The Feb’25 Brent futures contract fell this afternoon from a high of $71.60/bbl at around 12:30 GMT down to $70.85/bbl at 15:30 GMT as support was seen at the lower Bollinger band and the prompt tose to $71.25/bbl at 17:30 GMT (time of writing). Oil supplies from Russia to the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline restarted today after flows were interrupted earlier this week. “Oil supplies were restored this morning, and oil is flowing again through the Druzhba pipeline to the Czech Republic,” Unipetrol’s chief executive Mariusz Wnuk said in a post of the company on X (Twitter). Analysts at Barclays have said the oil market may be too pessimistic, as they believe tighter supply-demand dynamics could emerge by 2025 and support higher prices, with 2026 expected to be even tighter. Barclays predicts Brent is more likely to stay above $70/bbl than fall below unless there’s a significant drop in Iranian output. The US added 227,000 jobs in November, beating expectations, while unemployment rose to 4.2%. Growth was led by healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing, though retail lost 28,000 jobs. Revised data showed stronger gains in September and October, supporting expectations for a Fed rate cut. At the time of writing, the Feb/Mar’25 and Feb/Aug’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.33/bbl and $1.16/bbl, respectively.
