The Feb’25 Brent futures flat price came off to the $73/bbl level overnight before rising to $73.36/bbl by 10:00 GMT (time of writing). Price action is slightly lower following the Fed’s rate cut, as policymakers signalled a more hawkish stance for 2025, which supported the dollar and was hence bearish for oil prices. In the headlines, Glencore has increased its Middle East oil purchases, acquiring Al-Shaheen and Upper Zakum grades, to supply Singapore’s Bukom refinery acquired from Shell earlier this year. The refinery includes a 237kb/d crude distillation unit. Ukraine launched 13 missiles and 84 drones targeting Russia’s Rostov region, sparking a fire at the Novoshakhtinsk refinery, which was extinguished, amid ongoing strikes on Russian oil infrastructure critical to its war economy. Sinopec forecasts China’s petroleum consumption will peak by 2027 at no more than 800 million tons annually, driven by declining diesel and gasoline demand due to LNG and EV adoption, while the petrochemical sector increasingly dominates oil usage and natural gas consumption peaks higher and earlier than previously estimated. Finally, the front (Feb/Mar) and 6-month (Feb/Aug) Brent futures spreads are at $0.40/bbl and $1.77/bbl respectively.
