Nov’24 Brent Futures flat price rallied from $72.59/bbl at 12:00 BST up to $74.20/bbl handles at 17:45 BST (time of writing). In the news today, Venezuela’s largest oil refinery, the Amuay refinery, has been reported as offline since 12 Sep due to a power failure, according to Reuters. The refining facility has a capacity to process 645 kb/d and suffers frequent power outages due to a chronic lack of investment. In other news, two Chinese refineries, Zhenghe Group and Shandon Huaxing Petrochemical Group, were declared bankrupt today after creditors failed to agree on restructuring plans for the refineries, as stated by Bloomberg. The processing units at these plants have not been operational for several months due to refinery margins plunging, particularly in Shandong. Finally, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has agreed with the leader of Sudan, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, to export crude oil via Sudan, following months of disrupted supply due to a damaged pipeline network amid civil war in Sudan. At the time of writing, the front month (Nov/Dec’24) and six-month (Nov/May’25) Brent futures spreads are at $0.72/bbl and $1.82/bbl, respectively.
