The Dec’25 Brent futures contract has risen this afternoon, from $65.19/bbl at 14:00 BST to $66.07/bbl at 17:30 BST (time of writing). Crucially, prices have met resistance at the 50-day moving average. In the news, Reuters has reported that OPEC is prepared to raise production by reducing its oil output cuts to address market shortfalls following new US sanctions on Russia. In China, state oil majors have halted seaborne Russian oil purchases following US sanctions. According to Reuters, PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC, and Zhenhua Oil are amongst those who will limit short-term deals with the Russian oil giants. While the sanctioned Russian firms, Rosneft and Lukoil, mostly sell oil to China via intermediaries, Chinese firms are still concerned over possible sanction effects. Related, Berlin is seeking an exemption from US sanctions on Rosneft, which has a German arm. Banks have said that sanctions may stop them from conducting crucial energy business with the Russian-owned German arm, which supplies oil to petrol pumps and airports in the country. In other news, Libya’s National Oil Corporation has said that Algerian state energy firm Sonatech has resumed oil and gas exploration drilling in the Ghadames basin. Exploration initially ceased more than 10 years ago due to unstable security conditions. Finally, at time of writing, the front-month Dec/Jan’26 and 6-month Dec/Jun’26 spreads are at $0.71/bbl and $2.03/bbl, respectively.
