The Jan’26 Brent futures rose to a high of $65.15/bbl at 13.06 GMT before it softened to see support at $64.25/bbl around 16.15 GMT before it inched up to $64.72/bbl at 17.30 GMT (time of writing). President Trump denied considering military strikes inside Venezuela, contradicting his earlier remarks. The US has recently increased its military presence in the Caribbean, soon to expand with the Gerald Ford carrier strike group. It remains unclear whether Trump ruled out future strikes or simply said no decision had been made. Elsewhere, OPEC+ is likely to agree on another modest output hike for December as the group aims to regain market share despite predictions of a supply glut next year. According to Reuters, the hike will likely mirror the group’s last increase of 137kb/d. In Bulgaria, the country’s parliament has temporarily banned the export of some fuels, particularly diesel and jet fuel, after US sanctions on Russia’s Lukoil. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month Jan/Feb’26 and 6-month Jan/Jul’26 spreads are at $0.45/bbl and $0.71/bbl, respectively.
