Tuesday, 6 October 2026

Ukrainian drones struck two facilities at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine overnight on Monday, but the attack posed no threat to nuclear safety, according to the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation.

Alexei Likhachev, director general of Rosatom, said a driver delivering food for plant employees was killed in the drone attack.

Likhachev said the targets were a laboratory building and a radioactive waste processing plant at the site.

Idaho's average gasoline price fell to $4.95 per gallon, four cents below the prior week, according to AAA Idaho.

The decline contrasts with a rising trend recorded elsewhere. The American Automobile Association reported that regular gasoline in Monroe County averaged $4.75 per gallon as of Sept. 30.

That Monroe County figure was $1.65 per gallon higher than a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association.

The federal government raised the price of petrol by Re0.88 per litre on Monday while cutting high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs1.88 per litre, according to the Islamabad Post. The revision followed changes in international oil prices.

Petrol will now retail at Rs393.64 per litre, according to Sema Social. HSD will cost Rs397.76 per litre after the reduction.

Sabereen News, an Iraq-based outlet, cited new satellite imagery to report massive fires along the Saudi oil export pipeline, according to the news outlet of pro-Iranian factions in Iraq.

Newsquawk, which picked up the Sabereen report, said it was unclear whether the fires marked a new incident or damage carried over from an earlier reported Sunday attack on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline.

Bloomberg reported Monday that oil continued to flow through the East-West link, citing people who asked not to be identified while discussing private information. Bloomberg confirmed the conduit was briefly halted over the weekend because of the attack.

Climate advocacy group 350.org said Australia and Turkey should commit to coal phase-out dates and publish national roadmaps for transitioning away from fossil fuels. The two countries are co-presidents of this year's COP31 climate summit.

Australia and Turkey face criticism over their roles in the global coal supply chain and their near silence on a global agreement to move rapidly away from fossil fuels.

A three-day evidentiary hearing opens Oct. 7 before Louisiana regulators over a $12.9 billion power expansion Entergy Louisiana wants to build for Meta's Hyperion data center campus in Richland Parish, construction review online reported.

Entergy's plan centers on seven combined-cycle natural gas units with a combined capacity of roughly 5,278 MW, paired with three battery-storage projects and more than 250 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines.

Regulators will weigh whether to approve the generation, storage and transmission Entergy says it needs to cover the extra electricity load the campus would draw.

Much of the hearing turns on two questions the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) must resolve: how the new generation would run, and who pays for it.

Ireland will use its annual budget package to address high energy costs while trying to moderate spending growth, according to Global Banking and Finance. The total cost of Budget 2027 is expected to reach EUR 8.5 billion, with the full list of changes set to be unveiled on Tuesday, according to the Offaly Independent.

The package puts money behind household energy upgrades. Minister for Energy Darragh O'Brien confirmed that a boiler scrappage scheme went to Cabinet, allowing grants of up to EUR 14,500 to replace oil boilers with heat pumps or newer technologies, the Offaly Independent reported. A separate EUR 600 grant will let households install storage batteries as part of a solar package investment.

The spending side carries a tighter frame. Finance Minister Harris and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers pledged to keep spending increases below 6% next year, compared with an average of around 10% from 2022 to 2025, according to Global Banking and Finance. The budget day package is set to be less generous than a year ago.

Greenvolt Power has begun construction of a 600 MW/2.4 GWh battery energy storage system in Siedlce, Poland, according to ess-news.com.

The company expects the project to start commercial operations by the end of 2027, ess-news.com reported.

BYD Energy Storage will supply the battery technology for the Siedlce project, according to the same report.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the investment manager of Norway's oil fund, has committed EUR 1.2 billion, equivalent to about USD 1.34 billion, to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners' latest flagship renewable energy fund, CI VI, according to responsibleus.com.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is reportedly targeting EUR 16 billion in commitments for CI VI, responsibleus.com reported.

Coal India raised its average daily coal supply to power plants to 1.78 million tonnes so far in October, up from 1.63 million tonnes in September, according to The Hindu BusinessLine.

September power-sector dispatch totaled around 48.99 million tonnes, equivalent to an average of about 1.63 million tonnes per day, the report said.

Over the first six months of FY27, total coal offtake rose by 27.2 million tonnes, or 7.6% year-on-year, according to The Hindu BusinessLine.

Liberia's national oil company NOCAL and Nigeria-based LADOL signed a Joint Development Agreement to advance plans for an oil and gas logistics and shorebase facility in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, according to The New Dawn Liberia.

