Wednesday, 9 September 2026

Global oil prices jumped to nearly $100 per barrel after Iranian-backed Houthis hit Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure on Tuesday, Inside Climate News reported.

That leaves global crude 33 percent higher than during the July pause in Middle East hostilities.

U.S. gasoline prices rose to an average $4.14 per gallon heading into Labor Day weekend, 4 cents above the previous week, according to Inside Climate News.

Brown University's Iran War Energy Cost Tracker counts more than $101 billion in higher fuel costs paid since the conflict began on Feb. 28, or more than $771 per U.S. household.

The U.S. military said on Saturday it struck three Iranian oil tankers in retaliation for missiles launched at U.S. Navy ships.

Chinese oil consumption for transportation fell 16 percent from April through June, with rapid electrification of vehicles the most important factor, Inside Climate News reported.

Dangote is aiming to complete a planned refinery in Lamu, Kenya by 2030, according to Semafor Net Zero. The project carries a price tag of USD 16 billion.

Funding is the sticking point. An analyst told Semafor Net Zero that raising the money for the Kenya project "could become a formidable challenge," pointing to Dangote's concurrent plans to double the capacity of the Lagos refinery.

Crude supply is a separate question, and the company plays it down. A Dangote Industries executive told Reuters that it does not foresee challenges with securing crude for the project. Kenya currently imports nearly all of its oil from the Middle East.

Aliko Dangote has been talking up the product side of the economics. He told Bloomberg he felt "extremely bullish" about diesel refining margins over the medium term.

The Lamu timetable stands at 2030.

Drillers logged roughly 25 metres of oil-bearing sandstone at 22% porosity in the Vicango East-01 borehole, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The well marks a fresh hydrocarbon find for ExxonMobil in Block 15, offshore Angola.

Water depth at the site was 940 metres, and the target sits some 370 kilometres northwest of the Angolan capital, Luanda. The Valaris DS-9 drillship carried out the work.

Count the well as number 20 among Block 15 finds across the last 30 years, a stretch during which the acreage delivered upwards of 2.7 billion barrels, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Operatorship rests with Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited on a 36% stake. The remaining equity splits between Azule Angola Limited at 24%, Azule Angola BV at 18%, Equinor Angola Block 15 A.S. at 12%, and Sonangol E&P at 10%.

Paulino Jeronimo, chairman of ANPG, credited investor terms for the continued drilling, pointing to the Block 15 licence running to 2032, Decree 8/24 covering Incremental Production, and Decree 5/18, which governs exploration inside and near development areas. In his account, the well follows "adjustments to the legal framework" plus state incentives offered to investors.

SLB and Shearwater GeoServices have started a 3D multi-client seismic survey offshore Amapá, in Brazil's Equatorial Margin, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The survey area sits roughly 130 kilometers from the Morpho exploration well, OEDigital reported.

Work is split between the two companies. Shearwater will acquire high-density broadband data with its Isometrix marine seismic technology aboard the vessel Amazon Warrior, while SLB handles processing and imaging through workflows that include elastic full-waveform inversion, according to OEDigital.

SLB called the project one of its most significant investments in exploration data across the deepwater Atlantic Margin.

Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon Offshore (LTEH Offshore) has been awarded an offshore Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation, and Commissioning (EPCIC) contract by India's Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) covering the Additional Development of Ratna-I (ADR-I) and the NLM-14 project off India's west coast, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Offshore Engineer OEDigital put the value of the award in a band between USD 263 million and USD 527 million, or 25 billion to 50 billion rupees.

The work scope runs to three new well-head platforms and one riser platform, according to the same report, together with multiple subsea pipeline and cable segments and brownfield modifications to installations already standing offshore.

ONGC's stated purpose for the development is to raise production and carry forward work on the operator's existing offshore assets in that part of the west coast, per Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Hanwha Ocean has received basic design review certification from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for a standardized floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) design built for deepwater work in South America and West Africa, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The certified scope is the shipbuilder's front-end engineering design (FEED). ABS examined the technical standards and core documentation behind systems that include the hull, the topsides and the mooring arrangement, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

ABS separately granted approval in principle for the FPSO, a design built to meet SUSTAIN-2 notation requirements, and issued a Statement of Fact on Hanwha Ocean's Project Sustainability Execution Plan (PSEP), the outlet reported.

A pre-FEED that Hanwha Ocean completed earlier for deepwater oil and gas fields in West Africa also holds ABS approval in principle.

Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR) puts the ceiling on Western Canadian oil output growth at 2-3 MMbpd into the late 2030s, based on the takeaway capacity that planned pipeline expansions and new export routes would add, World Oil reported.

The firm's base case has Western Canada Sedimentary basin (WCSB) production adding roughly 200,000 bpd each year through 2035. Oil sands account for about 1.3 MMbpd of the additional barrels over that period, on EIR's numbers.

Around 1 MMbpd of the new takeaway capacity counts as firm in EIR's tally. Three sources feed it: debottlenecking on lines already in service, wider system buildouts, and the proposed Prairie Connector-Bridger project. Shippers have already signed for 465,000 bpd on that project under 20-year terms.

Second in EIR's ranking is the proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline, which at more than 1 MMbpd would top every other project on the list for size.

EIR expects Western Canadian Select (WCS) to keep trading at a discount of roughly USD 12 to USD 15 per barrel to West Texas Intermediate (WTI).

Heavier oil sands volumes also pull diluent demand up. EIR sees incremental condensate requirements rising by some 500,000 bpd by the mid-2030s as those barrels come online.

Albania's government has agreed with Argent LNG to study an onshore import terminal on its coastline, sized at up to 5 MMtpa of storage and regasification capacity, under a non-binding memorandum of understanding, according to World Oil.

Buyers outside Albania are the target. The terminal would supply the Western Balkans and Southeastern Europe first, not the domestic Albanian market, World Oil reported.

Pipeline links under study include the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) and the Fier-Vlorë gas corridor.

Enea Karakaçi, Albania's minister of infrastructure and energy, said regasification and storage capacity in the country would give the region "greater flexibility in managing periods of high demand and potential supply disruptions".

Two earlier memoranda preceded the Albanian deal: Argent signed with Ukraine's Naftogaz Group in July and with Romania's Transgaz in August, per World Oil.

Argent's export leg is a proposed 25-MMtpa terminal at Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Work on the Albanian facility would be timed against the company's target of a first Port Fourchon cargo in 2030, World Oil reported.

Saipem has won a contract from GOE Petrol Sanayi covering commissioning services for the Osman Gazi floating production unit (FPU), the vessel supporting development of the Sakarya gas field offshore Türkiye in the Black Sea, according to World Oil.

The scope is expected to run for approximately eight months, World Oil reported.

Sakarya is being developed by Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) about 170 km offshore Türkiye, in water depths of around 2,150 m, per World Oil. The field was discovered in August 2020.

The commissioning award follows earlier work by the same contractor on the project. Saipem was awarded operations readiness and assurance support for Sakarya in April 2026, according to World Oil.

TotalEnergies and its partners will spend USD 10 billion in Angola over the next five years to lift production across several projects, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The French oil major is Angola's largest oil operator, pumping around 450,000 barrels per day in the country and working to hold that level, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Central to the spending programme is Kaminho, a USD 6 billion development roughly 100 km off the Angolan coast, which is expected to begin production in 2028. The company took a final investment decision on the project in 2024.

TotalEnergies has also signed two new exploration licences covering offshore Block 17 and Block 32, in partnership with Exxon Mobil, according to the same report.

The Southern African country is striving to keep national output at around 1 million barrels per day.