Energy Market Briefing

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi for three hours on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, mediated by Qatar, Pakistan and Egypt. Iran set out a roadmap for a regionwide ceasefire of up to 60 days and a phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in return for an end to the US naval blockade.

President Trump described the meeting as "very good" and "very productive" and said another session is scheduled in the near future. He ruled out lifting the blockade until Iran shows what he called sufficient goodwill.

Iran's foreign ministry played down the significance of the New York contact even as President Masoud Pezeshkian used his UN address to accuse the US and Israel of stoking regional instability, a day after Trump said he was weighing whether to "annihilate" Iran.

UK gas and power both eased at Wednesday's close, with the Win-26 season down 1.6% and 0.6% respectively day-on-day, unwinding a slice of last week's spike to the highest levels in over a year.

Around 2.5GW of nuclear capacity remained on outage across Heysham, Torness and Hartlepool as of Wednesday. Hartlepool's first turbine generator is not due back before 30 September, while its second is running at reduced load on a gas circulator fault.

This morning's GridWatch snapshot has wind supplying just over 16% of generation, better than the collapse to under a fifth seen over the weekend but still soft, with gas-fired output continuing to cover the shortfall.

Brent crude settled up 3.9% at $103.08 a barrel on Wednesday, its first gain in six sessions, as Iran's defiant UN rhetoric revived concern over Gulf supply risk even as the parallel Hormuz talks continued in New York.

Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, shut after drone attacks earlier in September, has resumed pumping from the Red Sea port of Yanbu but at a reduced rate, leaving a question mark over the kingdom's capacity to bypass the Strait of Hormuz in full.