Speculators for both Brent and WTI portrayed a more bullish outlook as managed by money positions witnessed an increase in longs coupled with a liquidation of shorts for both crude benchmarks. In line with this, combined positioning portrayed a w-o-w addition in long positions of 46mbbls (+10%) and a removal of short positioning equating to 19mbbls (-12%). As a result, the combined long:short ratio recovered back from 2.92:1.00 last week to 3.63:1.00 this week. Middle Eastern tensions continue to rumble on helping to keep prices elevated. It will be interesting to monitor positioning changes in the week to come, as a possibly thin market due to Lunar New Year reacts to the crude demand outlook from OPEC and the IEA.
