The Mar’26 Brent futures contract has risen this morning, from $60.09/bbl at 06:25 GMT to $60.48/bbl at 10:00 GMT (time of writing). In the news, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA says that it is in talks with the US for the sale of oil to benefit both nations. Trump announced overnight that Venezuela will “be purchasing ONLY American Made Products” using the funds from the new oil agreement. According to a WSJ report, Trump also told aides that he believes his efforts will help reduce oil prices to his preferred level of $50/bbl. In Norway, the Offshore Directorate has stated that offshore oil and gas production is expected to remain stable in 2026, but investments are projected to decrease by 6.6%, indicating a decline in output later this decade. Elsewhere, Portuguese energy company Galp and private equity-backed Moeve are negotiating a merger of their refining, chemicals, and fuel retail operations. Under a non-binding agreement, the companies plan to create two new firms, one of which will operate fuel retail stations in Spain and Portugal, and the other will operate three separate refineries. If successful, this would create one of Europe’s biggest refiners with a combined capacity of around 700kb/d. In other news, Shell anticipates a loss in its chemicals and products division in Q4, partly due to “significantly lower” trading results; its oil, gas, and LNG output forecasts were kept steady. Finally, the front-month (Mar/Apr) and 6-month (Mar/Sep) spreads are at $0.42/bbl and $0.87/bbl.
