Tuesday, 22 September 2026

US Central Command reported Saturday that crude oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have exceeded 1 billion barrels in recent months while a US military blockade has been in place, Anadolu Agency reported.

Combined volumes of crude, cargo and liquefied natural gas crossing the waterway over the previous two weeks reached a six-month peak, CENTCOM said, according to Middle East Eye. Bloomberg cited a regional US commander who said the shipment volumes followed US naval protection and mine clearance work in the strait.

Admiral Brad Cooper put the number of commercial vessel transits aided by coordinated US protection at more than 2,000, Saudi Gazette reported. Mines have been removed from the strait's main transit lanes, opening passage to thousands of ships, Cooper said in the same report.

Isuzu has begun a battery-swapping trial for electric trucks in Thailand's logistics sector, according to electrive.

The pilot uses the Elf EV light-duty truck, electrive reported. Isuzu has brought in two Thai partners for the initiative: logistics operator V. Cargo and home-improvement retailer Home Product Center, known as HomePro.

The trial will run until March 2027, per electrive. Isuzu plans to use the findings to assess the commercial feasibility of battery swapping and to identify potential issues and operational limitations of the technology.

Georgia's Public Service Commission (PSC) traveled to Savannah to hear directly from coastal residents, according to Grist.

Many speakers focused on an OpenAI data center planned for Effingham County, just outside Savannah, and pressed for greater transparency around the project's contract with Georgia Power, Grist reported. Commenters also used the session to criticize the commission over power bills.

PSC chair Jason Shaw said Georgia Power needs to disclose more information about its data center contracts, according to Grist.

The US national average price for a gallon of gasoline reached USD 4.48 on Friday, according to AAA. President Donald Trump described higher pump prices as a very inexpensive price to pay for the war with Iran, saying "You have a little higher. It's a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done".

AAA data showed the national average rose roughly 17 cents over the past week, 40 cents over the past month and USD 1.27 from a year earlier.

Interviews with voters across several states, alongside a fresh round of national polling, found an overwhelming sense of frustration that the surge in gasoline prices, described as a direct result of Trump's war, is creating serious and sustained financial hardship for America's working class.

Adani Power Limited (APL) has begun work on a 3,200 MW ultra-supercritical thermal power plant at Chapar in Assam's Dhubri district, with the foundation stone laid by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The project carries an investment of about Rs 48,000 crore, according to reporting by Mangalorean, Ommcom News and Bizzbuzz, which described it as one of the largest private investments in the state's history. The Economic Times put the same figure at ₹48,000 crore for the 3,200 MW build in Dhubri district.

The plant will comprise four units of 800 MW each and is scheduled to be commissioned in phases beginning in December 2030, according to the same reports.

Adani Power says the project is likely to generate up to 20,000 jobs during construction and around 5,000 permanent and indirect jobs once operational. ANI reported the same construction and operational job figures.

Persian Gulf allies have shipped more than 1 billion barrels of crude through the Strait of Hormuz in the last couple of months, Admiral Brad Cooper said.

Cooper said the strait's primary transit lanes are clear of mines. A regional U.S. commander said U.S. naval protection and mine-clearance efforts were paying off in the waterway.

Cooper said forces under his command had assisted more than 2,000 commercial ship transits through the strait by providing coordinated protection.

Venezuela and TotalEnergies signed a memorandum of understanding that could enable the French company to return to operations in the South American country.

Under the agreement, TotalEnergies E&P New Ventures will participate in energy projects, according to a statement cited by World Oil.

The scope and value of the agreement were not disclosed.

Two regional courts in Germany have let stand sales bans on plug-in solar batteries that lack protection against electrical circuit overload, Berlin-based Indielux told ESS News.

The underlying rulings came in June from the regional courts in Bochum and Osnabrück, which blocked the sale of specific plug-in solar battery systems. The judges concluded the products fell short of applicable VDE standards, meaning they could not be sold as plug-and-play kits or advertised as installable without an electrician.

After an oral hearing, the Osnabrück court kept its ban intact in full, Indielux said. The Bochum decision was largely sustained and now carries legal force, per the company.

