The Mar’25 Brent futures contract experienced a weaker afternoon, trading down from $78.16/bbl at midday to $76.76/bbl, where it trades at the time of writing (17:30 GMT) as concerns surrounding oil supply disruptions from Colombia eased. In headlines, Iraq’s Rumaila oilfield, its largest and one of the most productive in the world with a capacity of 1.5 mb/d has seen its output cut by 300 kb/d following a fire at the field last week. The incident occurred in a decommissioned storage tank at the fifth gas separation station (DS5) in northern Rumaila and was reportedly caused by “unidentified technical reasons,” according to the Iraqi oil ministry. Iraq currently has no timeline for restoring full production. Rumaila, operated in partnership with BP and PetroChina, accounts for roughly a third of Iraq’s total crude output, which has risen by 40% since 2010. In other news, teapot refiners in the Shandong province are under increasing financial pressure as new tariffs on imported feedstock came into effect on January 1, 2025. The import tariff on fuel oil was raised from 1% to 3%, while rebates on consumption taxes were reduced, significantly increasing operating costs. Many of these refiners, which lack sufficient crude import quotas, rely on fuel oil imports to produce transportation fuels like diesel and gasoline. Already struggling with narrow margins amid weak domestic fuel demand, at least four refiners have halted or plan to suspend operations indefinitely for maintenance. The Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 futures spreads have fallen to $0.84/bbl and $3.63/bbl, respectively.
