The September Brent Futures contract has seen a mixed afternoon, peaking at $67.50/bbl at noon, before being sold off following the US open to a low of $66.70/bbl, and rebounding up to $67.08/bbl at the time of writing (17:30 BST). In headlines, Kazakhstan’s crude oil production surged by 7.5% in June to 1.88 mb/d, matching its record high from March and significantly exceeding its OPEC+ quota of 1.5 mb/d, reflecting a continued trend of noncompliance, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Norway’s Equinor and its partners announced a $1.3 billion (13 billion NOK) investment in Phase 3 of the Johan Sverdrup oilfield, adding two subsea templates and new pipelines to boost recoverable volumes by 40–50 mboe, with production expected by late 2027. In Asia, Indonesia has introduced new regulations to attract oil drilling technology providers to help revive idle wells and raise national oil output from under 6 kb/d to 1 mb/d by 2029–2030, according to Deputy Energy Minister Yuliot Tanjung. At the time of writing, the front (Sep/Oct) and 6-month (Sep/Mar’26) Brent spreads are at $0.90/bbl and $2.22/bbl, respectively.
