June Brent futures flat price witnessed a choppy afternoon, rallying back into the $90/bbl region at 14:10 BST but failing to maintain this level and falling to $88.95/bbl come 16:10 BST. Prices found some support at this point, rising to $89.60/bbl at 17:20 BST. This weakness in price action came alongside an EIA-announced build of over 5.8mbbls in US crude oil inventories against median estimates of an 800kbbls build. In addition, gasoline and distillate stocks also saw w-o-w builds of 715kbbls and 1.6mbbls, respectively, against anticipated draws. Russia’s Orsk refinery has declared force majeure on fuel supplies from Apr 08 due to widespread floods, as per Forteinvest – a major shareholder in the plant. In macro news, US consumer prices increased more than expected in March amid rising gasoline and rental prices, leading financial markets to now anticipate a possible delay in interest rates to September. Finally, the front-month and six-month Brent spreads are currently at $0.90/bbl and $4.90/bbl, respectively.
