The Nov’24 Brent futures contract has been more rangebound this morning, with the crude futures flat price rising to $73.20/bbl around 09:10 BST to then decline to $72.65/bbl around 09:40 BST to finally firm up to $73/bbl as of 11:20 BST (time of writing). OPEC+ has agreed to delay its planned output hike for at least two months following the Nov’24 Brent future contract’s decline to its lowest in nine months this week, adding that it could further reverse the hikes if required. Libyan oil exports remain halted, although oil tanker Kriti Samaria has reportedly been permitted to enter Libya’s Zueitina port to load 600kb of crude from storage en route to Italy, per a Reuters report. In macroeconomic news, initial claims for US state unemployment benefits dropped by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 227,000 over the week ending 31 Aug – its lowest level since early July. However, industrial production fell by 2.4% in Germany against a Reuters poll predicting a 0.3% decline. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month Nov/Dec’24 and six-month Nov/May’25 Brent futures spreads stood at $0.40/bbl and $1.20/bbl, respectively.
