European Gas at Four-Year High on Winter Supply Fears — Commodities Roundup

MARKET MOVEMENTS:

--Brent crude oil is up 0.1% to $116.93 a barrel.

--European benchmark gas rises 2.8% to 96.44 euros a megawatt-hour.

--Copper futures are up 0.3% at $14,339 a metric ton.

--Gold futures are up 0.6% to $4,033.20 a troy ounce.

TOP STORY:

Death Threats, Lawsuits and Billions in Play: The Battle Over Moving Russian Oil

In a rare legal fight, a former Russian energy industry insider has sued sanctioned oil traders who, according to Western officials, have become the most important middlemen enabling Moscow to sell its oil and fund its war in Ukraine.

Igor Soglayev alleges he teamed up in early 2024 with Moscow-backed traders known as the Coral network. The relationship soured after a tanker carrying tens of millions of dollars worth of diesel failed to deliver its cargo in Brazil. The two sides are now slugging it out in courts in Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, filings reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show. The U.A.E. court handling the main case hasn't publicized the proceedings.

OTHER STORIES:

European Gas at Four-Year High on Winter Supply Fears

European natural-gas prices climbed above 97 euros a megawatt-hour for the first time since late 2022, as colder weather threatens to lift demand across the continent while the Iran war continues to disrupt global supplies.

The Dutch TTF front-month contract, Europe's benchmark, was up 3.1% at 96.71 euros a megawatt-hour in early trading Monday after reaching 97.50 euros earlier in the session. Prices remain below the peaks of the 2022 energy crisis but are at their highest levels since late December that year.

Europe is entering the winter with mounting supply concerns.

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Singapore Working With Saudi Arabia on Crude Storage to Boost Energy Security

Singapore and Saudi Arabia are working to establish crude-oil storage in the Southeast Asian city-state as countries seek to secure energy supplies amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.

Like many Asian nations, Singapore relies heavily on the Middle East for fuel and has managed recent oil shocks through a combination of supply diversification and fiscal support.

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Oil Prices Fall as Traders Weigh U.S.-Iran Diplomacy, Saudi Attacks

Oil prices fell Monday, pulling back from recent highs as traders weighed diplomatic efforts to ease U.S.-Iran hostilities against renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and persistent Middle East supply risks.

December Brent crude futures fell 1.5% to $114.97 a barrel, while December West Texas Intermediate futures dropped 2.1% to $101.08 a barrel.

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EQT to Buy Range Resources in $13 Billion Stock Swap

EQT Corp. has struck a deal to buy Range Resources in a stock swap worth nearly $13 billion that would create a U.S. natural-gas giant focused in the Appalachian Basin, America's largest natural-gas producing region.

EQT on Monday said it would issue 0.987 shares, worth about $54.91 based on Friday's closing price, for each share of Range, a roughly 21% premium to Friday's closing price of $45.52 for the Fort Worth, Texas company.

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This German Energy Giant Is an Overlooked AI Bargain

Gas turbine maker GE Vernova GEV is one of artificial intelligence's clear stock-market winners. Even after the recent AI-themed selloff, its shares are up 25% year to date. But Siemens Energy ENR, its nearly identical German competitor, is down 1.4% this year and trades at a forward-earnings multiple about 40% lower. The gap is hard to justify.

GE Vernova and Siemens Energy have much in common. Both were once a part of giant conglomerates whose names they still bear. They are the world's two largest gas turbine manufacturers by firm orders since 2016, each having booked about 150 gigawatts through the first half of 2026, according to BloombergNEF. They sell electrification equipment, which is in high demand, and each has a wind business with a turbulent past. They even generate a similar amount of revenue.

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Galp Energia Shares Fall After Moeve Merger-Talks Collapse, Overshadowing Positive Earnings

Shares in Portugal's Galp GALP Energia fell after talks with Moeve on a potential merger of their downstream operations collapsed, overshadowing quarterly earnings growth and a full-year guidance hike.

In morning trade, shares fell 8.6% to 20.99 euros. Shares remain up nearly 44% over the year to date.

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LNG Importers Face $39 Billion Cost Increase as Iran War Disrupts Supplies

Global liquefied-natural-gas importers are expected to spend at least $39 billion more on supplies this year despite buying significantly less fuel, analysts at Rystad Energy said.

