May’25 Brent futures initially dipped from $72.60/bbl at 1200 GMT down to $72.15/bbl shortly after 1300 GMT. Flat price then strengthened to this afternoon’s high of $73.15/bbl at 1610 GMT, moderating to $72.85/bbl by 1745 GMT (time of writing). In the news today, President Trump has threatened to hit countries that buy Venezuelan oil and gas with a 25% tariff, expected to come into effect on April 2. The move aims to cut a major source of revenue for Nicolas Maduro’s regime in Caracas while putting further pressure on China, a major purchaser of Venezuelan crude, as per Bloomberg. Furthermore, the Trump administration has extended Chevron’s deadline to halt its operations in Venezuela to May 27. In other news, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that so far “there have been no other orders from the president” to strike energy infrastructure in Ukraine, according to Russian news agency TASS. This came as the Russian Defence Ministry stated today that Ukraine conducted two drone attacks on the Valulka gas distribution station on 22 Mar, not specifiying whether the station remains operational. Finally, the fire at the drone-hit Kavkazskaya depot in the Krasnodar region of Russia has now raged for a fifth day, the regional administration said. According to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, last year suppliers delivered at least 130,000 tons of oil per month via Kavkazskaya, a key facility that delivers Russian crude to the Caspian pipeline. At the time of writing, the May/Jun’25 and May/Nov’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.60/bbl and $3.05/bbl.
