- Oil prices are on track for a fifth consecutive weekly gain
- Traders and investors are exceedingly optimistic about demand growth for the remainder of year
- OPEC+ is cautiously mulling adding a 500 MBbl/d of supply to the market in August when the group meets July 1
- Many analysts believe this will do little to remove severe tightness in the crude market
- A U.S. official said “serious differences” remain before sanctions are removed on Iran, but that he hoped an upcoming round of indirect talks would bridge them (Bloomberg)
- The WTI forward curve is near its steepest backwardation when measuring on a percentage basis for the next 12 months
- The prompt-month contract minus month-13 is at an 11% difference – historically speaking, that’s close to the steepest this time spread has been in the last 15 years
- Severe downward-sloping (backwardation) in the curve, is a sign of a very tight oil market