The Feb’25 Brent futures contract strengthened marginally this afternoon amid volatile price action, rising from $72.20/bbl at 12:00 GMT to a daily high of $73.30/bbl at 15:15 GMT, before falling to $72.30/bbl at 17:10 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil markets have been focusing on geopolitical risk, with Ukraine striking the Atlas oil depot in Russia’s southern region of Rostov today, the Ukrainian army’s General Staff said on Telegram. In the news today, Repsol is set to sell their upstream oil and gas assets in Colombia for $530 million to Latin American producer GeoPark. In other news, Brazil is expected to put 91 oil exploration blocks into sale permanently, which could bring $394 million in signing bonuses in the next round of auctions, according to a statement from Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy. Finally, the Ugandan government plans to wholly finance a $4 billion oil refinery through equity, in partnership with a UAE investment firm, Alpha MBM investments. According to the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), the facility is expected to produce 60kb/d of oil and include a 211km long refined products pipeline to a storage terminal located at Namwabula in the Mpigi district, with development works commencing this year. At the time of writing, the Feb/Mar’25 and Feb/Aug’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.40/bbl and $1.32/bbl, respectively.
