The Aug Brent futures contract has seen a strong morning, rallying from $85.05/bbl at 07:20 BST to $85.55/bbl as of 11:00 BST (time of writing). ICE’s COT data for the week ending June 18 demonstrated a significant bullish flip among managed-by-money players. These players added over 41mb to length, the first w/w increase in seven weeks, whilst removing 32.7mb from their short positioning. Prod/merc players added to both length and short positioning by 5.4mb and a substantial 55.2mb, respectively. CFTC will publish NYMEX COT data detailing positioning changes in WTI futures in the week ending June 18 at 20:30 BST today. In other news, data from the EIA showed that US refiners’ net production of jet fuel climbed to 1.9mb/d in the week ending June 14, +8% y/y, and the highest since January 2020. Gazprom has reportedly ramped up activity in the oil sector to offset its losses from natural gas trade over the past year. The Russian gas giant encountered a $7 billion loss in 2023. Finally, a major power outage hit Albania, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro on Friday, disrupting activity amid an ongoing heatwave. At the time of writing, the front-month and six-month Brent futures spreads were at $0.88/bbl and $3.90/bbl, respectively.
