- Oil traded near $70/Bbl Monday morning after four previous weeks of declines
- President Biden’s staff and House Speaker McCarthy’s office are in serious and continuing negotiations on the debt ceiling
- Speculators and money managers have amassed the largest bearish position in ICE Brent since July 2021. Hedge funds are less bearish on US crude futures and options
- Refinery profit margins for typically low-value fuel oil in Asia are improving (BBG)
- The ‘bottom of the barrel’ was lifted as refineries in Asia and the Middle East turned to fuel oil
- The discount for Singapore 380-centistoke high-sulfur fuel oil over Dubai benchmark crude – a heavily watched industry metric - narrowed to $7.05/Bbl on Monday from near $24 at the start of the year, according to Bloomberg
- The boost to typically less desirable inputs is boosting demand for heavier crude grades
- Fires continue to rage in Canada’s producing region (Bloomberg)
- A heat wave brought hot, dry conditions, prompting officials to warn that more blazes are coming
- This month’s fires have largely spared the oil-sands region, unlike the 2016 blaze that knocked more than 1 MMBbl/d offline near Fort McMurray
- The current fires have helped lift an already strengthening WCS crude oil whose discount to WTI has narrowed to -$12.85/Bbl