Monday, 21 September 2026

Kazakhstan has lifted the coefficient used in its price-linked excise tax calculation for gasoline and diesel to 95% from 50%, according to a Tethys corporate update citing Government Resolution No. 816 adopted on September 11, 2026.

The amendment applies retroactively to transactions arising from September 1, 2026, Tethys said.

Tethys said it expects the higher coefficient to reduce downstream margins and cash generation in cases where realized selling prices do not rise enough to offset the added tax burden.

The company's board said the current tax and pricing mechanisms do not offer sufficient profit to justify the risks and costs of new exploration projects beyond those already anticipated, citing Kronos as an exception. On that basis, Tethys said it is unlikely to participate in forthcoming auctions for new licenses offered by the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auctioned 40 parcels covering 2,776 acres in Ohio's Wayne National Forest for $11.09 million during a quarterly oil and gas lease sale, according to Cleveland Scene. The tracts sit in Monroe and Washington counties.

Pennsylvania-based Apex Energy Operating III LLC took the largest share, leasing 25 parcels for $7.97 million, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported.

The BLM said the leases run for a term of 10 years and continue as long as oil and gas are produced in paying quantities.

Zimbabwe's maximum pump price for diesel climbed to USD 2.08 per litre from USD 1.95, according to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA). Blended petrol was capped at USD 2.06 per litre, up from USD 1.99.

The new caps took effect on September 17, 2026, ZERA said.

ZERA linked the review to shifting global market conditions, adding that geopolitical tensions continued to weigh on energy markets.

Mozambique's petroleum regulator has launched cost audits on the two offshore gas areas holding the country's largest LNG developments, scrutinising recoverable expenses booked by the operators of Area 1 and Area 4.

On Area 1, auditors will examine expenditures for 2025 and 2026. That block hosts the TotalEnergies-led Mozambique LNG project at the Afungi site in Cabo Delgado.

Area 4 faces a wider window covering 2024, 2025 and 2026. Its licence group operates Eni's Coral Sul floating LNG facility and the Coral Norte project, and holds ExxonMobil's planned Rovuma LNG development.

The reviews come after the regulator's remit was widened in June 2026, when Mozambique granted it stronger authority to verify recoverable costs, according to Ecofin Agency.

How much the regulator signs off matters for the treasury: operators deduct approved recoverable costs from production revenue before the state takes its share, so a tighter audit line directly shapes government receipts, according to Business Tech Africa.

Retail and wholesale fuel prices moved higher across three separate markets in mid-September, according to reports from CTV News, the New Zealand Herald, and Crypto Briefing.

In Saskatchewan, pump prices rose to just under $1.90 per litre, CTV News reported.

In New Zealand, AA principal policy adviser Terry Collins said a raft of factors were combining to push up the landed price of petrol, according to the New Zealand Herald.

In the United States, jet fuel prices in parts of the country surged toward levels last seen at the onset of the US-Iran conflict, Crypto Briefing reported. The Gulf Coast kerosene-type jet fuel spot price was reported at $4.705 per gallon as of mid-September.

Syria will offer cheaper diesel for heating, agriculture and industry after a fuel price hike triggered widespread protests, Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said, according to reporting cited by Event Registry.

Diesel produced by local refineries will be sold at 115 Syrian pounds per litre for heating, agriculture and other eligible users, Bashir said.

A second grade, which Bashir described as secured with the help of friendly countries, will be sold at 150 Syrian pounds per litre for productive and service sectors and heavy machinery.

The standard diesel grade will remain priced at 175 Syrian pounds per litre.

The rollback followed the most widespread protests since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, according to the reporting.

India imported 19.01 million tonnes of crude oil in August, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) cited by Event Registry.

The volume marked a drop of more than 11% from July. On a year-on-year basis, imports fell 3% from the August figure of 19.60 million tonnes reported for the prior year, per PPAC.

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has issued a request for proposals seeking an operator to design, finance, build and run a small-to-medium-scale LNG terminal at the Port of East London.

