Flat As EU Embargo Worry Further Recedes

WTI and Brent are virtually unchanged at typing, struggling to make headway above neutral levels in Asia-Pac dealing. Both benchmarks operate off Thursday’s best levels as expectations for imminent EU sanctions on Russian crude have faded, but remain on track to close higher for the week (after two straight weeks of declines).

• To elaborate, deliberations between EU leaders on Thursday saw familiar opposition re: sanctions on Russian energy. On a related issue, while source reports have highlighted a potential U.S.-EU deal to boost LNG supplies to the latter via the former, near-term measures appear insufficient (RTRS and FT sources say that the agreement is for 15bn cubic metres more LNG from the U.S., against the EU’s current 50bn cubic metres target re: replacement of Russian natural gas imports).
• Elsewhere, RTRS source reports have pointed to a partial resumption in oil loadings from the CPC pipeline (reported on Thursday as having completely halted exports), with a source estimating that exports for CPC Blend crude would be reduced to 800K bpd from 1.4mn bpd.
• Looking to the Middle East, progress towards an Iranian nuclear deal appears to have halted, with Iran’s Foreign Minister saying on Thursday that the U.S. was “wasting time”. On the other hand, U.S. officials have not budged from earlier statements that it is up to Iran to make “difficult decisions”, while emphasising that the U.S. has begun exploring alternatives to the deal.