May’25 Brent futures initially saw weakness this afternoon, declining from $73.80/bbl around 1300 GMT down to $73.23/bbl shortly after 1340 GMT, however, recovered to $73.90/bbl by 1735 GMT (time of writing). In the news today, President Zelenskiy said Russian artillery had damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the city of Kherson, just two days after the truce on energy strikes was announced. The Ukrainian leader stated after a summit in Paris, “we are waiting for America’s reaction, since they told us that they will respond to violations”, according to Reuters. In other news, CNOOC reported an 11.4% rise in net profit for 2024 up to $19 billion. The increase in profit came as CNOOC’s net oil and gas production was up 7.2% y/y to 726.8mb of oil equivalent. Finally, Uganda’s $5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) has secured the first tranche of funding for the project for about $1 billion, with two additional funding tranches expected. The EACOP is a 1,443km-long pipeline to be built from Uganda to the Tanga port in Tanzania, projected to transport at least 216kb/d. Shareholders in EACOP include TotalEnergies with a 62% stake and CNOOC with an 8% stake. At the time of writing, the May/Jun’25 and May/Nov’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.70/bbl and $3.33/bbl.
