The Officials

Baked Alaska or AKA Bombe Alaska, you choose!🤣 It’s not like the market’s baked anything into the Alaska meeting, as prices slid this morning, before recovering somewhat in the afternoon. That ebb and flow tells you nobody really knows which way Caesar Trump’s thumb will point. We will have to wait until markets are closed, as the one-to-one meeting is scheduled to begin at 15:00 ET (20:00 BST), while a ‘working breakfast’ for the delegations is due to start an hour later. Ahead of the meeting, the swaps market remained rather quiet according to trading sources, while a crude trader was saying “dated is super strong at the moment,” continuing, “it’s very hard to get long structure”.

Maybe traders are too busy scouring Truth Social for an indication of how the Trump-Putin summit will go to keep up with their long positions, as Brent began to slide when Europe awoke this morning, nerves a-jangling! By the close it had slid to $66.32/bbl, having opened near $67. The bullishness from last night is gone!
Traders were earlier very bullish with comments about intermonth spreads, ‘roofing.’ The mood is more tempered now, but everyone is hanging on to what Trump and Putin will decide. Mr Z is still busy, droning whatever he can, but it feels like mosquito bites, annoying, but they don’t change the enveloping force of Russia swallowing up more territory.

Glencore won a tender to deliver US crude to BPCL, while Nayara has managed to keep buying Russian crude, sources told The Officials. Widening discounts on Russian oil must be tempting to Indian refiners, even if they can see the looming American bat swinging over their heads.
Compliant supplier! Up to March this year, Glencore was a company subject to monitorship by the US department of Justice. Sources earlier reported that the DOJ had in situ monitors who could step into any meeting or overhear any conversation to ensure the company stayed within the lines following the accusation of foreign bribery and market manipulation. However, dear President Trump terminated the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act on February 10 with an executive order mandating a 180-day suspension. Dear reader, in case you forgot, all is cool outside of the country and we provide the link to the executive order here.

The market is eyeing tomorrow’s proceedings with a wary eye, with Brent rising towards $66 this morning, rebounding from yesterday afternoon’s drop. All it will take is prevarication by either side and the market will get cold feet and jump back up.
Trump’s beating his chest in advance of the meeting, warning Putin of “very severe consequences” if Putin doesn’t accept a ceasefire this week. Tariff man only knows one weapon of last recourse… If we had to put money on any punishment from the illustrious American leader.

Europe’s leaders are busying themselves with discussions to get to the big boys table. Sadly for them, they won’t be at the table on Friday, as Trump goes head-to-head with Putin. They won’t even be in the room. Merz and Zelenskyy said Ukrainian territory isn’t up for debate, while the Ukrainian leader insisted he wants a meeting with Trump and Putin. He is out and rumours are his Middle Eastern accounts receive $50 million a month! No, we said it can’t be. It should be more, shouldn’t it? 🤣 We can only imagine a debate between Zelenskyy and Putin, mediated by a rational and even-tempered Donald.

Saudi allocations to India are on the up! Sources suggested Saudi allocations to India will be around 4 mil bbl higher than last month, coming to approximately 22 mil bbl for September. Some state refiners will likely receive a bit more than usual. 22 mil bbl of Saudi allocations to India would equate to 733 kb/d, higher than the recent 700 kb/d of imports from Saudi Arabia in July, closer to the levels seen in January and February, according to Kpler. Peak product demand season for Diwali is rapidly approaching. Allocations to China may be down from August, but they’ve picked up some slack elsewhere!

The Nayara refinery has been taking a hit on the chin and sources confirmed they have effectively been ostracised. Even the State Bank of India has reportedly halted processing of transactions for Nayara! Trading sources said today Nayara “seems pretty bad”, with another Indian source saying they have heard similar news domestically. Singled out of the pack and made an example of… Nayara’s staring at its lowest crude intake on record, with imports set to average just under 94 kb/d this month, according to data from Kpler and Vortexa – 270 kb/d less than average imports over the last year!

In the week ending 8 August 2025, exchange traded futures volumes declined w/w across all contracts in the first three tenors. For Brent, it was the October contract that experienced the steepest drop (-20.86%), while for WTI it was the December contract that saw the largest decrease w/w, down 32.95%.

