- Oil trades lower after two weeks of gains
- July ’23 WTI lost $1.38 this morning to trade around $71.29/Bbl
- Concerns that some lawmakers might oppose a deal that would raise the debt ceiling in the U.S. weighed on prices (Reuters)
- An agreement agreed upon by Biden and McCarthy needs to overcome a divided U.S. Congress by June 5
- Major producers, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, have expressed contrasting views on the outcome of the upcoming OPEC+ meeting scheduled for June 3-4
- Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, recently cautioned oil short-sellers to "watch out"
- Conversely, Russia has conveyed that OPEC+ probably won't implement any more measures at the upcoming meeting
- Additionally, money managers increased their net-long positions in Brent oil by over 30,000 contracts last week, marking the largest uptick in two months, following the Saudi warning (Bloomberg)
- Russia’s seaborne diesel exports to surge by a third in June (Bloomberg)
- Russia is set to escalate its daily diesel exports by a third in June, targeting an average of 0.53 MMBbl/d
- Russian oil firms have found new markets in the Middle East and Latin America, disrupting traditional global diesel flows following the EU’s ban on Russian oil imports
- The diesel export rise is driven by potential domestic fuel subsidy cuts and the completion of refinery maintenance