Following a relatively quiet overnight session, the October Brent futures flat price spiked above $80/bbl on Monday morning, jumping by 70c in 20 minutes, trading at $80.50/bbl as of 11:20 BST (time of writing). Earlier, Brent touched $80/bbl at 09:15 but hit an initial wave of resistance. The latest CFTC data for the week ending 20 August showed money managers becoming increasingly bearish in both crude futures benchmarks (Brent + WTI), likely on the back of a fading geopolitical risk premia and China demand concerns. New Zealand said on Monday it would pass laws by the end of this year to reverse a ban on offshore O&G exploration, and take urgent steps to remove regulatory hurdles to import LNG amid energy shortages. According to an interim report, Sinopec aims to lower its crude throughput by 1.6% in 2H24 to 5.03mb/d from 1H24, suggesting the country’s crude imports may be capped for the remainder of the year. Finally, the front (Oct/Nov) and 6-month (Oct/Apr) Brent futures spreads are at $1.04/bbl and $3.36/bbl respectively.
