The Apr’25 Brent futures contract saw further strength this afternoon, increasing from $73.20/bbl at 12:10 GMT up to $73.90/bbl at 17:35 GMT. Bullish sentiment in crude oil has persisted after President Trump said on Wednesday that he would revoke Chevron’s license to operate in Venezuela. This could lead to the negotiation of a fresh agreement between the Chevron and state company PDVSA to export crude to destinations other than the US, anonymous sources told Reuters. In the news today, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said Russian oil companies will soon be able to restart oil projects in Kurdistan in the “near future”, as disputes between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraq over oil exports have been resolved. In other news, Israel announced it was sending negotiators to Cairo to extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire due to expire in two days, allegedly aimed at securing more hostages while delaying any final deal on Gaza’s future, as per Reuters. In macroeconomic news, US initial jobless claims increased by 22k to 242k in the week ending 22 Feb, the highest level since October. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 221k applications. At the time of writing, the Apr/May’25 and Apr/Oct’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.53/bbl and $2.84/bbl, respectively.
