Oil End of Day Summary: Crude Slides on Day

WTI has lost ground today, facing further weakness amid sustained demand fears out of China and USD strength.

• WTI AUG 24 down 1.2% at 80.96$/bbl
• US crude oil inventories were likely unchanged in the week to July 12, according to a WSJ survey.
• The likely return of La Nina climate phenomenon will bring a new wave of disruption and volatility to global commodity markets, Platts said.
• China’s crude oil imports showed an annual fall of 11% at 46.45m mt in June: GACC data.
• China’s imports of discounted crude from Iran rose 148kb/d m/m to a record of 1.5mb/d in June, Kpler said.
• Russia’s four-week average crude exports fell to their lowest since January, continuing a plunge that has seen them fall 570k b/d since peaking in April, Bloomberg said.
• Russia plans to make extra crude production cuts to compensate for pumping its OPEC+ quota in the warm season of 2024 and 2025, sources told Bloomberg.
• Caspian CPC blend loadings for August are expected to be around 1.2m b/d, traders with knowledge of the loading programme told Bloomberg.
• The Iraq oil pipeline is being delayed because of remaining tensions between Baghdad and Erbil according to a Bloomberg interview with Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar.
• Angola is set to load 33 cargoes in September compared with 40 planned for August.
• OIES have maintained a Brent forecast of $85.4/bbl in 2024 and $78.6/bbl in 2025, according to the latest Oil Monthly report, with H2 forecast to average near $87/bbl.