The Feb’25 Brent futures contract saw weakness this afternoon, falling from $72.66/bbl at 12:00 GMT down to $71.77/bbl at 17:55 GMT (time of writing). In the news today, Iran-backed Iraqi fighters crossed into Syria to help the government fight rebels who seized Aleppo last week, while Lebanon’s Hezbollah has no plans for now to join them, according to a Reuters report. Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched an attack on an Israeli army position in the Mount Dov area, as an “initial warning” amid “continued violation of Lebanese airspace by hostile Israeli aircraft”, The Times of Israel reported. This came as US special envoy Amos Hochstein reportedly sent a message urging Israel to uphold the ceasefire deal, in light of Israeli drone flights over Beirut. In other news, Asia’s crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia rose to 5.83mb/d in November, up from 5.28mb/d in October, as per data compiled by LSEG Oil Research. In addition, Russia’s supplies to Asia dropped to 3.51mb/d in November, the lowest level since January, according to LSEG. Finally, Gazprom’s natural gas flows via the Power of Siberia pipeline to China have reached full capacity of 38 billion cubic meters annually, as per Russian news agency Interfax. At the time of writing, the Feb/Mar’25 and Feb/Aug’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.28/bbl and $1.12/bbl, respectively.
