In the week ending 25 Feb, combined open interest (OI) across both Brent and WTI futures saw a third consecutive weekly increase. This week, OI rose by a considerably lower 8.35mb (+0.2%) compared to the week to 11 Feb where OI increased by 1.6%. Traders have been in a ‘wait and see’ mode ahead of further announcements on US tariffs and a potential Russia-Ukraine truce, with risk appetite across the crude futures benchmarks being relatively lacklustre. Money managers removed a total 53.2mb (-9.8%) from their combined long crude positions in the week to 25 Feb, while adding 28.5mb (+16.2%) to their short positions. This led to the money managers long:short ratio falling from 3.09:1.00 to 2.40:1.00 w/w and net positioning falling from 367mb to 286mb over the same period, now the lowest net positioning seen since the beginning of December 2024.
