Mid-Day Oil Summary: Crude Pulls Back

Crude markets are trading lower today with concerns for the pace of global demand growth outweighing risks for supply disruptions from Middle Eastern tensions and ongoing Red Sea vessel attacks.

• Brent APR 24 down -0.8% at 82.91$/bbl
• WTI APR 24 down -1% at 77.7$/bbl
• China’s Sinochem bought six cargoes totalling 3mn barrels of Abu Dhabi’s Murban crude for April loading, traders told Bloomberg.
• Russian seaborne crude shipments in the four weeks to 18 February edged up to 3.27mbpd, compared with 3.25mbpd in the previous period according to Bloomberg.
• Russia’s crude oil and condensate output is seen at 523m tons this year according to Interfax reports citing Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov, while gas production is estimated at 667bcm in 2024.
• There is a considerable discrepancy between the IEA’s and OPEC’s forecasts for oil market demand as both remained almost unchanged in their most recent update, according to Commerzbank.
• Unipec bought one VLCC each of North Sea Johan Sverdrup and US Mars crude for May arrival, according to Bloomberg.
• Poland’s government would be in favor of Orlen SA taking over the stake in Germany’s Schwedt refinery, if Berlin decides to remove Rosneft’s stake in the facility, Poland’s the deputy climate minister, Milosz Motyka, told Bloomberg.
• Singapore fuel oil floating storage is essentially unchanged (+1% w/w) in the latest figures according to Vortexa.
• The Russian oil products market is balanced according to Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov.
• Diesel cracks regained some ground yesterday after a steady decline since Feb 12 while gasoline cracks continued to drift lower back to start of the month levels.
  • US gasoline crack down -0.5$/bbl at 17.55$/bbl
  • US ULSD crack down -0.7$/bbl at 38.5$/bbl