Oil Summary: Crude Holds Onto Losses

Crude eases back towards the lows from Friday just above 85$/bbl as the market assesses the tighter market supply against ongoing global economic concerns and assisted by a stronger US dollar today.

• Brent OCT 23 down -1% at 85.39$/bbl
• WTI SEP 23 down -1.1% at 81.93$/bbl
• Brent crude options traded volumes picked up late last week after seeing low volumes trading earlier in the week with aggregate open interest currently lower compared to early in July. Total ICE Brent traded options volumes rose from 0.079m contracts on 28 July up to 0.165m on Friday 4 Aug.
• On Saturday, Saudi Arabia raised nearly all OSPs to Asia and Europe for September with Arab Light crude to Asia up 0.3$/bbl.
• Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said supply for customers remains adequate despite the country’s voluntary production cuts..
• Poland has stopped oil through part of a western section of the Druzhba pipeline after a leak late on Saturday. Crude flows are expected to resume on Tuesday morning.
• Germany’s Leuna oil refinery has adjusted its processes, a precaution measure amid the leak.
• Kazakhstan intends to supply 100,000t of oil to Germany in August.
• The reopening of Pemex’s oil-export terminal Salina Cruz has been delayed by bad weather.
• Iraq’s federal government and the KRG will form a committee to produce a final draft of an oil and gas bill to resolve the ongoing dispute over production and revenue sharing.
• Chinese crude imports showed signs of weakness in July at almost 1.5mbpd less crude than in June.
• China's state-controlled Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group is to double its purchases of Russian ESPO blend this year toabout 1m mt.
• The shadow fleet of tankers handling a substantial proportion of Russian seaborne exports has kept access to insurance services in the West, according to Energy Intelligence.
• Exxon’s Baton Rouge refinery was attempting a restart of a 120kb/d FCC unit over the weekend. The restart is sooner than previously expected with repairs previously due for completion on 10 Aug and a return to operations mid-August.
• The monthly data from Baker Hughes released on Friday shown the international rig count fell by six in July, reflecting a pause in the overseas drilling recovery that may prove short-lived. The global oil and gas rig counts including US and Canada rose by 20 in July driven by a +40 increase from Canada.