- Russian oil loading data from its western ports is expected to decline by ~5% in August to ~175 MBbl/d from July’s 184 MBbl/d (Reuters)
- Although Russia's oil production increased to 9.78 MMBbl/d in June, up 0.5 MMBbl/d from May, it was still 0.9 MMBbl/d below its OPEC+ production quotas
- Meanwhile, observed crude exports from Saudi Arabia in July climbed to the highest level since April 2020 due to a surge in cargoes to India and China, according to tanker-tracking data by Bloomberg
- Exports were about 7.5 MMBbl/d in July compared with a revised 6.631 MMBbl/d in June
- Iraq’s crude exports to the EU rose to their highest level in more than three years in July, even as overall flows edged lower
- OPEC will meet this week to talk about its September output. The market's outlook is clouded by conflicting reports regarding production expectations for September; while some OPEC members predicted that output would remain stable into the following month, others have suggested that it may grow as the U.S. has called for more supplies
- Both European factory activity and Asian manufacturing output experienced declines in July (BBG)
- In Europe, amid the continuing threat of Russian energy supply cutoffs, PMI (Purchasing Manager Indexes) for Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the UK all showed contractions, as had been suggested by first estimates from July 22nd
- China, South Korea, and Taiwan showed the largest declines in factory activity in Asia as COVID-19 has slowed the rebound in manufacturing
- A temporary uptick in industrial activity in China, the world's largest importer of crude oil, was put to an end by new Covid-19 lockdowns as the manufacturing PMI dropped to 49 in July from 50.2 the previous month, much below analyst expectations