are under the control of the country's Armed Forces, according to Mehr News.

US President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian offer of a seven-day truce and of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Middle East Eye, and Brent climbed back above $106 a barrel. Brent futures rose more than 1% to $105.64 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at $93.11, according to the Mehr News Agency. Despite the rejection, Trump said he expects negotiations to resume, but said Tehran “overplayed their hand,” still according to the Middle East Eye.

Saudi Arabia is exporting 6 million barrels per day of crude oil in September, equivalent to the country’s monthly average in 2025, according to CNBC, with data from Kpler. Riyadh ramped up exports even after closing the critical East–West oil pipeline due to damage sustained in a drone attack, according to CNBC. Flows through Hormuz reached a seven-day average of 13.2 million barrels per day, compared with around 17 million before the Iran war, according to Kpler, via CNBC.

US President Donald Trump said Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Kyiv may ease strikes on Russian oil refineries, according to TASS. In an interview, Zelensky said he would only stop the strikes if a ceasefire were established with Moscow and declared that “our lives are more important than the price of energy” while defending his strikes against Russian oil refineries, according to Yahoo News.

The Strait of Hormuz now has only a handful of ships sailing each day, either at their own risk or escorted by the US Navy, a tiny fraction of the traffic that passed through the waterway before the first strikes on Iran earlier in 2026, according to El País. Qatar, the world’s second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has been forced to cancel the bulk of its sales to the European Union (EU) and Asia citing “force majeure” over the closure of Hormuz. Continental reserves of LNG, key for industry and heating, are at their lowest in more than a decade and about 20 percentage points below where they usually stand at this time of year.

The ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, halted production after repeated Russian attacks, the company announced on Friday, according to RT. The mill was struck four times over five weeks, killing five workers, according to SBS, citing Reuters, and the company said safe and sustainable operations were no longer possible. With Zaporozhstal and Kamet Steel halted, the three plants that accounted for about 90% of Ukraine’s steel output are shut down, according to the Financial Times.

Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev said Russia and Germany could jointly restart the Nord Stream gas pipeline, sabotaged four years ago, according to TASS, citing his post on X. Dmitriev was commenting on a proposal by Tino Chrupalla, co-chairman of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), to conduct an international probe into the sabotage and insist that the two pipelines be repaired and reopened.

Vladimir Putin and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, have discussed the situation around the Ukrainian conflict and the situation in the Balkans in a telephone conversation, according to TASS. Serbia hopes to secure another extension of its gas deal with Russia, Vucic said Saturday after a call with Putin, according to Euractiv. The gas arrangement expires on September 30, and Vucic said he believes that, following today’s conversation, it will be extended and that Serbia will secure stable gas supplies.

Bangladesh and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic civil nuclear cooperation, to deepen cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The document was signed in New York on Friday, September 25, 2026, by Rehan Asad, adviser for science and technology to Bangladesh’s prime minister, and Jacob Helberg, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, according to The Hindu. The memorandum records the shared position that all civil nuclear cooperation should follow the highest standards of nuclear safety, security, safeguards and non-proliferation.

Ukraine’s General Staff said units of the Defense Forces struck the Ilsky oil refinery, in the Ilsky district of Krasnodar Krai, in Russia, on the night of September 26, and that a fire broke out at the facility. Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratiev confirmed that drones attacked the Seversky district, where the refinery is located, and said there were fatalities and one person seriously injured. The General Staff described the refinery as a facility that fuels Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

In 2021, Xi Jinping pledged at the United Nations General Assembly to stop Chinese funding for overseas coal power plants. According to AP, in a text published by the Hindustan Times, China has canceled most of the coal projects it had planned that year, but experts warn that Chinese companies are taking advantage of regulatory loopholes to skirt the pledge and keep investing in coal abroad.

A senior State Department official said the United States wants to become a huge source of India’s energy needs and cited the U.S. operation in Venezuela as a factor opening that market to countries like India, according to The Hindu. The official spoke after Donald Trump signed into law, last week, the act authorizing him to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries buying Russian oil and gas, including China and India.

