The Sep’25 Brent Futures contract rallied to $73.25/bbl at 08:46 BST before falling to $71.90/bbl at 11:15 BST (time of writing). The soon-to-be-prompt Oct’25 Brent futures contract similarly rallied to $72.21/bbl before falling to $71.07/bbl. In the news, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula triggered Pacific-wide tsunami warnings, prompting evacuations in Russia, Japan, and parts of the U.S. west coast. In other news, Kazakh President Tokayev and Turkish President Erdogan discussed boosting Kazakh oil exports through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline during talks in Turkey, according to Kazakhstan’s presidential press service. Kazakhstan increased BTC exports by 12% in the first half of 2025 to 785 kt, though expansion would require upgrades to the port of Aktau and meeting BTC’s crude quality standards. China’s Shandong Yulong Petrochemical has purchased its first Canadian crude cargoes via the Trans Mountain pipeline, trade sources said. Each cargo is roughly 550 kb. This marks the refiner’s first Canadian oil purchase since starting its 200kb/d operations last September. Yulong, has also recently bought Russia’s Urals crude further diversifying its supply. Turkey will begin supplying natural gas to Syria on 2 August, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told Anadolu news agency, with Azerbaijan and Qatar also participating in the project. The plan involves sending six million cubic metres of gas, expected to generate about 1,200 megawatts of power, with Turkey adding 500 megawatts of its own supply. Finally, the front month-Sep/Oct spread is at $0.84/bbl and the 6-month Sep/Mar’26 spread is at $3.01/bbl.
