The Oct’25 Brent Futures contract rallied to $71.93/bbl at 08:31 BST before falling to $71.19/bbl at 09:17 BST. Prices have since recovered to $71.46/bbl at 11:10 BST (time of writing). In the news, Chevron will transfer part of its Venezuelan oil production to the Maduro government as part of a deal reported by Bloomberg, following a US sanctions exemption allowing the company to resume operations there. Under the arrangement Chevron will pay royalties in crude rather than cash, in line with US rules meant to limit direct financial benefits to the Venezuelan state. The exemption reflects US refiners’ heavy reliance on Venezuelan crude, with imports peaking at 300kb/d last year. In other news, Pakistan’s largest refiner, Cnergyico, will import 1 mb of WTI crude from Vitol in October, marking the country’s first-ever purchase of American oil after a new trade deal. Cnergyico may import at least one cargo monthly to diversify away from Middle Eastern suppliers, which currently dominate Pakistan’s oil imports. The deal follows US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats earlier this year and subsequent trade negotiations that reduced US tariffs on Pakistani imports to 19%. Gazprom’s average daily natural gas supplies to Europe rose 37% in July compared to June, reaching 51.5 mcm/d via the TurkStream pipeline. This volume was also 4.7% higher than in July 2024. Total Russian gas exports through TurkStream in the first half of 2025 amounted to 9.93 bcm, up from 9.3 bcm a year earlier. Finally, the front-month Oct/Nove spreads are at $0.93/bbl and the 6-month Oct/Apr spreads are at $2.83/bbl.