One of the two bans is legally binding, and breaching it can trigger penalties of up to EUR 250,000, according to Indielux.

Two battery projects are advancing in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, the coal-generation heartland of the state, RenewEconomy reported. One entered commissioning last week, and a separate developer used the moment to float a much larger follow-on stage.

At a community day held at Churchill Public Hall, Flow Power told attendees it wants to build a second battery next to its existing Bennetts Creek site, according to RenewEconomy. The follow-on facility, dubbed Bennetts Creek Stage 2, would reach up to 300 MW and 1,200 MWh, giving it four hours of storage duration.

RenewEconomy reported the Stage 2 proposal sits in an early planning phase, with environmental, noise, and cultural heritage studies underway and a development approval application being drawn up for Victoria's state government.

The commissioning milestone belongs to a different asset: the 350 MW, 1,400 MWh Wooreen battery, built with Banpu Energy Australia at Hazelwood North next to EnergyAustralia's Jeeralang gas plant.

SK Eternix and Bloom Energy have started commercial operation of the 31 MW Paju Eco Green fuel cell plant in South Korea, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The site runs on 94 solid oxide fuel cell modules, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Annual output is set at 258 GWh, enough to supply 81,000 homes, per the same report.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on Sunday, staging ground for a summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping later in the week, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Bessent said the discussions with He would "set the stage" for the Trump-Xi meeting on Thursday, and described his approach as "focused, fulsome, and constructive talks," per Semafor Net Zero.

The leaders' meeting is expected to cover tariffs, rare earth minerals, and AI, Semafor Net Zero reported.

Diesel prices at several California stations were displayed at USD 9.99 per gallon last week, the highest figure the pumps could show, according to Electrek.

Images circulating on social media appeared to show US filling stations out of diesel as fuel prices climbed to record highs, Electrek reported, though industry data did not point to any widespread shortage.

GasBuddy said its own data and its Pay with GasBuddy card network showed no high-level diesel outages, and that current outages remained within normal levels. The fuel-tracking firm noted it monitors outages closely, particularly during hurricanes.

Former US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) researchers, now with the nonprofit Environmental Protection Network, warned in a new report that actions taken by Donald Trump's EPA since January 2025 could raise the health risks tied to the data center boom, according to Grist.

The group counted at least 30 separate moves weakening pollution safeguards, permitting processes, and inspection norms over that period, Grist reported.

Among them, the EPA has proposed a rule change that would let developers start building data centers and their associated power plants before securing air pollution permits, per Grist.

The scale of the build-out frames the concern. Grist reported there are about 3,000 data centers in the United States, with more than 1,500 additional centers in planning.

The former researchers cited a study estimating that pollution linked to the AI boom may cause 1,300 additional deaths per year, according to Grist.

Sunwoda has presented a new 15C lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that it says can charge from 10% to 70% in five minutes and from 10% to 97% in nine minutes, adding roughly 60 miles of range per minute plugged in, according to Electrek.

Electrek reports those charging speeds were achieved at room temperature. At -20 degrees Celsius, Sunwoda's cell reportedly took 15 minutes to add 700 km, about 435 miles, of range while moving from 10% to 97% state of charge.

Sunwoda, which supplies batteries to Geely, Dongfeng and GAC, said the cells can meet warranty requirements of 10 years or 300,000 km with no cap on ultrafast charging sessions, according to Electrek.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Zhejiang and Beijing have developed a coumarin-linked covalent organic framework (COF) for photocatalytic water splitting, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The material prolongs charge separation by roughly 1,000 times, a property central to converting absorbed light into hydrogen rather than losing energy to recombination, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Hydrogen evolution reaches up to 531 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹, per the same report.

Two industrial projects in Huelva, Spain have mobilized about EUR 1.55 billion in combined investment, according to Hydrogen Fuel News: Moeve's Onuba green hydrogen project and Atlantic Copper's CirCular metals recycling plant.

The Onuba facility is planned to start with 300 MW of green hydrogen production capacity, with a possible 105 MW expansion, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. The plant will use electrolysis to produce renewable hydrogen.

