WTI has been largely rangebound today, weighing US/China trade optimism against oversupply concerns, as the market also monitors the impacts of US sanctions on Russian supply.
- WTI DEC 25 down 0.3% at 61.34$/bbl
- OPEC+ 8 nations are leaning towards another modest increase in oil output for December, sources told Reuters said, with Bloomberg sources expecting an increase of 137k b/d.
- U.S. and Chinese officials sketched out a trade-deal framework, easing fears that tariffs and export curbs could dent global economic growth. Trump and Xi will meet on Thursday.
- The framework would avoid 100% U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and achieve a deferral of China's rare-earth export controls.
- Markets await signs of how effective the new sanctions are and whether they pull supply lower and lessen the Q4 glut picture that had been pressing oil to near multi year lows earlier in the month.
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said earlier on Monday he will meet with Trump to shield his country from the impact of the latest sanctions on Russian oil.
- Oil exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan region are 195k b/d, while Iraq’s total exports are currently 3.6m b/d, Iraq’s oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said cited by Reuters.
- India's crude oil imports rose 1.7% m/m in September to 19.93 million metric tons according to government data on Monday.
- Oil prices are expected to “moderate” in the coming days and weeks because of ample supply, according to the IEA’s Executive Director Fatih Birol, cited by Bloomberg.
- WAF and WTI arbitrage opportunities to Asia are open again as Middle Eastern premiums soar in the wake of last week’s announcements, according to Sparta Commodities.