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Mid-Day Oil Summary: Crude Retreats

OIL

Brent crude has reversed earlier gains to trade lower today amid weaker risk appetite as market focus remains on Thursday’s delayed OPEC+ meeting. Softer-than-expected industrial profits in China pointed to struggling demand to weigh on commodities.

    • Brent JAN 24 down -1.2% at 79.63$/bbl
    • WTI JAN 24 down -1.3% at 74.55$/bbl
    • WTI-Brent down -0.04$/bbl at -5.08$/bbl
  • The OPEC+ meeting is scheduled for 1PM GMT (8AM ET) Thursday according to a draft agenda seen by Reuters.
  • OPEC+ has still not reached an agreement on Nigeria/Angola production quotas for 2024 according to Chief OPEC correspondent Amena Bakr on X.
  • China’s industrial profits were 2.7% y/y in October, positive but well off recent highs (17.2% in August).
  • Calendar: The delayed commitments of traders reports are due for release after the close today at 18:30GMT. The Jan24 Brent options expire against the 19:30BST futures close price today with the main strike of note around the current market at 80$/bbl.
  • Shipping risks in the Middle East remain high with reports of a chemical tanker being boarded by Houthi rebels yesterday.
  • Oil loadings from the CPC terminal on the Black Sea temporarily halted due to a storm alert, the operator said in a statement Monday morning. This was shortly followed by a statement from Transneft that loadings have stopped at the port of Novorossiysk.
  • Kazakhstan’s oil and gas condensate production declined November 26 to 214,500 tonnes according to the Energy Ministry.
  • Crude oil held around the world on tankers that have been stationary for at least seven days fell to 86.52m bbl as of 24 November, down by 2.9% from the week prior, Vortexa data show.
  • China has issued an additional 3m tonnes of fuel oil imports quotas for non state firms according to the Ministry of Commerce.
  • Phillips 66 began the restart of several units at the Borger refinery in Texas on 26 November according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
  • PetroIneos has reported an FCC fault at its Lavera refinery, France resulting in flaring this morning according to Bloomberg.
    • US gasoline crack up 0.2$/bbl at 14.77$/bbl
    • US ULSD crack up 0.2$/bbl at 41.08$/bbl

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