Alongside it, the CirCular plant is designed to recover valuable metals from electronic waste, according to the same report. Hydrogen Fuel News frames the paired investments as combining renewable hydrogen production with critical-metals recovery in support of Spain's energy transition and circular-economy goals.

China's electric grid is the largest single source of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) emissions globally, even as the country leads the world in renewable energy expansion, according to Inside Climate News.

SF6 is 24,300 times more effective at warming the planet than carbon dioxide on a pound-for-pound basis, and once released it lingers in the atmosphere for 1,000 years, Inside Climate News reported.

China released 5,100 metric tons of SF6 in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, according to Inside Climate News.

The outlet also flagged a gap between official and estimated recycling performance. China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment has stated that domestic electric utilities recycle, or have the ability to recycle, 90 percent of their waste SF6. Inside Climate News estimated the actual recycling rate is substantially lower, at around 30 percent.

Pakistan ranks among the countries most exposed to liquefied natural gas supply shocks in the event of any closure of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report cited by Dawn.

The concentration of supply drives that vulnerability. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates together account for about 99% of Pakistan's LNG imports, which feed power generation, fertiliser production and industrial users, the report said. LNG makes up around 30% of the country's total gas supply.

To cushion that exposure, the Dawn report said Pakistan needs to accelerate investment in renewable energy, coal and domestic energy infrastructure to strengthen long-term energy security.

The US president signed into law a legislative package that cleared the House of Representatives, according to Archyde.

The framework hands the executive branch leverage to penalize third-party countries that keep buying discounted petroleum and gas from sanctioned regimes, per Archyde.

Archyde characterizes the move as a shift by Washington from direct embargoes toward coercive trade measures aimed at the secondary trade in Russian energy.

Iraq has formally asked OPEC to raise its production baseline to 6 million barrels per day, according to a report carried by Event Registry citing coverage of the request.

The request would lift Iraq well above its current OPEC+ production ceiling of 4.431 million barrels per day set for September and October.

Pakistan is leaning on Chinese battery manufacturers to underpin a national target of 90% clean energy in its electricity mix by 2035, according to Daily Times.

Muhammad Imran, Pakistan's Trade and Investment Counsellor in Guangzhou, told an audience in Shenzhen that battery storage is not optional for the country. "It is a core component of our energy security," he said, according to Daily Times.

Commercial links between the two sides are already forming around lithium-ion cells, storage systems and EV charging. Daily Times reported that Pakistan's Saigol Group and China's Hebei Juhang Energy Technology Group signed a memorandum of understanding in June covering advanced lithium-ion batteries, energy storage systems and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

A separate technical exchange meeting in Karachi brought together representatives from I.A Energy Solution, Huizhou Baimingcheng Electronics Co., Ltd. and Ewatte Energy to discuss developments in lithium battery technology and energy-storage systems, according to a Medium post carried through Event Registry.

AWS launched Agentic Grid Planning on AWS on September 17, 2026, a program giving utilities access to specialized AI agents intended to accelerate interconnection studies, according to Event Registry.

Duke Energy, the first collaborating utility on the program, has cut data preparation work from two weeks of manual effort to a matter of hours, Event Registry reported.

The agents coordinate study workflows across utilities' existing tools, handling data preparation, analysis execution and task sequencing. Engineers direct the studies, review versioned audit trails and retain responsibility for all final engineering decisions.

Iran's oil loadings fell to around 220,000 to 260,000 barrels per day in August, according to cryptobriefing.com. That is down from between 1.7 million and 2.0 million barrels per day earlier in 2026, the outlet reported.

The drop is attributed to renewed U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade, which cryptobriefing.com says have sharply cut Iranian oil production and significantly affected the country's export capabilities.

President Donald Trump is set to meet Delcy Rodríguez in New York, in an encounter the White House confirmed last Friday.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday during the UN General Assembly in New York.

The encounter will be brief and informal, without formal delegations or an agenda.

A bipartisan group of 31 senators has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to move quickly on releasing Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds once they become available on Oct. 1, according to The Maine Wire.

The effort was led by Susan Collins, Jack Reed and Lisa Murkowski, who sent the letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sept. 17, per the same report.

