- Oil continues to trade near YTD lows after plunging by 11% last week
- WTI gained 58c this morning to trade around $72/Bbl
- Despite efforts to ease restrictions, the number of Covid cases in China as winter approaches continues to put pressure on crude prices
- Many businesses in Beijing were shuttered over the weekend, and infected people are rushing to already overcrowded hospitals
- The 0.622 MMBbl/d Keystone Pipeline is still shut, and TC Energy has not announced a restart date
- Putin threatened to cut Russia's oil production on Friday in response to the G-7 price cap (BBG)
- Putin said, "I'm not saying now that this is a decision, but, if necessary, we'll think about possible production cuts" and that he has "already said that we simply won't sell oil to those countries"
- He also said that a response would be announced in a presidential decree within the next several days
- The remarks come after both the EU and G-7 set a $60/Bbl cap on Russian crude
- Turkey's oil tanker standoff starts to ease (BBG)
- Turkish authorities allowed oil tankers to pass through the Bosphorus shipping strait after refusing to do so without proof of insurance, indicating that tensions over the restrictions are easing
- As of Friday, twenty-six tankers from Kazakhstan carrying more than 23 MMBbl of oil were stuck in transit in the Turkish waterways
- Turkish maritime authorities reiterated the need for proof of insurance, warning that if tankers in transit don't have it, "all" travel in the nearby Dardanelles strait will be suspended while they are removed