Fears for Economy Drive Crude Lower

In another volatile day for oil prices, Brent finished lower having bounced between 108.13$/bbl and 112.5$/bbl. Concerns that high inflation will lead to lower oil demand and possible recession continue to push oil lower despite continuing supply risks. Brent has gradually fallen 15$ from the high of nearly 125$/bbl only 10 days ago.

• Brent AUG 22 up 0.5% at 110.57$/bbl
• WTI AUG 22 up 0.7% at 104.98$/bbl
• Gasoil JUL 22 down -0.1% at 1289.25$/mt
• WTI-Brent up 0.12$/bbl at -5.6$/bbl
• The tight supply risks pushed crude time spreads higher yesterday. The front Brent spread reached the highest since late May and the longer dated Dec-Dec spread recovered some of the lost ground from following the flat price fall in recent days.
• Brent AUG 22-SEP 22 up 0.06$/bbl at 3.65$/bbl
• Brent DEC 22-DEC 23 up 0.35$/bbl at 12.21$/bbl
• Oil product cracks are holding steady with reports from a meeting between White House and oil executives saying talks were productive and ongoing. Talks were focused on ways to address rising energy costs and create more certainty for global energy markets. Cracks spreads are hovering just below peak levels with US gasoline up from 17.7$/bbl to 50$/bbl and US diesel up from 22.3$/bbl to 72$/bbl since the start of the year.
• US 321 crack up 0.4$/bbl at 56.99$/bbl
• US gasoline crack up 0.4$/bbl at 49.57$/bbl
• US ULSD crack up 0.3$/bbl at 71.84$/bbl
• The weekly EIA inventory data was not released yesterday due to system issues resulting from power disruption damage. EIA are working to restore the affected hardware and the data will be released as soon as possible.