The Sep’25 Brent futures contract continued rallying all afternoon to $69.54/bbl at 17:37 BST (time of writing). In the news, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed strong confidence that a proposed oil pipeline to the Pacific coast will likely be included in Canada’s list of national interest projects. Carney emphasised that the private sector will drive the pipeline proposal, with the federal government aiming to fast-track such projects. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith indicated that a private company could soon propose the pipeline, with a target of transporting 1 mb/d. The Trans Mountain expansion remains the only active pipeline for exporting Alberta’s crude to the West Coast. In other news, ExxonMobil, leading a consortium with QatarEnergy, has discovered a natural gas reservoir off Cyprus’ coast. Drilling at the Pegasus-1 well revealed a gas-bearing layer of 350 meters at a depth of 1.9 km. Further evaluation will be conducted in the coming months to assess the discovery. This marks the second gas find in Block 10, following the Glaucus-1 discovery in 2019. While Cyprus has found gas in several areas, it has yet to commercialise the resources. Ecuador’s private OCP pipeline, which transports heavy crude, resumed operations on today after a precautionary suspension on 1 July due to heavy rains. The restart followed the completion of a bypass built to address erosion along the Loco River in the Amazon region, the company reported. Finally, the front-month Sep/Oct and the 6-month Sep/Mar spreads are at $1.16/bbl and $3.23/bbl respectively.
