Analys
Comfort zone for OPEC+ in 2024 as fundamentals gradually improve in its favor

Back to its sideways trade range and inching almost unnoticeable higher as the year progresses. Brent crude is up 0.2% this morning to USD 82.7/b along with copper (+0.3%) and Shanghai equities (+1.0%). Brent crude saw some bearish action at the end of last week but it recovered a good portion of that ydy (+1.1%) and then a little more again this morning. With this it has mostly returned back to its sideways trading pattern.

Brent crude averaged USD 79.1/b in January. So far in February it has averaged USD 81.5/b and at the moment it trades at USD 82.7/b. Typical market comments these days are along the theme ”looking for direction” or ”waiting for new signals on supply or demand”. But other comments are more attuned to a view that the direction is indeed sideways this year. Argus last week describe the outlook for the supply/demand balance for 2024 as ”almost perfectly aligned” and Goldman adds to this view in a note yesterday with ”oil set to extend its tight trading range”.
Cease-fire in Gaza on Monday 4 March may create a buying opportunity. News this morning is Biden expressing hopes that a cease-fire in Gaza may start as soon as Monday next week. In our view there is basically zero risk premium in the current oil price due to Middle East tensions. So if the oil price sells off on firm news of a cease-fire, then it is probably a good buying opportunity in our view.
We maintain our strong view of an average Brent crude oil price of USD 85/b in 2024. Total US crude and product stocks including SPR has gone flat sideways since the end of 2022, all through 2023 and has continued to do so in 2023. US oil inventories are below where they were one year ago both when SPR is included and excluded. This is a reflection of a global oil market in balance though OPEC+ has indeed been the balancing agent.
For the year to come, total US hydrocarbon liquids production is forecast by the US EIA to go flat sideways until October this year and in Q4-24 US production is forecast to be only 0.1 m b/d above Q4-23. So no damaging super-growth from the US to kill the oil party this year. In its last monthly report the US EIA actually reduced its forecast for US production by 100 k b/d to 22.3 m b/d (all liquids included). Russia’s energy minister, Nikolay Shulginov, stated in Tass news agency recently that he expects Russian oil production to decline to 530 mn ton in 2024 from 523 mn ton in 2023. That’s a decline of 1.3% YoY and would equate to a decline of 120-130 k b/d decline YoY. So neither of these oil producing giants are set to unsettle the global oil market this year with too much supply.
Demand growth looks set to be a normal 1.3 m b/d in 2024. The most bearish on oil demand growth is probably the IEA which predicts demand to grow on by 1.2 m b/d YoY in 2024. The US EIA expects demand to grow by 1.4 m b/d. But if we look closer at the numbers from the IEA it expects demand to rise by 1.6 m b/d YoY from Q4-23 to Q4-24. Together with muted supply from both the US and Russia this year this all sums up to a gradually rising need for oil from OPEC through 2024. This made us write the headline ”Better and better every day” in a crude oil comment in late January. Demand for oil from OPEC doesn’t look stellar. But it looks set to be better and better through the year and that is most definitely a great comfort zone for OPEC+.
Sideways, yes, but normal trade range around the mean is still usually +/- USD 20/b. Amid all the current calmness, let us still not forget that Brent crude usually trades in a range through the year of +/- USD 20/b around the mean as there are always some surprises along the way. We don’t think that the situation in the Middle East will spiral out of control into an all-out regional war involving Iran and resulting in large losses of oil supply to the market. And we don’t think there are much risk premium in current oil prices related to this either. But at times in 2024 it may look like it might happen. And that’s probably when you would see the high price point of the year. Maybe as high as USD 105/b. On the bearish we do not think that we’ll have a major economic slowdown or a recession in 2024. But at times in 2024 it may look like we are about to tip into a major slowdown and that would probably be when you’d see the low price point of the year. Maybe as low as USD 65/b.
Total US crude and product stocks incl. SPR has gone sideways since end of 2022, all through 2023 and so far in 2024. Currently it is only 13 m b above the low-point in late 2022!
Commercial US crude and product stocks are below normal and below last year.
US Commercial oil inventories vs. the 2015-19 average. Still struggling with a significant deficit of middle distillates.
US refinery utilization at very low level vs. normal. Extensive maintenance this spring is expected. Result will be low production of oil products, falling inventories of oil products, higher refining margins but also rising crude stocks.
US EIA forecast for total US liquids production. To go sideways in 2024 to Oct-2024.
Strong growth in US supply in 2022 and 2023. But 2024 is only set to grow 0.5 m b/d YoY on average. The growth in 2024 is in part a result of production in 2023 starting low and ending high. But from Jan to Oct 2024 US production will go sideways and only rise by 0.1 m b/d YoY from Q4-23 to Q4-24.
Global floating crude stocks at 66 m b and not too far above the more normal 50 m b level.
IEA Feb-2024 OMR: Call-on-OPEC is rising gradually through 2024. Better and better for OPEC every quarter to Q3-24
Analys
Unusual strong bearish market conviction but OPEC+ market strategy is always a wildcard

