The Feb’26 Brent futures contract eased from $62.14/bbl at 07:00 GMT to $61.80/bbl at 10:00 GMT (time of writing). In the news, Reuters has reported that Serbia is working on an amendment to the draft budget law that would allow it to acquire ownership of NIS (capacity 35mb/y), the Russian-owned oil refiner currently under US sanctions. Ana Brnabic, a close ally of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, has stated that parliament will likely begin debating the budget law on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday. According to an earlier statement by Vucic, the NIS oil refinery is set to close in four days if the US does not lift sanctions; this would risk Serbia’s winter fuel supplies. In related news, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Facebook that he is currently in Belgrade, discussing how Hungary will assist Serbia following the halt of crude oil shipments from Croatia. While details are not yet precise, Szijjarto said in April that an oil pipeline connecting the two nations is in the planning phase. Elsewhere, Baghdad has begun paying wages at Lukoil’s West Qurna-2 to prevent a shutdown at the 460-480kb/d oilfield. In other news, the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that US crude oil inventories decreased by 1.9mb during the week ending 21 November. Thus far, API data signal that US crude oil inventories are estimated to show a net gain of 7.4mb y/y. Finally, at time of writing, the front-month Feb/Mar’26 and 6-month Feb/Aug’26 spreads are at $0.31/bbl and $0.38/bbl, respectively.
