The Jan’26 Brent futures contract traded rangebound this afternoon, from highs of $64/bbl at 12:30 GMT to lows of $63.50/bbl at 16:00 GMT. Prices are at $63.58/bbl as of 17:30 GMT (time of writing). In the news, Reuters reported that two tankers carrying roughly 1.5mb of Russian crude have anchored at both ends of the Suez Canal, signalling Russia’s challenges in selling oil following Western sanctions last month. The tankers Sikar and Monte 1 were loaded from Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk in early October and have been anchored for over a week, per LSEG and OilX data. In other news, a spokesperson for Finnish petrol station chain Teboil, owned by Russia’s Lukoil, has stated that the company is running low on fuel due to US sanctions disrupting its business. Following the collapse of a Gunvor deal to acquire Lukoil’s foreign assets, the Russian major is struggling to maintain its foreign companies. Elsewhere, India’s oil ministry data show that fuel consumption has risen 7.7% m/m, hitting a five-year high in October of $20mnmt. Finally, the front-month Jan/Feb’26 and 6-month Jan/Jul’26 spreads are at $0.26/bbl and $0.46/bbl, respectively.
