The Feb’25 Brent futures flat price came off from the $73.20/bbl handle on Tuesday afternoon. Price action fell to lows of $72.50/bbl before recovering to $72.88/bbl by 17:20 GMT (time of writing). In the headlines, the UK imposed new sanctions on two oil trading firms, 2Rivers DMCC and 2Rivers Pte Ltd, and 20 shadow fleet vessels to curb Russian oil revenues and disrupt its illicit oil trade. Oil has washed ashore tens of kilometres of Russia’s Black Sea coast after two aging tankers were damaged in a storm, and now a third tanker has issued a distress signal, heightening fears of a worsening environmental disaster. Saudi Arabia has successfully extracted lithium from oilfield brine and plans to launch a commercial pilot program led by Lihytech, showcasing its move toward alternative wealth sources amid rising global demand for battery minerals. Kazakhstan has downgraded its 2024 oil output forecast to 87.8 million tons, citing maintenance at the Tengiz oilfield, with production totalling 80.5 million tons from January to November. Finally, the front (Feb/Mar) and 6-month (Feb/Aug) Brent futures spreads are at $0.32/bbl and $1.41/bbl respectively.
