The Sep’25 contract rallied to $67.16/bbl at 09:30 BST and softened to $66.59/bbl before bouncing back to $66.71/bbl at 11:30 BST (time of writing). In the news, Equinor has reported a new oil find at its Johan Castberg field in Norway’s Arctic Barents Sea, estimated to hold between 9 and 15 mb. The discovery comes shortly after the field began producing at full capacity, adding to its long-term potential. Equinor holds a 46.3% operating stake in the project, alongside partners Vaar Energi with 30% and Petoro with 23.7%.In other news, an oil tanker transporting roughly 1 mb of crude experienced an explosion off the coast of Libya on 27 Jun. According to operator TMS Tankers, the blast occurred in the engine room after the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, the Vilamoura, departed from Libya’s Zuetina port bound for Gibraltar. No injuries or environmental damage were reported. The tanker is currently under tow to Greece and is expected to arrive by Jul 2. Polish refiner Orlen announced it will stop purchasing Russian oil for its Czech refinery after 30 Jun, marking the end of its final supply contract with Rosneft for deliveries to the Litvinov plant. This change follows the Czech Republic’s April declaration of full independence from Russian oil, thanks to capacity upgrades on the TAL pipeline from the west. At the end of last year, Czech pipeline operator MERO completed improvements to the Transalpine (TAL) pipeline, which brings oil from the Italian port of Trieste through Germany and into the Czech Republic via the IKL pipeline. Finally, the Aug/Sep front-month spread is at $0.87/bbl and the 6-month Aug/Feb’26 spread is at $2.87/bbl.
