The Feb’26 Brent futures contract has traded rangebound around the $62/bbl handle this morning, sitting at $62.09/bbl at 10:45 GMT (time of writing). In the news, Kazakhstan’s energy ministry announced plans to reroute some oil from the Kashagan oil field to China following a Ukrainian drone attack on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s Black Sea terminal in Novorossiysk in late November. According to Reuters, Kazakhstan plans to supply 373kb of crude oil to China in December; this will mark the first export to China since the attack. Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has estimated a US crude oil inventory draw of 4.8mb in the week ending 05 December (-2.5mb prior for week ending 28 Nov). Official EIA data will be released today at 3:30 GMT. Thus far, US crude inventories show a net increase of 121kb for the year. In other news, Xtellus Partners, an investment firm based in New York, has suggested that the proceeds from selling Lukoil’s overseas assets be used to reimburse American investors who lost money after their Lukoil stocks were frozen due to the Russo-Ukrainian war. The proposal involves a cashless sale back to Lukoil securities held by US investors in exchange for the company’s global assets, which are estimated at $22bn. Elsewhere, Israel is expected to approve its $35bn gas export with Egypt, amid pressure from the Trump administration. Under the deal, Israel will export 130bcm of natural gas from the Leviathan gas field to Egypt with partners Chevron, NewMed Energy, and Ratio Petroleum Energy. Finally, at time of writing, the front-month Feb/Mar’26 and 6-month Feb/Aug’26 spreads are at $0.30/bbl and $0.59/bbl, respectively.
