Oct’25 futures reached resistance at $66.20/bbl this afternoon between 15.00-17.00 BST, but softened to $65.90/bbl at 17.26 BST at the time of writing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that, after the Washington summit, Ukraine is now working with allies. “We are now actively working at all levels on the specifics, on what the architecture of the guarantees will look like, with all members of the Coalition of the Willing, and very concretely with the United States,” he writes in a post on X. US oil and gas mergers and acquisitions tripled to $206.6 billion in 2024, driven by megadeals from Exxon Mobil, Diamondback Energy, and ConocoPhillips, according to an Ernst & Young report. Companies shifted focus from shareholder payouts to growth and efficiency, with Exxon leading at $84.5 billion in acquisitions, including its $60 billion purchase of Pioneer Natural Resources. Germany said Kazakh oil flows to its Schwedt refinery via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline were briefly disrupted by Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian infrastructure but have since been restored without affecting supply security. Kazakhstan confirmed exports remain unaffected, with shipments to Germany up 38% y/y in Jan-Jul to 1.086 million mt. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused India of profiteering from cheap Russian oil, telling CNBC that Russian crude now makes up 42% of India’s imports, compared with less than 1% before the war. He contrasted this with China, where Russian oil’s share has risen only slightly, to 16% from 13%. He said India was engaging in “arbitrage” by reselling Russian oil as refined products, which he called “unacceptable”. Finally, the front (Oct/Nov) and 6-month (Oct/Apr) Brent futures spreads are at $0.49/bbl and $1.18/bbl, respectively.
