Crude Edges Higher

Crude markets are edging higher over uncertainty of Red Sea shipping as Houthi rebels attacked another container ship on Tuesday while major shipping firms announced to gradually resume passage though the area. Additional SPR purchased from the DOE and lower oil output in Kazakhstan due to a weather-related halt in loadings at the CPC terminal offer additional upside.

• Brent FEB 24 up 0.2% at 81.25$/bbl
• WTI FEB 24 down -0.1% at 75.48$/bbl
• Gasoil JAN 24 down -0.8% at 783.5$/mt
• WTI-Brent down -0.25$/bbl at -5.77$/bbl
• Concerns over shipping in the Red Sea continue to support crude markets. On Tuesday Houthi revels attacked the MSC United VIII container ship that was headed for Pakistan. Despite that, major shipping firms such as Maersk and CMA CGM were resuming passage through the Red Sea. Hapag-Lloyd will decide today whether to resume Red Sea shipping.
• Kazakhstan’s daily crude output fell by 3.6% to 254k tons as the CPC oil terminal at Russia’s Black Sea halted loading due to weather conditions. Daily output at Tengiz fell by 5.4% to 78.6k tons according to Interfax.
• The Department of Energy awarded a tender to buy US crude oil for its SPR to three companies for 1-31 March delivery.
• The API oil inventory data is due for release today at 16:30 ET ahead of the EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report tomorrow due to changed schedule because of the Christmas holidays.
• Congo and Nigeria reaffirmed their commitment to OPEC after Angola announced its exit from the producer group.
  • Brent MAR 24-APR 24 up 0.03$/bbl at 0.22$/bbl
  • Brent JUN 24-DEC 24 down -0.01$/bbl at 2.15$/bbl
• US gasoline and diesel cracks edging higher on the day with diesel cracks still at a multi-month low. Weekly (Sun-Sat) US gasoline demand fell 0.2% but was 1.1% above the average of the last four weeks at 8.518mbpd according to GasBuddy.
  • US gasoline crack up 0.2$/bbl at 15.89$/bbl
  • US ULSD crack up 0.1$/bbl at 35.62$/bbl