The August Brent Futures flat price saw a rangebound morning trading in a tight range between $80.80/bbl and $81.50/bbl. As at 11:25 (time of writing) it is on a slight downward trend at $80.95/bbl. On Sunday, we saw OPEC+ meet and extend the 2.2 million bpd cuts until the end of September 2024 and extend their cuts of 3.66 million bpd until the end of 2025. These come as producers have seen oil prices trend lower through a lack of demand . However, as China’s economy continues to improve, based on the latest PMI data which indicated manufacturing improved from 51.4 last month to 51.7 in May, we may see this oil demand tick up. Yesterday also saw a fire at Russia’s Lukoil refinery, resulting in two deaths. However, this fire stemmed from a failure to comply with safety rules and was reportedly not a product of the Ukrainian drone attacks like previous such fires. The Aug/Sep and Aug/Feb Brent Futures spreads are $0.21/bbl and $1.93/bbl, respectively.
