Oil End of Day Summary: Crude Holds Onto Losses

Crude pulls back from highs seen last week as market focus turns to oil demand growth in China with concern for a worsening property sector ahead of official data released this week.

• Brent OCT 23 down -0.7% at 86.18$/bbl
• WTI SEP 23 down -0.7% at 82.62$/bbl
• Brent recovered from an intra-day low of $85.50/bbl.
• Crude managed money net long positions remain stable, but diesel positioning continues to increase according to Commitments of Traders data released on Friday. The combined net long positions for Brent and WTI decreased slightly from the 15 week high seen the previous week, by -6k to 397k. ICE Gasoil net positions extended the recent gains up to the highest since March 2022 and Nymex diesel the highest since Feb 2022 amid tight global diesel markets.
• Crude in floating storage that has been stationary for at least seven days fell by 4.2% last week to 99.67mn bbl as of 11 August.
• Iran's crude production is now just short of 3.2mn bpd and is due to rise to 3.3mn bpd before the end of August, Iraq’s oil minister Javad Owji said.
• High prices for North Sea sour crudes are prompting European refiners to switch to sweeter grades, in particular US WTI, with loadings of the grade into Europe rising 25% m/m in July.
• Azeri BTC crude oil exports from Turkey's Ceyhan port have been set at 17.55 million barrels for September, down from 19.04 million barrels in August.
• The Black Sea CPC oil terminal has completed planned maintenance at one of its three moorings August 14 and it is now in operation.
• Nigerian Forcados crude exports resumed on Sunday according to Shell spokesperson based on Reuters reports.
• BTC pipeline oil exports rose to 17.52mn tons in the January-July period of this year, the State Statistics Committee said, up from 16.56mn tons for the same period last year, archive data showed.
• Caspian CPC Blend loadings are expected to rise to about 1.28mn bpd in September, up from around 1.15mn bpd in August.
• The price of Urals surpassed the $60/bbl price cap for the first time last month. Russian crude volumes (excl. Russia Far East) lifted by Greek operators in July decreased by around 482kbpd m/m to a level equivalent to around 35% of all cargoes.
• Kazakhstan reduced daily oil production since 11 August after a power outage at the Mangistau power station forced the plant to shut down.