The senators framed the request around household conditions heading into the cold season. "Given the extraordinary pressure consumers will face this winter, we ask that you make this distribution well before the deadline," they wrote, according to the Bennington Banner.

Federal law requires HHS to distribute at least 90% of the available LIHEAP appropriation by Nov. 1, The Maine Wire reported.

Oil steadied as traders monitored Middle East supply risks and intensified diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran war, according to Livemint.

Brent traded near $104 a barrel after a three-day decline, while West Texas Intermediate was below $100, Livemint reported.

In equity-linked oil exposure, the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil fund's share price moved above its 200-day moving average during Friday trading. The fund's 200-day moving average stood at $41.73, and the shares traded as high as $53.15.

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was wrong to argue that the Strait of Hormuz would be worthless in two years, according to Moneycontrol.

Al-Kaabi directly rebutted Bessent's projection on the strategic waterway's future relevance, Moneycontrol reported.

Separately, Bessent has been defending the stability of the American government-bond market, pushing back against pessimistic assessments that have driven long-term borrowing costs to highs, according to Archyde.

Petrobras said its board approved the company's participation in a new Brazilian government subsidy program for diesel oil producers, according to reporting relayed by Bluewater Healthy Living.

The subsidy is set at R$1 per litre of road diesel, equivalent to about USD 0.19, and is valid for 30 days, according to Rio Times.

The measure can be extended for a further 30 days and stacks on top of an existing subsidy of 1.12 reais per litre, per Bluewater Healthy Living.

Rio Times reported that Petrobras raised its wholesale diesel price by R$1, or about USD 0.19, while the federal government is financing a matching discount. The net price to distributors therefore stays unchanged.

Google will invest at least EUR 13 billion, about USD 15.1 billion, in artificial intelligence infrastructure in Finland over the next two years, its largest European commitment to date, according to Yahoo Finance.

The spending is anchored by a 22-year power agreement with Finnish utility Fortum, Yahoo Finance reported. Under the contract, Google will purchase up to 50% of the electricity generated by the Loviisa nuclear plant to supply its data-center operations.

The Fortum contract is Google's first nuclear energy deal outside the United States, per Yahoo Finance. The 22-year term gives the company long-term visibility on a critical input for AI workloads.

Capital spending by the 30 largest publicly traded exploration and production companies in the United States dropped 49% year over year in 2025, according to EY.

The pullback did not translate into lower barrels. Big Oil producers lifted output despite the spending cut by squeezing more from each well, deploying new drilling technology and rotating capital toward shorter-cycle, high-return assets, per the same reporting.

Chord Energy said a subsidiary has agreed to divest its non-operated Marcellus assets for USD 550 million in gross consideration, according to a September 16 announcement reported by Yahoo Finance and Insider Monkey.

The company has already received a USD 55 million deposit on the transaction, with closing expected in the fourth quarter subject to customary conditions, per the same reporting.

Completing the sale would leave Chord Energy's producing portfolio concentrated entirely in the Williston Basin, according to Insider Monkey. The operator expects annual capital requirements to decline by roughly USD 25 million once the Marcellus exit closes, per Insider Monkey.

Diesel at 236 UK petrol stations is already priced above £2 per litre, with a further 633 forecourts charging 199.9p per litre, according to PetrolPrices data.

PetrolPrices says almost 10% of UK forecourts are either selling diesel above the £2 threshold or sit one price increase away from it.

The average UK diesel price has reached 193.5p per litre, while the supermarket average stands at 190p per litre, PetrolPrices data shows.

The rise is being driven primarily by higher wholesale costs. Wholesale diesel has climbed by more than 12p per litre during the month, with supply constraints and renewed Middle East tensions lifting the cost of middle distillates.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced an emergency 90-day waiver for gas and diesel truck drivers, according to WWLP.

Under the waiver, drivers hauling gasoline and diesel may operate for up to 16 hours within a 24-hour window, up from the 14-hour limit that applies under normal conditions, SGT Report said.

The 90-day federal waiver is set to expire on Dec. 16, according to WWLP.

ExxonMobil is reportedly nearing a preliminary deal to return to Venezuela, according to reporting cited by Insider Monkey.

