Thursday, 24 September 2026

Engineers India Ltd (EIL) has secured a contract worth more than USD 450 million from Nigeria-based Dangote Group tied to a planned refinery in Kenya, the state-owned company said in a statement reported by the New Indian Express.

Under the agreement, EIL will act as project management consultant and engineering, procurement and construction management consultant for the Kenyan complex, according to the Financial Express.

The facility is to be built in Lamu on Kenya's coast and is designed to process up to 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, according to TV360 Nigeria.

India has imported 298 million barrels of Russian crude since the outbreak of the US-Iran war, according to Axis Bank Economic Research.

The bank's report argues the surge cannot be read as an arbitrage play on discounted barrels. An additional 1 million barrels per day flowing from Russia to India since March 2026 cannot be explained by price dynamics alone, according to Axis Bank Economic Research.

The framing points to supply displacement rather than pricing as the driver, with Indian refiners absorbing volumes that would otherwise have moved through disrupted trade routes.

India's dependence on imported crude climbed to 88.7% in FY26, even as domestic refiners broadened their sourcing network from 27 to 41 countries, according to a report cited by newkerala.com.

Yes Securities Institutional Equities said the ability to source crude flexibly and process diverse grades is becoming a central driver of profitability for Indian refiners, particularly against a backdrop of geopolitical disruptions and sharp regional price differentials.

The brokerage framed grade flexibility as a margin lever tied directly to the wider supplier base, per the report.

Brent crude fell below USD 100 per barrel after Iran offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on the condition that the United States lift its blockade and halt military actions, according to Cryptobriefing. Fortune reported oil trading at USD 99.27 per barrel at 6 a.m. Eastern Time on the Brent benchmark.

West Texas Intermediate slid toward USD 90 per barrel as hopes grew that the strait could reopen, according to Investing.com. Cryptobriefing later put Brent futures at USD 98.33 and WTI at USD 89.92, describing a two-week low tied to expectations of reopened transport routes and diplomatic progress with Iran.

The move followed the reduced-rate resumption of Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline and signals from Iran that it might conditionally reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week, Cryptobriefing reported.

Donald Trump claimed prices would decline once the conflict with Iran concludes, according to Cryptobriefing.

A Venezuelan delegation led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez opened talks with US counterparties on energy, debt and mining, according to officials and sources cited by Reuters. The delegation is in the country for the United Nations General Assembly.

The discussions are expected to lead to signed agreements tied to US President Donald Trump's plans to rebuild Venezuela's key industries, and to remove obstacles preventing Rodriguez's government from regaining control of overseas assets and accessing financing, the sources told Reuters.

Trump was scheduled to meet Rodriguez in New York on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, in what Reuters described as their first meeting since American forces captured then-President Nicolas Maduro in a January raid.

Venezuela announced in May that it would begin restructuring its sovereign debt and the debt of state oil company PDVSA, estimated by most analysts at between USD 150 billion and USD 200 billion.

The Nigeria Labour Congress has backed a demand by civil servants to reduce the country's petrol price to NGN 500 per litre, according to Tribune Online.

Leadership reported that public-sector workers gave the federal government until September 30, 2026, to address their demands, warning that rising hardship was fuelling tension among workers.

The workers said recent increases had pushed petrol prices to NGN 1,430 per litre or more in some locations, deepening the cost-of-living crisis, according to Leadership.

To bring the pump price down, the workers urged the federal government to establish an intervention fund for stakeholders in the oil sector, aimed at stabilising petrol prices and eventually reducing them to NGN 500 per litre, Leadership reported.

Saudi Arabia denied on Tuesday that it had purchased 25 oil tankers, calling an Iraqi allegation inaccurate, according to Reuters. The denial followed a parliamentary statement by Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed linking the alleged purchases to a jump in the cost of shipping Iraqi crude.

Mohammed told the session that Saudi Arabia had acquired the 25 vessels for an estimated USD 4.5 billion and said the deal was behind a steep rise in Iraqi oil transport costs, according to Reuters. He said per-barrel transport costs had climbed from USD 26 to USD 37.

Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry, in a statement cited by Reuters, said it had not bought the tankers and pointed to other drivers of higher shipping costs, including regional military conflict and disruption to navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude fell back below USD 100 a barrel on Tuesday as investors weighed a potential meeting between US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the UN General Assembly in New York, according to RFI.

RFI reported that stock markets advanced as oil retreated on speculation the United States and Iran could make progress this week on talks to end the Mideast war, with a technology rally fueled by enthusiasm around Meta's new AI agent.

Expectations that Saudi Arabia would quickly resume flows through its East-West pipeline added to the downward pressure on crude, per RFI.

Dangote Refinery reduced its petrol gantry price by NGN 25 per litre on Monday, bringing the rate to NGN 1,325 per litre.

The cut has yet to reach pumps in full. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, checks in Abuja on Tuesday found that some filling stations had not adjusted their petrol prices, leaving motorists paying the higher rates.

Ukrainian Defense Forces hit Russian oil refineries in Ufa and Samara, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as reported by Ukrinform citing a Facebook post from the General Staff.

At the Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim plant in Ufa, in the Republic of Bashkortostan, a fire broke out on the premises after the strike.

In Samara, Ukrainian drones struck Rosneft's Kuibyshev refinery overnight on 22 September, hitting two primary crude-processing units and triggering a large fire, according to Ukrainian drone and missile maker Fire Point.

