The Mar’25 Brent futures contract gapped up on market open this week from $79.70/bbl to around $81.20/bbl where prices remained supported overnight. This morning, crude prices initially strengthened to $81.60/bbl at 0845 GMT, but since saw some weakness, trading at $81.00/bbl at 1050 GMT (time of writing). In the news today, following the latest round of US sanctions against Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia will “configure the work of our companies in order to minimise” the consequences of these sanctions, with Russia’s oil and gas revenues having jumped 26% y/y in 2024 to $108 billion. In addition, Peskov acknowledged the potential for “certain destabilisation of international energy markets” as a result of these measures. In other news, an anonymous senior Indian government official said the country expects to receive Russian oil for the next two months with US-sanctioned tankers permitted to discharge crude until March, as per Reuters. Finally, crude oil imports into China saw a decline last year for the first time in nearly two decades excluding the pandemic, falling to 11.04mb/d (-1.9%) in 2024, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. Tepid economic growth and peaking fuel demand were among the factors for this decline, as per Reuters. At the time of writing, the Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $1.20/bbl and $5.19/bbl, respectively.
