- West Texas Intermediate was up about $1/Bbl Tuesday morning following a more than 5% jump Monday
- The delta variant continues to sweep through multiple nations, but China reportedly has rapidly brought local virus cases down to zero following its latest outbreak
- The U.S. will hold its largest sale of oil from strategic reserves since 2014 (Bloomberg)
- The Department of Energy plans to auction off 20 MMBbl
- Barrels from the auction will be delivered during the fourth quarter
- The auction comes at a time when a resurgent virus clouds the outlook for oil demand
- A fire at a Pemex offshore platform reduced output for the state-owned producer by 421 MBbl/d from 125 wells (Argus)
- The fire broke out during scheduled maintenance at the platform on Sunday
- The platform is part of Pemex’s main shallow-water production complex Ku Maloob-Zaap that represented 40.9% of the total 1.77 MMBbl/d crude output in June
- Crude grades likely to benefit from the temporary decrease in production are Canadian heavy sours, Western Canadian Select (WCS), and Cold Lake destined for the U.S. Gulf coast, according to Argus