Nov’24 Brent futures flat price shot up this afternoon from $73.25/bbl at 12:00 BST to a high of $74.14/bbl around 15:45BST, followed by a sharp descent down to $72.53/bbl at 17:15 BST, before rebounding back to $73/bbl around 17:30 BST(time of writing). The sell-off in oil price comes after the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) published their weeklyreport, stating a commercial crude inventory decline of 6.9 mb for the week to August 30, which was lower than APIestimates of 7.4 mb. In other news, China’s oil demand is growing at the slowest pace in the last 15 years with a decline of-2% YTD (excluding the COVID downturn), analysts at Bernstein said today. The drop in demand refl ects a wider slowdownin the Chinese economy with a lagging industrial sector, reduced property investment and consumer spending. Lastly, theKashagan oil fi eld in Kazakhstan is scheduled to be shut down for 4 weeks in October this year for maintenance. Inresponse, Kazakhstan’s energy ministry has sent a request to shareholders in the Kashagan oilfi eld to delay maintenance,citing gas shortages. At the time of writing, the front month (Nov/Dec’24) and six-month (Nov/May’25) Brent futures spreadsare at $0.40/bbl and $1.35/bbl, respectively.
