Friday, 2 October 2026

Brent crude jumped 4.4% on Thursday to close at $102.31 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 2.7% to settle at $92.87 a barrel, according to the report by Event Registry.

The move followed a report that the U.S. was sending a third aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East.

U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal that Marine Corps ships and up to 10,000 additional troops were also being deployed to the region, according to Event Registry.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has put forward air permits that would clear construction of the Blue Marlin Offshore Port in the Gulf of America, sited off Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

Should the permits be finalized as drafted, the EPA said the terminal could move around 80,000 barrels of crude oil per hour, equal to roughly 605 million barrels a year.

Two draft permits make up the proposal: a Prevention of Significant Deterioration preconstruction permit alongside a title V federal operating permit.

The facility would rely on vapor-capture equipment, including a dedicated collection system and combustion units, which the EPA said would reach 99 percent vapor-capture efficiency.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) secured around 2 million barrels of Iraqi medium crude amid disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, according to Business Today. The cargo was reportedly bought at around USD 32 per barrel below the Dubai benchmark.

Refiners in India are chartering tankers rather than using their own to procure oil from Middle East suppliers and bring it through the waters of the Hormuz to the country's ports, according to Marine Insight.

Iraq is offering discounts of up to USD 37 per barrel, provided buyers supply their own ships to export the cargo to the destinations, Marine Insight reported.

JGC Corporation and Fluor Corporation received notice to proceed for Phase 2 of the LNG Canada export facility in Kitimat, British Columbia, after LNG Canada's final investment decision, according to JGC Holdings Corporation.

The Fluor-JGC joint venture was selected to deliver engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and commissioning for the Phase 2 expansion, according to Fluor Corporation.

JGC will recognize a USD 7.5 billion share of the contract in fiscal 2026, according to JGC Holdings Corporation. Fluor will recognize its own USD 7.5 billion share in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, according to Fluor Corporation.

Kenya's cost of living rose for a third consecutive month in September, driven mainly by food and transport costs. Annual inflation climbed to 6.8% in September, up from 6.6% in August and 6.5% in July, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

In Nigeria, rising petrol costs are spreading through transportation, food distribution, small businesses and household budgets, adding pressure on households already managing high living costs.

Petrol prices reached around NGN 1,400 per litre in Lagos and Abuja in September, while some filling stations in northern Nigeria sold the product for as much as NGN 1,500, according to Neusroom.

ConocoPhillips agreed to purchase 1 million tonnes per year of LNG from Venture Global under a 20-year sales and purchase agreement that starts in 2030, World Oil reported.

The contract gives ConocoPhillips additional U.S. LNG supply for its global portfolio.

Venture Global CEO Mike Sabel said the deal makes ConocoPhillips a long-term customer and signals continued demand for U.S. LNG.

The companies withheld the financial terms and did not name the Venture Global facility set to supply the volumes, according to World Oil.

Oman has hired Serbian engineering firm Energoprojekt ENTEL to steer the development and tendering of three new gas-fired power projects, the company said.

The mandate runs from concept design through site selection, and includes drafting tender documents and backing the competitive bidding process.

Oman's Integrated Gas Company, the state-mandated gas aggregator and shipper, is preparing an auction that would allocate natural gas to compressed natural gas (CNG) projects, extending supply to industrial users and others outside the pipeline network.

Bidders may each seek up to 200,000 standard cubic metres of natural gas per day, submitting both the volume in SCM per day and its energy equivalent in MMBtu per day.

The Nigerian Navy uncovered about 85,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil in 16 concealed pits at Allison in Rivers State, part of an operation to prevent the resurgence of illegal oil bunkering in the area.

In a separate joint operation, the Nigerian Navy and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) recovered 80,000 litres of stolen crude oil in the Niger Delta creeks. Three suspects were taken into custody following that operation.

TotalEnergies expects its oil and gas production to grow by more than 3% each year until 2030, driven by start-ups of new low-cost projects currently under development, according to baystreet.ca.

