The September Brent futures contract surpassed the $85/bbl handle again this morning, sitting at $85.30/bbl at 09:00 BST, but simmered off to $84.90/bbl by 11:25 BST (time of writing). The IEA stated in a report today that global electricity demand is set to grow at its fastest pace in nearly 20 years in 2024, supported by a surge in demand for air conditioning. In addition, about 150kb/d of Canadian crude was exported from the USGC in June, relative to monthly averages of 170kb/d over the past 12 months, despite the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline (TMX). China’s Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) reported a rise of 5.08 mb/d (+0.1% y/y) in crude throughput over 1H’24 to 126.69 million metric tonne, relative to +1.7% y/y in Q1’24. Also in China, a Reuters poll shows that market players expect the nation to leave benchmark lending rates unchanged in the PBOC’s upcoming interest rate meeting despite weaker-than-expected Q2’24 economic data. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month and six-month Brent futures spread stand at $1.10/bbl and $4.15/bbl, respectively.
