The Nov’25 Brent futures contract started the afternoon slightly weaker, easing from $66.30/bbl at 12:30 BST to $65.95/bbl at 14:07 BST. It then met support and climbed to $66.55/bbl at 16:57 BST. Prices eventually met resistance here and eased to $66.40/bbl at 17:25 BST (time of writing). Iraq has reportedly increased its oil exports following the unwinding of voluntary production cuts under OPEC+, per the country’s state oil marketer SOMO. SOMO also expects September’s exports to sit between 3.4mb/d and 3.45mb/d, as per Reuters. This news follows Friday’s (19 Sep) news that Iraq’s oil ministry will begin procedures to restart crude oil exports from the Kurdistan region, with flows expected to resume via pipeline to Turkey within 48 hours, as per Reuters. Meanwhile, Kuwaiti oil minister Tariq Al-Roumi has reported that the country’s local oil production capacity stands at 3.2mb/d, the highest assessment in over 10 years. In other news, Nigeria’s economy grew at its fastest in four years in Q2 2025 (at +4.2% y/y; Q1: +3.1% y/y), driven by crude production climbing to its highest level since COVID-19 in 2020. Moreover, ExxonMobil said on Monday (22 Sep) that it approved investment in its seventh development project in Guyana, Hammerhead, which is expected to begin oil and gas production in 2029. As per Exxon, the Hammerhead development will use a floating production storage and offloading vessel that can produce around 150kb/d. Finally, at the time of writing, the Nov/Dec’25 and Nov/May’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.58/bbl and $1.34/bbl, respectively.
