The September Brent futures contract initially rallied into the afternoon, climbing from $84.70/bbl at 12:20 BST to $85.30/bbl at 16:30 BST. Following this, however, the benchmark crude futures began to sell off and came off to $84.70/bbl at 17:20 BST (time of writing). Documents filed by Canada’s Trans Mountain Corporation show that their oil pipeline could take up to eight years to turn a profit unless the pipeline fills thousands of barrels of spot shipping space per day. In other news, Italian major Eni reported that it signed a binding agreement to sell its Oooguruk and Nikaitchuq upstream assets in Alaska to the American Hilcorp Energy. While the official value of the transaction is yet to be announced, it is expected to lie between $428-855 million. In macro news, initial claims for state unemployment benefits in the US fell by 6,000 to 233,000 in the week ending 22 June. However, continuing claims increased by 18,000 to 1.839 million in the week ending 15 June – the highest level since late November 2021. Finally, at the time of writing, the Sep/Oct and Sep/March Brent futures spreads traded at $0.75/bbl and $3.40/bbl, respectively.