Brent crude falls with strong conviction that trade war will hurt demand for oil. Brent crude sold off 2.4% yesterday to USD 64.25/b along with rising concerns that the US trade war with China will soon start to visibly hurt oil demand or that it has already started to happen. Tariffs between the two are currently at 145% and 125% in the US and China respectively which implies a sharp decline in trade between the two if at all. This morning Brent crude (June contract) is trading down another 1.2% to USD 63.3/b. The June contract is rolling off today and a big question is how that will leave the shape of the Brent crude forward curve. Will the front-end backwardation in the curve evaporate further or will the July contract, now at USD 62.35/b, move up to where the June contract is today?

The unusual ”weird smile” of Brent forward curve implies unusual strong bearish conviction amid current prompt tightness. the The Brent crude oil forward curve has displayed a very unusual shape lately with front-end backwardation combined with deferred contango. Market pricing tightness today but weakness tomorrow. We have commented on this several times lately and Morgan Stanly highlighted how unusual historically this shape is. The reason why it is unusual is probably because markets in general have a hard time pricing a future which is very different from the present. Bearishness in the oil market when it is shifting from tight to soft balance usually comes creeping in at the front-end of the curve. A slight contango at the front-end in combination with an overall backwardated curve. Then this slight contango widens and in the end the whole curve flips to full contango. The current shape of the forward curve implies a very, very strong conviction by the market that softness and surplus is coming. A conviction so strong that it overrules the present tightness. This conviction flows from the fundamental understanding that ongoing trade war is bad for the global economy, for oil demand and for the oil price.
Will OPEC+ switch to cuts or will it leave balancing to a lower price driving US production lower? Add of course also in that OPEC+ has signaled that it will lift production more rapidly and is currently no longer in the mode of holding back to keep Brent at USD 75/b due to an internal quarrel over quotas. That stand can of course change from one day to the next. That is a very clear risk to the upside and oil consumers around should keep that in the back of their minds that this could happen. Though we are not utterly convinced of the imminent risk of this. Before such a pivot happens, Iraq and Kazakhstan probably have to prove that they can live up to their promised cuts. And that will take a few months. Also, OPEC+ might also like to see where the pain-point for US shale oil producers’ price-vise really is today. So far, we have seen no decline in the number of US oil drilling rigs in operation which have steadily been running at around 480 rigs.
With a surplus oil market on the horizon, OPEC+ will have to make a choice. How shale this coming surplus be resolved? Shall OPEC+ cut in order to balance the market or shall lower oil prices drive pain and lower production in the US which then will result in a balanced market? Maybe it is the first or maybe the latter. The group currently has a bloated surplus balance which it needs to slim down at some point. And maybe now is the time. Allowing the oil price to slide. Economic pain for US shale oil producers to rise and US oil production to fall in order to balance the market and make room OPEC+ to redeploy its previous cuts back into the market.
Surplus is not yet here. US oil inventories likely fell close to 2 mb last week. US API yesterday released indications that US crude and product inventories fell 1.8 mb last week with crude up 3.8 mb, gasoline down 3.1 mb and distillates down 2.5 mb. So, in terms of a crude oil contango market (= surplus and rising inventories) we have not yet moved to the point where US inventories are showing that the global oil market now indeed is in surplus. Though Chinese purchases to build stocks may have helped to keep the market tight. Indications that Saudi Arabia may lift June Official Selling Prices is a signal that the oil market may not be all that close to unraveling in surplus.
The low point of the Brent crude oil curve is shifting closer to present. A sign that the current front-end backwardation of the Brent crude oil curve is about to evaporate.

Brent crude versus US Russel 2000 equity index. Is the equity market too optimistic or the oil market too bearish?

Analys
Oil demand at risk as US consumers soon will face hard tariff-realities

Muted sideways trading. Brent crude traded mostly sideways last week, but due to a relatively strong close on the Friday before, it ended the week down 1.6% at USD 66.87/b with a high-low range of USD 65.29 – 68.65/b. So muted price range action. Brent crude is trading marginally higher, up 0.3%, this morning amid mixed equity and commodity markets.

