The Dec’24 Brent futures contract initially showed strength this afternoon, trading at $74.60/bbl at 12:00 BST and moving up to $75.70/bbl at 15:20 BST, however, sold-off to $74.80/bbl at 17:20 BST (time of writing).
Dec’24 flat price sold-off shortly after the release of EIA data at 15:30 BST today for the week to 18 Oct, which showed a build of 5.47mb in US crude oil inventories, much higher than the expected draw of 0.7mb. In the news today, US refiners are projected to report lower margins for Q3’24 amid tepid fuel demand and increased global supply, according to Reuters estimates.
We saw the NYMEX 3-2-1 crack peak at $16.86/bbl before the release of EIA stats today, before trading down to $16.60/bbl at the time of writing. In other news, Hezbollah has confirmed via Telegram that Hashem Safieddine, a likely successor to Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli air strike three weeks ago, as per Bloomberg.
Finally, Italian insurer Generali has announced it is ending coverage for companies involved in downstream oil and gas operations if they do not meet energy transition requirements. This move is based on the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to less than 2°C. At the time of writing, the front-month (Dec/Jan’25) and six-month (Dec/Jun’25) Brent futures spreads are at $0.37/bbl and $1.54/bbl, respectively.
