After trading comfortably around $72.50/bbl overnight, the Feb’25 Brent futures contract has increased to $72.85/bbl this morning at 10:45 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil prices have been supported following the announcement of China’s looser monetary policy stance and expectations of a US Fed rate cut next week. In the news today, the Biden administration is considering harsher sanctions against Russian oil in the leadup to Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025. The sanctions could target Russian oil exports according to anonymous sources familiar with the matter, however, no exact details have been specified, as per Bloomberg. In other news, Russian crude oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline to the Czech Republic have continued as normal, operator MERO said following Ukrainian strikes on an oil depot in Russia’s Bryansk region last night, according to Reuters. Finally, Ecuador’s imports of refined products have been rising amid low refinery utilisation rates, with refining throughput for 2024 expected to drop 13.4% in 2024 y/y, as per S&P Global. Ecuador’s oil products imports were recorded at 4.1mb in September, 5mb for October, and 5.2mb in November. At the time of writing, the Feb/Mar’25 and Feb/Aug’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.33/bbl and $1.27/bbl, respectively.
