Oil End-Day Summary: Crude Pulled Back After Gains On Supply Disruptions

Front month Brent crude pulled back to a daily low of $79.64/bbl before rising higher, after supply disruptions in Libya and Nigeria supported price at the beginning of the session. European diesel spreads shrugged off earlier gains on potential supply disruptions at the Pernis refinery amid higher July imports.

• Protests in Libya on Thursday shut El Feel field (approx 60kbpd). Protest also gradually halted output at the Sharara oil field starting Thursday evening. Output was fully halted since last night (approx. 300kbpd). Shell confirmed it suspended loadings at Nigeria’s Forcados crude oil terminal since Wednesday evening after workers observed fumes.
• Brent SEP 23 down -1.5% at 80.13$/bbl
• WTI AUG 23 down -1.7% at 75.62$/bbl
• A total of 530kbbls of open August 23 options positions on CME and ICE are due to expire against the July future close on Monday. Current aggregate open interest is 279k calls and 251k puts. The open interest across all WTI options on both exchanges is currently 1.69m calls and 1.13m puts. Most of the significant options positions around the current market prices are on the calls side with the biggest strikes of interest just below the current price at 76$/bbl and 75$/bbl.
• Saudi Arabia crude exports dopped 400kbpd MoM in July as cuts take effect.
• OPEC+ has scheduled its next JMMC meeting for 3 August via videoconference.
• European diesel spreads gains ground early today after a local newspaper reported a leakage at the pipeline to Shell’s Pernis refinery close to Rotterdam. But spreads came of later in the session as European diesel imports recovered so far in July on East of Suez, Turkey supplies.
• Gasoil AUG 23 down -0.1% at 755.5$/mt
• Gasoil AUG 23-SEP 23 up 0.5$/mt at 5.5$/mt
• Gasoil DEC 23-DEC 24 up 1.5$/mt at 35$/mt
• EU Gasoil-Brent up 0.7$/bbl at 20.43$/bbl