The Feb’25 Brent futures contract rose this morning from around $73.80/bbl at 07:00 GMT to $74.10/bbl at 10:20 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil prices remained supported this morning while traders await tomorrow’s OPEC+ meeting (5 Dec), where ministers are expected to further delay production hikes into Q1’25. In the news today, in light of the Syrian rebels’ attack on Aleppo on 30 Nov, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated “If the Syrian government wants us to deploy troops in Syria, we’ll consider their request”, as per Bloomberg. In other news, the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the Izvestia newspaper that “there are no grounds for negotiations yet” on how to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that advisers to US President Trump are floating proposals to cede Ukrainian territory to Russia while ruling out potential NATO membership for Ukraine. Finally, South Korean lawmakers submitted a bill on Wednesday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol after he declared martial law and reversed the move hours later, as per Reuters. S&P Global claimed that the political conflict would pose no risk to oil products supplies for Asia-Oceania customers. However, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) launched an indefinite labour strike on 4 Dec until the South Korean president resigns, which could cause minor delays in the domestic retail fuel supply network. Finally, At the time of writing, the Feb/Mar’25 and Feb/Aug’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.44/bbl and $1.63/bbl, respectively.
