The Mar’25 Brent futures contract saw some weakness this afternoon, declining from almost $80.90/bbl at 1200 GMT down to $80.15/bbl at 1800 GMT (time of writing). In the news today, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief is now pushing for the European Union to lower the $60/bbl price cap on Russian oil, Kallas told Bloomberg in an interview. In other news, swarms of Ukrainian drones attacked energy and military facilities across central Russia and the Volga region overnight, according to a Ukrainian Security Service official. Drones set Rosneft’s PJSC Saratov oil refinery on fire as well as two chemical plants in the Tula and Bryansk regions, according to Bloomberg. Finally, Peru’s Bretana crude oil is gaining popularity in the US, with the first cargo discharging in the US Gulf Coast this month as US refiners seek alternatives to Mexican heavy crude, as per Reuters. Kpler and LSEG ship tracking data showed a vessel transported about 300kb of Bretana from Brazil to Houston on 2 Jan, with the cargo bought by oil major Shell. At the time of writing, the Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $1.11/bbl and $4.76/bbl, respectively.
