Crude Erased Earlier Gains

Crude erased earlier gains that were driven by a brief suspension of the Keystone pipeline in the US, while a weaker USD has also been supportive this week ahead of today’s US payrolls data. Front month Brent is trading lower on the day as latest data suggests OPEC+ members continue to produce above the pledged quotas for this quarter, but the front month remains within the 80.7$/bbl to 84.3$/bbl range seen over the last month.

• Brent MAY 24 down -0.4% at 82.65$/bbl
• WTI APR 24 down -0.5% at 78.56$/bbl
• US nonfarm payrolls are due for release at 08:30 ET. Bloomberg consensus sees nonfarm payrolls growth of 200k in February but two-month revisions will likely be watched particularly closely.
• The 22-country OPEC+ alliance pumped 41.21mbpd of oil in February, unchanged in the month, with several members such as Iraq and Kazakhstan still producing above their OPEC+ quota according to a Platts survey.
• Russian crude oil output stood at 9.54mbpd in February, up by 82kbpd on the month and 94kbpd above its OPEC+ target production, official data showed, cited by Bloomberg.