The Dec’24 Brent futures contract rallied this afternoon, trading at $71.42/bbl at 12:00 BST and reaching $74.40/bbl handles at 17:20 BST (time of writing). Prices have surged amid reports of Iran’s imminent ballistic missile attack on Israel. In the news today, earlier this afternoon White House officials warned that the US has “indications” of Iran launching an attack and that they are actively supporting preparations to defend Israel, according to Reuters. In other news, Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have damaged two commercial vessels in the Red Sea near Al Hodeidah, Yemen earlier today. One of the ships is believed to be the Panama-flagged Cordelia Moon, which was returning to the Mediterranean after delivering Russian oil to India, as per ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Finally, Russia is set to increase oil exports via its western ports to 2.2mb/d in October, rising 3% m/m, sources close to Reuters stated. At the time of writing, the front month (Dec/Jan’25) and six-month (Dec/Jun’25) Brent futures spreads are at $0.36/bbl and $1.12/bbl, respectively.
