The Apr Brent futures contract has been very volatile over the day with prices constantly between the $81/bbl and the $81.50/bbl marks. At 17:00 GMT, it was trading at $81.30/bbl. At 18:00 GMT (time of writing), prices have dipped below the $80/bbl mark to be priced at $78.96/bbl. This was right after there were rumours of Qatar announcing that Israel agreed to a ceasefire proposal.
The OPEC+ committee has recommended to not change the oil output decision for Q1’24. The organisation reaffirmed it was ready to take any additional measures at any time. After reviewing the production data from November and December 2023, OPEC noted there was high compliance with the cuts. As some cuts only started at the beginning of January, the organisation will need more time to assess the impact of output reduction.
Depressed refinery margins and higher prices of sanctioned oil have led to Chinese refineries struggling, according to a Bloomberg report. This was also in line with industrial activity seen contracting in January.
The Indian government decided to no longer fund oil refiners to meet their net-zero operations targets. This was in line with the country’s will to reduce its budget deficit.
The Bank of England is opting to keep its interest rates at 5.25% for the fourth consecutive month. The central bank forecasts that inflation is set to fall to the 2% target within months.
The front and 6-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.35/bbl and $2.45/bbl respectively.