The United States is weighing a ban on diesel exports, and the European Union has already reacted. According to The Guardian, Donald Trump is considering a 90-day export ban to provide a temporary respite from high pump prices for American households before the midterm elections, after US diesel reached a record average of $6.52 a gallon. The EU warned Trump against the plan to block exports to the global market, saying the move would negatively affect Europe and the United States. According to The Wall Street Journal, EU officials say they are in talks with the Trump administration to head off export controls.

The parliament of Moldova approved a nationwide state of emergency in the energy and hydrological sectors for 60 days, according to the official Moldpres news agency. The 101-seat legislature approved the measure in a 54-20 vote, and it takes effect on Saturday, September 26, according to the Associated Press (AP), in a text republished by WTOP. The government cites falling water levels in the Dniester River and global conflicts driving up energy costs, according to The Independent.

The average price of a gallon (3.79 liters) of diesel in the United States was $6.50 on Friday, up from $5.61 a month earlier, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks fuel prices daily. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly in New York that he had urged aides to consider keeping more diesel at home: “I’ve said let’s not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel,” he said. Energy analysts and industry groups warn that an export ban could have unintended consequences and push fuel prices up in the United States and abroad.

The European Union (EU) is facing an energy price crisis tied to a supply crisis, the bloc’s energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, wrote in a letter to energy ministers, according to Reuters, via Al Arabiya. In the letter, Jorgensen urged countries to consider measures to curb energy demand. The European Commission presented the AccelerateEU package, with short-term and structural measures to reduce reliance on volatile fossil markets, answering a request from the March 19, 2026 European Council.

Moldova’s former president Igor Dodon, leader of the largest opposition party, the Party of Socialists, said the country overpaid roughly US$ 330 million for gas over the past two and a half years after cutting ties with Gazprom and buying from the European Union (EU) at prices 40% higher, according to Dodon, cited by TASS. He says the formula agreed with Gazprom in 2021 would have delivered an average price 15% below the European average and roughly US$ 745 million in accumulated savings between 2022 and 2026, TASS reports.

Gazprom said gas supplies to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline in the first half of 2026 exceeded those of the same period in 2025, according to the Russian state company, cited by TASS. Gazprom says it became the largest gas exporter to China in 2025, with 38.8 billion cubic metres delivered via Power of Siberia, 800 million above its initial contractual obligation, TASS reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any solution for security in the Black Sea has to be comprehensive and requires “very complex negotiations”, and said Turkey has sent proposals on the matter to Moscow, among others, with no specific talks under way, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. Peskov also tied the return of Russian diesel exports to international markets to the safety of navigation and to the lifting of sanctions and restrictions against Russia, according to TASS.

The Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the Rostov region temporarily suspended operations after a drone attack, the Straits Times reports, citing governor Yuri Slyusar. Russian air defenses destroyed about 50 drones over the region overnight, and the export-oriented refinery — with annual capacity of 5 million metric tons — halted activity, according to the same Straits Times report.

European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen told the Financial Times that the European Union could face its worst winter since 2022, with record energy prices and possible supply problems coming from the United States, according to TASS, which reproduces the interview. Diesel in Europe is near record highs and U.S. President Donald Trump said he intends to back a ban on the country’s diesel exports, also according to TASS. The diesel price hit an all-time high of €2.23 per liter, according to European Commission data cited by the AFP news agency, in the TASS reproduction.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband in New York on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly, Mehr News Agency reports. Miliband said the United Kingdom “will not tolerate intimidation, threats or hostile activity on UK soil” and urged de-escalation and diplomacy instead of prolonging the war, stressing the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, according to the BBC. Senior Iranian officials say Washington has four to five days to respond to Tehran’s conditions for reopening the strait, according to The Guardian.

