- West Texas Intermediate continues to jostle in the low $70’s as oil market participants digest a clash inside OPEC+
- To start the week, WTI traded just shy of $77 on concerns that an OPEC+ no-deal would leave oil markets even tighter
- Traders turned focus throughout the week to what a Saudi and UAE spat could mean for the OPEC+ alliance, and oil prices fell amid the uncertainty
- Gasoline demand was propelled to an all-time weekly record last week, according to the Energy Information Agency
- Estimated U.S. demand for gasoline rose to 10 MMBbl/d the week ended July 2, the highest in data going back to 1990
- The record came as Americans took to the road for the July 4 holiday
- The EIA also reported a seventh consecutive decline in crude oil stocks – further reducing supply in the U.S.
- A renewed nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran may be slipping away as talks drag on (Bloomberg)
- Biden’s team is beginning to consider the possibility that it may soon be too late to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, according to Bloomberg
- After six rounds of negotiations, there is little sign of when a seventh might start
- Further, negotiations are complicated by Iran’s election of a new hard-liner president
- AEGIS notes that Iran has the capability to export between 1.5-2 MMBbl/d of oil if sanctions were lifted