The September Brent futures flat price witnessed a choppy Monday afternoon, first rising to $86.25/bbl before falling to $85.75/bbl, where it remains as of 17:00 BST (time of writing). In the headlines, ExxonMobil said that lower natural gas prices and refining margins are expected to hit the oil major’s Q2 earnings. Devon Energy announced on Monday that it had entered a deal to acquire Grayson Mill Energy’s Williston basin business in a cash-and-stock deal worth $5 billion, as it aims to cash in on high stock valuations to grow acreage. US SPR crude inventories rose by 0.5mb w-o-w to 373.1mb last week. According to Argus, the freight cost between Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk to China has fallen to the lowest level since October. At the time of writing, the Sep/Oct and Sep/Mar Brent futures spreads are at $0.81/bbl and $3.61/bbl, respectively.
