Crude Futures Regain Ground but Put Option Skew Widens

Front month crude futures have regained ground after falling earlier today following comments that Saudi Aramco is not necessarily abandoning capacity expansion plans according to Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman.

• Middle East concerns and Red Sea tanker diversions are still supportive while both Iraq and UAE have today reaffirmed commitment to working with OPEC+. Iraq’s crude oil production stood at 4mbpd in January, Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani said, in line with the country’s pledged output for 1Q 2024.
• Brent time spreads have also regained some ground although remain down on the day.
• The near term call-put skews have turned slightly more bearish today with the Brent crude second month 25 delta call-put skew down to around -2.7% and the WTI second month 25 delta call-put skew at -3.6%.
• The Brent Dec24 call-put skew is today at -4.9% while the WTI Dec24 skew is -5.8%.
  • Brent APR 24 down -0.2% at 81.99$/bbl
  • WTI MAR 24 up 0% at 76.87$/bbl
  • WTI-Brent up 0.23$/bbl at -5.19$/bbl
  • Brent APR 24-MAY 24 down -0.08$/bbl at 0.5$/bbl
  • Brent JUN 24-DEC 24 down -0.1$/bbl at 2.61$/bbl
  • WTI MAR 24-APR 24 unchanged at 0.07$/bbl
  • WTI JUN 24-DEC 24 down -0.08$/bbl at 2.56$/bbl