The September Brent Futures contract has seen a mixed morning, at first rallying up to $85.84/bbl at 07:00 BST before experiencing a sell-off down to $85.14/bbl at 10:45 BST and subsequently rebounding to $85.36/bbl at the time of writing (11:10 BST). In headlines today, Saudi crude exports to China are expected to rebound in August to around 46mb, driven by allocations to Unipec and Rongsheng Petrochina, after Saudi Arabia cut OSPs for August-loading barrels. This follows a drop in exports to 36mb in July, the lowest since March 2020, according to Kpler. In other news, Eni announced a significant natural gas discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, estimated at 300 to 400mb of oil equivalent. The discovery is in the Sureste Basin, where Eni has over 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent in resources and comes amongst plans to develop the area into a hub, leveraging several nearby discoveries. Also in the region, Mexico’s state energy major, Pemex, has been expanding gas-powered generation and increasing domestic gas resource development to reduce dependence on U.S. imports. Mexico recently updated its proven oil and gas reserves from last year to 8.383 billion barrels of oil equivalent from 5.978 billion barrels, with proven natural gas reserves rising to 12.297 trillion cubic feet from 11.029 trillion cubic feet. At the time of writing, the front and 6-month Brent Futures spreads are at $0.76/bbl and $3.47/bbl, respectively.
