The Brent futures flat price for the prompt contract has witnessed a mixed morning. Price action initially fell around $1 to lows of $85.81/bbl at 08:20 BST, before recovering to print at $86.72/bbl at 10:55 BST. Russian oil refining has dipped to a near 11-month low, processing 5.22mbbls/d of crude from Apr 11-17. Severe weather and flooding has hindered operations and repairs to drone damaged plants have slowed. The Asian physical market has turned its attention to denser and more sulphurous oil as supply dwindles and HSFO crack margins rise whilst diesel falls. Lisbon-based Galp has completed its first exploration phase in the Mopane field, Namibia, with estimates that it could contain at least 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Looking at the CFTC data for the week to Apr 16, in Brent futures we witnessed a bullish attitude. Long speculators added over 20mbbls (+5.2%) to their length whilst their bearish counterparts removed 0.5mbbls (-0.6%) of their positions, driving net positioning to its highest level since March 2021. In contrast, WTI speculators established a bearish position for the first time in six weeks. Bullish speculators removed nearly 4mbbls of their long positions (-1.3%), whilst their bearish counterparts entered en-masse, increasing their short risk by 32.7mbbls (+66.5%). The front and 6-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.82/bbl and $4.29/bbl, respectively.
