June Brent futures flat price maintained strength in the $90/bbl handles this morning. Initially prices hovered around $90.20/bbl during the early hours, before support has seen price action push towards the $91/bbl mark, printing at $90.76/bbl at 11:20 BST. Independent Chinese refineries cut bitumen blend imports by 30% in March. China’s total crude imports fell by 6.23% from levels one year ago, equating to 49.05 million mt or 11.55mbbls/d. Nonetheless, total Chinese crude imports for Q1 increased by 0.7% to 137.4 million mt. Russian forces have shot down four more Ukrainian drones near the town of Novoshakhtinsk in Russia’s Rostov region. The IEA warns that attacks on Russian plants could disrupt the diesel market with around 500-600kbbls/d offline, with damaged refineries requiring between 4-8 weeks of repairs. Finally, the front-month and six-month spreads are currently at $0.90/bbl and $4.89/bbl, respectively.
