Mid-day Oil Summary:

Crude is seeing a recovery following Brent’s front month fall to a low of 82$/bbl yesterday. The market will likely focus into the Fed chair speech later today. Tightness in global supply will also provide some support.

• Brent OCT 23 up 1.1% at 84.29$/bbl
• WTI OCT 23 up 1.1% at 79.93$/bbl
• A total of 448mbbls of open Oct23 Brent options positions are currently due to expire against the futures close today. Current open interest is 221k for calls contracts and 226k for puts.
• The latest Baker Hughes rig count data is due for release at 13:00ET.
• Turkey is looking to broker a deal with the central Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to restart exports via the Ceyhan pipeline, according to Bloomberg.
• Iran and the US seem to have produced an informal arrangement on oil flows despite no return yet to their lapsed nuclear agreement according to Bloomberg.
• Deep OPEC production cuts and strong product demand are supportive of tighter balances and stronger prices in the second half of the year according to a Morgan Stanley client note.
• Europe’s crude imports from US are at a record-high, while WTI inclusion in Brent basket helps to widen sweet-sour gap in Europe according to Vortexa.