- Oil futures continued to trade near $76/Bbl as the threat of multiple nations tapping their national crude reserves remains
- President Biden has been talking about releasing oil from the strategic reserve, and Japan’s TV Asahi reported Monday that Tokyo is preparing to release crude from its national stockpiles as part of a joint effort with the U.S. (Bloomberg)
- Bullish wagers on WTI shrank by the most since July last week
- The net-long bets fell more than 10% to 307,059 contracts in the week ended Nov. 16 (CFTC)
- A Covid resurgence and the threat of nations tapping SPRs have been pressuring crude lower
- U.S. drilling rigs targeting oil rose by seven to 461 last week, according to Baker Hughes
- The Permian basin saw the largest increase at +7. Rigs now stand at 278 in the Permian, still about 130 rigs below levels before the pandemic