Reuters reported that Exxon has shown interest in the Petromonagas heavy oil project in the Orinoco Belt, along with areas of the adjacent Carabobo block.

The discussions remain at an early stage and could still collapse or slip, according to the reporting.

Indiana Supreme Court justices sketched a possible middle-ground ruling in a dispute over a Duke Energy Indiana gas project, according to reporting by the Pharos-Tribune and CNHI News. The outcome could upend precedent that allows advocacy groups to sue on behalf of their members.

At issue is Duke's request to build two natural gas-fired units at the existing Cayuga Generating Station in Vermillion County, in western Indiana, per CNHI News.

Duke argues that the Citizens Action Coalition lacks standing, contending the group does not have a direct enough connection to the matter to qualify as a plaintiff, according to CNHI News.

The Citizens Action Coalition and Vote Solar opposed Duke's use of construction-work-in-progress financing, arguing the mechanism would force customers to pay higher prices before the proposed gas units come online and deliver any electricity, CNHI News reported.

A water leak from the Parbati-II hydropower project flooded areas near Rella village in Himachal Pradesh's Kullu district, damaging houses and agricultural fields and forcing residents to flee, according to the Times of India.

Water carrying muck and debris from a project dumping site moved downhill into Palchara village, the Times of India reported.

Approximately 15 families suffered significant damage when water and debris entered their homes, local residents told ETV Bharat.

The Kullu administration has ordered an inquiry into the flooding under the chairmanship of the Sainj Tehsildar, the Times of India reported.

Chevron plans to more than double the number of oil rigs it operates in Venezuela as part of a five-year output growth plan, CFO Eimear Bonner told a Barclays conference on September 8.

The rig expansion accompanies a recent announcement that Chevron's joint venture partnerships in Venezuela would invest more than USD 7 billion to more than double oil output to 600,000 barrels per day by 2031.

Chevron's three Venezuelan joint ventures currently produce around 290,000 barrels per day, all of which is exported to the United States.

ExxonMobil and its partners have awarded $1.1 billion in pre-investment contracts for the Rovuma liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado region.

The awards move the venture closer to a final investment decision on a development expected to involve roughly $30 billion of investment in the southeastern African country.

Separately, QatarEnergy said damage to LNG Trains 4 and 6 totals 12.8 million tons per annum of production, representing approximately 17% of Qatar's exports.

At a resilience forum in Taipei on Saturday, foreign representatives from the UK, EU and US said rising Chinese maritime activity could shift the operating environment around Taiwan and recommended stronger energy and critical infrastructure resilience, according to Nikkei Asia as cited by Taiwan News.

British representative Ruth Bradley-Jones told the forum that maritime activity around Taiwan had climbed sharply from a year earlier, putting the increase at "double or triple," per Nikkei Asia.

EU representative Lutz Gullner said Taiwan remains heavily reliant on imported energy and other resources.

Speakers at the forum said a blockade or quarantine could cut Taiwan's access to fuel and other essential commodities, pointing to reserves and alternative supply arrangements as mitigants.

Cheniere Energy completed Stage 3 of its Corpus Christi liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Texas on August 28, 2026, according to Weekly Blitz.

The expansion, sited in San Patricio County near Corpus Christi, adds approximately 3.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of LNG production capacity, Weekly Blitz reported.

Rural electrification projects in Kenya are extending power lines into villages across Kericho, Nandi, Busia and Kwale, connecting households, schools, health facilities and markets, according to Business Today.

The outlet reports that the arrival of grid power is displacing kerosene lamps, candles and other costly energy sources that rural households had long relied on.

Business Today attributes several social effects to the new connections: children can study for longer hours, small businesses can extend operating hours, and communities gain improved access to essential services in areas that have lagged urban centres.

China's crude oil imports from Russia reached 11.2 million tonnes in August, a 41% year-on-year rise and a 23% gain from the previous month, according to Archyde. That volume was equivalent to 2.64 million barrels per day.

Over the first eight months of 2026, China's purchases of Russian oil totaled 77.65 million tonnes, an 18.1% increase, TASS reported.

A 2,800-acre solar farm has been proposed in Oxfordshire, with a footprint close to the size of Heathrow Airport, according to the Oxford Mail.

