Weekly Energy Market Recap: Sep 18 - Sep 25, 2026

Key Takeaways

• BP studied, then abandoned, a bid for Devon Energy's Eagle Ford acreage — an asset TPH Research valued at roughly $4.5 billion — according to Reuters reporting carried by BOE Report and Oil & Gas 360.
• Rystad Energy modeled Venezuelan crude output climbing to 1.8 million bpd by 2030, up from roughly 1 million bpd currently, as majors and new entrants pile into revised contracts, OilPrice.com reported.
• Hormuz tanker traffic has collapsed to a fraction of pre-crisis levels, pushing very large crude carrier rates past $1 million a day and US diesel to record highs, according to Investing.com.
• Europe's benchmark TTF gas price jumped as much as 4% on Thursday as the US-Iran standoff continued to choke Middle East LNG shipments ahead of winter, Investing.com and OilPrice.com reported.
• Pembina Pipeline is advancing gas-to-power opportunities through its Greenlight Electricity Centre, expected to be Canada's first large-scale gas-fired power project built to supply a major data center, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

Oil & Gas Markets

BP's on-again, off-again shale ambitions were back in the spotlight this week. According to reporting from BOE Report (citing Reuters), in the wake of Meg O'Neill joining as CEO in April, BP has entered the data room on a small number of shale assets placed for sale by their owners, allowing the company access to confidential information provided to prospective buyers so they can evaluate the merits of a deal, with valuations of between $2 billion and $5 billion. Among the targets was Devon Energy's Eagle Ford position, and analysts at TPH, the energy arm of boutique bank Perella Weinberg Partners, said in a note the asset could be worth around $4.5 billion. Ultimately, after studying the merits of a deal, BP decided to walk away, one of the sources familiar with the matter said. The report noted the Eagle Ford asset consists of around 90,000 net acres, and produced around 77,000 boepd in the second quarter, with the effort coming as U.S. energy assets have increased allure to buyers, as they can operate even as Middle Eastern conflict shakes global oil markets.

That Middle East conflict remained the dominant driver of physical oil and gas markets all week. Investing.com reported that the underlying cause is a near-shutdown of Hormuz traffic, with only 17 commodity vessels transiting the strait over the weekend of September 20-21, down from 37 a week earlier, per Kpler shipping analytics. The knock-on effects have been severe: US diesel prices hit an all-time high of $6.31 per gallon as of September 17, a nearly 69% increase from $3.69 a gallon a year earlier, according to AAA data cited by J.P. Morgan. As Ship4wd CEO Carmit Glik told CNBC in remarks cited by Investing.com, "Diesel is the price nobody watches until it's already inside everything else. It moves through freight rates, farm equipment, food delivery, and home heating, anything that touches a truck at some point in its journey."

The disruption has spilled directly into European gas markets. Investing.com and OilPrice.com both reported that Europe's benchmark natural gas prices jumped by 4% at trade open in Amsterdam on Thursday, as the United States and Iran remain distant on how to end the war and put an end to the blocked LNG shipments at the Strait of Hormuz, with the front-month TTF contract still up 3% at $84.30 per megawatt-hour as of mid-morning. Fitch Ratings, cited in the same coverage, warned that "the increased TTF gas assumptions reflect disruptions to LNG flows through Hormuz, which accounted for 20% of global LNG supply before the conflict," and that "EU gas storage is only two-thirds full, sufficient to avoid supply disruptions during winter but well below the 80%-90% levels at this time in 2022-2025." Despite that, Brussels struck a calmer tone: Oil & Gas 360 reported that the European Union's natural gas supply remains stable, according to the Gas Coordination Group, which advises the European Commission on coordinating security-of-supply measures, with the Commission stating "despite lower storage levels compared to historical levels, the Commission and EU countries reconfirmed that EU gas supply remains stable."

Elsewhere, US natural gas futures gave back some of a strong rally. Natural Gas Intelligence reported that natural gas futures gave up ground on Friday as traders took profits following a pronounced rally that sent prices to their highest levels since the peak of summer, with bullish storage shifts, sliding production and a major outage in Appalachia fueling the week's upswing. On the infrastructure side, Natural Gas Intelligence also reported that natural gas futures retreated early Friday from three-month highs Thursday as traders weighed how long a force majeure on Columbia Gas Transmission (TCO) could hold back Lower 48 production, while Boardwalk Pipelines' Kosciusko Junction Pipeline Project cleared federal review this week, per Natural Gas Intelligence.

