Oil End-Day Summary: Crude Holds Onto Gains

Front month Brent crude is holding onto gains but eased back from an intra-day high of $81.35/bbl following reports of protests at Libya’s El Feel oil field affecting output. Brent was holding above $80/bbl earlier in the session supported by a weaker US dollar and tighter supplies.

• Protests in Libya today shut El Feel field (approx 60kbpd). Did not affect nearby Sharara field (300kbpd).
• Brent SEP 23 up 0.7% at 80.66$/bbl
• WTI AUG 23 up 0.6% at 76.23$/bbl
• The IEA has revised down its global oil demand growth forecast for this year by 200kbpd to 102.1mbpd. Global oil supply for this year has been revised up to 101.5mbpd, compared with the previous forecast of 101.3mbpd.
• OPEC raised its global oil demand growth forecast for this year to 2.4mbpd, up by 0.1mbpd, to 102mbpd. OPEC-13 crude oil output stood at 28.19mbpd in June, up by 91kbpd MoM.
• According to Argusmedia and Platts, Russian Urals crude prices rose above $60/bbl for the first time since November, the price cap level set by the EU and G7.
• Sverdrup crude sees higher demand as a replacement for sour barrels that have come off the market on OPEC+ cuts.
• Chinese crude imports in June rose by 4.58% MoM to 12.67mbpd.
• Diesel crack spreads edged back down later in today’s session following yesterday’s decline amid EIA data showing a big build in US weekly distillates stocks. The halt to Shell’s Wesseling refinery for five days from 20 July provided support with the outage adding to disrupted wholesale supplies from two other German oil refineries.
• Gasoil AUG 23 up 0.4% at 757.25$/mt
• Gasoil AUG 23-SEP 23 down -0.25$/mt at 5$/mt
• EU Gasoil-Brent down -0.2$/bbl at 20.25$/bbl
• US ULSD crack down -0.4$/bbl at 33.3$/bbl