The Aug Brent futures flat price has had an extremely robust afternoon, initially rising from $79.75/bbl at 12:00 BST to $80.45/bbl by 13:45 BST before ticking down to $79.95/bbl at 14:55 BST. However, a rally has since been seen that has taken the price to $81.35/bbl, which it sits around as of 17:10 BST (time of writing). Gunvor has been snapping up North Sea crude that others are offloading, keeping 17 out of 18 cargoes that have been put into forward chains this month, potentially reflecting their bullishness about the prompt market. Glencore has won a tender to supply crude oil to Prax’s 113kbbls/d Lindsey oil refinery in the UK, replacing rival Trafigura, a deal which bolsters the commodity trader’s oil trading operation. US offshore rig contractor Noble Corp is to buy its smaller rival Diamond Offshore for around $1.6 billion, indicating they will pay a premium of 11.4% to Diamond’s closing share price on Friday, the latest in a series of buyouts in a sector undergoing massive consolidation. Finally, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected calls to follow France in calling for snap elections, with his spokesman stating, “the idea never came up, at any point, ever”. The front and 6-month spreads are $0.33/bbl and $2.44/bbl, respectively.
