Monday, 5 October 2026

Ukrainian attacks have disabled more than 51% of Russia's oil refining capacity, Ukraine's Defense Ministry reported on Oct. 4.

The ministry listed recent strikes on refineries in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kirishi, Perm, Ilsky, Saratov and Syzran, according to its report.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the Russian military had struck a data center and a logistics hub in Ukraine. The ministry said Geran drones targeted a Nova Poshta logistics center in Chernomorsk and a data center in Odessa.

The Anambra State Government is considering a modular refinery to expand gas processing and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production in the state, according to Nigerian News Direct.

Petroleum and Mineral Resources Commissioner Charles Ofoegbu said the proposed refinery would eventually lead to an LPG processing plant as the state develops its petroleum and gas sector.

The state is open to investors interested in setting up gas processing plants and is prepared to support prospective investors with access to gas supply for their facilities, Ofoegbu said.

A very large crude carrier operated by Iraq's state-owned Oil Tanker Company carried 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude through the Strait of Hormuz, the first time the company has run such a voyage in decades, its director general said.

Until now, Iraq loaded crude for buyers at Basra port and left onward shipping to them; this voyage instead took the oil past the waterway under the company's own tankers.

That change hands the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), Iraq's state oil marketer, control over the choice of destination and sales terms for the cargo.

Director General Ali Qais Abdul Jabbar said the shift lets SOMO take advantage of better sales and pricing opportunities.

African Terminal & Logistics Services is developing a petroleum terminal at Djibouti's Doraleh port to handle fuel shipments bound for Ethiopia, according to Ecofin Agency.

The facility will include equipment to load railcars directly onto the railway linking Djibouti and Ethiopia, with loading bays to handle tanker trucks.

Ethiopian media reported on September 27 that the first phase is scheduled to begin operations in June 2027, according to Ecofin Agency. That first phase will provide 288,000 cubic meters of storage capacity.

Diesel prices could fall below USD 2 a litre in the coming months as oil prices ease, according to energy expert Peter Linder, though tensions between the United States and Iran remain a major uncertainty.

Linder, a former oil and gas analyst, said oil could decline to about USD 85 a barrel from roughly USD 90 now if tensions in the Middle East ease.

He expects oil prices to keep falling in the coming weeks, but said the outlook could change quickly. Oil could return to well above USD 100 a barrel if the conflict between Iran and the United States escalates.

Heritage activists, including the Kakatiya Heritage Trust, are demanding the withdrawal of the proposed PVNR opencast coal mine at Venkatapur in Mulugu district, warning it could threaten the Ramappa Temple and Ramappa Lake.

The trust said the proposed mine would sit about 5 km from Ramappa and involve excavation to a depth of 300 metres, according to the Deccan Chronicle. It argued that the area has a complex geological structure with faults, fractures and joints, and that large-scale mining could potentially affect the temple and lake.

According to The Hindu, the trust acknowledged that reports assessed the immediate impact of blasting on the temple as low, but contended that repeated and periodic vibrations could have a cumulative effect on the nearly 800-year-old structure. The activists frame the opposition around the risk to the UNESCO-inscribed site and the adjacent lake.

Iraq's total revenues reached approximately IQD 39.09 trillion, nearly USD 30 billion, through the end of July 2026, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance.

The ministry disclosed the figure on Sunday.

Oil revenue accounted for about 78 percent of the country's total state resources over the period, according to the ministry.

The government has opened an investigation into alleged fraudulent land titles issued on the parcel earmarked for the Lamu refinery, Government Spokesperson Charles Owino said.

Owino said the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) acquired the site, and families who had been living there were compensated before the property was consolidated under a mother title.

About 90 families occupying the area when the port was being established received Sh1.4 billion in compensation, according to Owino.

After the transfer to KPA and the issuing of the mother title, fresh titles could not be legitimately created on the same parcel without subdivision, Owino said.

The main structure of China's first offshore carbon injection project has been completed, with the central platform at the Dongfang 1-1 gas field entering commissioning, according to CGTN.

The demonstration project is designed to inject captured carbon dioxide into underground formations to boost natural gas production, CGTN reported.

Once operational, the project will be able to permanently store more than 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, according to CGTN.

The project will mark the first large-scale offshore application of carbon injection technology in China, CGTN reported.

Iraqi and Turkish ministers discussed increasing Iraqi oil export capacity through Ceyhan and bringing Turkish firms into Iraqi oil and gas projects, according to iraqinews.com.

Khudair said the meeting was constructive, with talks centered on raising export capacity through Ceyhan and Turkish participation in Iraqi oil and gas projects, iraqinews.com reported.

The discussions follow an agreement Khudair signed with Turkey in early August to transport Iraqi crude through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to the port of Ceyhan, according to iraqinews.com.

That deal stipulates a minimum volume of 750,000 barrels per day for a one-year period, pending completion of a broader framework agreement, iraqinews.com reported.

The average U.S. regular gasoline price stood at $4.38 per gallon on Sept. 30, well above the $3.15 per gallon recorded at the same time a year earlier, according to AAA.

Crude oil prices have dipped back into the $90-per-barrel range, which lowered the national average, AAA said. Even so, overall gas prices remain the highest ever recorded for this time of year.

At the local level, the average price of self-serve regular gasoline in Riverside County dropped 1 cent on Sunday.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has pressed the Trump administration to accelerate the federal review of a proposed Algonquin gas pipeline expansion, Boston.com reported.

In a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Healey asked federal officials to set firm timelines for required reviews and permits, line up coordination across agencies, and commit resources to hold the project to schedule, according to Boston.com.

The expansion, which Healey's administration backs, could cut energy costs for 600,000 Massachusetts customers, her administration says. The project would widen the existing pipeline and route more natural gas into the state, saving customers an estimated USD 40 million a year, according to Boston.com.

Los Angeles zoning officials are weighing the shutdown of an oil production site, which would be a first for the city. The city was built on oil and remains home to more than 2,000 active wells.

Residents of the Jefferson Park neighborhood have fought for more than a decade to close 32 oil and gas wells at the Murphy drill site on West Adams Boulevard, run by Bakersfield-based E&B Natural Resources.

The Murphy drill site carries a history of air pollution violations that run from before its current operator took over through this year.

The Nigerian Navy disrupted two illegal refining sites and recovered about 58,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil and illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) in Rivers State, according to Vanguard.

NNS Pathfinder, a unit under Operation Delta Sentinel, carried out the operation at Okarki Community in the Ahoada West Local Government Area on October 3, 2026, Vanguard reported.

The naval team found nine dugout pits, storage containers and sacks holding the suspected stolen crude oil and illegally refined products at the sites, according to Vanguard.

A proposed transaction covers Lukoil's international portfolio of oil fields, refineries and petrol stations, which the company valued at around USD 20 billion, according to News18.

The deal is not final and would require approval from both the US government and the Kremlin.

According to News18, which cited a Times report, there is no indication that Kushner or Witkoff would personally profit from the proposed deal.

The Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority (LPRA) will officially launch Liberia's 2026 Offshore Direct Negotiation Licensing Round in Cape Town on 14 October 2026.

The LPRA has invited investors, exploration companies, financial institutions and industry stakeholders to the launch. The round opens access to prospective deepwater and ultra-deepwater acreage across Liberia's Liberia and Harper basins.

Liberia holds more than 50,000 line-km of 2D seismic and 31,000 square kilometres of 3D seismic data supporting its offshore licensing opportunities. That data is accompanied by new frontier imaging and technical studies strengthening understanding of the country's offshore petroleum potential.