Self-supplying East

Crude prices regained the lost ground of last week, with ICE Brent September contract at 74.6 $/b. India plans to further commercialize its SPR, in an effort to free some of its idle crude oil reserves, and to promote market-driven storage, in a time where backwardation incentivize commercial players to release stocks. With similar concerns, China also released close to 20 mb of sour crude on the Chinese market originating from its SPR. Incidentally, spot buying pressure from China has eased in the Middle East, as Rongsheng refiner bought 2 mb of middle eastern crude in July vs 8 mb on an average month. Diesel cracks in Europe fell to 5.5 $/b at the prompt as the transatlantic jet demand recovery was once again delayed. The US postponed the lifting of travel restrictions for UK and Schengen countries, to limit the spread of the Delta variant on US soil.