The Jun Brent futures contract strengthened into the afternoon with prices rising to $89.95/bbl around 15:20 BST but subsequently easing off to $89.70/bbl at 17:05 BST (time of writing). Bank of America Global Research has raised its 2024 Brent and WTI forecasts to $86/bbl and $81/bbl, respectively, with speculation that both prices could peak around $95/bbl in the summer. EIA stats for the week to Mar 29 announced a build of over 3.2mbbls in US crude inventories against median estimates of a 1mbbls draw. Cushing stocks, however, recorded a 377kbbls draw. In addition, today’s scheduled OPEC+ JMMC kept output policy unchanged but saw the producer group insist members to be more compliant with the output cuts in place. Finally, the front-month and six-month Brent spreads are currently at $1/bbl and $5.30/bbl, respectively.
