- U.S. President Donald Trump signed the $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package on Sunday, December 28 (Reuters)
- The President had used a pocket-veto strategy in an attempt to strong-arm Republicans in Congress to increase the stimulus checks to individual Americans from $600 to $2,000; however, the move was ultimately unsuccessful
- The President was forced to sign the bill to prevent a government shutdown that would have began on Tuesday
- AEGIS notes the stimulus package may support oil prices in the short-term as spending pushes the dollar lower, and consumer demand increase
- The amount of crude oil in floating storage rose by 25% week-over-week (Bloomberg)
- According to Vortexa, floating crude in storage rose from 80.16 MMBbld on December 18 to 100.4 MMbbls on December 25
- The U.S. Gulf Coast saw the largest percentage increase, rising by 513% week-over-week to 2.65 MMBbls, it's highest since September
- Russia officially backs a 500 MBbl/d output hike in February, according to officials familiar with the country's oil policy (Bloomberg)
- On Friday, Russian Oil Minister Novak mentioned that an oil price between $45 and $55 represents an optimum level to allow for recovery of its oil production
- A 500 MBbl/d increase would be the maximum allowed by the accord reached by the cartel in early December
- The OPEC+ will hold its next online meeting on January 4, 2021, to discuss the cut's duration