Beyond that horizon, the company is targeting annual production growth of between 2% and 3% from 2030 to 2035, according to brandiconimage.com.

Petrobras made a second oil discovery in its ultra-deepwater Morpho exploration well offshore Brazil, hitting another oil-bearing interval in the Foz do Amazonas basin, according to World Oil.

The latest find came in the Morpho well in block FZA-M-59 off the coast of Amapá, World Oil reported.

The additional oil-bearing interval was identified using electrical well logs, rock indications and fluid samples collected during drilling, according to World Oil.

Laboratory analysis of samples from the latest discovery remains underway, World Oil reported.

Middlesex County in New Jersey is suing ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute over climate deception, according to Inside Climate News. The filing follows earlier climate deception lawsuits brought by the state of New Jersey and the city of Hoboken.

The county's lawsuit alleges that the defendants' decades of climate deception exacerbated climate change impacts that are severely affecting the community and costing hundreds of millions of dollars, Inside Climate News reported.

Middlesex County has experienced at least 60 significant flooding events linked to coastal storms and extreme rainfall in recent decades, causing more than USD 500 million in property damage, according to Inside Climate News.

bp completed gas reinjection expansion and subsea intervention projects on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) Field, according to Offshore Magazine.

The company raised gas reinjection capacity on the Central Azeri platform by 20%, a change Offshore Magazine said supports improved recovery from existing wells.

bp also finished its first Caspian riserless light well intervention (RLWI) campaign, which provides access to subsea wells without conventional drilling risers, according to Offshore Magazine.

The Government of Canada listed the Pacific Link project as a Project of National Interest under the Building Canada Act on Oct. 1, 2026, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

Pacific Link is a proposed 1 million-barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline that would carry Alberta oil to Canada's west coast for export, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

The designation advances efforts to secure permissions needed to begin pipeline design and construction as early as Sept. 1, 2027.

The Project of National Interest designation places Pacific Link under a streamlined regulatory review process involving Pembina Pipeline, the governments of Alberta and Canada, and Trans Mountain, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

Partners behind the Argentina LNG project are aiming for a final investment decision on Nov. 26 for the 12-million-tonne/year development, according to Oil & Gas Journal, citing comments made during Argentina Week in Paris on Oct. 1.

The project would be developed by YPF SA, Eni SPA and XRG, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

The partners plan to deploy two floating LNG units offshore Río Negro province, each with capacity of 6 million tonnes/year, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

Iranian oil exports fell from around 2 million barrels per day before the war to roughly 220,000 to 255,000 barrels per day in August, according to FrontPage Magazine. The drop cut one of Tehran's main sources of foreign currency.

Senior Iranian government officials are increasingly acknowledging in public the scale of the economic pressure on ordinary households, FrontPage Magazine reported.

Against that backdrop, Brent crude was hovering around USD 97 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) stood near USD 90 a barrel, according to Polyester Time.

Rising diesel prices could add more than GBP 500,000 to the annual costs of Sanders Coaches, a Norfolk transport company, over 12 months compared with prices before the Iran war in February, according to owner Charles Sanders.

Diesel hit an all-time high of 199.18p per litre during the week covered by the reports. Prices have risen by 59p per litre, or just under 40%, since the outbreak of the Middle East war at the end of February.

Sanders said services are likely to be at risk of cancellation if the increased costs cannot be passed on, warning that routes are becoming unviable.

Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) has taken delivery of Energy North, an LPG/ammonia carrier built by HD Hyundai Samho in Yeongam, South Korea, according to Baird Maritime.

The 88,000-cubic-meter vessel is scheduled to enter service on October 2, 2026, according to GCC Business News. It is the first of six ships in Nakilat's program at the yard, comprising four LPG/ammonia carriers and two LNG carriers, according to Baird Maritime.

The dual-fuel vessel can run on LPG or conventional marine fuel and carry either LPG or ammonia, according to Baird Maritime.