The European Union paid sharply more for imported oil in the second quarter of 2026 without buying more of it. Eurostat’s release, dated September 22 and surfaced in this window’s feed pool, puts the value of EU petroleum oil imports up 55.8 percent against the 2025 monthly average, while volumes were mostly stable at 36.7 million tonnes a month, up 1.2 percent. LNG import value rose 4.1 percent on volumes down 5.6 percent, and pipeline gas imports rose 18.5 percent in value and 3.4 percent in volume. The main petroleum suppliers were the United States at 18.8 percent, Norway at 14.3 percent and Kazakhstan at 13.4 percent; the United States supplied 63.2 percent of EU LNG, with Russia still second at 17.3 percent. Across all energy products, import values rose 39.3 percent year on year on volumes up 0.4 percent, and Eurostat attributes the gap primarily to prices.
US natural gas inched up on colder weather and higher flows to LNG export plants, Bloomberg reported on Monday, a small move against Monday’s settlement in the market tables of 3.01 dollars per million British thermal units, down 1.6 percent on the day and 8.35 percent on the week. Maersk completed the world’s largest ethanol bunkering operation in Singapore, Marine Insight reported, a marine fuel milestone carried here on its headline. In the Federal Register for October 20, the Department of Energy published authorizations for certain activities at liquefied natural gas plants and a notice that Texas LNG Brownsville has requested an extension of its export commencement deadline, while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission published a draft policy statement on efficient environmental reviews of natural gas project applications.
USDA items in the pool were funding notices rather than market data: the department is accepting letters of interest for 175 million dollars available under the Affordable Rural Cooperative Energy Program, and announced an 8 million dollar investment to support cooperatives and rural prosperity. In Zambia, copper rod exports are under way at the Chibombo multi facility economic zone, the Lusaka Times reported, a small value added step for a major copper producer that mostly ships concentrate and cathode. In Nigeria, Econet InfraCo reported cutting diesel costs by 30 percent with AI based fuel management, a data point on how diesel prices at record levels are forcing efficiency spending across African infrastructure operators.