100% tariff threat to India: US house advances Russia sanctions bill
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The US house of representatives has moved a bill imposing 100% tariffs on India and four other countries to punish Russia and major buyers of its petroleum products, Mint reported. The bill also aims to “extend the expiration date” of sanctions on companies that invest in the Iranian energy sector until 2031, the newspaper said. India has maintained the country’s energy cooperation with Russia was an "important pillar" of their bilateral partnership, the report said. While US senate aides “identified China, India, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan as the five largest purchasers of Russian crude when the revised bill was unveiled in July”, India is “not named in the operative” senate text, according to Moneycontrol. If approved, the bill will go to US president Trump who backs it, the report said.
Saudi Arabia shuts east-west pipeline that bypasses Hormuz after attacks
Saudi Arabia has shut down its “crucial” east-west pipeline after it was attacked on Thursday, reported The Financial Times, “threatening a vital alternative route for crude exports from the Gulf and putting more upward pressure on oil prices”. Operations along the pipeline have been halted as a “precautionary measure”, the newspaper said, with no timeline on when it would be restored. The 1,200km pipeline has “allowed the kingdom to continue to export millions of barrels of crude a day despite Iranian restrictions on tankers passing through the strait of Hormuz”, the article notes. The New York Times describes the pipeline as a “lifeline”. The halt threatens 4% of global oil supply, says Reuters. The Guardian reported that Saudi Arabia will “run out of oil stocks for export…within days” if the pipeline is not restored. US president Donald Trump said that Iran was “probably” behind the drone attack, reported Reuters. Iraq said the attack from its territory, reports the Associated Press. On Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that it no longer expects the strait of Hormuz to reopen to shipping this year and warned that 2026 and 2027 will be “a lost period” for growth in global oil demand, reported the Financial Times.
High prices and low supply results in Global oil demand to fall by 2.5m barrels a day :IEA
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said that it no longer expects the strait of Hormuz to reopen to shipping this year and warned that 2026 and 2027 will be “a lost period” for growth in global oil demand, reported the Financial Times. The IEA said it expected global demand to fall by 2.5m barrels a day this year, a much bigger drop than its previous estimate, the Financial Times report added. The report also says that, although demand is weakening under the weight of high fuel prices, supply is “falling even faster”, said Reuters, “forcing inventories to be depleted at a record pace”. A separate Reuters article says that the IEA has “again revised down the outlook for Russia's oil production due to ongoing Ukrainian drone attacks on energy infrastructure”. On Sunday, Trump called on Ukraine to stop targeting Russian oil refineries in light of the surging fuel prices, reported Politico. The U.S. president denied that his war on Iran was responsible for surging diesel prices, but a senior European official said Trump was using Kyiv as a scapegoat.
Global coal demand forecast to rise by 1.2% in 2026 to a record 8.94 billion tonnes due to Middle East conflict, IEA says
The International Energy Agency forecast that global coal demand would rise by 1.2% this year due to the Iran crisis, according to Reuters.
The outlet said disruptions to oil and liquefied natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran started have driven up prices and encouraged higher electricity generation from coal in countries that have gas-fired power fleets and spare coal capacity, the IEA added in an update on the coal sector. There has been higher coal use in Europe, Japan, Korea, China and other markets than previously expected.The IEA had expected global coal demand to decline slightly this year.Next year, there is uncertainty about demand as it will depend on whether shipping traffic through Hormuz recovers. If it does, demand could decrease in 2027 but if the strait remains largely closed to LNG shipments, coal demand could increase further, the IEA said
Reuters covered data from China’s state oil-and-gas company Sinopec that revealed the nation’s oil demand fell 8.9% in 2026.
Nearly a third of India's coal power plants have critical low fuel stocks
Nearly a third of India's coal-fired power plants are operating with critically low fuel stocks despite government efforts to increase supplies, as an extended spell of hot weather keeps electricity demand elevated, government data showed, reported Reuters.
India's peak power demand has been hovering near the record 270.70 gigawatts touched in May. The outlet said demand has consistently reached around 267 GW over the past few days, driven by increased cooling needs amid an El Nino weather pattern.
The news wire noted that the number of power plants with critical low coal stocks of less than 25% of the required inventory or only able to generate power for less than three days rose sharply to 59 as of September 9 from 45 at the end of August, data from the Central Electricity Authority showed.