The October Brent futures flat price saw better support on Tuesday afternoon, finding a springboard of $75.60/bbl before gapping up to $77/bbl before coming off to $76.62/bbl by 17:30 BST (time of writing). The US Department of Energy announced two solicitations to purchase oil for the SPR, 1.5mb for delivery into the Bayou Choctaw site and 2.0mb for the Bryan Mound site, both in January 2025. Libya’s NOC said on Tuesday that it is gradually reducing production from the Sharara field, citing force majeure due to protests in the area. Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said on an earnings conference call that “the market is overreacting [to the US jobs report] and the fundamentals do not support the drop in [crude] prices”. Marathon Petroleum beat Q2 profit estimates as higher volume of crude processing and a strong midstream segment helped offset low refining margin. Finally, the front (Oct/Nov) and 6-month (Oct/Apr) Brent futures spreads are at $0.46/bbl and $2.16/bbl respectively.
