The Brent futures flat price for the prompt contract saw an initial sell off in the early hours, falling from highs of $78.82/bbl at 00:10 GMT to high $77/bbl-handles for the majority of the morning, before dipping to $77.54/bbl at 10:10 GMT.
Saudi Aramco has cut the official selling price of Arab light for Europe by $2/bbl to $1.50/bbl above the benchmark for February, the lowest level seen in 27 months, alongside representing the largest price cut in 13 months.
Libya’s NOC has declared a force majeure at the 300kbbls/d Sharara oil field, following on from protesters closing the field last week. India has approved the signing of a 5-year memorandum of understanding with Guyana, focussing on diversifying India’s oil import sources.
Looking at the CFTC data for the week to Jan 02, in Brent futures we saw a flip in sentiment from bullish to bearish. After two consecutive weeks of longs increasing and shorts decreasing, this trend was reversed, with bulls removing almost 2mbbls of length. Bearish speculators came back with a vengeance adding over 30mbbls of positions, increasing 57.5% w-o-w. WTI futures followed a similar trend, with over 5mbbls of length removed, whilst short positions were added to a greater extent, rising by 35mbbls (+36%).
The front and 6-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.21/bbl and $1.46/bbl, respectively.
Asian Refinery Margins: Q2-24: $7.6/bbl, Cal24: $7.51/bbl
Europe Refinery Margins: Q2-24: $5.44/bbl, Cal24: $4.55/bbl