Venezuela drew fresh attention from investors weighing a potential supply wave. OilPrice.com, citing Rystad Energy, reported that Rystad Energy sees Venezuelan oil output climbing to 1.8 million bpd by 2030 as Chevron, Eni, Shell and new operators expand their footprint, with Chevron, Eni, Repsol, Shell and new entrants like GeoPark, Hunt Oil and NABEP expanding under revised contracts, with NABEP's Lake Maracaibo output already jumping from roughly 90,000 bpd to nearly 200,000 bpd. Still, the report flagged capacity constraints, noting Venezuela had just two active drilling rigs as of August, far short of the roughly 50 rigs needed by 2028 and the Hydrocarbons Ministry's 93-rig target. Natural Gas Intelligence separately reported that global energy firms are increasingly eyeing Venezuela alongside a growing Trinidad LNG opportunity as the country's commercial frameworks evolve.

In midstream, Oil & Gas Journal reported that Pembina Pipeline is pursuing a pipeline of gas-to-power opportunities beyond its already-sanctioned Greenlight Electricity Centre (GLEC), which holds a stake in the newly sanctioned GLEC, which is expected to be the first large-scale gas-to-power project in Canada supporting a major data center.

Renewable Energy Developments

Coverage of core renewable generation was thin this week, with most clean-transportation coverage concentrated at Electrek. The outlet noted that Drive Electric Month programming continued nationally, with Electrek reporting that events promoting EV adoption are running through most of September and into October across the US. Electrek also covered a wave of consumer EV and storage news, including discounted Jackery and Bluetti battery stations tied to Prime Day promotions, and Volkswagen's decision to clear out 2025 ID.4 inventory with a steep customer-cash discount.

On the policy side, Electrek reported that regulators pushed back a decision on Tesla's driver-assistance software, noting the EU will not vote on Tesla's "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" system in early October as previously expected, with the technical committee's agenda instead listing only a brief continuation of discussion. Renewable Energy World also flagged that an energy crisis tied to the wider Middle East conflict is squeezing Bangladesh's power sector, part of the publication's ongoing "This Week in Cleantech" coverage. Limited additional renewable-generation-specific coverage was available in this week's source set.

Mining & Critical Minerals

Gold-sector economics were the dominant mining storyline this week, even as direct production and project news was limited. Investing.com highlighted a disconnect between metal-price volatility and miner profitability, running a piece titled "Gold Miners Are Printing Record Profits, and Almost Nobody Is Paying Attention" that continues a recurring theme in the outlet's mining coverage of unusually wide margins between gold prices and all-in sustaining costs.

Separately, MINING.com reported on new World Gold Council research complicating the narrative that artificial intelligence demand is a major new source of gold consumption. The outlet reported that the artificial-intelligence (AI) surge has yet to raise overall technology-sector demand for gold, as attempts by manufacturers to reduce their use of the metal – still at high prices – offset growth in AI applications last year, with gold use in technology remaining essentially flat at 323 tonnes in 2025 amid miniaturization and manufacturers' efforts to reduce or eliminate gold from some components. The World Gold Council characterized the dynamic starkly, per MINING.com: "We view the current demand situation in the electronics sector very much as a tug-of-war," the WGC said in its "AI Boom and Gold" report, adding, "At the moment, the two sides appear evenly matched." The report did flag a potential future demand driver, noting that the wider emergence of co-packaged optics (CPO) could be a new source of gold demand in the AI sector, and if CPO is widely adopted across hyperscale AI infrastructure, new demand for gold in the technology could become meaningful. Electronics remains the dominant industrial use case for the metal, with the WGC noting electronics manufacturing represents about 80% of gold usage in industrial applications.

Beyond gold-market commentary, this week's mining-adjacent coverage skewed toward US federal land management notices from the Bureau of Land Management covering grazing, restoration, and quarry review processes rather than active critical-minerals project news. Limited coverage of battery-metal, copper, or rare-earth developments was available in the provided source set this week.

Week Ahead Preview

With the Gas Coordination Group continuing to meet regularly on EU supply security and Hormuz tanker traffic remaining a focal point for shipping and diesel costs, investors will likely keep close watch on both the physical flow data out of the Strait of Hormuz and the next EIA storage print for signals on whether the recent US natural gas rally has further room to run. On the corporate side, markets will watch whether BP's shale ambitions resurface with a different target after its retreat from the Devon Eagle Ford process, and whether Rystad's more optimistic Venezuelan production trajectory gains further traction as new operators ramp up drilling activity. Gold-sector watchers will also be parsing how miners' unusually wide profit margins hold up against any further volatility in bullion prices.

This weekly recap is compiled from coverage by Reuters, BOE Report, Oil & Gas 360, OilPrice.com, Natural Gas Intelligence, Oil & Gas Journal, Investing.com Commodities, MINING.com, Renewable Energy World, and Electrek. For daily updates, visit stakeandpaper.com.