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Strong crude spreads drive curve backwardation

BRENT CURVE

Brent trading higher at 114.90$/bbl with next technical resistance at Mar 24 high of 115.76$/bbl

  • Brent crude has gradually rallied from a low of 101.60$/bbl on 10th May as covid cases have eased and early signs that Shanghai could start to ease lockdowns soon.
  • The supply situation is still tight amid lower supply from Russia and Libya, and other OPEC+ nations struggling to meet targets. The latest indications are that Russia produced 1.28mbpd below OPEC target in April. The backwardation in the Brent and WTI curves is now the steepest since late March.
  • Brent JUL 22-AUG 22 up 0.11$/bbl at 2.24$/bbl and WTI up 0.07$/bbl at 2.98$/bbl
  • Brent DEC 22-DEC 23 up 0.2$/bbl at 13.39$/bbl and WTI up 0.28$/bbl at 13.9$/bbl
  • The graph below shows the current Brent curve compared to 1 month and 2 months ago:

Source: Bloomberg

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