The Jan’25 Brent futures contract ultimately weakened amid volatility this afternoon, trading from $72.30/bbl at 12:00 GMT up to $72.80/bbl at 14:30 GMT and falling to $71.60/bbl by 16:20 GMT, before recovering to $72.10/bbl at 17:45 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil prices fluctuated this afternoon as the market reacted to the release of the November OPEC monthly oil market report for October. In the news today, OPEC’s monthly report showed that the return of Libyan oil production to full capacity raised total OPEC crude oil output to an average 26.53mb/d last month, a 466kb/d increase since September. Output rose mainly in Libya, Nigeria, and Congo while production in Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait saw the largest decrease in October. OPEC now expects global oil demand to grow by 1.82mb/d this year, down by 107kb/d from last month’s report. In other news, Indian Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told Reuters that India aims to increase the capacity of existing refineries and become a regional refining hub to other countries. According to Reuters, Indian Oil Corp expects to complete the expansion of its Panipat and Gujurat refineries by December 2025, adding over 14 million tons per annum. At the time of writing, the Jan/Feb’25 and Jan/Jul’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.23/bbl and $0.92/bbl, respectively.
