The front-month Brent futures contract dropped from $64.35/bbl at 15:50 GMT to $63.90/bbl at 16:20 GMT before easing further to $63.15/bbl at the time of writing (17:08 GMT). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reportedly agreed to work on the US’ draft plan to end the Russo-Ukrainian war. Meanwhile, private Indian refiner Reliance has stopped importing Russian crude oil into its refining complex at Jamnagar in Western India, effective 20 Nov – ahead of the US deadline for sanctions on Russian crude oil buyers. In other news, oil from Lukoil’s PJSC share of a field in Iraq continues to flow to global markets, as state marketer SOMO (State Organisation for Marketing of Oil) has taken over sales and is retaining any proceeds in Iraq for the time being, according to Bloomberg. In macro news, US non-farm payrolls climbed to 119,000 in September, from a revised 4,000 in August; however, the unemployment rate increased to a four-year high of 4.4%. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month (Jan/Feb’26) and six-month (Jan/Jul’26) Brent futures spreads stand at $0.54/bbl and $1.24/bbl, respectively.
