- Oil is trading higher, snapping a three-day losing streak
- Speculators increased their net-long position in Brent to the highest level in a year and the highest in five months for WTI, according to CFTC data through last Tuesday
- OPEC+ delegates unlikely to propose policy changes next week (BBG)
- OPEC+ delegates see no need to recommend changes to the current OPEC policy, as they believe current output quotas are proving effective
- Next week’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting will focus more on individual member's compliance with the output cuts, such as Iraq and Kazakhstan who have been producing more than their quota
- The latest production cuts from OPEC amount to a 2 MMBbl/d reduction in supply through June, although it is possible the cuts get extended through the end of the year
- Sanctions impacting Russian crude flows (BBG)
- Indian oil refiners, Russia’s second-largest crude buyer, will no longer be accepting tankers operated by Russia’s state-owned Sovcomflot due to the risk posed by sanctions
- The US strengthened sanctions enforcement late last year and began sanctioning individual ships, leading to a tighter market for tankers that are able to transport Russian oil
