Oil End of Day Summary: Crude Strengthens on Week

Crude strengthened on the day with WTI set for 9% gains since the start of the week. Additional Middle East geopolitical tensions are outweighing concerns for the demand outlook.

• WTI APR 24 up 0.8% at 78.24$/bbl
• Today has seen an escalation of tensions between Israel and Iran-backed, Lebanon-based, Hezbollah following an Israeli attack which killed 10 Lebanese civilians this week. In a televised address a short time ago, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, responding to the attack, said Israel will pay a price "in blood."
• UKMTO has received a report of an incident 70NM northwest of al Mukha, Yemen, the agency said via X.
• US oil and gas rig count total fell by 2 to 612, according to Baker Hughes data Feb. 16. Reversing some of last week’s rise. US Oil rig count: 497 (-2). US gas rig count: 121 (0).
• Russia has reduced daily crude oil processing by 4% in the first two weeks of February from January's average level and by 8.6% from the same period last year, sources told Reuters on Friday.
• The leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said a restart of northern Iraq crude oil exports via the Turkey’s Ceyhan will not happen anytime soon.
• The excess of supertankers in the Middle East compared to crude cargoes for the next 30 days dropped to 25% Feb. 16, according to Bloomberg.
• Azerbaijan’s crude oil production stood at 474kbpd last month, below its OPEC+ quota of 551kbpd according to a statement by the Energy Ministry.