Crude Steady after Net Fall Last Week

After falling from a peak mid last week crude then ticked back up slightly on Friday as protests cause port closures and disrupted Libya and Ecuador exports. India’s introduction of a tax on fuel exports also helped pushed prices back up. Crude is trading up another 0.5% this morning.

• Brent SEP 22 up 0.5% at 112.22$/bbl
• WTI AUG 22 up 0.5% at 108.98$/bbl
• Gasoil JUL 22 down -0.1% at 1225.75$/mt
• WTI-Brent down -0.24$/bbl at -6.25$/bbl
• The ongoing supply issues are balanced against concerns for global oil demand fears on the back of a US recession. There are signs that the high oil product prices are starting to impact demand therefore adding to the downward pressure on prices. The possible reduction in demand has caused refined product crack spreads to pull back significantly over the last 10 days although spreads did recover some losses on Friday and are mostly ticking up again this morning.
• US gasoline crack up 0.6$/bbl at 46.2$/bbl
• US ULSD crack down -0.7$/bbl at 57.17$/bbl
• Gasoline-Brent up 1.5$/bbl at 36.37$/bbl
• Gasoil-Brent up 0.7$/bbl at 42.62$/bbl
• Over the weekend an increase in Covid cases in China has raised the possibility of delayed return of oil demand to normal levels. The nation maintains their zero covid policy which resulted in numerous lockdown restrictions so far this year.
• Tight supply has driven prompt curve spreads to very high levels as the full curve remains strongly backwardated. The move in longer dated spreads has generally followed the sentiment from the outright futures prices.
• Brent SEP 22-OCT 22 down -0.03$/bbl at 3.8$/bbl
• Brent DEC 22-DEC 23 up 0.31$/bbl at 13.15$/bbl