The July Brent Futures flat price had a rangebound start to the morning, ticking between $83.30/bbl and $83.60/bbl from 05:30 BST to 08:15 BST. Following this, it briefly dropped to $83.15/bbl around 08:55 BST, before rapidly strengthening to reach a high of $83.70/bbl at 09:35 BST. Subsequently it shed these gains just as quickly, dropping again to $83.10/bbl handles, where it remains as of 11:10 BST (time of writing). The Israeli military has taken “operational control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing” between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, with its tanks having pushed into the town of Rafah overnight. This comes following Hamas’ statement that it has accepted an Egyptian-brokered truce that was later rejected by Israel as “far from meeting” its “core demands”. Oman’s crude oil output edged down for a fourth consecutive month to 757kbbls/d in April, the first month in which the country fully met its OPEC+ quota of 759kbbls/d in 2024. This news comes on the same day as reports have stated that OPEC+’s June 1 meeting will likely extend current production cuts. BP has missed its Q1 profit forecast, reporting an adjusted net profit of $2.7 billion, down from last year’s figure of $5.0 billion. In addition, Saudi Aramco has stuck to a $31 billion dividend despite seeing a Q1 profit fall of 14.5% to $27.3 billion due to the Kingdom’s ongoing production cuts. The front and 6-month spreads are $0.46/bbl and $2.95/bbl, respectively.
