Overview
- Loadings at Russia’s Novorossiysk port resumed on Sunday after a two-day halt, with LSEG data showing two tankers moored and operations normalizing.
- Brent slid toward $64 a barrel and WTI toward $59–60, erasing last week’s gains that followed the temporary export disruption.
- Ukraine said it struck Russia’s Ryazan refinery and the Novokuibyshevsk plant, keeping infrastructure risks in focus despite the port restart.
- Urals crude for Novorossiysk cargoes fell to about $36.61 a barrel, widening the discount to Brent to roughly $23.5 and forcing more barrels into floating storage that JPMorgan estimates near 1.4 million bpd.
- Oversupply concerns persisted as OPEC+ stuck with a 137,000 bpd increase for December and the U.S. oil rig count rose by three to 417.