Mid-Day Oil Summary

Crude markets are edging higher today due to geopolitical tensions and supply risks amid ongoing vessel attacks in the Red Sea and renewed Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries. The lower USD spot index is also limiting downside.

• Brent MAY 24 up 0.4% at 85.81$/bbl
• WTI MAY 24 up 0.5% at 81.02$/bbl
• Ukrainian drones attacked two oil refineries in Russia’s Samara Region on Saturday morning according to Governor Dmitry Azarov.
• Yemen’s Houthi’s have renewed threats against Saudi Arabia, warning it not to support US air strikes against the group.
• Foreign companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan are partly to blame for the delay in the resumption of crude exports from the region according to Iraq’s oil ministry Monday.
• Rosneft’s Kuibyshev oil refinery in Russia's Samara halted its CDU-5, one of two primary refining units, following a drone attack over the weekend according to Reuters sources.
• The amount of crude oil held around the world on tankers that have been stationary for at least seven days edged up by 0.1% last week to to 74.72m bbl as of 22 March, Vortexa data showed.
• Germany’s Miro refinery in Karlsruhe is planning four weeks of maintenance through April.
• US diesel cracks slipped back last week as US refinery capacity comes back online from spring maintenance while Kpler figures showed Russian diesel supplies piling up at sea (at 6.2mn bbls.) A fire on Friday has caused an unplanned shut down of multiple units at TotalEnergies’ Port Arthur refinery in Texas according to Bloomberg and Reuters sources.
• US gasoline crack up 0$/bbl at 33.22$/bbl
• US ULSD crack up 0.1$/bbl at 30.3$/bbl