The front-month Brent futures contract dropped to $70.55/bbl at 13:35 GMT this afternoon but found support here and climbed to $72.10/bbl at 15:40 GMT. At the time of writing, 17:20 GMT, the M1 futures contract stands just shy of $72/bbl. Brent’s recovery this afternoon was fuelled by the US issuing a fourth round of sanctions on Iranian oil sales since President Donald Trump took office, with the US Department of State reiterating its commitment to “drive Iran’s oil exports, including to China, to zero”. This round of sanctions targeted eight vessels, 12 entities and an individual for carrying Iranian crude oil to China. These entities include the teapot refinery Shangdong Luqing Petrochemical Group, Ltd and the Huaying Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Terminal Storage in China. In other news, OPEC+ issued a new schedule for seven member nations to cut oil output to compensate for pumping oil above agreed levels. The plan, which includes cuts by Iraq, Kazakhstan and Russia, represents monthly cuts of between 189kb/d and 435kb/d, as per a table released by OPEC. In macro news, US existing home sales rose 4.2% m/m in February 2025 to 4.26 million units, as per the National Association of Realtors, relative to a Reuters survey forecasting an m/m decline to 3.95 million units. At the time of writing, the May/Jun’25 and May/Nov’25 Brent futures spreads are trading at $0.51/bbl and $2.31/bbl, respectively.
