- Oil rises after a weekly loss on hopes of a Chinese demand recovery
- March ’23 gained 63c this morning to trade around $77/Bbl
- Market juggles between lingering concerns about a global economic slowdown and optimism for China's reopening
- China has increased purchases of discounted Russian crude and fuel oil
- The market will be closely monitoring the Fed minutes slated for release tomorrow, a further indication of how the Fed might proceed with tightening monetary policy
- Russian oil exports to China surged to the highest since the Ukraine invasion (BBG)
- Russia’s overall crude and fuel oil exports to China reached 1.66 MMBbl/d last month (surpassing previous high from April 2020), according to Kpler
- Currently, the nation competes with India to be the biggest consumer of discounted Russian crude
- The rise in Chinese buying indicates that the nation's economic recovery is accelerating, which should support global oil demand
- Additionally, Chinese refiners have also increased their purchases of US cargoes, and companies like Unipec and PetroChina Co. have hired at least ten supertankers to transport cargo from the US starting in March
- Russian crude production cut plan so far decided only for March (Reuters)
- Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday that a 0.5 MMBbl/d cut in Russian oil production announced last month would initially only apply to March output
- "We will watch how the situation on the market develops, and decisions... will be made from this. Now, the decision is for March," said Novak
- According to Novak, the cut will be based on January's output levels. He said that last month's production was 9.8 to 9.9 MMBbl/d