Donna Dong
Research Analyst, Flux
Brent Falls Below $71/bbl
Brent dips as refinery maintenance, pipeline delays and rising exports reshape global crude flows.
The Apr’26 Brent futures contract has fallen below the $71/bbl handle this afternoon, from $72.24/bbl at 13:40 GMT to $70.94/bbl at 17:00 GMT (time of writing).
In the news, Romania’s largest crude oil refinery, Petromidia, has reported that it will close for 20 days for its scheduled maintenance in March. The Black Sea refinery is owned by Rompetrol Rafinare, which is majority-owned by KMG International, part of the Kazakh state oil firm KazMunayGaz. In Ukraine, the country has informed Slovakia’s oil pipeline operator, Transpetrol, that the resumption of oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline has been postponed by one more day to February 26. The ministry has stated that it did not receive a reason for the latest delay. Elsewhere, trade houses and Venezuelan oil buyers have chartered the first VLCCs to export from the country since a Caracas-Washington supply deal was established. This is expected to accelerate shipments from March and increase deliveries to India. According to Reuters sources, Vitol and Trafigura have chartered at least 3 VLCCs with March loading windows at Venezuela’s main oil terminal, Jose; all are inbound for India. In Nigeria, a spokesperson for state oil company NNPC will start exporting a new light, sweet crude called Cawthorne from March. This move contributes to a recent increase in output from Africa’s leading exporter. The launch is part of Nigeria's larger effort to boost production, which has been limited by unrest and theft, and follows the introduction of two other new grades since 2024. Nigeria, which is already close to its OPEC quota, is among the countries pushing to secure a higher output target within the organisation. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month (Apr/May) and 6-month (Apr/Oct) Brent futures spreads are at $0.23/bbl and $2.70/bbl, respectively.
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