Ukraine killed two people in overnight drone attacks on Russia and struck an oil refinery and a passenger train, Russian officials said, according to Devdiscourse. In the Perm region, home to a major refinery, Governor Dmitry Makhonin said one man died during a massive drone attack, according to Devdiscourse.

Ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Gulf of Oman have reached their limits after Saudi Arabia diverted exports from the Red Sea, according to Reuters via The Hindu. Saudi crude exports via the Strait of Hormuz were on track to rebound to 3.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, up from about 900,000 bpd in August, according to data from analytics firm Kpler cited in the report. State-run Saudi Aramco has sold more than 60 million barrels for transfer off Sohar, Oman, this month and next, since its East–West Pipeline was attacked on September 13.

Yemen’s Houthis said on Thursday, September 24, 2026, that they had launched missiles and drones at a “sensitive target” in Riyadh and at Aramco facilities in the Red Sea city of Yanbu, according to Al Jazeera; oil rose the same day: Brent futures for November ended above US$106.50 a barrel, after earlier exceeding US$108 and settled at US$106.60, up US$3.52, or 3.4%, according to The Vibes; according to Middle East Eye, vessel transits in the Strait of Hormuz fell to nine on Thursday, from 14 the day before and a 10-day average of about 18, preliminary ship-tracking data showed.

At least 20 authors of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have direct ties to the oil and gas sector, Le Monde revealed, drawing on reporting conducted with European outlets; at least 12 of the roughly 220 authors of the mitigation section of the forthcoming report hold jobs or ties with Saudi Aramco or the Saudi fossil sector, according to the paper; a Guardian-led review with partners found 20 cases of strong potential conflict of interest, 11 of them Saudi-linked.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday, September 25, 2026, the deployment of soldiers, radar and air defense systems to protect the Yanbu terminal, in Saudi Arabia, after Houthi attacks on the East–West pipeline terminal on the Red Sea. According to the broadcaster, the mission is described as strictly defensive, with no direct combat against the Houthis.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said it is up to the United States to decide when the war between the two countries ends and denied that Tehran seeks a nuclear bomb, in an interview with Fox News aired on September 24, 2026 and covered by The Hindu. He said Iran is willing to dilute uranium under external verification — and Brent crude prices fell on hopes of a truce, according to Middle East Eye.

Iran’s Oil Ministry said about 50% of the damaged capacity at the South Pars gas field has returned to service, after the Israeli strike of 18 March 2026 that halted output at two refineries in the Asaluyeh complex and cut Iranian gas flows to Iraq, as The National reported at the time. The deputy oil minister for planning said production in that section resumed by 22 September 2026 and that the recovery program will be completed before winter begins, according to Mehr News. The field supplies about 75% of the country’s gas consumption and underpins nearly 80% of its electricity generation, according to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty carried by GlobalSecurity.org.

United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, that his administration “strongly supports” the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as a way to move the region’s energy infrastructure away from chokepoints under Iranian control. Speaking to Gulf Cooperation Council leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Trump said: “Iran’s terrorist attacks on commercial shipping in neighboring countries have shown the need to shift Middle East energy infrastructure away from the Iranian checkpoints. That’s why my administration strongly supports the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor and other places in the form of getting oil out, whether it’s pipelines or anything else,” according to the Hindustan Times and ANI. Launched on September 9, 2023 at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in New Delhi, the corridor is meant to connect India to the Gulf and the Gulf to Europe by sea, rail and road.

Three commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, below the 10-day moving average of about 15, according to preliminary Kpler data cited by Reuters and carried by Middle East Eye. All three were exiting the waterway, and the figure may change because some ships switch off their transponders on the crossing; the ballast liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Al Mafyar reappeared inside the strait on Tuesday, after last being seen outside it on 19 September 2026, according to Kpler and LSEG data. At Bab el-Mandeb, 22 commodity vessels crossed on the same day, against an average of about 26 over the previous 10 days. Before the US–Iran war that began on 28 February 2026, the strait handled about 125 large commercial vessels a day — the equivalent of a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Maritime risk consultancy Marisks said on Tuesday that the Isle of Man-flagged crude oil tanker LR Stephanie was struck by an unidentified projectile while entering the waterway on Monday, 21 September 2026, injuring two crew members, and that the Liberia-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier Al Maryah, managed by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), was struck while outbound on Sunday, 20 September 2026; neither incident has been claimed, according to the Reuters dispatch.