Global LNG portfolio costs are projected to reach $256 billion even as imports fall by 60.7 million metric tons, as disruptions to Qatari and United Arab Emirates exports force buyers to seek replacement cargoes at higher prices.

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These Maps Show Why It's So Hard to Recover the World's Lost Fuel Supplies

President Trump has been grasping for ways to lower fuel prices ahead of next week's midterm elections. The problem: His diesel deal with Russia and other recent moves will barely make a dent in recovering the world's lost fuel supplies.

Drones buzzing from Ukraine and long-range missile strikes out of Iran and Yemen have crippled dozens of oil refineries in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. In all, nearly 12% of the world's refining capacity for making gasoline, diesel and other fuels is offline, according to market intelligence firm Industrial Info Resources, or IIR.

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Equinor and Aker BP Partner to Develop Challenging Oil and Gas Discoveries

Energy companies Equinor and Aker BP have entered a strategic collaboration to develop oil and gas reservoirs that sit in hard-to-extract geology on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

In a joint statement Monday, the companies said that large volumes of oil and gas are found in tight reservoirs, where oil and gas flow very slowly through dense rock.

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Arroyo Energy Seeks $900 Million for Fresh Infrastructure Bets

Arroyo Energy Investment Partners is seeking to raise $900 million for its latest flagship fund to back midsize operators of power-generation and industrial-fuel infrastructure, as the private-equity firm sees opportunity in an overtaxed U.S. electricity grid, according to an investor presentation viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The Spring, Texas-based firm has set a goal for Arroyo Investors Fund V above the $680 million it collected for a predecessor pool that wrapped up last year, the presentation showed. Arroyo raised an additional $385 million in co-investment capital for that fund, and the presentation indicates it has deals lined up for the new fund that call for $500 million in co-investments. The firm manages about $4 billion in assets.

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Galp Raises Full-Year View After Oil-Price Assumption Increase

Galp Energia lifted its full-year guidance after third-quarter earnings jumped and it raised its oil-price assumption.

The Portuguese oil-and-gas producer said Monday that it now sees adjusted replacement-cost earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of around 5 billion euros, equivalent to $5.60 billion, from prior guidance of around 4 billion euros. Adjusted operating cash flow guidance was raised to around 3.9 billion euros, from around 3 billion euros beforehand.

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Galp and Moeve End Negotiations on a Potential Downstream Combination

Galp Energia said it had ended negotiations with Moeve on a potential merger of their downstream operations after failing to reach an agreement, but the Portuguese energy company said it remains convinced of the strategic rationale for the consolidation.

Galp and Moeve, owned by Mubadala Investment Company and Carlyle Group--signed a nonbinding agreement in January to advance discussions and intended to strike a final deal by mid-2026.

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Abu Dhabi's Adnoc to Spend $16.3 Billion in Domestic Manufacturing Push

Abu Dhabi's national oil-and-gas company said it would spend more than 60 billion dirhams ($16.34 billion) on contracts for local firms in a bid to boost the United Arab Emirates' domestic manufacturing capabilities.

Adnoc, or Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., said Sunday that money is for manufacturing opportunities run through 2030 and covers over 200 products and spare parts. Adnoc said it would help reduce exposure to supply disruptions and strengthen operational resilience.

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Teck Resources' Highland Valley Copper Mine Operating at Reduced Capacity as Workers Strike

More than a 1,000 workers at Teck Resources' big open-pit copper mine in Western Canada walked off the job over the weekend after contract talks broke down.

The mining company said members of United Steelworkers local 7619 went on strike at Highland Valley Copper in British Columbia on Saturday.

MARKET TALKS:

Soybeans Lead Grains Lower As Brazilian Real Falls -- Market Talk

1020 ET - The depreciation of the Brazilian real following President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's surprise re-election victory is pushing soybean futures down as a weaker Brazilian currency makes the country's exports cheaper. Friday's Commitments of Traders report showed funds still very long on beans, "and the move lower in the Brazilian real following their election added fuel to the fire," Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives says in a note. Soybeans are down 1.8% on CBOT. Corn is off 1% and wheat is 1.1% lower.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

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Oil Futures Pull Back Amid Middle East Uncertainty -- Market Talk

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October 26, 2026 12:44 ET (16:44 GMT)