The Mar’25 Brent futures contract initially declined this morning from around $76.30/bbl at 0615 GMT down to almost $75.90/bbl at 0900 GMT, before recovering to $76.60/bbl at 1030 GMT (time of writing). In the news today, South Sudan’s government has directed the Dar Petroleum Operating Co. (DPOC) to begin resuming oil output on 8 January, in a letter seen by Bloomberg. DPOC operates in Block 3 and 7, with a government target for crude production projected to reach 90kb/d in the first six months. In other news, India’s refining capacity is set to expand 20% by 2028 amid growing domestic and overseas demand for oil products, the country’s petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri stated. S&P Global Commodity Insights estimates India’s refining capacity could reach 300 million metric tonnes by 2028, with 58% of this increase coming from brownfield expansions. Finally, Nigeria’s Seplat intends to raise its production output from around 50,000 barrels per day to 120,000 barrels per day within six months, after recently acquiring Exxon Mobil’s assets in the West African country, as per Financial Times. At the time of writing, the Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.62/bbl and $2.62/bbl, respectively.