Satellite images taken on the morning of 22 September showed several fire hotspots near fuel tanks in the eastern part of the Kuibyshev site. The plant has the capacity to process approximately 7 million tonnes of oil annually.

Average gasoline in New Jersey reached $4.42 a gallon on September 21, up from $3.12 a year earlier, according to AAA figures cited by northjersey.com.

The outlet attributed the increase to rising fuel costs tied to the U.S. war with Iran, and reported that businesses are passing the added expense on to consumers.

Landscaping, moving and trash collection providers are adding fuel surcharges to customer bills, northjersey.com reported.

Publicly traded producers accounted for just 2% of roughly 12,000 oil and natural gas companies operating in the Lower 48 states in 2025, yet delivered 68% of the crude oil and natural gas output, according to the EIA.

The concentration is starker in the two largest basins. In Appalachia, in the Northeast United States, public operators make up 1% of active producers but pump nearly five times as much oil and gas as private companies, the EIA said. In the Permian, straddling New Mexico and Texas, they represent 3% of active operators and collectively produce four times the volume of private peers.

The EIA attributes the production edge to massive scale, prime drilling locations, and advanced technologies.

Daily rates on the Baltic TD3C tanker route linking the Arabian Gulf to China crossed USD 1 million per day on Sept. 16, according to Nasdaq and Investing.com.

The move outpaced the broader energy complex. Tanker rates have climbed far faster than oil or gas prices, both outlets reported.

The strength on the Arabian Gulf-to-China leg is not staying contained. According to the same reporting, spillover from the elevated TD3C rates is lifting prices on routes far from the war zone.

The US is reportedly preparing a plan to ban diesel exports for 90 days, according to Semafor Net Zero, as the White House considers action on record-high fuel prices.

The proposal is dividing the cabinet. The Treasury secretary has privately lobbied against the idea, according to Politico as cited by Semafor, and the energy secretary called such a blunt tool one that definitely does not work, echoing the interior secretary.

S&P Global estimated that a full ban would drive US refineries to cut run rates by up to 10%. Semafor also reported that the ban would raise global diesel prices, rebounding on American consumers who depend on imports.

OQ Exploration & Production (OQEP) has contracted SLB to deliver the Bisat-B expansion production plant in Block 60, onshore in western central Oman, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

The expansion is expected to lift gross fluids handling capacity at the site to 548,000 barrels per day, SLB said. Completion is expected within 19 months.

SLB's scope covers design, engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning of the plant, together with four years of operations and maintenance support.

Perenco Brazil and Porto do Açu signed a letter of intent to develop an offshore electrification project supplying up to 60 MW of shore power to Perenco's Campos Basin platforms through an 80 km subsea cable, according to Offshore Engineer.

The first phase would deliver 35 MW to shallow-water units in the Pargo and Cherne clusters, displacing power currently produced on-site by turbogenerators.

Capacity could rise to 60 MW within four years of the initial commissioning.

Startup is targeted for the first quarter of 2028, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

TotalEnergies and AMNI have taken a final investment decision on the Ima gas development offshore Nigeria, a project targeting 350 MMcfd of production to supply the expanding Nigeria LNG plant, according to World Oil.

AMNI, a Nigerian energy company, holds 60% of the project, with TotalEnergies operating the remaining 40% interest. The field straddles the OML 112 and OML 117 licenses in shallow water near Bonny Island.

Development will rely on a single platform tied back to the NLNG facility through a 22-km pipeline, World Oil reported. First gas is scheduled for 2028, ramping to the plateau rate of 350 MMcfd, equivalent to more than 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The output is directed at NLNG's ongoing expansion, which is lifting liquefaction capacity from 22 million tonnes per year to 30 million tonnes per year.

According to World Oil, the platform will draw electric power from shore and operate with no routine flaring, alongside permanent methane detection and monitoring. TotalEnergies said all key contractors on the project will be Nigerian companies, and roughly 60% of the development workforce is expected to come from host communities.

Subsea7 has been awarded a sizeable extension to its Sakarya Phase 3 contract offshore Türkiye by Turkish Petroleum Offshore Technology Center (TP-OTC), according to a GlobeNewswire release from the contractor.

The additional scope covers work tied to commissioning the development's floating production unit in 2028, per the same release.

Project management and engineering will be led from Subsea7's Istanbul office, with work commencing immediately.

In a separate GlobeNewswire disclosure, Subsea 7 S.A. detailed share-related awards covering 826,231 performance shares, subject to the plan's performance conditions.

The US national average diesel price stood at USD 6.52 per gallon on September 14, 2026, according to figures from the US Energy Information Administration cited by The Conversation.

The Conversation reported that record-high diesel prices push up the cost of essentials, including food, transportation and other energy sources.

The outlet attributed the disruption in global oil production, refinery output and petroleum supply chains primarily to the US war with Iran, and to a lesser extent the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Rural Utah Infrastructure Coalition (RUIC), which represents eight rural counties in Utah, is weighing an investment of up to $54 million in two West Coast coal export terminal projects, according to IEEFA.

A commissioned report reviewed by IEEFA recommends directing roughly $43.2 million, or 80% of the funds, to the West Gateway coal export terminal in Oakland, California, and $10.8 million, or 20%, to a proposed terminal in Longview, Washington.

The same report questions the headline economics of the Oakland project. It estimates the terminal could cost between $430 million and $625 million, well above the $250 million figure cited by advocates, per IEEFA.

IEEFA also flags schedule risk, citing the report's finding that construction timelines are likely to run at least two to three years longer than currently stated.