The Jan’25 Brent futures contract weakened further this afternoon, trading at around $74.90/bbl at 12:00 GMT and selling-off from $74.85/bbl at 14:10 GMT down to $73.95/bbl at 17:45 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil prices fell as Hurricane Rafael is forecast to weaken and move away from the US Gulf Coast oilfields in coming days, the US National Hurricane Center said. In the news today, Iran’s oil loadings fell from nearly 1.83mb/d in September to 1.48mb/d last month, marking a daily decline of 350kb/d, according to Kpler Senior Analyst Homayoun Falakshahi. The Wall Street Journal reported that US President Trump plans to renew his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran, drastically increasing sanctions in order to hamper Tehran’s ability to support its proxies in the Middle East. In other news, Iraq’s parliament is due to discuss a new bill on oil exports, a Kurdish MP Sabah Subhi told Kurdistan24. Subhi was optimistic an agreement between Iraq and Kurdistan could be reached, however, highlighted growing security concerns surrounding potential supply disruption in Iraq, claiming any instability would be “catastrophic”. Finally, the Israeli military it is planning to reopen the Kissufim crossing into central Gaza to increase flow of aid into the strip, amid growing pressure from aid agencies. At the time of writing, the Jan/Feb’25 and Jan/Jul’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.30/bbl and $1.12/bbl, respectively.
