The Dec’25 Brent futures contract dipped this morning from $65.83/bbl at 07:35 BST to $65.16/bbl at 10:00 BST (time of writing). In the news, China is set to add 11 new oil reserve sites in 2025 and 2026, with a total capacity of about 169mb. This choice has been stated by public sources as a method of protecting supply security. Elsewhere, Shell has said that it is expecting a $600m hit in Q3 after it abandoned a biofuel project in Rotterdam, citing that the project was scrapped because it would not have been competitive. In Nigeria, the chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company reported that the 3-day national strike at the Dangote refinery has caused production losses of 600kb. In other news, Brazil state-run oil firm Petrobras has signed a $1.8bn contract for Boaventura refining project. This includes the building of 2 units to produce diesel S-1 and jet fuel. In Freeport, Texas, a fire broke out at Dow’s chemical plant; Dow reported no employee injury, but facility damage has yet to be assessed. Finally, at time of writing, the front month Dec/Jan’26 and 6-month Dec/Jun’26 spreads are at $0.39/bbl and $0.72/bbl, respectively.
