While speculators in Brent were more bearish in the week to Feb 20 with a rise in shorts surpassing an increase in longs, WTI enjoyed a more bullish stance amid added length and liquidated short positions. The bearish net positioning in Brent accordingly dampened the combined net positioning in the futures contracts, which increased by nearly 19mbbls this week (+5%), a smaller weekly rise relative to the week to Feb 13’s 65mbbls increase. In the week to Feb 20, we saw tensions in the Middle East and a possible revival of refiner hedging lock horns with dissipating hopes of an early interest rate cut in the US and developments like an EIA-announced build in Cushing storage of 710kbbls on Feb 14 (against an expected draw of 33kbbls).
