The Apr’25 Brent futures contract has seen weakness since this morning, trading down from $73.30/bbl around 09:30 GMT to $72.50/bbl at 17:40 GMT (time of writing). EIA data released today for the week ending 21 Feb showed a 2.3mb draw in US crude oil inventories, compared to an expected build of around 2.5mb. In the news today, Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that as of 8 Feb Iran has 274.8 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 92.5 kilograms since the IAEA’s November report. In other news, several Canadian politicians have called for new pipelines to coastal export terminals to reduce dependency on the US market, according to Reuters. Currently, Canada sends around 90% of its oil exports to US refiners. Finally, Kazakhstan’s energy minister, Almasadam Satkaliyev, said oil exports are on schedule via its main oil export route, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, despite damage to a pumping station last week. At the time of writing, the Apr/May’25 and Apr/Oct’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.48/bbl and $2.47/bbl, respectively.
