The Sep’25 Brent futures contact continued rallying in the afternoon to $70.41/bbl at 17:15 BST (time of writing). In the news, Russia plans to fully compensate for overproducing oil beyond its OPEC+ quota in August and September, in line with its existing plan. The country aims to address the cumulative 691kb/d excess production since April. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak also mentioned that the government is still considering a complete gasoline export ban, dependent on market conditions in the coming days. Currently, there are restrictions on a small portion of gasoline exports, while oil companies have licenses to sell fuel abroad. In other news, A lightning strike caused a fire at a storage tank at Citgo Petroleum’s 460 kb/d Lake Charles refinery in Louisiana on Thursday. The fire was quickly put out, and no injuries were reported. Citgo confirmed that all other parts of the refinery are operating normally. The heads of Russia’s Gazprom and China’s CNPC discussed future Russian gas supplies to China during talks in Beijing, according to Gazprom. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Russia has shifted its oil exports to India and China. Russia began exporting gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline in late 2019, aiming to reach its annual capacity of 38 B cubic meters this year. Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit China in September for WWII victory celebrations, following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow in May. Finally, the front-month Sep/Oct and 6-month Sep/Mar’26 spreads are at $1.21/bbl and $3.25/bbl respectively.