The project, named Cearn Solar Farm, holds a grid connection offer of up to 500 MW and could power the equivalent of up to 143,000 homes annually, the Oxford Mail reported.

Local councillor Ron Batstone, a Liberal Democrat, said he was worried about the effect of such a large project on the landscape and local villages.

No planning application has been submitted, with public consultation expected in early 2027.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence forecasts a uranium deficit equal to 18% of demand in 2027, according to Stockhead.

A joint report from the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency says the global uranium sector is responding to growing interest in new nuclear capacity, but significant and sustained investment will be required to convert existing resources into future supply, as reported by Green Building Africa.

The same report projects that annual global uranium requirements could reach approximately 84,800 tonnes under a lower nuclear growth scenario and 143,900 tonnes under a higher scenario by 2050.

Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad has asked Italian commercial companies to explore and extract oil and gas resources in the country's coastal areas, according to the Daily Sun.

The invitation was made during a courtesy meeting with Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Antonio Alessandro at the speaker's office on Sunday, tob.news reported. The two sides discussed strengthening parliamentary and economic cooperation alongside the energy overture.

Discussions centered on oil and gas exploration and well-drilling in Bangladesh's coastal region, framed as a step to deepen energy cooperation between the two countries, according to tob.news.

Coal inventories at India's thermal power stations dropped to 22.9 million tonnes on September 19, equivalent to seven days of fuel cover and 39% of the normative stock, according to Business Standard citing daily data.

The number of plants running critically low on coal rose to 74 as of September 19, up from about 60 the previous week, based on Central Electricity Authority data cited by Business Standard and the Economic Times. The threshold captures stations holding less than 25% of required inventory or fuel for fewer than three days.

Peak power demand crossed the projected 271 GW in September, a level the Economic Times described as unusually high for the month, driven by cooling and irrigation load after a deficit monsoon.

Crisil analysts told Business Standard and the Economic Times that the drawdown appears to be a temporary logistical issue rather than a sign of structural supply constraints.

World and business leaders convening in New York are confronting climate costs, higher energy prices, and the human toll of this summer's heat waves, wildfires, and a catastrophic flood in Nepal, according to reporting carried by the Houston Chronicle, PBS NewsHour, and KSAT.

Experts and activists told those outlets that two forces should reshape the climate discussion at this year's gathering: the rise of energy-hungry artificial intelligence and data centers, and higher fossil fuel prices tied to wars in Iran and Ukraine.

U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said energy-intensive AI is driving up planet-heating pollution from coal, oil, and gas while pushing energy costs higher for households and businesses.

Stiell also said energy shortages caused by the Iran war have cost American consumers more than USD 100 billion in higher fuel prices.

Indian Oil Corporation's board has approved an investment of Rs 2,448.70 crore to build and operate a 424.65-km natural gas pipeline linking Kochi in Kerala with Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, according to a regulatory filing reported by Bizzbuzz.

Reuters-tracked coverage via Moneycontrol put the outlay at 24.49 billion rupees, equivalent to USD 255.6 million, and confirmed the southern India route from Kochi to Thoothukudi.

The Economic Times reported the project length at 424.65 km connecting the two cities.

According to The Hindu BusinessLine, the Kochi-Kanyakumari-Thoothukudi Pipeline will have a system capacity of 6.84 million metric standard cubic metres per day, inclusive of common-carrier capacity.

At least 1.71 million standard cubic metres per day of that throughput will be offered as common-carrier capacity, per the company's regulatory filing cited by The Hindu BusinessLine.

Nigeria has commercially launched a USD 300 million Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) Fund to mobilise investment in off-grid and distributed renewable energy projects and widen electricity access, according to New Telegraph.

The launch moves the vehicle from structuring into active capital deployment, creating a dedicated financing platform for mini-grids, standalone solar systems and other distributed renewable energy projects across the country, New Telegraph reported.

Ripples Nigeria reported that the fund was launched by the Federal Government and its development partners to accelerate off-grid electricity and distributed renewable energy projects nationwide. It is aimed at communities and businesses that remain inadequately served by the national grid.

