The Brent futures flat price for the prompt contract has seen a relatively strong morning. Price action initially found stability in the mid $81/bbl-handles in the early hours, before finding some support and climbing to $82.42/bbl at 09:45 GMT. Looking at the CFTC data for the week to Mar 05, in Brent futures we saw a continuation of a more bearish sentiment. Bullish speculators removed over 19mbbls (-6%) of length, whilst their bearish counterparts increased their short positioning by 3mbbls (+4%). WTI speculators adopted a more risk off approach, with bulls and bears removing 7mbbls (-3%) of length and 15mbbls (30%) of shorts. Saudi Aramco has announced its second highest annual net earnings of $121.3bn in 2023, yet down 25% from 2022’s record. Aramco also plans to fulfil its contractual crude oil volumes to most Asian buyers in April, but will look to reduce heavier oil supply to Chinese and Indian players as a consequence of oilfield maintenance. The front and 6-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.54/bbl and $3.54/bbl, respectively.
