May’25 Brent futures saw strength for another consecutive week in the week ending 25 Mar, rising from an intraday low of $70.00/bbl on 17 Mar up to an intraday high of $73.50/bbl on 25 Mar. Risk of supply disruption was an ongoing focus in crude oil markets, after US sanctions targeted a large Chinese teapot refinery for processing Iranian crude on 20 Mar. As of 25 Mar, President Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 25% on any nation buying Venezuelan oil, further mounting concerns of tighter global supply. In line with this bullish sentiment, Onyx’s weekly CFTC COT predictor anticipates speculative players could add length in Brent and remove shorts for the week ending 25 Mar. Managed-by-money long positions are projected to increase by almost 9mb, or +3.1% w/w, while decreasing their short positions by 2.6mb (around -2.9% w/w). Finally, prod/merc players are expected to add to both their long and short positions, by 26.4mb and 32.1mb, respectively.
