Oil
Brent Bounces Off $60 as Kazakh Cuts and Asian Demand Lift Prices
Kazakhstan’s unforeseen production curbs as well as healthy Asian crude buying has helped lift crude from a psychological low point, sending ICE Brent front-month futures to $61 per barrel, OilPrice.com reports.
The waning of global geopolitical risk premiums, amidst prospects of a Trump-Putin summit, has stopped as the US President threatened ‘massive’ tariffs on India provided its refiners don’t halt purchases of Russian oil.
A liquefied petroleum gas tanker exploded off Yemen’s coast, carrying a full load of presumably Iranian-origin LPG (the tanker previously called at Iran’s Assaluyeh terminal) to Djibouti, raising navigation risks in the Bab el Mandeb strait again.
Seeking to benefit from the highest margins in 2025 to date, Chinese refiners lifted run rates to 15.26 million b/d in September, a 6.8% increase year-on-year and the highest processing rate since September 2023, according to the country’s Bureau of Statistics.
European energy ministers agreed to a gradual phase-out of Russian gas imports to the EU by January 2028, banning new contracts from January 2026, to be followed through with an end to existing short-term deals by June 2026.
Having recently signed a deal to develop a floating LNG import terminal in Iraq, US LNG developer Excelerate Energy (NYSE:EE) clinched a new deal with the federal government in Baghdad to supply liquefied gas from the US to the soon-to-be-built terminal.
Ukraine’s drone strike on the Orenburg gas plant has backfired against Kiev as the site was used to treat natural gas from Kazakhstan’s third-largest Karachaganak field, forcing its operators to cut output by 70,000 b/d immediately.
US natural pipeline gas exports to Mexico rose to the highest ever monthly reading in Mar 2025, averaging 7.5 BCf/d, with further growth expected as America’s four 14.8 BCf/d capacity southbound export corridors wield a 50% utilization rate.
As Riyadh seeks to commission 15 GW of renewable and gas-fired power generation capacity by 2028, China’s CEEC and PowerChina secured two contracts worth $4.4 billion to build a combined 9 GW of solar and wind farms including transmission lines.
Brazil’s main oil regulator Ibama has approved Petrobras’ (NYSE:PBR) permit to drill an exploration well in the Foz do Amazonas basin, believed to be the next frontier basin in the Latin American country’s offshore, in an environmentally sensitive zone.
The American Petroleum Institute, representing the interests of oil firms, voiced its disapproval for year-round sales of E15 gasoline (containing 15% ethanol), reversing its previous support for the cause amidst shifting federal and state mandates.
Gold prices have corrected downwards to $4,180 per ounce, marking an almost 4% daily drop on Tuesday and shedding some $200/oz since the bullion posted a record high on Monday, on the back of a stronger US dollar and investors’ profit-taking.
Iran’s state-controlled downstream firm NIORDC has added 15,000 b/d of refining capacity at its 265,000 b/d Shazand refinery, the country’s fourth-largest asset, as Tehran still struggles to meet its booming 800,000 b/d gasoline consumption.
Russia’s seaborne crude exports are continuing to rise on the back of lower domestic refinery runs – a consequence of widespread drone damage from Ukrainian strikes – with October average moving up to 3.82 million b/d, the highest since May 2023.
As Egypt’s gas production continues to decline, dipping to 3.5 bcm per year in July 2025, the North African country is seeking to launch a new bidding round for four giant offshore blocks in its Red Sea basin, to be officially announced in November 2025.
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