The May’25 Brent futures contract saw strength this morning, increasing from around $69.20/bbl at 0500 GMT up to $70.05/bbl at 1030 GMT (time of writing). There was bullish sentiment in crude oil prices this morning, in part aided by weakness in the US dollar. In the news today, Ukrainian and US officials have began talks in Saudi Arabia towards a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, with President Zelenskiy hoping the talks will revive “pragmatic” US ties and suggesting an initial truce with Russia in air and at sea. This came as Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow to date overnight, deploying at least 91 drones, sparking fires and closing airports, according to Reuters. In other news, the US oil tanker, Stena Immaculate, struck by a container ship in the North Sea on Monday was believed to be carrying about 220kb of jet fuel, as per Bloomberg. The tanker was supplying jet fuel for the US Navy and leaked an unspecified quantity of its cargo, operator Crowley said in a statement late Monday. Finally, Nigeria’s NNPC has begun discussions with the Dangote Refinery to extend its contract for supplying crude oil in the naira currency. The original six-month agreement aimed to alleviate supply issues by allowing refineries to purchase crude through NNPC. So far NNPC says it has supplied 48mb of oil to the Dangote refinery, as per Reuters. At the time of writing, the May/June’25 and May/Nov’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.53/bbl and $2.46/bbl, respectively.
