Dec’24 Brent futures flat price saw a sell-off this afternoon, trading at $75.84/bbl at 12:00 BST and steadily descending to $73.81/bbl at 17:15 BST (time of writing). The downward price action came amid the release of EIA data today at 15:30 BST for the week ending 27 Sep, which showed that US crude oil inventories increased by around 3.89mb, significantly higher than the expected draw of 1.3mb. In the news today, Israel suffered the heaviest losses on the Lebanon front in the past year, according to Reuters, with eight Israeli soldiers killed today in south Lebanon and reportedly three Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed by Hezbollah. In other news, the OPEC+ joint ministerial monitoring committee meeting (JMMC) left the current output cut policy unchanged and emphasised the need for compliance from OPEC+ members with planned cuts. Finally, 45,000 US longshoremen working at US East and Gulf Coast ports have been backed by the White House, with Biden pressing port employers to offer a ‘strong and fair’ contract, as per Reuters. Despite this, there are currently no negotiation talks scheduled between the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). At the time of writing, the front month (Dec/Jan’25) and six-month (Dec/Jun’25) Brent futures spreads are at $0.37/bbl and $1.23/bbl, respectively.