The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and Africa50, a specialist Africa infrastructure investor, co-manage the fund, according to Engineering News. Ripples Nigeria reported that the joint management structure is designed to attract both public and private capital into mini-grids, standalone solar systems and other decentralised power projects.

The World Bank has committed an initial USD 25 million to the platform through the International Development Association (IDA), as a founding partner, according to New Telegraph and Ripples Nigeria.

Nigeria's Federal Government has no plan to raise electricity tariffs, Power Minister Joseph Tegbe said, according to Punch.

Tegbe made the statement at a media parley in Abuja marking his first 100 days in office, a period covering June 8 to September 16, Punch reported.

Blueprint, reporting the same position, framed it as no immediate plan to increase tariffs.

India's core sector output growth slowed to 4.8% year-on-year in August 2026 from 5% in July, according to provisional government data reported by The Economic Times. Newsbytes described the reading as a three-month low.

The Economic Times reported that the deceleration reflected contractions across energy-related sectors and an unfavourable base.

Coal output fell 3.8%, crude oil production declined 3.6%, and natural gas contracted 4.9% year-on-year, according to CNBC TV18. The same data showed fertiliser production dropped 12.4%.

Cement and electricity carried the aggregate figure. Cement production rose 12.5% year-on-year in August, easing from 12.7% in July, The Economic Times reported. Electricity generation grew 11.6%, up from 8.4% the previous month according to the same source. CNBC TV18 also recorded the 12.5% cement gain and 11.6% electricity rise for the month.

The European Commission has proposed a common EU rating scheme for data centres, aimed at increasing transparency on their energy use and supporting their sustainable integration into Europe's energy system.

According to the Commission, the scheme will apply to individual data centres with a capacity above 500 kW. The first sustainability labels for individual facilities are expected to be displayed in 2027.

As reported by Anadolu Agency, the ratings would assess whether facilities reuse the heat produced by their equipment, add clean energy supplies and adjust their electricity use to ease pressure on power grids.

Agence Europe reported that the label is intended to increase transparency regarding data centres' energy and water consumption.

U.S. equities rallied on Monday as oil prices fell sharply, with the Nasdaq Composite closing at a record high of 27,122.09, according to bbntimes. It was the index's first record finish since June.

U.S. crude dropped about 3.5% to around USD 96.76 a barrel, while Brent crude fell roughly 2.9% to around USD 100.85 a barrel, according to Quartz. The same report attributed the equity open to declining oil prices and easing Treasury yields.

Futures had signaled the move before the bell. At 7:09 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 0.78%, S&P 500 futures gained 0.67% and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 1.04%, according to the Economic Times.

By the close, the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.3%, its best single-day performance in recent memory according to Rolling Out. The S&P 500 added 1.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 0.8%, snapping a run of three straight weekly losses for the blue-chip index, the same outlet reported. The Motley Fool put the S&P 500 gain at 1.49% and the Dow gain at 0.71%.

Aliko Dangote said the ongoing initial public offering of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals is targeting 10 million shareholders, according to Punch. The chairman told reporters the company had already raised the money it was seeking through the offer, and that the exercise was now aimed at spreading wealth across the continent.

The share sale was designed not only to attract Nigerian investors but also to broaden ownership of the refinery across Africa, Hallmark News reported.

Dangote said the facility will process 1.4 million barrels a day by the first quarter of 2029, according to Bloomberg.

The group also plans to take its fertiliser business public in 2028, Naija News reported, citing Dangote. Dangote Fertiliser operates a USD 2.5 billion plant in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, with annual production capacity of about three million tonnes of urea.

Indian refiners are looking for alternatives to Russian crude for November delivery after the United States enacted a sanctions law that could expose buyers of Russian oil to fresh tariffs, according to a Bloomberg report cited by Investing.com.

The Hindu BusinessLine reported that refiners eyeing November cargoes could scale back Russian purchases after the sweeping US sanctions bill was signed into law, raising the threat of new punitive tariffs.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India would review the legislation before responding. "The details are now emerging. We will study them and discuss the matter at an appropriate time," he said, according to Moneycontrol. OMMCOM News carried the same remarks from Goyal on India's approach to the new US law targeting buyers of Russian oil.

