The Sep ’25 Brent Futures contract rallied all afternoon to $71.14/bbl at 17:05 BST (time of writing). Similarly the Oct’25 Futures contract rallied to $70.40/bbl. In the news, the Indian owners of three vessels chartered to Russia-backed Nayara Energy have requested the company terminate their contracts following recent European Union sanctions on the refiner, according to Reuters sources. Nayara, which operates India’s third-largest refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat with a capacity of 400kb/d, has already reduced operations due to storage constraints caused by the EU measures. In other news, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) has criticized the Trump administration’s biofuel policies in a letter to Republican congressional leaders, marking a major rift between refiners and the president. The group argued that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to increase biofuel blending requirements would impose about $70 Bn in compliance costs and harm refiners, consumers, and Trump’s energy agenda. US refining capacity has stagnated at just over 18 mb/d, with several plants closing. Upcoming closures in California are expected to further cut capacity by nearly 300kb/d. Protests in Angola’s capital, Luanda, over a steep diesel price hike turned violent, with local media reporting several deaths, including a police officer, and numerous arrests after looting and clashes with police. The government recently raised diesel prices by one-third as part of a long-term plan to phase out costly fuel subsidies and stabilize public finances. The increase prompted minibus taxi associations to raise fares by up to 50% and launch a three-day strike. Finally the front-month Sep/Oct and the 6-month Sep/Mar’26 spreads are at $0.77/bbl and $2.69/bbl respectively.
