The Sep’25 Brent Futures contract rallied to $70.31/bbl at 14:08 BST before falling to $69.86/bbl at 17:30 BST (time of writing). The Oct’25 Futures contract similarly rallied to $69.50 before softening to $69.14/bbl. In the news, OPEC+ ‘s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting ended with no policy recommendation. OPEC+ has been gradually reversing earlier production cuts to regain market share. The group’s most recent increase of 548kb/d in August is likely to be followed by a similar hike in September, after OPEC+ meets on 3 August. This fully unwind a previous 2.2 mb/d cut decided in 2023. In other news, US President Trump has set a new 10-12-day deadline for Russia to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine, warning of sanctions and possible tariffs if no advances are seen. Trump expressed disappointment with Russian President Putin and shortened an earlier 50-day timeline he had given. The Kremlin has not yet commented, though it previously stated a summit between Putin and Zelenskiy could only occur as a final step toward peace. Austrian energy company OMV reported detecting organic chloride contamination in Azeri BTC crude cargoes destined for its refineries but confirmed the issue was caught before causing any operational disruptions. The discovery follows similar findings by Italy’s Eni and comes after contamination in Azeri crude last week drove price differentials to a four-year low and delayed loadings from Turkey’s BTC Ceyhan terminal. Finally, the front-month Sep/Oct and 6-month Sep/Mar’26 spreads are at $0.71/bbl and $2.36/bbl respectively.
