Renewed Lockdown Concerns Weigh

Crude futures are slightly lower to start the week; WTI around $0.29 off settlement levels at $60.64/bbl, while Brent is $0.20 lower at $64.37.

• The Suez Canal remains blocked by a container ship, but markets are more focused on the potential impact on demand of fresh lockdowns round the world. German Chancellor Merkel has threatened to use federal law if states do not act to contain the virus, measures could include curfews among others. Elsewhere, Brisbane, Australia's third most populated city, has declared a three-day lockdown from Monday 29 March due to four confirmed community cases of the UK variant of the virus.
• Market participants will also look to Abu Dhabi where futures contracts for its oil will be available, the country will then ship the barrels from Fujairah. This is the first move in creating a new regional benchmark and will challenge pricing for around 20% of the world's crude supply.
• Elsewhere, Indonesia's Pertamina said that an incident has caused a fire at its 125k Balongan refinery but its fuel supply was not affected.