France’s government announced on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, a €450 million aid package to blunt a fuel price surge that pushed the average diesel price to €2.39 a litre. The spending lifts the state’s total for the year to €1.4 billion, Budget Minister David Amiel said. The main measure doubles, from €0.20 to €0.40 a litre, the subsidy for low-income workers who drive for a living and expands the number of beneficiaries from 3 million to 5.5 million, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said. The tax-exempt ceiling on the fuel allowance employers can pay rises from €600 to €1,000 a year. Aid to fishing, farming and construction was extended to 31 December 2026, and fishermen who blocked Mediterranean ports last week will have up to 70% of their cost increase covered, plus access to zero-interest loans. Economy and Finance Minister Roland Lescure said there was no concern about supplies over the next two months. The surge stems from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz since the United States and Israel bombed Iran in February 2026, according to Politico and the Xinhua news agency, in a dispatch carried by Big News Network.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said Spain intends to comply with the European Union’s ban on importing Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) from 1 January 2027 despite long-term contracts held by Spanish companies, according to TASS, the Russian state news agency, which carried his remarks at an Atlantic Council event in Washington. “LNG supply contracts are concluded years in advance. These are very long-term contracts. This is not something that can be decided at the last minute,” Albares said. He added that Spain has one of Europe’s largest LNG storage and processing capacities and that this “opens up opportunities for the rest of Europe,” which Madrid can supply with LNG from “reliable partners, such as the United States.” The European ban on Russian LNG imports takes effect on 1 January 2027 for long-term contracts, and the ban on pipeline gas on 30 September 2027; the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), in a 2026 report, records that Russian LNG imports rose 17% year-on-year between 18 March and the end of May 2026, despite the ban on short-term contracts in force since 25 April.

Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura terminal recorded its busiest loading day since before the war on September 21, 2026, as six very large crude carriers loaded close to 12 million barrels at Ras Tanura and Juaymah, according to shipping analytics firm Kpler, as reported by Middle East Eye. The surge followed disruption to Aramco’s East-West pipeline, which lets Saudi crude reach the Red Sea coast without passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Kpler said some of the six vessels had already been flagged over the previous six weeks for undeclared ship-to-ship transfers or unusual port calls, which the firm says points to a longer-running pattern of changing vessel behaviour.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, on expectations that Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and that Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline is back in service, then erased much of the drop after US President Donald Trump told the United Nations General Assembly he believes a deal with Iran is possible after November’s midterm elections. Brent, the benchmark for two thirds of the world’s oil, fell 2.64 per cent to $97.69 a barrel at 3.09pm UAE time, while West Texas Intermediate dropped 3.20 per cent, according to The National, of Abu Dhabi. Earlier, Brent had fallen 3 per cent to $97.43 and US crude as much as 3.5 per cent to $92.40, according to NBC News. After Trump’s speech, US crude was back around $96 and Brent briefly rose above $100 again, NBC News reported. “I believe we will make a deal right after the election because it does not make sense for them not to,” Trump told the assembly. “Oil prices will come plummeting down, even lower than they were at the start of the conflict.” Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency called the reports about the reopening of Hormuz “unreliable and untrue”, according to NBC News, which says it has not confirmed them. Only two visible commercial vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, 21 September 2026, against about 125 a day before the war began on 28 February 2026, according to preliminary shipping data cited by The National. The US national average diesel price hit a record on Tuesday at $6.52 a gallon, up 82 per cent since the start of the year, according to NBC News.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York that Ukraine is ready for “any kind of format” of energy ceasefire with Russia as long as Moscow stops attacking Ukraine’s energy system. He said he does not know Russia’s position and hoped “the American side will find a way” to bring Moscow to any kind of negotiations, according to France 24, which carried the remarks with Agence France-Presse (AFP). Zelensky spoke after a 40-minute meeting with US President Donald Trump, which he described as “positive and productive” and about which he wrote on X that “both the US and Ukraine want to see this senseless Russian war ended before winter”, according to Arab News. In his account to reporters, he said a unilateral halt to Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries was not discussed, and that he is willing to take part in a trilateral meeting with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump had told reporters, before the meeting, that he and Zelensky would discuss Ukrainian attacks on refineries in Russia: “It is a serious hit on the Russians. It’s also a serious hit on the price of diesel,” he said, according to Reuters, in a dispatch carried by The Sacramento Bee. The previous week, the US president had said Russia and Ukraine had agreed not to strike each other’s energy infrastructure; no deal was confirmed and both sides kept up attacks in the following days, as reported by NBC News.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, that he backs banning US diesel exports, a step farm-state lawmakers have demanded as fuel costs soar: “I’ve said let’s not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel. I’ve called for it. I’ve called for it within my people,” he told reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York, ahead of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Reuters, in a dispatch carried by The Sacramento Bee. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the same meeting that the administration is examining whether a ban is feasible and whether a full or partial ban would work. Diesel prices have hit records in the United States and Europe because the wars in Iran and Ukraine have cut exports from some of the largest producers, such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; the average US pump price rose above $6.50 a gallon, a record, according to AAA as cited by Bloomberg. Trump’s backing puts him at odds with his own energy and interior secretaries. Chris Wright said a ban would create a glut of diesel on the Gulf Coast and push refiners to cut production, which would also reduce petrol supply, and argued for more supply. Doug Burgum said a ban would be unlikely to lower petroleum prices and could trigger retaliation from energy-exporting countries. A ban could ease prices on the Gulf Coast while tightening supplies further in Europe, which is structurally short of diesel and relies on US exports: “that would seem pretty damaging to some key U.S. allies,” said Jim Mitchell, director of oil trading analytics at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, according to Reuters.

The attorneys general of California, Rob Bonta, and New York, Letitia James, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, over deals that buy back federal offshore wind leases. Bonta is challenging the removal of a project planned off the California coast by Chicago-based Invenergy; the administration said in June 2026 it would buy back the company’s US offshore wind leases for four projects on the east and west coasts. James is leading seven states in suits seeking to block the Invenergy deal and a separate proposal with Bluepoint Wind, which agreed in April to end a wind farm under development off the New York and New Jersey coast, according to The Associated Press, in a dispatch published by The Guardian. The deals would hand energy companies about $1.4 billion in taxpayer money in exchange for cancelling multiple projects, and the administration has pledged nearly $4 billion to companies to walk away from projects across the country. James called the deals illegal and said they will raise electricity bills: “Americans are facing increasing energy costs because this administration would rather pay off energy companies than let us build the new power sources we need.” Attorneys general from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont joined New York’s suit.

Donald Trump said on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, in his address to the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that Washington is working “very closely” with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine and that a deal to end the war will come “more quickly than people understand”. The Kyiv Post reported that he said he would use, if necessary, the tariff powers granted by the law he signed the previous week — a measure that allows tariffs of up to 100% on buyers of Russian energy. Asked by reporters before the speech what message he had for Vladimir Putin, Trump said: “Settle the war.” CNBC reported that Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday, 21 September, that “a large number” of Russian diesel refineries had been “blown up”, that Russia has “lost control” of its diesel oil industry because of the war, and that the conflict must end, with “25,000 people, mostly soldiers, killed each month”. The average US retail price of a gallon of diesel rose above US$6.50 for the first time, according to AAA figures cited by CNBC, as Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries and the war with Iran squeeze global supplies. At the bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the Assembly, Trump said the two were discussing “figuring out a solution” and that “they’re going to reach a deal”, without saying what it would be; The Jerusalem Post, citing Reuters, reported that he said Putin is willing to meet to end the war, and that the two leaders are expected to discuss the deployment of Patriot missiles in Ukraine.

The executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at an energy forum organised by Foreign Policy magazine that Europe faces a “very harsh winter”, possibly one of the hardest in recent years, with gas storage at historically low levels, according to the TASS news agency. Birol said European countries have decided to phase out Russian gas completely by 2027 and can no longer receive gas from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, pushing them to seek supply from the United States and Norway. European storage stood at 69% of capacity on September 17, 2026, below the 85% five-year average for the season, according to Reuters, which cites industry body Gas Infrastructure Europe.

Ineos halted production on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, at three chemicals plants in Hull, north-east England, blaming the cost of gas in the United Kingdom, which the company says stands at 12 times the level in the United States and eight times that of China. Two units at the Saltend complex have already stopped and the third will be shut down in the coming days, according to The Guardian and the Yorkshire Post. The company says around 1,000 employees at Saltend are affected and that a further 3,000 skilled jobs across the Humber region could be hit; no redundancies are planned. The plants produce acetic acid, acetic anhydride and ethyl acetate, and are Europe’s last world-scale acetyls units. UK natural gas prices doubled between July and September and reached their highest level since December 2022, a move the Yorkshire Post links to the United States and Israel’s war on Iran and the disruption of oil and gas supply through the Strait of Hormuz.

India and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) closed the seventh high-level meeting of the OPEC-India Energy Dialogue in New Delhi on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, with a pledge to deepen cooperation on market stability and investment, and set the next round for Vienna, according to a statement from India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas cited by Business Standard and News18. The meeting was co-chaired by Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais. Puri said India will remain an “important driver of global energy demand in the decades ahead” and called for sustained dialogue between producers and consumers; Al Ghais said that “many of India’s energy priorities are OPEC’s priorities”. The dialogue was launched in New Delhi in 2015 and the eighth meeting will be held at the organisation’s headquarters in Vienna, with no date yet confirmed. The meeting took place with Brent crude above US$ 100 a barrel, after the conflict disrupted supplies for major consumers including India and China, according to Business Standard.

Saudi Arabia restarted its East-West Pipeline and could resume exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu, three sources briefed on the matter told Reuters; two of them say the line was pumping at a low rate, and state oil firm Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Drone attacks forced the kingdom to shut the pipeline on September 13, 2026, halting crude loadings at Yanbu. Since oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz were disrupted, the pipeline had been rerouting around 4 million barrels per day to the port, roughly 4% of global supply, according to the agency.

Iran offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States eases military pressure and lifts its blockade on Iranian ports, according to a senior Iranian government official cited by Kyodo News and Reuters. The proposal, already conveyed to Washington through mediators, was approved by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the Supreme National Security Council, Kyodo says; the official says Presidents Masoud Pezeshkian and Donald Trump will not meet in New York and that Washington must make its willingness to negotiate official before any step. Both agencies describe the same source, not independently verified.

The Dnipro steelmaker Interpipe Steel halted production after an overnight Russian strike killed four of its employees, according to the Kyiv Independent and TASS. The Ukrainian company said production equipment and infrastructure were damaged and that it is assessing how long the shutdown will last. Russia's Defense Ministry said the same day it carried out a mass strike on metallurgical and chemical plants and on fuel and energy facilities, including the plant. Interpipe employs around 9,500 people and exports to more than 50 countries, and its products become fuselage, propulsion and wing components for long-range drones, according to TASS.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, that Iran can reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States eases military pressure and lifts its blockade on Iranian ports. The official said the proposal was delivered to Washington through mediators on 16 September and that the Iranian delegation in New York has authority to revive diplomacy during the United Nations General Assembly; President Masoud Pezeshkian will not meet Donald Trump. The account comes from a single source speaking on condition of anonymity, and the US government had not confirmed the proposal at the time of publication.

