Analys
Brent inches lower amid few fresh signals this morning
Few strong drivers this morning so Brent hands back a little of its latest gains. Brent crude gained another 0.6% ydy with a close at USD 87.38/b and a high of the day of USD 87.7/b. It has been a sharp rally since 13 March when Brent broke out of its more than one month long sideways range with closing prices between USD 81.6/b to USD 83.7/b. In our view this recent break-out to the upside was in the making during the month to 13 March as US inventories ticked lower and lower. What was needed was a catalyst and that catalyst was the Ukrainian drones which knocked out 600 k b/d of refining capacity in Russia (Blbrg, Gunvor). No Russian crude oil production has been lost. The impact is on supply of refined products, refining margins and thus on crude slate spreads where light sweet crude oil is usually gaining ground on such events. The front-month ARA gasoil to Brent crack is only up USD 1/b (to USD 26.4/b) versus the preceding 5 days ahead of 13 March. This implies that either that the outage of 600 k b/d of Russian refining capacity is fully manageable by the global refining system or that the outage isn’t expected to last all that long. This morning Brent crude is ticking down 0.4% to USD 87/b which is well aligned with copper prices which is also off by 0.4%. But it doesn’t look like there are much strong oil price driving elements being either bullish or bearish this morning and as a result Brent crude and as a result Brent crude is giving back a small portion of its gains since 13 March. But not much.
US API indicates a 2.5 m b decline in US crude and products last week which is normal this time of year. Partial, US oil inventory data by API last evening indicated a decline in US inventories last week of around 2.5 m b for both crude and products. That is well aligned with normal, seasonal US inventory draws this time of year and thus does little to lift the oil price today. But a sharper draw in actual data due at 15:30 CET could of course spark some bullishness.
CeraWeek in Houston. Jeff Currie favors long oil and copper in late cycle upturn. CeraWeek is going on in Houston this week and ending Friday. Naturally a mix of bullish and bearish views is coming out of the conference. Gunvor is holding a very solid bullish view of the strength of the oil market stating that Brent crude will average USD 85-90/b in Q3-24 even if OPEC+ is unwinding current voluntary cuts then. Jeff Currie (now at Carlyle) is flat out bullish on oil explaining that the global economy now is in a late economic cycle which typically favors commodities like copper and oil. He doesn’t expect many to favor a short oil position in oil once it gets to USD 90/b. I.e. there is upside to that price. The live interview of Currie in Houston by Blbrg is well worth (great) to watch in my view and also delivers some very good, broad views on asset investments in the energy transition.
US shale oil to hit 14 m b/d at end of 2014 says Macquarie. Not everyone are that bullish and there seems to be a mix of bulls and bears on US shale oil production. Macquarie’s analyst Walt Chancellor (one of few predicting the strong US shale oil growth in 2023) is projecting US crude oil production to touch 14 m b/d end of year vs. 13.5 m b/d in Dec-23. Though it is not all that far from latest US EIA projection of Dec-24 production of 13.8 m b/d.
Oil prices are well supported by fundamentals. Our general view is that demand growth is sufficiently strong, cuts by OPEC+ are sufficiently deep and US shale oil production is sufficiently muted so that in total the global oil market is running a slight deficit which will carry on driving oil inventories gradually lower and create nice support for oil prices and likely inch them gradually higher.
Analys
Brent prices slip on USD surge despite tight inventory conditions
Brent crude prices dropped by USD 1.4 per barrel yesterday evening, sliding from USD 74.2 to USD 72.8 per barrel overnight. However, prices have ticked slightly higher in early trading this morning and are currently hovering around USD 73.3 per barrel.
Yesterday’s decline was primarily driven by a significant strengthening of the U.S. dollar, fueled by expectations of fewer interest rate cuts by the Fed in the coming year. While the Fed lowered borrowing costs as anticipated, it signaled a more cautious approach to rate reductions in 2025. This pushed the U.S. dollar to its strongest level in over two years, raising the cost of commodities priced in dollars.
Earlier in the day (yesterday), crude prices briefly rose following reports of continued declines in U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excl. SPR), which fell by 0.9 million barrels last week to 421.0 million barrels. This level is approximately 6% below the five-year average for this time of year, highlighting persistently tight market conditions.
In contrast, total motor gasoline inventories saw a significant build of 2.3 million barrels but remain 3% below the five-year average. A closer look reveals that finished gasoline inventories declined, while blending components inventories increased.
Distillate (diesel) fuel inventories experienced a substantial draw of 3.2 million barrels and are now approximately 7% below the five-year average. Overall, total commercial petroleum inventories recorded a net decline of 3.2 million barrels last week, underscoring tightening market conditions across key product categories.
Despite the ongoing drawdowns in U.S. crude and product inventories, global oil prices have remained range-bound since mid-October. Market participants are balancing a muted outlook for Chinese demand and rising production from non-OPEC+ sources against elevated geopolitical risks. The potential for stricter sanctions on Iranian oil supply, particularly as Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, has introduced an additional layer of uncertainty.
