The November Brent futures capitulated on Tuesday afternoon following the US open, falling from the $76/bbl level to $74/bbl within an hour, where it found better support. Prices fell to their lowest levels in nearly 9 months and were trading at $74.04/bbl at the time of writing (17:30 BST). Libyan Central Banker Sadiq Al-Kabir said that there were strong indications that a deal would be made between rival governments that would resume oil output, and this headline was a bearish catalyst for this afternoon’s sell-off. According to Bloomberg, OPEC’s oil production was steady in August at 27.06mb/d, about 70kbp/d less than July. Libyan daily output fell by 150kb, while Nigeria and Kuwait increased slightly. In other news, BP has halted its 400kb/d Rotterdam refinery due to a power outage. Chevron said on Tuesday it had started water injection operations at the company’s projects, Jack St. Malo and Tahiti off the Gulf of Mexico to boost oil and natural gas recovery. Kazakhstan’s biggest oil producer, Chevron-led Tengizchevroil, has completed scheduled maintenance at two of its five production lines, the company said on Tuesday. Finally, the front (Nov/Dec) and 6-month (Nov/May) Brent futures spreads are at $0.94/bbl and $3.24/bbl respectively.