The Kuibyshev refinery, one of the largest in Russia’s Samara region, was hit by drones overnight into Tuesday, 22 September 2026, and a major fire engulfed the plant, according to the Russian opposition outlet ASTRA, which geolocated footage filmed by residents, and the Kyiv Independent. Samara governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said “dozens of drones” struck industrial enterprises and that homes and vehicles were damaged, without reporting casualties. The refinery sits 765 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and can process up to 10,000 metric tons of oil a day, according to Reuters, and was already forced to halt operations by a strike on 10 June 2026. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted 297 drones over 14 regions and occupied Crimea — a figure that has not been independently verified — and the federal air transport agency restricted flights in Samara and other cities in the region overnight.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, meets Donald Trump on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, carrying a proposal for an energy truce that would halt strikes by both sides on power facilities before winter, according to Reuters. Arriving in the city a day earlier, Zelensky said “concrete security proposals and de-escalation measures” are on the table and that a new drone deal is ready to be signed, with around 20 meetings planned during the visit, according to the Kyiv Independent. Trump has voiced concern about the damage to Russian refineries hit by Ukrainian drones, and Russia, which has more missile firepower, has not signalled it seeks to pause the air war, Reuters reported.

Russia struck industrial sites in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih and Pavlohrad in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region overnight into Tuesday, September 22, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. Three people were killed and six injured in Dnipro, where a business property and a warehouse were badly damaged, and the governor of the Poltava region, Vitalii Diakivnych, reported a “massive” attack on an industrial enterprise and a critical infrastructure facility. A strike on an energy facility left nearly 100,000 consumers without power in the northern Chernihiv region, the local distribution company said. Ukraine’s air force said the overnight barrage included an unspecified number of Oniks anti-ship and ballistic missiles, as well as four cruise missiles and 212 drones. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it hit enterprises in the metallurgical and chemical industries, the fuel and energy sector and the defense industry complex, along with port infrastructure and vessels. With the front line largely stalled more than four and a half years into the war, Moscow and Kyiv have increasingly struck businesses, ports and logistics targets in recent months, Reuters noted.

Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment told the TASS news agency that projected output on the country’s continental shelf amounts to 23 million tonnes of oil and 53 billion cubic metres of gas in 2026, with 2027 forecast at the same level, in line with the technical design documentation for the fields. The figures are projected levels set in the fields’ technical documentation and do not correspond to volumes already extracted, according to the ministry. Russia has 75 oil and gas fields on the continental shelf, 20 of them already producing.

Operators of civilian nuclear plants in the United States bought 13 million separative work units (SWU) of enrichment services in 2025 at an average price of $108.70 per SWU; 77% came from foreign suppliers, and Russia accounted for 26% of that foreign-origin SWU — ahead of France (18%), the United Kingdom (14%) and the Netherlands (8%), according to the annual uranium marketing report of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The 2024 US law that bans imports of Russian uranium lets the Department of Energy grant waivers when alternative supply is unavailable, and that authority expires in January 2028; new enrichment projects in the United States and among allies are not expected to reach commercial scale before 2029, according to Bloomberg. Foreign Policy reported on Tuesday that Russia remains the largest supplier of enrichment services to US nuclear utilities.

