- The crude markets experienced violent price action Monday as the Wall Street Journal reported that OPEC+ was discussing a 500 MBbl/d increase
- The WSJ cited “delegates” in its piece that quickly pushed WTI from $79/Bbl to $75/Bbl Monday morning
- Before noon central time, Saudi Arabia denied the report and said it stands ready to make further cuts if needed
- WTI quickly recovered, in a whipsawed action, with prices returning close to $80/Bbl before Nymex close at 1:30 CT
- “The current cut of 2 MMMBbl/d by OPEC+ continues until the end of 2023,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement via the Saudi Press Agency (BBG)
- Some oil freight rates breached $100,000 a day yesterday, the highest since early 2020 when the Covid pandemic caused a surge in floating storage (Bloomberg)
- Higher shipping costs are adding to the cost of crude oil as sanctions on Russia are forcing ships to take longer routes
- The second-month US Gulf to China vessel rate is now near $7/Bbl, a steep increase from the 2021 average rate of $2.30/Bbl for the same route (Baltic Exchange)
- AEGIS notes sanctions on Russia, and the pending sanctions and price cap coming on Dec. 5, will at best, continue to add friction to global trade flows of petroleum