The September Brent futures flat price has had an unsettled afternoon, initially rising from $87.20/bbl to $87.65/bbl and then back between 12:00 BST and 15:20 BST. Subsequently, it rallied to the afternoon’s high of $87.95/bbl at 16:25 BST, from which it fell to $87.55/bbl as of 17:25 BST (time of writing). The forecast route for Hurricane Beryl has shifted significantly northwards over the past 24-48 hours, with a landfall in Texas near Corpus Christi looking more likely, with potential oil refinery shutdowns by late Saturday or early Sunday. Gold has risen after US payrolls data pointed to a gradual cooling of the labour market, with expectations for lower interest rates in the coming months bolstered. Kazakhstan’s state pipeline company KazTransOil is to reduce its exports to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline in July by 19% from 120kmt to 100kmt. The state of Alaska is filing a federal lawsuit to challenge the Biden administration’s ban that closed about 11 million acres of the 23.5 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve to all oil and gas extraction. At the time of writing, the front and 6-month spreads are $0.86/bbl and $4.08/bbl, respectively.
