Crude Steadies After Nearly Two Week Decline

Brent crude is holding steady after falling over the last week weighed down by concern for global oil demand growth but with upside risk from a recovery in China. US Fed minutes yesterday showed that further interest rate hikes are expected due to inflationary pressures. Indicators are suggesting a rebound in demand in China with increasing travel, higher refinery run rates and raised crude import.

• Brent APR 23 up 0.2% at 80.77$/bbl
• WTI APR 23 up 0.2% at 74.11$/bbl
• Gasoil MAR 23 down -0.6% at 792.5$/mt
• WTI-Brent down -0.1$/bbl at -6.68$/bbl
• Russia oil output has held up much better than expected following sanctions but an increase in volumes at sea looking for buyers and the production cut of 500kbpd in March are creating supply uncertainty.
• Brent backwardation softened yesterday with the prompt spread falling from 0.29$/bbl to as low as 0.11$/bbl. The prompt WTI is still in contango and WTI-Brent spread widening due to weak near term US demand and 26mbbls congress mandated SPR release expected this year.
  • Brent APR 23-MAY 23 up 0.01$/bbl at 0.16$/bbl
  • Brent JUN 23-DEC 23 up 0.07$/bbl at 2.05$/bbl
• Gasoline cracks are edging back up after falling yesterday while diesel cracks are relatively stable. Weak demand and healthy supplies are weighing on prices despite the strong US refinery maintenance season and ongoing concern for Russia product outputs.
  • US gasoline crack up 0.1$/bbl at 32.88$/bbl
  • US ULSD crack up 0.2$/bbl at 39.31$/bbl