Mid-Day Oil Summary: Crude Up, On Track for WoW Decline

Front crude month removed earlier losses to trade higher on the day supported by the latest EU sanction proposal indicating stricter measures on the G7 Russian oil price cap. Brent December crude is on track for an over 3% net weekly decline, driven by weak demand sentiment, better than expected non-OPEC supply and a large crude build with the latest EIA data this week.

• Brent JAN 24 up 1.5% at 78.58$/bbl
• WTI DEC 23 up 1.4% at 73.93$/bbl
• Gasoil DEC 23 up 0.1% at 793$/mt
• WTI-Brent down -0.11$/bbl at -4.49$/bbl
• Demand growth is expected to remain solid and with core OPEC supply staying low in 2024 according to Goldman Sachs.
• The latest EU sanction proposal on Russia indicated a ban on EU oil tanker sales to Russia and new requirement for ship operators to show itemized price information for freight and insurance to verify compliance with the G7 price cap according to Reuters headlines.
• The Biden Administration is prepared to unwind all sanctions relief on Venezuela if Nicolas Maduro does not abide by agreements towards a fairer path to election by the end of this month.
• The US extended a license Thursday allowing four oilfield service firms to maintain their current assets in Venezuela until May 16.
• The three newly sanctioned oil tankers by US officials this week had regularly shipped Russia Sokol crude to India in recent months according to LSEG and Kpler vessel tracking.
• Iran exported 1.3m b/d of crude oil and condensates in October, according to Vortexa, down 0.1m b/d on the Q3 average exports.
• Turkey’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar will visit Iraq on Wednesday to attend a Joint Economic Commission meeting between the two countries, two sources told Bloomberg.
• Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak held a meeting with oil producers on Thursday to discuss the domestic fuel market. The government did not lift the ban on oil products exports, as previously expected.
• China’s state-owned refinery run rates increased for the first time in six weeks according to Bloomberg based on OilChem data. State-owned refinery runs rose to 76.84% of capacity in the week to 17 Nov after falling to the lowest since May last week.
• Diesel cracks softened yesterday but have net gained on the week with the downside move more muted than crude after the larger US oil product inventory draws seen earlier this week.
• Marathon Petroleum restarted a rebuilt reformer at its 593kbpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas on Thursday and plans to resume production Friday, people familiar with plant operations told Reuters.
  • US gasoline crack down -0.4$/bbl at 15.11$/bbl
  • US ULSD crack down -0.3$/bbl at 42.31$/bbl