Strong Chinese buying in April as oil prices dipped. Chinese imports of crude continued to accelerate in April following a surge in March with data from Kepler indicating that Chinese imports averaged near 11 mb/d in April. That is an 18mth high and strongly up versus only 8.9 mb/d in January (FT.com today). That has most certainly helped to stem the rot in the oil price which bottomed at an intraday low of USD 58.4/b on 9 April. It has probably also helped to keep the front-end of the Brent crude oil forward curve in consistent backwardation. The strong buying from China is both opportunistic stockpiling due to the price slump but also rebuilding of oil inventories in general.
Oil speculators are cautious with oil demand at risk as US consumers soon will face hard tariff-realities. But oil market speculators are far from bullish. While net long speculative positions are up 52.2 mb over the week to last Tuesday, it is still only the 15th lowest speculative positioning over the past 52 weeks. The underlying concern is of course the US tariffs which is crippling exports of goods from China to the US with bookings of container freight down by 30% according to Hapag-Lloyd. Bloomberg’s Chief US economist, Anna Wong, is saying that empty shelves in US shops will soon be the reality. Thus US-China trade relations need to be fixed quickly to avoid hard realities for US consumers. The lead-times are long and the current tariffs and uncertainty around these is now risking availability for US consumer goods for the holiday seasons in H2-25. Tariff realities for US consumers are increasingly just around the corner. ”Rubber will hit the road” very soon and that is when we might see weaker oil demand as well.
Brent crude traded mostly sideways last week though ended down 1.6% in the end.

Net long speculative positions in Brent and WTI up 52.2 mb over week to last Tuesday but still at 15-week low over past 52 weeks.

Analys
Brent crude is now trading below its nominal 2018-19 average in EUR/barrel terms

Brent crude gained a meager 0.65% yesterday with a close of USD 66.55/b. That was not much given that US equity markets rallied 2% yesterday with Nasdaq now is almost back to its pre ”Liberation Day” level. Brent crude is trading unchanged this morning with little impulse to do anything it seems.

Equity markets have gotten a boost along with easing US tariff rhetoric. The Brent crude oil price has however not gotten the same rebound and is today still trading USD 8.5/b lower than its USD 75/b level from 2 April.
Two factors at hand here: Expectations of softer growth and more oil from OPEC+. One is that global growth in 2025 will still take a hit with softer growth and thus softer oil demand growth due to the US tariff-turmoil. Even if rhetoric has eased. The second is that OPEC+ has upped its production plans with a softer market as a result going forward. The latter message to the market happened almost at the same time as the ”Liberation Day” on 2 April.
Spot market still as tight as it was on 2 April. Still, the front-end market is more or less equally tight today as it was on 2 April. The average Brent, WTI and Dubai 1-3mth time-spread is USD 1.4/b today versus USD 1.5/b on 2. April.
The market setup/pricing is thus that the market is still tight, but that surplus will come. Either because global growth will slow due to US Tariff-turmoil or because OPEC+ will add more barrels.
Will OPEC+ resolve its internal quarrels? Worth remembering on the latter is that the latest more aggressive OPEC+ production growth plan is due to internal quarrels over quota breaches by Iraq and Kazakhstan. OPEC+ could potentially ease those growth plans just as quickly if the internal quarrel is resolved.
Brent crude in EUR/barrel is now trading at the nominal level from 2018-2019. That is nominal! Not taking account of any kind of inflation which cumulatively is up 20-30% since primo 2018. The average, nominal Brent crude oil price in 2018-2019 was EUR 59.1/b. The front-month Brent crude oil price is now EUR 58.4/b. And Brent forward 36mth is only EUR 55.5/b and in real terms one could subtract some 5-10% for the next three years from that nominal forward price. Quite sweet for consumers!
Brent has rebounded along with equities (here US Russel 2000 index in orange), but the rebound in oil has become more hesitant the latest days. Brent still trading USD 8.5/b below its pre ”Liberation Day” of USD 75/b
Brent crude forward curves. Today versus 2 April (’Liberation Day’). Still a tight current market but now with expectation that surplus is coming.
The Brent crude oil price versus the average Brent, WTI and Dubai 1-3mth time-spread. The latter is today on par with where it was on 2 April while the Brent 1mth price is down USD 8.5/b.
Brent crude in EUR/b is down to its 2018-2019 nominal price level. Not bad for euro-based oil consumers!!
Yearly averages for Brent crude in EUR/barrel. The Brent 1mth in EUR/barrel is today trading below its nominal average from 2018-2019 of EUR 59.1/b. And 36mth forward Brent is trading at only EUR 55.5/b. And that is nominally both ways. Add in some 20-30% inflation since primo 2018 and 5-10% additional inflation next three years. Think real terms!
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