Brent futures for the Mar contract breached into $82/bbl handles last night but eased slightly to now sit at $81.95/bbl (as of 09:40 GMT, time of writing). WTI futures in the same tenor similarly rose to above $77/bbl Thursday night but currently stand at $76.70/bbl.
Crude levels were trading at their highest yet in 2024 and are well-positioned towards a second w-o-w gain. The strength came alongside positive US economic data that displayed US GDP growing by a 3.3% annualised rate in Q4’23 and an announcement from China on cutting bank reserves to stimulate economic growth. The bullishness may have also stemmed out of the EIA-announced crude oil draw of 9.23mbbls and the continued risk premia from the Red Sea conflict and more recently, the drone attacks on Russian oil infrastructure. In further news, Asian refiners are hopeful for continued air travel recovery from China and Southeast Asia to spur up demand for jet fuel in 2024, which is expected to rise by 20% to 2.36 mbpd in the first half of 2024 as per data from FGE. Finally, the front-month and six-month Brent spreads are currently at $0.60/bbl and $2.53/bbl, respectively.
