The August Brent Futures flat price has seen its price exceed $86/bbl for the first time since the end of April this afternoon, however, it subsequently settled back into an $85/bbl handle. The price lingered around $85.60/bbl until 15:00 BST, when it rallied to $86.20/bbl by 15:50 BST, before it retraced down to $85.55/bbl, where it sits as of 17:00 BST (time of writing). Gazprom, fresh from an annual loss of over $7 billion, has increased its activity in the oil business to offset weaker natural gas trade over the past year. Its oil pipeline exports doubled in 2023 and are expected to double again in 2024. The EU has approved $3.2 billion of planned German state aid for building a system of hydrogen pipelines known as the Hydrogen Core Network (HCN), with hydrogen’s status as a storable form of green energy crucial to the EU Commission’s decision. India’s crude imports rose by 510kb/d to above 5.2mb/d in May, representing an 8.1% y-o-y rise. Of this, a record 2.1mb/d came from Russia as discounts for Russian oil widened on lower demand from China. At the time of writing, the front and 6-month spreads are $0.92/bbl and $3.93/bbl, respectively.
