Oil End of Day Summary: Crude Slides

Crude reversed earlier gains to be trading down day on day and slid further during US hours. WTI has receding from a high of 73.54$/bbl with strong supplies from US and Russia helping to offset the upside risk from Middle East tensions.

• WTI FEB 24 down -2% at 70.25$/bbl
• OPEC+ plans to hold the next Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting (JMMC) in the first week of February, delegates told Bloomberg.
• OPEC output rose 48k b/d in December to 26.53m b/d, according to Kpler, cited by Bloomberg.
• Maersk has again suspended all Red Sea transit with ships diverted around southern Africa in response to the latest Houthi attack. The firm will decide on Tuesday when to resume traffic in the region.
• Chinese oil import quotas have been released at 179.01mn metric tons for 2024 according to consultancies including JLC and Longzhong.
• Russia’s seaborne crude exports finished 2023 with a four-week average of 3.46m b/d, the highest since early November, according to Bloomberg.
• Nigeria’s Dangote refinery received a fourth shipment of 1mn bbls of crude from NNPC with a fifth expected soon it said in a statement Sunday.
• Global crude floating storage on tankers for at least seven days fell 16% from the week prior to 77.39mbbls as of December 29 according to Vortexa data.
• Exports of Mexican crude oil rebounded in 2023 as rising volumes of medium sour Isthmus oil counter declines in exports of Maya crude, according to Bloomberg, citing US customs and Kpler data.
• Oil prices are not fully reflecting the ratcheting up of Middle East tensions, despite the region’s importance to the market, according to Helima Croft, RBC Capital Markets global head of commodity strategy,