After reaching nearly $77.90/bbl this morning, the Mar’25 Brent futures contract has weakened this afternoon, selling-off from $77.50/bbl around 1300 GMT down to $76.25/bbl at 1730 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil prices saw bearish sentiment alongside the release of EIA data at 1550 GMT today, which showed a lower-than-expected draw of 959kb in US crude oil inventories for the week ending 03 Jan, compared to a forecasted draw of 2mb. In the news today, the Ukrainian military said it set fire to a Russian oil depot which provided fuel to the Engels-2 military air base containing Russian nuclear bomber planes, as per Reuters. Meanwhile, a Russian regional governor Roman Busargin stated that a fire caused by a “mass drone attack” had broken out in Engels at an industrial site, which he did not name. In other news, India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has hired BP to be the technical services provider at their Mumbai High oilfield, a move aimed at identifying improvements in the facilities to boost crude production. The oilfield hit a peak oil production of 471kb/d in March 1985, with output declining to around 134kb/d as of last year. Finally, strong European demand for Guyana’s crude has pushed the country’s oil exports up by 54% to 582kb/d in 2024, according to Reuters citing LSEG shipping data. Since Guyana began exporting oil in early 2020, it is now the fifth largest Latin American crude exporter after Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia. Finally, at the time of writing, the Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.62/bbl and $2.63/bbl, respectively.
