The Mar’25 Brent futures contract has rallied this morning from $77.30/bbl at 0600 GMT up to $78.85/bbl at 1055 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil prices have seen bullish sentiment amid expectations of potential supply disruptions from US sanctions on Iran and Russia. In the news today, Nigeria’s Dangote refinery is building eight additional tanks to store imported oil, adding about 6.3mb of storage, as per Bloomberg. Domestic shipments of oil to Dangote rose to 358kb/d in December from 308kb/d in November, the highest since the plant opened, however, Dangote is looking to purchase more oil from abroad as local supplies remain low overall. In other news, Shell has started production at the Whale field in the Gulf of Mexico, with the project expected to hit peak production of around 100kb/d of oil equivalent, as per Reuters. Chevron, which owns a 40% stake in the field, said the Whale development would bring it closer to reaching a net 300kb/d of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico by 2026. Finally, Iraq is in negotiations with BP to develop several oil fields in Kirkuk, according to the Iraq Oil Report citing four senior Iraqi oil officials. An initial profit-sharing contract is expected to be finalised as soon as the end of January. At the time of writing, the Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.83/bbl and $3.51/bbl, respectively.
