Saturday, 19 September 2026

Falling crude prices and softer bond yields lifted US equities on Thursday, recovering most of the week's losses, according to reporting carried by the Sun Sentinel, Newsday, The Korea Times and BNN Bloomberg.

Brent crude slid 2.3% in one account of the session, while a separate report from the Times Colonist put the decline at 1%. The pullback in oil was cited alongside easing pressure from the bond market as the trigger for the reversal in equities.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.95% from 5.01% late Wednesday, per the Sun Sentinel and Newsday.

Equity benchmarks moved higher across the board. The S&P 500 climbed 1.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.7%, according to the Times Colonist.

Asian spot liquefied natural gas prices have more than doubled to $26 per million British thermal units, the highest level since December 2022, according to Reuters. Reuters reports that Asian LNG demand is on track to fall for a second straight year as the US-Israeli war on Iran curtails Gulf supplies, tightens market availability and pushes prices to multi-year highs that destroy consumption.

Analysts cited by Reuters estimate the region's demand will drop between 3% and 10% from 2025 levels, with Northeast Asia bearing most of the decline.

Prices have continued to climb since. Energy Intelligence assessed spot LNG in Northeast Asia at $28.40 per MMBtu for deliveries one to two months ahead, up $2.70 from the prior week, according to Oilprice.

The supply squeeze is reshaping European procurement as well. Anadolu Agency reports that disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and outages at Qatar's LNG export facilities are tightening global gas markets and pushing the European Union to seek alternative supplies and greater flexibility ahead of winter. EU gas storage facilities were about 69% full in mid-September, per Gas Infrastructure Europe data cited by Anadolu Agency.

ExxonMobil is close to signing a preliminary deal to explore investments in several Venezuelan oil fields, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Under the potential agreement, Exxon would partner with state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), according to Semafor. The fields covered by the prospective arrangement contain as many as 50 billion barrels of crude.

Semafor framed the move as a return for the company two decades after its exit from the country.

Petrobras has secured eight offshore blocks in Côte d'Ivoire, according to Offshore Magazine.

On the awarded acreage, Petrobras will hold a 90% operated interest, with the remaining 10% assigned to PETROCI, per Offshore Magazine.

Separately, the government of Senegal plans to market 109 oil and gas blocks to local and international investors, Offshore Magazine reported. The plan would leave only four of Senegal's 113 blocks under contract.

The jackup Valaris 104 is being shipped to Batam, Indonesia, for conversion into a mobile offshore production unit rated to handle 172 MMcf/d of raw gas, according to Offshore Magazine.

On the contracting side, Transocean has won an approximately USD 80 million job for the Deepwater Conqueror drillship offshore Equatorial Guinea, Offshore Magazine reported.

Noble Corp. picked up two new jackup contracts in Norway, per the same report.

Eni exercised a nine-month extension option on Borr Drilling's Bestla jackup offshore Europe, adding to the contractor's backlog, according to Offshore Magazine.

The Valaris 104 was wet-towed through the Strait of Hormuz and loaded onto a heavy-lift vessel for the voyage to Batam, where the conversion to a production unit will take place.

The US national average price of gasoline rose 7.1 cents to $4.438, marking the 17th increase in 18 days.

In Riverside County, the average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline climbed 3.8 cents to $6.026, crossing the $6 threshold for the first time since May 26.

San Diego County's average reached $6.157 after a 4.3-cent gain, its highest level since May 22. That move was the 29th increase in 30 days for the county, according to KPBS.

BOSTenergies said the reduction in its fuel export volumes to Burkina Faso and Mali is not caused by an imminent fuel shortage in Ghana.

The company attributed the cut in supplies to the two Sahelian countries largely to ongoing revamp works at its Bolgatanga depot.

While that facility is being upgraded, BOSTenergies said it has continued serving the regional market by moving fuel from its coastal depot in Tema using Bulk Road Vehicles.

Full regional supply capacity will be restored once the Bolgatanga depot revamp is completed, according to the company.

Costco is restricting customers to two boxes of synthetic motor oil per week as a supply crunch persists, according to KTNV. The retailer is among those imposing new purchase limits amid the ongoing shortage.

Pricing has moved sharply. A two-pack of Kirkland Signature five-quart full-synthetic bottles now sells for USD 58, up from about USD 30 at the same point a year earlier, KTNV reported.

The squeeze traces to refinery output decisions. KTNV reported that the shortage began in May as refineries prioritized producing more gasoline.

Samsung E&A announced a full-scale entry into the LNG plant market with the unveiling of its LNG Module Package at Gastech 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The company said the package is optimized for small and medium-sized LNG projects and modularizes key liquefaction plant processes. It combines Samsung E&A's proprietary modular technology with Honeywell Technologies' AP-SMR single mixed refrigerant liquefaction process.

Samsung E&A said the integrated, pre-engineered solution can reduce total project duration by around 20% across phases from initial development through full EPC execution.

The Queensland government has selected a joint venture led by Omega Oil & Gas as preferred tenderer for petroleum acreage in the state's onshore Taroom Trough.

The award covers the PLR2026-1-10 petroleum land release area. The landholding spans 1,138 square kilometres and adjoins the lower portion of Omega's wholly owned Canyon project, where current drilling is demonstrating a resource base according to the reporting.

The acreage sits on what the reporting describes as the highly prospective eastern flank and southernmost part of the trough.

Oil futures turned lower on Sept. 16, according to Petroleum News. WTI dropped $3.40 and Brent lost $2.92 the same day, the outlet reported.

The pullback followed remarks from U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who told CNBC on Sept. 15 that the East-West pipeline outage was a "brief and temporary interruption" that "will be measured in days," per Petroleum News.

Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras has signed production-sharing contracts for eight exploratory offshore blocks in Ivory Coast, extending its push into Africa, according to Bloomberg.

The blocks sit on what geologists call the equatorial margin, off the West African coast, where Petrobras will hunt for oil.

Petrobras has not disclosed the cost of the eight contracts, when drilling will start, or which blocks are prioritized.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a 90-day waiver temporarily raising the maximum on-duty driving time for truck drivers hauling gasoline and diesel to 16 hours within a 24-hour window, up from the standard 14-hour limit, according to The Hill.

The waiver took effect on Wednesday and expires on December 16, The Hill reported.

Eligibility is limited. In a release cited by The Hill, the Transportation Department said the waiver applies only to drivers in good standing and excludes anyone holding a conditional safety rating or an active out-of-service order.

Angola's minister of mineral resources, oil and gas, Diamantino Azevedo, reaffirmed on Thursday in Luanda that the country remains committed to attracting investment to the sector to halt the decline in production and promote national development, according to AllAfrica.

Separately, Angolan investor Zandre Campos has acquired a stake in Refriango, described by Billionaires Africa as the largest and best known beverage company in Angola, through his investment firm ABO Capital.

Economists are sharply divided on where oil prices head next, with forecasts submitted to the Bureau of Market Research and Unisa Economist of the Year Competition placing fourth-quarter Brent crude between about USD 65 and USD 95 a barrel.

The range reflects submissions from 44 private- and public-sector economists taking part in the competition. Rising oil prices can be critical drivers of headline inflation, and views on their trajectory remain far apart.

Professor Carel van Aardt, project lead for the competition, said the forecasts were less pessimistic than he had expected, and that economies appeared to be adapting to the Middle East conflict, treating it as a persistent condition rather than a short-lived shock.