The soon-to-be-prompt October Brent futures contract firmed up to $79.15/bbl around 09:30 BST before softening to $78.80/bbl at 10:05 BST. The front-month September contract fell 30c to $79.60/bbl at this time, the lowest value for the front-month futures contract since early June. The September and October futures contracts have since risen to $79.65/bbl and $78.90/bbl, respectively. A Reuters poll showed that market participants expect that China’s factory activity shrank for a third consecutive month in July amid a forecast PMI reading of 43.3 (Jun: 49.5), further into contraction territory. The US Department of Energy stated on Monday that it had finalised a contract to buy 4.65mb of crude oil for the SPR for delivery to the Bayou Choctaw site in Louisiana in Q4’24. The average purchase price for the oil stands at around $76.92/bbl. BP reported that it has agreed to the development of a green hydrogen facility at its Castellon refinery in Spain. The major is also preparing for a final investment decision regarding a 100-megawatt (MW) green hydrogen project in Germany. Finally, at the time of writing, the Oct/Nov and Oct/Apr’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.65/bbl and $2.40/bbl, respectively.