The Mar’25 Brent futures contract has steadily declined this morning from around $76.00/bbl at 0600 GMT down to $75.65/bbl at 1050 GMT (time of writing). In the news today, US President-elect Trump has called to “open up” the North Sea and get rid of windmills in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. Trump’s comments came in response to a report about Apache Corporation’s plan to exit the North Sea by year-end 2029, as per Reuters. Oil companies have been exiting the North Sea in recent decades, with production declining from a peak of 4.4mb/d of oil equivalent at the start of the millennium to around 1.3mb/d today, Reuters stated. In other news, the decline in Mexico’s crude and gas production could accelerate, potentially losing 100kb/d of production every year beginning in 2025, according to S&P Global. The report highlighted that production is falling at Pemex’s seven largest fields, with multiple major oil companies relinquishing exploration contracts in recent years, including Shell and Chevron. Finally, heating oil futures have gained 5% w/w while US natural gas prices saw a weekly rise of 4%, according to the Financial Times. The jump in prices comes as the National Weather Service warns of an “Arctic outbreak”, with the potential for sub-zero temperatures as far south as the Gulf Coast and Florida. At the time of writing, the Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.49/bbl and $2.36/bbl, respectively.
