- Oil edges higher as tightening market offsets growing demand concerns in China and the US
- September ’23 WTI gained 62c this morning to trade around $81.87/Bbl
- Both oil benchmark prices fell 2% last week amid concerns about China's slowing economy and potential U.S. interest rate hikes affecting oil demand
- Despite its economic woes, China is drawing on its record inventories as refiners reduce purchases due to prices exceeding $80/Bbl, driven by OPEC+ supply cuts
- Chinese banks minimally cut the lending rate on Monday and kept the mortgage rate unchanged, despite central bank pressures
- Furthermore, Saudi Arabia's July exports to China dropped 31% from June; Russia, with discounted crude, remained China's top supplier, according to Chinese customs data
- Russian fuel exports dip as some products breach G7 price cap (Bloomberg)
- Russian oil-product exports fell 14% from July to 2.29 MMBbl/d due to reduced refining, with some fuels breaching the G-7's price caps, risking increased scrutiny on Western shippers
- Diesel exports fell 11% to 1.04 MMBbl/d; naphtha is at a two-month low of 0.35 MMBbl/d, and gasoline halved to 0.06 MMBbl/d. Turkey remains Russia’s top diesel buyer, with rising shipments to Libya and Tunisia
- Additionally, jet fuel exports rose to a three-month high of 0.05 MMBbl/d, and fuel oil exports fell to its lowest since June 2022 at 0.68 MMBbl/d
- Total's major European refinery faces unplanned outage (Bloomberg)
- Total Energies has an unplanned shutdown of a key gasoline unit at its Antwerp refinery (0.34 MMBbl/d) due to a catalytic cracker fault
- This comes right before Europe's refinery maintenance season, with at least three German refineries set to close similar units in the coming weeks, intensifying the already strained northwest Europe's tight gasoline market