Oil End of Day Summary: WTI Edges Up

WTI is up marginally on the day but has erased some of the additional gains made in European trading hours. Further attacks in the Red Sea continue to weigh against concerns for near-term global demand growth.

• WTI MAR 24 up 0.1% at 79.27$/bbl
• Houthi rebels struck the Belize-flagged Rubymar in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Sunday, which the Houthis claimed, albeit unverified, that the attack resulted in the ship sinking.
• Venezuela’s government and opposition resumed talks with opposition members to discuss a data for presidential elections, according to Bloomberg.
• Iraq will improve its compliance with OPEC+ output cuts after reviewing estimates of its production, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani said.
• OPEC+ is likely to extend some if not all oil production cuts into Q2 which would reduce the market surplus according to Energy Aspects last week.
• Libya’s crude loadings for February have been revised up to 32.53m bbl, or 1.12m b/d in February, according to Bloomberg, the highest monthly loadings since Oct. 2022.
• Three tankers with Russian sokol oil, previously stranded at sea due to transaction difficulties due to sanctions, are headed to China and India: Reuters.
• Oil markets are expected to remain tight through H1 2024 according to Macquarie Group last week.