The project will be structured as a 25-year concession on a greenfield site in the port's West Bank precinct, according to TNPA. Bidders have until 22 February 2027 to submit proposals.

TNPA said the facility is aimed at niche LNG consumers and industrial users in South Africa's Eastern Cape, and is intended to diversify port infrastructure for future energy demand.

Brent crude traded 2.94% higher at USD 100.73 per barrel, according to Evening Standard. A separate Evening Standard report put Brent up 2.5% above USD 100 a barrel, with US West Texas Intermediate gaining almost 2% to about USD 95.

WTI futures later advanced 0.9% to USD 102.82 per barrel after an earlier intraday dip, according to Blockonomi.

Russia's ESPO blend bound for China surged past USD 120 per barrel during the week, Reuters reported Friday, citing trading sources and market data as relayed by The Moscow Times.

California diesel reached a record USD 8.39 per gallon on Friday, according to AAA data cited by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The national average sat at about USD 6.45 per gallon, while Oregon averaged approximately USD 6.83, AAA figures reported by KATU show. Both marks are record highs.

The price surge is squeezing truck drivers and could eventually feed through to Northwest consumer costs for groceries, cars and home-building supplies, according to KATU.

The US State Department is stonewalling efforts to determine how much Venezuelan oil revenue Washington has collected, according to the Financial Times, which reported that the department has failed to engage with a government watchdog or share audit reports with Congress.

Top Democrats are threatening to issue subpoenas to force disclosure of what happened to billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenues if their party wins November's midterm elections, the Financial Times reported.

Despite overseeing the country's oil exports for the better part of a year, the Trump administration has not disclosed how much money it collected or how much of that has made its way back to the interim government in Caracas, according to Times Now.

The Financial Times reported that in April, the State Department, which controls the Venezuelan funds, said the accounts holding the money were being audited by KPMG and that it would share the auditor's reports with Congress. It has not done so.

Nigeria's refined petroleum product exports reached USD 3.94 billion in the second quarter of 2026, according to Nairametrics.

That value marks a 148% year-on-year rise from USD 1.59 billion in the same quarter of 2025, Nairametrics reported, attributing the gain to continued expansion of the country's refining sector.

Quarter on quarter, exports climbed 66.2% from USD 2.37 billion in the first quarter of 2026, per the same source.

JPMorgan has withdrawn its baseline outlook for oil markets, telling clients it cannot forecast prices while the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran continues without a visible exit strategy.

The bank's analysts wrote that they "simply don't know how to model the endgame" of the conflict.

In the same note, JPMorgan pegged September Brent fair value at around USD 90, against prices near USD 106 cited in the note. The gap points to a conflict risk premium that the bank is declining to quantify further while the war drags on.

JPMorgan tied the abandonment of a central-case forecast directly to uncertainty over how the U.S.-Israeli confrontation with Iran will resolve.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) intends to move against holders of idle acreage under the Drill-or-Drop clause of the 2021 Petroleum Industry Act, with licence revocation on the table, Blueprint reported.

Operators awarded blocks in the 2020 Marginal Field Bid Round, the 2022/2023 Mini Bid Round and the 2024 Licensing Round fall inside the scope and must deliver on their work programmes or face losing the acreage, per Blueprint.

The US average diesel price hit a record $6.49 per gallon on Saturday, according to AAA.

At the state level, North Carolina's average diesel price reached a record $6.23 per gallon on Friday. California's average gasoline price stood at $6.08 per gallon, the highest of any US state.

The national average price of diesel in the United States climbed to about USD 6.44 per gallon on Friday, a record, according to AAA data cited by NBC Palm Springs. The outlet linked the rise to the continuing war involving Iran and its disruption of global energy markets.

Diesel underpins the country's transportation and distribution network, and NBC Palm Springs noted that sustained higher prices can raise the cost of moving food, manufactured goods and other products.

