Oil End of Day Summary: Crude Regains Ground

WTI has broken through yesterday’s high, regaining all the previously lost ground to be back to July 23 levels.

• WTI SEP 24 up 0.8% at 78.21$/bbl
• Today’s unexpected China stimulus included a 20bp MLF cut and a 2000bn liquidity injection, which follows Monday’s 10bp reduction in key rates.
• A number of lightning strikes have started a range of new wildfires in Canada, putting oil production under threat.
• Differentials for US Mars sour crude have been in steep decline in July, hitting their widest discount to benchmark crude futures since October, according to Reuters.
• Urals crude exports from Russia’s two Baltic ports are set to drop to 5.3m mt, or 1.25m b/d in July, according to Bloomberg.
• Mexico’s incoming president Claudia Sheinbaum will likely face a challenge in fulfilling the dream of energy independence, Reuters said.
• Iran has released the cargo of a Greek-owned, Marshall-Islands-flagged tanker that it seized earlier this year, according to Reuters.
• Crude storage capacity utilisation rates among Shandong Independent refineries were unchanged on the week at 44.2% for the seven days to July 26, OilChem said.
• Kazakhstan’s KazTransOil boosted transportation 4% on the year in H1 2024 to 22.265m mt, the pipeline operator said, cited by Bloomberg.
• Global oil demand remains robust as OECD commercial oil inventories fell 15mbbl last week, according to JPMorgan.
• A Bloomberg survey of 23 traders and analysts showed only 10 are expecting the OPEC+ group to fully implement the proposed 543kbpd production increase for Q4 2024.