Dec’24 Brent futures flat price weakened this afternoon, dipping from $74.40/bbl at 12:00 BST to $73.60/bbl at 16:10 BST, but recovering slightly to $74.15/bbl at 17:00 BST (time of writing). Price action dipped after the IEA’s Executive Director, Fatih Birol, told Bloomberg in an interview that global oil demand is “much weaker than previous years” and “we expect this will continue because of one word – China”. Birol continued that there may be “some spikes” in oil prices due to Middle East tensions but asserted there would be no issues with “the availability of oil.” In the news today, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has departed for the Middle East to kickstart ceasefire negotiations following the death of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, according to Reuters. The US State Department has said Blinken’s first destination is Israel but did not specify other countries on the itinerary. In other news, Iraq’s Kerbala refinery, with a capacity of 140kb/d, is set to resume operations on Tuesday after completing maintenance work, as per the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Finally, the newly inaugurated Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is looking to revive the country’s oil and gas industry, as per Reuters. Indonesia plans to cut regulations and reactivate idle wells while tapping into gas discoveries in Southern Andaman to enhance output. At the time of writing, the front-month (Dec/Jan’25) and six-month (Dec/Jun’25) Brent futures spreads are at $0.33/bbl and $1.39/bbl, respectively.