Some of us may be Latinos, but too many TACOs! 🌮 We aren’t culinary snobs, but we are getting fed up with the constant diet; we need some borscht or something else. And yes, Trump reversed and his deadlines are a misnomer. They are just sign post to wait for the newest change, extension or accommodation. Yet another 90-day pause to the US-China tariff bombardment means they won’t come into effect until November, assuming no further procrastination… We think he’s taking inspiration from the US’ government’s approach to debt – just kick the can down the road forever! But no one can blame him, he is busy invading Washington DC. Less dangerous than abroad that’s for sure.

We are slightly flipping again. We have been bearish, as you can read from the previous reports. Though here, through Friday, the Trump/Putin meeting in Alaska is dominating the higher-level narrative and price expectations. Since it is summer, it can be hot and cold in that climate, but also in the outcome. Putin is very unyielding, and Trump is slightly mercurial 🤣, and this means the results of the meeting could go right or left, or even be cancelled. Hence, we have a slightly bullish view for the next few days as the possibility of something not being totally sunny in the outcome is greater than zero, if Trump does not get too distracted invading his own capital city. So, just to be clear, we are flipping to slightly bullish and will be very attentive to the meeting narrative.

Saudi allocations for September loadings for China are in, folks, and as expected, they’re down hard. The volumes requested and located are down to 43 million bbls for Sept versus 51 million bbls in August. Customers front-loaded the August loading bbls, as the numbers suggested back then that forward OSPs for September would be higher. And now the forward OSPs for October will be lower than September, and hence, under requesting makes sense. They were more than happy to load up on August barrels, to the tune of 51 million (the biggest allocation we’ve seen since we started reporting). But for September, China will only lift 43 million barrels. Key reductions were seen for Unipec (-6 mil bbl m/m), Fujian (-2 mil bbl m/m), PetroChina (-1 mil bbl m/m), and Shenghong (-1 mil bbl m/m). CNOOC got a minor uplift of 2 mil bbls.

And just as we thought we were having one of the quietest afternoons, boom boom, prices came crashing down! We hope you weren’t long in the early afternoon session! If you are like our European neighbours -here reporting from the UK- who like to take an afternoon nap after lunch, we feel sorry for you, because Brent went for a skydiving session! Don’t get caught napping. Remember, you snooze, you lose! Prices fell from $67.03/bbl all the way down to $65.52/bbl in just 8 minutes. Brent said hasta la vista to the $67 level -for now. The orange man wants cheap oil and he gets it! You can argue with his tactics, but you cannot argue with the end result 🤣.

Trump back on his favourite hobby -after golf- tariffs! He likes them, doesn’t he? Yesterday, he announced tariffs on 1kg and 100-ounce gold bars, a sudden blow to Switzerland, the world’s top gold refining hub. Switzerland exported $61.5 billion in gold to the US in the 12 months to June. But gold is fungible, so Switzerland will export the offending gold bars elsewhere, which will then export their own, or melt it, or whatever. Why is Trump doing this stuff? It does not matter; the price of gold went up. In our opinion, Trump or no Trump, gold is still a buy.

Trump is handing tariff letters as if they were paper towels. In fact he announced a 100% tariff on chips and semiconductors, but companies that invest in US manufacturing will not face any levies. He also stands firm against the Swiss and they’re playing their last card now, asking the FIFA President to negotiate 🤣. How about giving him a pamper full of chocolates and Swiss cheese for the trips in the Qatari plane? But the tiny hand man isn’t focusing on the real threat, the loss of stature of the US and the fact that BRICS had enough. The Officials have been flagging this as it could turn into a full-fledged exit from anything American. India and Russia met to address the “terrorism” from the US. On Wednesday, they signed a new protocol to enhance industrial cooperation across various sectors. The BRICS are getting stronger and this is only the start…And of course, Modi, who is really aggrieved, is soon meeting China’s leader, Xi.

India’s robust reply to Trump’s tariffs stunned quite a few traders. They say now that India had no other option. If this is the case, why did Trump push them to the brink? Tactically and strategically the US is losing friends faster than an oil trader without a job.🤣But enough of that, what did traders think of the jump in Saudi OSPs? High, they said, but the market demand is there. Traders expect China and India to continue to focus on Russian, Iranian and of course Other PG crude streams. Demand is good but the resumption of India’s buying for Russian crude altered the perception and reality of supply and the flat price is struggling. We have heard now of at least 6 Russian cargoes to discharge in India. Trump…take that! The Brent/Dubai swap went downhill this morning, it opened at -65c, and at Singapore close, it plunged to -$1!