Yesterday’s report from the US DOE revealed an increase of 4.1 million barrels in US crude oil inventories for the previous week. This build exceeded the consensus estimate of 2.5 million barrels whilst less than the API forecast of 9 million barrels reported on Tuesday. As of last week, total US crude inventories stand at 428 million barrels, which represents a decrease of 12 million barrels compared to the same week last year.

In addition, gasoline inventories decreased by 3.0 million barrels, surpassing the consensus estimate of a 0.5-million-barrel drawdown. Conversely, distillate (diesel) inventories saw an increase of 0.135 million barrels, contrary to the expected decline of 1.5 million barrels. In total, commercial inventories (excluding the SPR) – which include crude oil, gasoline, and diesel – rose by 1.2 million barrels.

Refinery utilization improved by 0.5 percentage points, reaching 85% last week. Meanwhile, total products supplied (a proxy for implied demand) over the past four-week period averaged 20.3 million barrels per day, reflecting a 2.8% increase compared to the same period last year.

Additionally, gasoline demand averaged 8.3 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 0.9% from the same period in 2024. Diesel demand averaged 4.2 million barrels per day, showing a significant increase of 13.6% year-on-year. Jet fuel demand also saw an increase of 4.4% compared to the same four-week period in 2024.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) will be releasing its monthly report today at 10:00 CET.

Brent crude prices bottomed out at USD 74.10 per barrel on Thursday evening (February 6th) after a continuous decline since mid-January. Since then, prices have climbed uninterruptedly by USD 2.5 per barrel, reaching the current level of USD 76.50 per barrel.

Since the beginning of 2025, price movements have been more volatile compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Additionally, the market has broken the firm range-bound levels of USD 70–75 per barrel that prevailed from mid-October 2024 to January 2025.

Brent crude rose by nearly USD 1.50 per barrel yesterday (February 10th), driven by a tighter supply outlook. This has been credited to stricter sanctions resulting in Russia producing below its quota. Meanwhile, the US President recently ordered a 25% tariff on all aluminum and steel imports, including from Canada and Mexico, the country’s top two foreign suppliers. The tariffs are set to take effect on March 12, according to the White House.

At present, Brent crude appears to be holding onto its price gains, with little reaction so far to the latest tariff news, as markets await key US CPI data scheduled for tomorrow (February 12th).

As we highlighted last week (link), there has recently been a significant build-up in US crude inventories, with Canadian crude flows increasing rapidly to meet the tariff deadline, which was originally set for March. However, US industry-based inventory data (API) is due to be released later today, and we expect a slowdown, as Canada negotiated a 30-day delay in the imposition of US tariffs. A 10% import tariff on Canadian oil had been proposed.

On top of that, there is an increasing risk to the Gaza ceasefire deal, as both parties have accused each other of violating the terms of the agreement. The US President has stated that Israel should call off its ceasefire agreement with Hamas if hostages are not returned by this weekend, further contributing to heightened geopolitical tensions, as well as the US’ tougher stance on Iran.

Stay tuned. This week, monthly oil market reports from the EIA (this evening), IEA (Thursday, February 13th), and OPEC (tomorrow, February 12th) will be released.

Dragged down by Trump tariff-chaos last week. Brent crude fell 2.7% last week to USD 74.66/b with a high of USD 77.34/b on Monday and a low of USD 74.1/b on Thursday. It managed to stage a small gain of 0.5% at the very end of the week. It closed below the 50dma, 100dma and 200dma in the three last days of the week.

Gaining 0.7% this morning as TTF nat gas tops USD 100/boe. Brent is trading up 0.7% to USD 75.2/b this morning, inching above the 100dma. New Trump-tariffs on steel and aluminum of 25% into the US is bearish macro-news. Still industrial metals are ticking a little higher with aluminum gaining 0.6%. The macro consequence of new Trump-tariffs is naturally bearish, but oil is still higher this morning taking little notice of that. What stands out in energy this morning is TTF nat gas prices jumping 5-6% with the front-month contract topping USD 100/boe. Even 10ppm diesel is now cheaper than nat gas. Consumers of nat gas all over the world will now opt for any kind of oil product rather than nat gas if their nat gas price is set by in LNG market. I.e. Europe and Asia will all lean towards consuming more oil and more coal if they in any way can do so.

New Trump-sanctions towards Iran will bite before possible solution. The pattern of Donald Trump is to impose maximum pressure of any kind until something breaks or the opponent cave in and then force through the deal he wants. On 4 Feb last week his administration signed new sanctions towards Iran described as maximum pressure. This will tighten the sour crude oil market further and thus help to tighten up the overall oil market as well. A symptom of this is that High Sulphur Fuel Oil in Europe is trading only 3.4 dollar per barrel below Brent crude versus a more normal discount of around 10.

Not much downside in oil with nat gas above USD 100/boe while sour crude market is tight. Bloomberg BI concluded last week that a ”fair price” for Brent crude currently is USD 75/b. Sanctions on Iran and Russia are making the heavy part of the barrel alone almost as expensive as Brent crude. The TTF nat gas price on the other side of the hydrocarbon spectrum is trading above USD 100/boe. Brent crude is thus getting support both from ”above” and ”below” at the moment. Consumers all over the world will flock to oil products now that they are all cheaper than nat gas priced off the LNG market.

The TTF 1mth contract spikes above USD 100/boe becoming more expensive than all oil products including 10ppm ICE Gasoil. Consumers will opt for oil and oil products rather than nat gas all over the world.

Net long speculative positions in Brent + WTI fall by 54.2 mb over week to last Tuesday as erratic US politics clouds the outlook.