We remain cautiously optimistic about the oil market balance in 2025 and are maintaining our Brent price forecast of an average USD 75 per barrel for the year. We believe the market has both fundamental and technical support at these levels.
Analys
Oil falling only marginally on weak China data as Iran oil exports starts to struggle
Up 4.7% last week on US Iran hawkishness and China stimulus optimism. Brent crude gained 4.7% last week and closed on a high note at USD 74.49/b. Through the week it traded in a USD 70.92 – 74.59/b range. Increased optimism over China stimulus together with Iran hawkishness from the incoming Donald Trump administration were the main drivers. Technically Brent crude broke above the 50dma on Friday. On the upside it has the USD 75/b 100dma and on the downside it now has the 50dma at USD 73.84. It is likely to test both of these in the near term. With respect to the Relative Strength Index (RSI) it is neither cold nor warm.
Lower this morning as China November statistics still disappointing (stimulus isn’t here in size yet). This morning it is trading down 0.4% to USD 74.2/b following bearish statistics from China. Retail sales only rose 3% y/y and well short of Industrial production which rose 5.4% y/y, painting a lackluster picture of the demand side of the Chinese economy. This morning the Chinese 30-year bond rate fell below the 2% mark for the first time ever. Very weak demand for credit and investments is essentially what it is saying. Implied demand for oil down 2.1% in November and ytd y/y it was down 3.3%. Oil refining slipped to 5-month low (Bloomberg). This sets a bearish tone for oil at the start of the week. But it isn’t really killing off the oil price either except pushing it down a little this morning.
China will likely choose the US over Iranian oil as long as the oil market is plentiful. It is becoming increasingly apparent that exports of crude oil from Iran is being disrupted by broadening US sanctions on tankers according to Vortexa (Bloomberg). Some Iranian November oil cargoes still remain undelivered. Chinese buyers are increasingly saying no to sanctioned vessels. China import around 90% of Iranian crude oil. Looking forward to the Trump administration the choice for China will likely be easy when it comes to Iranian oil. China needs the US much more than it needs Iranian oil. At leas as long as there is plenty of oil in the market. OPEC+ is currently holds plenty of oil on the side-line waiting for room to re-enter. So if Iran goes out, then other oil from OPEC+ will come back in. So there won’t be any squeeze in the oil market and price shouldn’t move all that much up.
Analys
Brent crude inches higher as ”Maximum pressure on Iran” could remove all talk of surplus in 2025
Brent crude inch higher despite bearish Chinese equity backdrop. Brent crude traded between 72.42 and 74.0 USD/b yesterday before closing down 0.15% on the day at USD 73.41/b. Since last Friday Brent crude has gained 3.2%. This morning it is trading in marginal positive territory (+0.3%) at USD 73.65/b. Chinese equities are down 2% following disappointing signals from the Central Economic Work Conference. The dollar is also 0.2% stronger. None of this has been able to pull oil lower this morning.
”Maximum pressure on Iran” are the signals from the incoming US administration. Last time Donald Trump was president he drove down Iranian oil exports to close to zero as he exited the JCPOA Iranian nuclear deal and implemented maximum sanctions. A repeat of that would remove all talk about a surplus oil market next year leaving room for the rest of OPEC+ as well as the US to lift production a little. It would however probably require some kind of cooperation with China in some kind of overall US – China trade deal. Because it is hard to prevent oil flowing from Iran to China as long as China wants to buy large amounts.
Mildly bullish adjustment from the IEA but still with an overall bearish message for 2025. The IEA came out with a mildly bullish adjustment in its monthly Oil Market Report yesterday. For 2025 it adjusted global demand up by 0.1 mb/d to 103.9 mb/d (+1.1 mb/d y/y growth) while it also adjusted non-OPEC production down by 0.1 mb/d to 71.9 mb/d (+1.7 mb/d y/y). As a result its calculated call-on-OPEC rose by 0.2 mb/d y/y to 26.3 mb/d.
Overall the IEA still sees a market in 2025 where non-OPEC production grows considerably faster (+1.7 mb/d y/y) than demand (+1.1 mb/d y/y) which requires OPEC to cut its production by close to 700 kb/d in 2025 to keep the market balanced.
The IEA treats OPEC+ as it if doesn’t exist even if it is 8 years since it was established. The weird thing is that the IEA after 8 full years with the constellation of OPEC+ still calculates and argues as if the wider organisation which was established in December 2016 doesn’t exist. In its oil market balance it projects an increase from FSU of +0.3 mb/d in 2025. But FSU is predominantly part of OPEC+ and thus bound by production targets. Thus call on OPEC+ is only falling by 0.4 mb/d in 2025. In IEA’s calculations the OPEC+ group thus needs to cut production by 0.4 mb/d in 2024 or 0.4% of global demand. That is still a bearish outlook. But error of margin on such calculations are quite large so this prediction needs to be treated with a pinch of salt.
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