With maintenance barrels being priced, the North Sea crude market saw an incredibly bearish week in the prompt as physical differentials surged below $0/bbl into the end of last week.
Despite weakness in the front, back-end structure saw better support with spreads holding firm. During Monday’s window, Unipec bid back-end Forties, providing temporary relief to the cratering physical. Another prominent trade house is also on the bull side. Generally, the market expects weakness to permeate through the remainder of April-loading barrels before finding better support in May and June with downstream capacity coming back online.
