Oil
Oil drops again as Washington, Kyiv explore peace in Russia-Ukraine war
Donald Trump’s 28-point peace proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war has become the main talking point of oil markets this week, with potentially higher Russian supply capping ICE Brent futures below $63 per barrel. Refined products markets, in the meantime, are exploding as middle distillate cracks are the highest in almost three years, largely driven by EU sanctions on products from Russian oil.
The US Treasury Secretary announced a new round of sanctions on trading and shipping companies facilitating Iran’s oil and refined products exports, adding six more tankers to its OFAC list and targeting India- and UAE-based product traders, OilPrice.reports.
India’s 1.4 million b/d Jamnagar refinery operated by Reliance Industries has stopped importing Russian oil to its 600,000 b/d export-oriented plant, however it continues to run Russian crude in the 800,000 b/d unit geared towards the domestic market.
Seattle’s Tacoma airport moved into emergency mode after BP’s (NYSE:BP) Olympic pipeline that moves fuel from northern Washington to Oregon was halted due to a pipeline leak, first reported on November 11 after a sheen emerged next to a blueberry farm.
Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA halted operations at its Petrocedeno upgrader after an explosion and a fire destroyed the plant’s atmospheric distillation tower, reportedly due to overpressure and excess water, losing 30,000 b/d of production.
US oil major ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) lifted force majeure on its 18 mtpa Rovuma LNG project, following in the footsteps of TotalEnergies as it resumed works on its Mozambique LNG a month ago, ending a four-year hiatus caused by terrorist attacks.
China’s Ministry of Commerce approved an additional batch of crude import quotas for independent refiners, mostly located in the country’s northeastern Shandong province, allowing them to buy 10 million metric tonnes in the remaining months of 2025.
China’s state-owned iron ore buyer CMRG has ordered steel mills and traders across the country to stop purchasing Linbao fines, a lower-grade iron ore, from mining giant BHP (NYSE:BHP) as the two sides are locked in protracted negotiations over 2026 contract terms.
The US Department of Interior announced a new lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico this week, tentatively called ‘Big Beautiful Gulf 2’ and offering 15,000 unleased blocks across 80 million acres, with a royalty rate fixed at 12.5%, lower than the Biden-era rate of 16.67%.
Curacao, a Caribbean island that is part of the Netherlands, has asked for the US government’s approval to reopen its shuttered 335,000 b/d Isla refinery and resume dealings with Venezuela’s PDVSA, after its previous OFAC license ran out in December 2024.
After experimenting with LNG exports in recent months, Egypt’s state-controlled gas firm EGAS is seeking four LNG cargoes for December delivery, indicating a supply shortage after Israel started maintenance at its giant Leviathan field mid-November.
US President Donald Trump announced plans to launch the first oil and natural gas licensing round off California’s coast since 1984, eyeing six lease sales in 2027-2030, sparking criticism from the Golden State governor Gavin Newsom who called the plan ‘idiotic’.
Europe’s metal industry is calling for the EU to replicate its ban on aluminium scrap exports and restrict copper scrap exports, too, as Chinese buyers are mopping them up since 2022, leaving the Old Continent vulnerable to price spikes in 2026-2027.
Having received the approval of the Niigata governor, Japan’s leading utility firm Tokyo Electric Power (TYO:9501) will launch a partial restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plants, revamping 2.7 GW out of the plant’s total capacity of 8.2 GW.
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