OIL: Mid-Day Oil Summary: Crude Regaining Ground

Brent crude is regaining ground today from an increase in geopolitical risk premium and higher Saudi OSPs while uncertainty surrounds future US interest rates with the risk of stronger US inflation.

• Brent JUL 24 up 0.9% at 83.71$/bbl
• WTI JUN 24 up 1.1% at 78.96$/bbl
• Saudi Aramco raised the official selling prices for crude to Asia, NW Europe and the Mediterranean in June, signalling expectations of strong demand this summer and amid a tightening of supplies this quarter.
• Iraq's crude exports fell by 10kb/d, or 0.3%, m/m in April to 3.413mb/d, according to preliminary monthly SOMO data cited by S&P Global.
• Crude options are holding a skew to the puts with Brent crude second month 25 delta call-put skew at -2.4% while the WTI second month skew is at -2.85%.
• Managed money net long crude positions increased slightly last week with a drop in WTI positions offset by a rise in Brent. Nymex diesel fell into a net short position for the first time since May 2023.
• Global floating crude oil, stationary for at least 7 days fell to 57.76mbbl as of May 3, down 14% w/w according to Vortexa.
• Russia is planning to reduce diesel exports from its Baltic and Black Sea ports to the lowest since at least 2021 to 1.78m tons, or 427kbpd, in May, down from 625kbpd in April, Kpler data showed, cited by Bloomberg.