The May Brent futures has seen a great deal of volatility this afternoon with prices reaching lows of $81.10/bbl at 14:10 GMT although strengthened to $82.72/bbl at 16:25 GMT. At 17:00 (time of writing), the contract was seen trading at $82.49/bbl.
Chinese demand continued to be a dampener for crude oil performance. The EIA report released on Monday said the US crude oil production led global production for a sixth consecutive year. Production averaged 12.9mbpd. According to the EIA, the US produced more crude ‘than any nation at any time for the past six years. ’The most important macro data has yet to be released this week, with the US CPI being released on Tuesday at 12:30 GMT.
The front and 6-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.55/bbl and $3.47/bbl respectively.
