The September Brent futures flat price has steadily come off this morning since a brief rise to $86.80/bbl at 08:00 BST. Following this mini-peak, the contract fell to $86.25/bbl at 10:55 BST, but has subsequently edged up $86.35/bbl as of 11:05 BST (time of writing). Russia’s June oil and gas budget revenue is up 41% y-o-y in June to 746.6 billion roubles ($8.5 billion), however, this does represent a m-o-m fall of 6% from May’s 794 billion rouble revenue. Amos Hochstein, the US President’s senior advisor for energy and investment, has said that US oil and gas supplies are stable, with enough oil in the SPR to handle any shortages. Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk is now operating as normal after an attempted Ukrainian maritime drone attack. The port is a key outlet for crude oil and oil product exports and transits in the south of Russia. Finally, German chemical giant BASF has abandoned its plans to invest in lithium mining assets in Chile as a slowdown in EV adoption worldwide drags down battery metal prices. At the time of writing, the front and 6-month spreads are $0.78/bbl and $3.60/bbl, respectively.
