The Feb Brent Futures has seen a stronger afternoon, trading steadily up from around $62.70/bbl to $63.24/bbl where it prints at the time of writing, 17:30 GMT. In headlines, Saudi Arabia is expected to cut January OSPs for Arab Light to Asia by around $0.30-$0.40/bbl, taking the premium to Oman/Dubai down to about $0.60-0.70/bbl, the weakest in roughly five years as Riyadh defends her market share amid ample Middle East supply and softer spot benchmarks. This would mark a second consecutive monthly cut and likely drag regional differentials across the Arabian Gulf complex. At the same time, Japan’s government has reiterated that Russian-linked projects such as Sakhalin 1 remain strategically vital for its energy security, signalling Tokyo’s intention to stay invested despite new US sanctions on Rosneft and related entities. At the time of writing, the front (Feb/Mar) and 6-month (Feb/Aug) Brent spread were at $0.41/bbl and $0.80/bbl, respectively.