On the supply side, Anadolu Agency reported that Middle Eastern refinery outages and constrained flows through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea have cut both crude deliveries to refiners and product exports. Damage to Russian refineries and export restrictions have removed another major source of diesel from the international market, tightening supplies of crude and refined products, particularly diesel.

Anadolu Agency added that diesel is likely to remain the more vulnerable market through the winter, citing seasonal demand, low inventories and limited spare refining capacity.

Hyundai Engineering said its consortium with Hyundai Engineering & Construction has completed the first phase of Aramco's Jafurah Gas Processing Facilities Project in Saudi Arabia, according to TradeArabia.

The first phase carried a project value of USD 1.65 billion, according to TradeArabia.

Work ran for 45 months, from November 2021 to August 2025, according to TradeArabia.

The consortium's scope covered gas processing facilities, sulphur recovery units and the associated utility and offsite infrastructure needed to process output from the Jafurah unconventional gas field, according to TradeArabia.

The federal government in Islamabad reduced petrol prices by Rs1.65 per litre and high-speed diesel by Rs0.88 per litre, according to a notification reported by NeoNews.

After the adjustment, petrol will sell at Rs389.14 per litre and high-speed diesel at Rs424.04 per litre, NeoNews reported. The Petroleum Division said the revised rates take effect from September 19 and remain applicable through September 21.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) attributed the revision to movements in petroleum prices in the global market.

Elsewhere, the average price of a litre of diesel has climbed to 195.32p, according to AOL. That leaves the pump price short of the record 199.09p set in June 2022. RAC policy head Simon Williams said it is increasingly likely that the average price of diesel will reach a new all-time high the following week.

Nigeria's Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority said it does not fix petrol pump prices in the country's deregulated petroleum market, according to Premium Times. The regulator acknowledged the financial pressure created by a recent rise in petrol prices but said price levels are a function of the market rather than a regulatory decision.

In a statement reported by Punch, NMDPRA said Section 205 of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 provides for wholesale and retail petroleum product prices to be determined under unrestricted free-market conditions. Vanguard reported the regulator framing the same point as a matter of statute, saying pump prices are set by market forces and not fixed by the regulator under the Act.

NMDPRA said Sections 205(2) to 205(4) of the Act restrict government intervention in petroleum pricing to exceptional circumstances involving formally declared market failure, and that no such failure has been declared, according to Vanguard. Tribune Online carried the same wording, with the regulator stating that no market failure has been declared.

The authority said it retains powers under Section 216 of the Act to prevent anti-competitive practices, price-fixing and abuse of market dominance, according to Punch.

Saudi Aramco has told at least two European refining customers that they will receive no Saudi crude oil in October following the shutdown of the kingdom's East-West pipeline, according to a Bloomberg report on September 18 cited by Siasat and Etemaad Daily.

The suspension applies to all European buyers, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because the information is not public, as relayed by Middle East Monitor.

The cancelled volumes concern long-term contracts under which customers normally receive monthly crude supplies, according to Greek Reporter.

The move follows the shutdown of the East-West pipeline after an attack damaged sections of the route the previous week, according to ABNA. Saudi Arabia was forced to shut the pipeline after it was attacked by Houthi drones, according to Daily Sun.

Petrol pump dealers in several parts of India have warned they may stop accepting UPI payments above INR 2,000 from October 15, when a new Merchant Discount Rate takes effect on higher-value merchant transactions, according to The Logical Indian.

The new UPI framework provides for a flat INR 5 MDR on fuel transactions above INR 2,000, IBTimes reported.

The Madhya Pradesh Petroleum Dealers Association said its members would stop accepting UPI payments above INR 2,000 from October 16, according to Latestly and Asianet News. Asianet News reported the association attributed the planned restriction to a 0.4% MDR charge on such transactions and to petrol dealers' narrow profit margins.

Indian Oil Corporation pushed back on the circulating message. IOC said the claim that Madhya Pradesh petrol pump owners would stop accepting UPI payments above INR 2,000 was fake and misleading, ABP Live reported.