The Brent futures flat price for the prompt contract has seen a quieter afternoon after the sell-off witnessed this morning. Prices initially strengthened to $82.93/bbl handles at 13:45 GMT, before falling to lows of $81.78/bbl at 16:20 GMT. Price action has recovered slightly to print at $82.15/bbl at 17:30 GMT, moving towards oil seeing its least volatile week since 2021.
A second attack this week in the Gulf of Aden has taken place, with the vessel reported to be Singapore-flagged. Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras has seen its share stock collapse by more than 12% after the company skimped on its dividend payouts. The market and investors were expecting a dividend payout of between $3bn and $4bn for the quarter, on top of the usual $2.9bn. However, the Brazilian government said it would only be the routine dividend of $2.9bn. Saudi Aramco and ADNOC have started working on lithium extraction projects in their Middle Eastern oilfields. This is on the back of both companies wanting to diversify their revenue streams. US ExxonMobil has, for example, also taken the initiative to extract lithium, in order to benefit from future EV demand.
The front and 6-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.58/bbl and $3.63/bbl, respectively.
