The Jun Brent futures contract continued to see choppy price action into the afternoon, predominantly oscillating within the range of $85.95/bbl and $86.80/bbl. However, flat price broke from this range to print at $87.20/bbl at 17:00 BST but found resistance here and eased to $87.05/bbl at 17:15 BST (time of writing). China National Oil Petroleum Corp. agreed to make an advance payment for crude oil purchases from Niger’s Agadem field in an oil-for-cash deal worth ~$400 million, $200 million of which will go towards settling arrears on Niger’s domestic debt. In other news, Iraq has stated that resuming oil exports from Kurdistan to Turkey will take longer as negotiations continue between the regional governments and producers of oil. Oman’s state-controlled PDO is expecting to hit its 700kbbls/d crude target before 2030 amid new “sizeable” greenfield projects in the pipeline. India’s Reliance Industries reported higher-than-expected Q4 profits, reportedly boosted by its oil-to-chemical segment. Finally, the front-month and six-month Brent spreads are currently at $0.88/bbl and $4.48/bbl, respectively.
