After seeing weakness overnight, the Mar’25 Brent futures contract has continued to decline on Thursday morning, falling from $82.25/bbl at 0700 GMT down to $81.68/bbl at 1050 GMT (time of writing). In the news today, South Korea’s industry minister Ahn Duk-geun said the country is looking to import more US oil and gas to diversify energy sources and ensure stable supplies given tensions in the Middle East. This came as Israel intensified strikes on Gaza overnight only hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced on 15 Jan, with Israel’s acceptance of the deal remaining unofficial until it is approved by the country’s security cabinet, as per Reuters. In other news, Russia claimed it damaged ground infrastructure of one of the largest natural gas storage sites in Ukraine’s Lviv region, while Ukraine said gas flows were uninterrupted, according to Bloomberg. Russia’s Defence Ministry stated on Telegram that the strikes early Wednesday were in response to Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles on Russian territories. Finally, spot premiums for Middle East crude rose to their highest in more than two years amid strong demand from China and India, seeking alternatives to sanctioned Russian crude. QatarEnergy has more than doubled its price for al-Shaheen crude oil loading in March to $3.81/bbl above Dubai quotes. At the time of writing, the Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $1.38/bbl and $5.61/bbl, respectively.