Donald Trump’s administration has proposed investing $5 billion in a fund to rebuild Middle East energy infrastructure damaged in the war against Iran and to reduce reliance on the Strait of Hormuz for oil and gas transport, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited US and regional officials and documents. The proposal is under discussion with several countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the initial US contribution would be matched by partner countries, according to Investing.com. Reuters, which carried the report, said it could not immediately verify the information. The newspaper says the seven-month conflict damaged pipelines and refineries in the region. For Investing.com, the announcement suggests Washington needs to repair both Gulf infrastructure and confidence in the US partnership, after the region’s energy assets became targets, and it does not immediately remove the geopolitical risk premium priced into oil.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) partially reduced output at the El Sharara field, one of the country’s largest, NOC chairman Massoud Suleman told Reuters on Monday. He gave no reason. Two engineers at the field told the agency output fell by about 200,000 barrels per day, to between 100,000 and 105,000 bpd; Libyan outlet Al Wasat puts the field’s total capacity at around 300,000 bpd. Last week the NOC warned it might declare force majeure after the illegal closure of a valve on the Hamada–Zawiya pipeline halted two fields in northwestern Libya, Al-Tahara and Al-Hamada; production there later resumed, according to the Libya Observer. Similar disruptions at El Sharara in recent years have come from protests, political standoffs and sabotage, and this time the company gave no reason.

Hungary’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee chairman, Márton Hajdú of the Tisza party, asked Republican US lawmakers to exempt the country from the sanctions law Donald Trump signed on Friday, which authorises tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that buy Russian energy or help others evade the measures, according to Hungary Today and Mezha. Hajdú said Tisza is aware of the risks of dependence on Russian energy and that a plan to reduce it will be ready soon; Hungary imports about 5 million tonnes of Russian crude a year and 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas, according to Hungary Today. The law’s final text does not name Hungary, and China, India and Turkey are cited as potential targets.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met on Sunday in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, a French archipelago about 25 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland, and announced closer cooperation on energy, defence, critical minerals and cross-border security. Macron said France and Canada are “two great independent nations who want to stay that way” and said he wants agreements to secure more Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) for Europe’s Atlantic coast, which today goes mainly to Asia. It was the first visit by a Canadian prime minister to the territory and the first by a French president since 2014. The meeting came weeks after Donald Trump posted an image of the archipelago covered by the American flag, according to Reuters, and amid Ottawa’s rapprochement with the European Union.

The European Commission proposed on Monday a common rating scheme for data centres, to make their energy and water consumption transparent and to integrate them into Europe’s electricity system. The label, set out in a delegated regulation, will cover data centres with a capacity above 500 kW and also their contribution to the grid, such as the reuse of waste heat and consumption flexibility; according to the Commission, reusing around half of all waste heat from European data centres is equivalent to the heating demand of 4 million households. Brussels wants to triple the European Union’s data centre capacity within five to seven years to sustain artificial intelligence development and cut reliance on US Big Tech, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that these facilities consumed around 68 TWh of European electricity in 2024, a volume expected to virtually double to 114 TWh by 2030, more than 3% of the bloc’s electricity demand. The delegated regulation now faces a two-month scrutiny period by the European Parliament and the Council before entering into force; the first sustainability labels are expected in 2027, and the consultation on minimum energy performance standards closes on 14 December 2026. Reuters notes that the scheme imposes no consumption limits and does not require operators to disclose total power use.

Qatar’s central bank governor, Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani, told Bloomberg that around 17% of the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export revenue has been lost to the regional conflict and that damage to gas infrastructure is “huge,” with two to three years needed for a full recovery, according to TASS. In March, QatarEnergy chief executive Saad al-Kaabi had put at up to five years the repairs to two of the 14 liquefaction trains hit by Iranian attacks (12.8 million tons a year of capacity, equivalent to about $20 billion in annual revenue).

Europe has injected 45 billion cubic metres of gas into storage for the winter and is rushing to build up stocks, according to TASS.

A Reuters analysis warned that the oil shock raises the risk of a metals shock, as accelerating electric vehicle sales push demand for raw materials.

France: the government reports 11% of filling stations missing at least one product category (petrol or diesel), with diesel at EUR 2.402/l on 19 September, above April record, a sixth straight week of increases.

Germany approves a EUR 2.5bn package: a 17-cent-per-litre tax cut on petrol and diesel from 1 October, with the price cap only expected in January 2027, days before state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

QatarEnergy said the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz may delay some of its expansion projects, according to Middle East Eye and Reuters.

Commission delays decision on LNG price cap

Ankara clears new licence for blending terminal