End of Day Oil Summary: WTI Edges Lower

Front month WTI is pulling back but remains above earlier lows. Crude rallied yesterday driven by the chance that the US will reinstate sanctions on Venezuela, limited short term hope for a ceasefire in Israel, tighter supplies from OPEC+ output cuts in Q2 and a weaker US dollar.

• Brent MAY 24 down 0.6% at 86.27$/bbl
• WTI MAY 24 down 0.4% at 81.66$/bbl
• OPEC+ is unlikely to make any output policy changes until the next full OPEC+ ministerial meeting in June, three OPEC sources told Reuters.
• India has stopped buying Venezuelan oil because of the possibility that the US waiver of sanctions on Venezuela won’t be renewed according to Bloomberg.
• Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will consider Venezuelan oil purchase if the US continues to relax sanctions according to the company’s chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya.
• Russian crude exports picked up again in the latest weeks data according to Bloomberg vessel tracking.
• Russian crude oil volumes in floating storage have been rising, Oil Brokerage said in a note, cited by Bloomberg.
• The Suezmax New Discovery has been discharging its Urals crude cargo onto another Suezmax, Caroline Bezengi, via ship-to-ship transfer at Sohar, Oman, marking the fourth Urals STS at Sohar, Bloomberg ship tracking showed.
• Kazakhstan’s Tegiz oil and gas field expansion is planned to be implemented at the end of 2024 according to the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Almassadam Satkaliyev.
• Nigeria is scheduled to export 276kbpd of Forcados crude in May, the highest since January and up from a revised 227kbpd in April, according to a loading program seen by Bloomberg.
• A Suezmax tanker, the Nordic Breeze, carrying US crude will arrive at the Finnart terminal in Scotland on 7 April according to Bloomberg ship tracking, suggesting the terminal may be returning to operations after being shut for almost three months.
• Phillips 66 estimates global demand for motor fuels to rise by around 2% even as gasoline usage in the US market begins to plateau, CEO Mark Lashier said.