The Feb’26 Brent futures contract eased from $62.78/bbl at 12:15 GMT to $61.93/bbl at 17:00 GMT (time of writing). In the news, Reuters reported that Russia’s Syzran oil refinery (production 90kb/d in 2024) ceased processing on 05 December after being damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack. According to Reuters sources, drones damaged the plant’s CDU-6, which is expected to undergo repairs for about a month. Elsewhere, OxyVinyls, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, has reported a fire at its La Porte, Texas, facility. The company stated that it was collaborating with local officials to address the situation and had received an “all-clear” for the incident at the site. The extent of the damage is currently unknown. Meanwhile, the TurkStream pipeline (capacity 31.5bcm) expects to operate smoothly after moving its headquarters from the Netherlands to Hungary, avoiding sanctions on Russian energy through an agreement with the US. In other news, Bloomberg tanker-tracking data shows a cargo of crude oil from Rosneft floating around Europe and Asia as it searches for buyers. The Fortis tanker carrying 700kb of sanctioned Russian oil has anchored near China’s Rizhao port but has yet to find a buyer. In the US, ExxonMobil is targeting $25bn in earnings growth from 2024 to 2030 and will increase oil and gas production; it also plans to lean more heavily into its assets in Guyana and the Permian Basin. Finally, the front-month Feb/Mar’26 and 6-month Feb/Aug’26 spreads are at $0.28/bbl and $0.59/bbl, respectively.
