The July Brent futures flat price reached a peak of $87.75/bbl at 13:45 BST before collapsing to a low of $85.46 at 14:40 BST. Since then it has retraced higher and is currently hovering around $86.20/bbl handles. The EIA published its oil demand and supply data for February this afternoon, reporting that US petroleum inventories, which include crude, SPR and refined products, fell by 9.1mbbls m-o-m to 1,582.7mbbls. Furthermore, the US recorded another month of solid oil demand growth, with Feb demand standing at 19.95mbbls/d, up 190kbbls/d (+1.0% y-o-y). Also reporting production data, Reuters revised down OPEC’s production by 100kbbls/d this month to 26.5mbbls/d, with the fall led by Iran and Iraq. China also reported its product exports fell 69kbbls/d to 1.08mbbls/d in February, a 10-month low. In corporate news, Indian Oil reported a 52% fall in Q4 profit to $579.80 million due to inventory losses and from selling fuel below market prices, whilst ExxonMobil is to shut down two offshore oil platforms in Guyana for two weeks each between July and August. The Jul/Aug and Jul/Jan’25 spreads were $0.74/bbl and $3.95/bbl respectively.
