Mid-Day Oil Summary: Crude Rebounds

Crude has rebounded today and jumped to a new intraday high of $79.45/b, before easing back, after headlines circulated on social media that indicate that the Israelis may not accept the counter proposal from Hamas.

• Brent APR 24 up 0.7% at 79.13$/bbl
• WTI MAR 24 up 0.7% at 73.84$/bbl
• The EIA weekly petroleum inventory data is due for release this afternoon at 10:30 ET (15:30GMT).
• - Crude inventories in ARA region rose 1.7m bbl last week to 46.6m bbl as of 2 February, Genscape data show.
• Hamas Proposes Counter Proposal For 135-Day Ceasefire-RTRS: Reuters claims to have seen a draft of the counterproposal from Hamas regarding a ceasefire.
• Total Energies has been avoiding Red Sea passages as a result of Houthi attacks for several weeks its CEO Patrick Pouyanne said Wednesday.
• Oil markets are brushing off US strikes against Iranian backed militants due to regional leader comments consistent with avoidance of war according to Max Layton, Citi global head of commodities research.
• India will be the leading driver of consumption growth through to 2030 due to healthy economic expansion, dynamic population, urbanisation and industrialisation growth according to the IEA.
• An Exxon led consortium, responsible for all of Guyana’s crude extraction, is producing around 645,000 bpd at present, up from 400,000 bpd in late-2023 according to the US producer Tuesday.
• China crude imports slipped to 9.8mn bpd in January according to Vortexa – marking the third consecutive month below 10mn bpd.
• Planned maintenance at Chinese state refiners is set to be 18% higher this year at a total of 157m tons/yr, according to OilChem. The work will mostly take place in 2Q and 4Q.
• Distillate margins and refined product volatility are too low due to structural tightness in the refining market and refined products exposure to potential Red Sea disruptions according to Goldman Sachs.
• Gasoline and diesel cracks spreads continue to trend higher with support from tighter supplies and refinery outages to help offset uncertainty over demand. API data yesterday showed another build in gasoline stocks while distillates inventories fell on the week.
  • US gasoline crack up 0.3$/bbl at 19.95$/bbl
  • US ULSD crack up 0.7$/bbl at 42.95$/bbl