Mid-Day Oil Summary: Crude Drifts Down

Crude prices are drifting downwards and have sunk below Friday’s low as the market waits for the outcomes of further meetings in the Middle East. Continued lacklustre data from China have added to existing worries regarding crude demand.

• Brent OCT 24 down 0.8% at 79.06$/bbl
• WTI SEP 24 down 0.8% at 76$/bbl
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed that the current round of negotiations is "probably the best, maybe the last opportunity" for a ceasefire in Gaza. Late last week, indirect talks in Doha involving Israel, the US, Qatar and Egypt saw what a joint statement from the mediators talked of 'progress' being made towards an agreement.
• Money managers increased net long crude positions last week to reverse some of the decline seen in the previous couple of weeks with Middle East risks set against global demand growth concerns.
• The crude options call-put spreads have pulled back to reverse much of the bullish move seen in early August. Upside pressure from the supply risks due to a potential escalation in the Middle East has eased slightly to add to ongoing global demand concerns.
• Crude in floating storage globally - stationary for at least 7 days - fell to 66.26mn bbls as of August 16 according to Vortexa – down 4.1% vs 69.12mn bbls on August 9.
• National Iranian Oil Iran raised the Iranian Light crude OSP to Asia up $0.25/bbl in September to $2.35/bbl according to Bloomberg.
• Nigeria’s crude oil output edged up to the highest since February at 1.31mb/d in July from 1.28mb/d in June, according to data from the upstream petroleum regulatory commission.