The Feb’26 Brent futures contract eased this afternoon, from $62.69/bbl at 13:30 GMT to $61.00/bbl at 16:00 GMT. Prices met some support here, recovering to $62.15/bbl at 17:00 GMT (time of writing). In the news, the White House has said that ‘tremendous progress’ has been made towards a Russia-Ukraine peace deal. Kyiv’s National Security Chief Rustem Umerov has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy may visit the US in the coming days to finalise an agreement with US President Donald Trump; Russia has yet to make an official statement on these developments. Elsewhere, Reuters has reported that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) has restarted loadings after overnight Ukrainian drone attacks, which damaged its office. Details on the extent of disruptions to operations have not been confirmed, though a Reuters source claims that operations have mostly been unaffected. In India, Kpler data initially suggest that November oil imports are set to reach their highest level in five months, as refiners rushed to secure barrels before a US deadline to cease transactions with sanctioned Russian oil producers took effect. India has been the largest buyer of discounted seaborne Russian crude since Western sanctions were imposed on oil majors. Elsewhere, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak mentioned that Russia could increase its oil exports to China by extending current agreements. Novak noted that a deal for exporting Russian crude through Kazakhstan could be extended for an additional 10 years, until 2033. Earlier this year, Russia suggested that increasing pipeline flows might raise the amount of oil reaching China through the Atasu-Alashankou pipeline by 2.5mb/y. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month Feb/Mar’26 and 6-month Feb/Aug’26 spreads are at $0.32/bbl and $0.40/bbl, respectively.
