The July Brent futures flat price has had a limp afternoon, beginning at a high of $84.45/bbl at 12:00 BST, before a small retracement down to $84.05/bbl at 14:05 BST, at which point it immediately regained its losses, rising to $84.40/bbl by 14:35 BST. Subsequently, support has been virtually non-existent, with the price sinking as low as $83.10/bbl handles by 17:20 BST (time of writing). OPEC+ output has fallen by 210kbbls/d to 41mbbls/d in April as Russia has made deeper cuts amid a string of Ukrainian drone attacks on its refineries, however quota compliance is still lagging, with Iraq and Kazakhstan continuing to produce significantly above their quotas. The volume of Saudi crude to be loaded for China is estimated to fall by 5.8mbblsin June from 45mbbls in May, which include supply cuts of 6.8mbbls to state and private refiners as a well as a 1mbbls increase for one of the private refiners. Following news of Mercedes Benz yesterday, a flurry of carmakers, including General Motors, Nissan, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Ford, have announced their intention to increase investment in hybrid technologies and slow the transition to fully electric vehicles due to a lack of current consumer demand. Italy’s diesel demand rose by 131kbbls/d m-o-m to 645kbbls/d, a 12-year high. The front and 6-month spreads are $0.48/bbl and $3.20/bbl, respectively.