The agreement is intended to establish infrastructure supporting anticipated offshore drilling and to expand opportunities for Liberian businesses and workers in the petroleum sector, The New Dawn Liberia reported.

Under the deal, LADOL will act as NOCAL's technical lead partner for the proposed Buchanan Shorebase, covering the feasibility study, engineering design, construction and eventual operation.

The feasibility study is expected to begin within 45 days and run for approximately six months, according to The New Dawn Liberia.

Petronet LNG's board approved the appointment of Sanjay Kumar, Director (Marketing) at GAIL (India) Limited, as the company's next Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, according to psuwatch.

Kumar will take charge on May 13, 2027, when the post falls vacant, the company said in a stock exchange filing cited by psuwatch.

The board approved the appointment at its meeting held on October 2, 2026. The move followed a recommendation from Petronet LNG's Nomination and Remuneration Committee.

New Zealand's average price for 91-octane unleaded petrol reached NZD 3.505 per liter on Monday, according to Gaspy director Mike Newton, who spoke to Radio New Zealand (RNZ). That figure edged past the NZD 3.502 per liter recorded in April during the Middle East conflict, Newton said. In US terms, the Monday average worked out to about USD 1.96 per liter.

A weaker New Zealand dollar is driving part of the increase by making imported fuel more expensive and adding upward pressure on pump prices.

Toyota Motor launched a new version of its hydrogen-powered SORA fuel-cell route bus in Japan on October 5, according to IBTimes.

The new SORA offers a driving range of more than 300 km, according to Autoguideindia, which also reported roughly 10-minute hydrogen refuelling and upgraded safety and accessibility features. IBTimes reported that the range increased by about 100 km compared with the previous version.

Toyota and Isuzu Motors jointly developed the new SORA, using Isuzu's battery-electric full-flat bus platform combined with Toyota's fuel-cell system, according to IBTimes.

Brazil's Petrobras has signed a 22-year agreement to buy about 0.8 million tonnes of LNG per year from Cheniere Marketing LLC, according to business-news-today.com. The volume is supplied on a free-on-board basis.

Petrobras said the long-term contract is intended to reduce its exposure to volatile spot LNG markets and strengthen flexibility across its natural-gas portfolio.

The Cheniere agreement follows a separate Petrobras deal with Sempra Infrastructure covering 0.8 million tonnes per year over 20 years from the Port Arthur LNG project in Texas.

Analysts at the consulting firm ICF forecast that U.S. residential electricity rates could rise another 15% to 40% over the next five years and double by 2050, identifying power grid congestion as a root problem.

The strain on the U.S. electricity grid could sharply increase electric bills and hinder efforts to address climate change, according to reporting published by Skeptical Science and Naked Capitalism.

Power-line congestion has emerged recently as data centers proliferate and demand from electric vehicles, heat pumps and air conditioning grows.

U.S. transmission construction has stagnated at an average of 600 new miles per year since 2017.

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Transition Asia published a study on green direct reduced iron (DRI) economics, policy drivers and site feasibility in Andhra Pradesh, India. The findings were presented at a stakeholder workshop.

The report runs a techno-economic analysis of commercial-scale hydrogen-based direct reduced iron deployment in the state. It covers production pathways, renewable energy integration, infrastructure needs, costs, and the policy steps required to make green steel commercially viable.

The study prices hydrogen-based steel at USD 571 to USD 606 per tonne of crude steel. That sits above the USD 536 per tonne the study cites for blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steel.

The study identifies Andhra Pradesh as a candidate site for green steel manufacturing and exports. It points to the state's ports, renewable energy resources, industrial ecosystem and Integrated Clean Energy Policy, which spans renewable energy, green hydrogen, green ammonia, storage and transmission.

Scatec ASA and EDF power solutions have started construction of the 900 MW Shadwan onshore wind project in Egypt, according to solarquarter.com.

The project carries a total estimated capital expenditure of USD 716 million, solarquarter.com reported.

Shadwan will be built in phases, with the first phase expected to reach commercial operation by the end of 2027.

Once operational, the project is expected to generate about 4 TWh of electricity annually and avoid around 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to solarquarter.com.

The UK government sanctioned eight ships in a new package targeting Russia's efforts to maintain gas revenues and circumvent Western restrictions, according to Ship & Bunker.

The LNG tankers named in the sanctions notice include Chaivo, Portovyy, Aleksey Kosygin, Konstantin Posiet and Pyotr Stolypin, Ship & Bunker reported.

The sanctioned ships will be subject to UK shipping and trade restrictions.