The 100% tariff referenced in coverage of the law is the maximum permitted under the statute rather than an automatic duty, OMMCOM News reported.

The US national average gasoline price rose 18.5 cents per gallon over the past week, reaching $4.44 on Monday, according to GasBuddy. AAA's national average stood at $4.47 per gallon, according to reporting on the same day.

GasBuddy said prices climbed in virtually every state, with 45 states recording increases of more than 3 cents per gallon. The Great Lakes region led the move, with Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin all up more than 30 cents per gallon on refinery issues, according to GasBuddy.

Oil prices fell on Monday as investors focused on a rebound in Saudi Arabian shipments, shrugging off continuing Houthi attacks and heightened Middle East tensions, according to Livemint.

Brent crude futures dropped 0.78%, while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.89%.

Saudi oil exports have recovered to just over 4 million barrels per day so far in September, after slumping to 2.4 million barrels per day in August, provisional data from analytics firm Kpler showed.

Houthi attacks on Saudi Aramco's East-West pipeline prompted the state energy company to increase exports through the Strait of Hormuz this month and next, after halting some shipments through Yanbu.

Halliburton has signed memorandums of understanding with Eneva and WESCA covering oil and gas project work in Venezuela. Both deals are non-binding, per Oilprice.

With Eneva, a Brazilian energy firm, the oilfield services company will jointly scout and pursue development prospects in the country.

The WESCA arrangement covers field evaluation and development planning inside Venezuela.

More than 140,000 home batteries dispatched power to California's statewide grid during extreme heat on September 9, 2026, matching the capacity of a large power plant.

Sunrun and Tesla coordinated 580 MW of residential battery capacity for the event, combining 517 MW from Tesla Powerwalls with 63 MW from additional batteries.

The California Energy Commission and utilities requested the discharge, and the two companies drew from customer batteries across a three-hour evening window to widen the grid's operating margin and push real-time energy prices lower.

Tenaga Nasional will allocate MYR120 million to MYR150 million to absorb additional household fuel costs from September through December 2026. The utility is shouldering charges that would otherwise pass through to residential bills under an expanded subsidy exemption.

The allocation covers more than eight million domestic users consuming between 600 kWh and 800 kWh of electricity per month. The expanded exemption applies to the monthly automatic fuel adjustment, the retail charge, and sales and service tax.

RHB Research estimated that the allocation would represent about 2% to 3% of its forecast for Tenaga Nasional's financial-year 2026 earnings, according to analyst Max Koh. On that basis, the absorbed cost is a limited hit to the utility's full-year profit line even as it removes a tariff pass-through mechanism for the covered consumption band over the four-month window.

Haffner Energy has launched SB-HEFA, a process that applies its proprietary thermolysis technology to convert solid biomass directly into liquid for renewable diesel and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), bypassing syngas, according to a GlobeNewswire release.

The company said the feedstock for SB-HEFA is available at less than 20% of the cost of the oils used in conventional HEFA and HVO pathways.

Haffner Energy estimates that the capital expenditure of an SB-HEFA facility would be approximately one-third of that required for a solid-biomass-to-liquid conversion chain based on Fischer-Tropsch or methanol synthesis, while delivering improved energy efficiency.

The New South Wales government has opened consultation on a proposal to establish Australia's first mandatory solar panel recycling scheme, according to PV Magazine.

Under the draft product stewardship scheme, solar manufacturers and importers supplying regulated photovoltaic (PV) panels into the state would be required to help fund collection, recycling and resource recovery, PV Magazine reported.

The stated intent is to ensure valuable solar panel materials are recovered, reused and recycled rather than dumped.

Submissions on the draft regulation and issues paper are open until 16 November, per PV Magazine.

The cumulative United States solar fleet stands at 299.4 GWdc spread across more than 6.2 million installed systems, according to PV Magazine.

PV Magazine reports that operating solar capacity in the country is now sufficient to power more than 50 million American households.

The domestic industry installed 11.4 GWdc of new generating capacity in the second quarter of 2026, per PV Magazine. That quarterly total marked a 45% increase from the same period a year earlier and a 43% step-up from the first quarter, according to PV Magazine.