After the Apr’25 Brent futures rose from $76.30/bbl at 1300 GMT this afternoon to a weekly high of almost $76.80/bbl at 1440 GMT, before falling down to $76.25/bbl at 1735 GMT. Overall, crude oil prices have been supported on fears of supply disruption, following the drone attack on the CPC pipeline oil flows and ongoing cold weather in the US. In the news today, oil flows from Iran to China rebounded in February after traders smoothed logistical bottlenecks caused by tighter US sanctions, seeing an increase in ship-to-ship transfers and use of alternative terminals, Bloomberg reports. In February, Iranian oil flows to China hit 1.7mb/d, a level last seen in Sep 2024 and up from 932kb/d in January, as per Kpler. In other news, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine would not be excluded from negotiations to end the war, but success would depend on raising the level of trust between Moscow and Washington, according to Reuters. Finally, India is scouting for overseas oil storage and is in talks with Oman to hold about 5mb of crude oil, L.R. Jain, the chief executive of Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves (ISPRL) stated. Jain told Reuters that this would be the first time that India will be holding storage overseas if a deal with Oman is reached. At the time of writing, the Apr/May’25 and Apr/Oct’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.41/bbl and $2.66/bbl, respectively.
