The Brent futures flat price for the prompt contract has seen a relatively supported morning above the $80/bbl mark, rising from $80.31/bbl at 07:00 GMT to $81.20 at 10:00 GMT.
After a fire at the Russian Ust-Luga terminal caused by a drone attack earlier in the week, another reported drone attack set a 240kbbls/d Rosneft-owned refinery in Tuapse, Russia ablaze overnight. Despite being extinguished relatively quickly, the scale of the damage is yet to be disclosed.
Shell has confirmed that it will start maintenance on its 404kbbls/d Pernis refinery near Rotterdam in late Jan, hoping to get it back online come April. Nigeria’s crude loadings are set to climb 17% month on month to 1.3mbbls/d in March.
China has announced that it will cut the reserve requirement ratio by 0.5% for banks on Feb 05, providing $139bn in long-term liquidity to the market. Norway’s crude production for Dec totalled 1.85mbbls/d, slightly above the 1.81mbbls/d figure seen for Nov. Russian crude exports to Asia and Africa surged in 2023, increasing by 56% and 144% year-on-year.
The EIA released its inventory report at yesterday at 15:30 GMT. It announced a second consecutive crude inventory draw, with stocks decreasing by 9.23mbbls. This falls in line with, but to a greater extent, than the projections set by both the API stats released last night and the median of analyst expectations, which equated to draws of 6.67mbbls and 1.4mbbls, respectively. Cushing storage saw its third decrease in a row, falling by 2mbbls. It was also announced that crude production fell by 1mbbls/d as a consequence of the deep freeze that hit the US last week.
The front and 6-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.45/bbl and $2.16/bbl, respectively.
Asian Refinery Margins: Q2-24: $8.93/bbl, Cal24: $8.82/bbl
Europe Refinery Margins: Q2-24: $7.34/bbl, Cal24: $6.41/bbl
