Oil: Specs add to Brent long – ING

Despite the rally in crude oil prices running out of steam towards the end of last week, ICE Brent still managed to settle almost 1.3% higher on the week and remain above US$80/bbl, ING's commodity analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey note.

Oil markets are weighed on by uncertainty

"There is a fair amount of uncertainty across markets coming into this week given the inauguration of President Trump and the raft of executive orders he reportedly is planning to sign. This combined with it being a US holiday today, means that some market participants may have decided to take some risk off the table."

"The latest positioning data shows that speculators increased their net long in ICE Brent by 27,473 lots over the last reporting week to leave them with a net long of 254,332 lots as of last Tuesday. The move was driven by fresh longs entering the market and left speculators with their largest net long since May. The strong buying reflects supply concerns following the announcement of US sanctions against the Russian energy industry."

"Output data from China on Friday shows that refineries increased the amount of crude oil they processed by 1.3% year-on-year in December. However, for full-year 2024, refinery activity still fell by 3.6% YoY, reflecting weaker domestic demand. Output and trade numbers suggest that apparent oil demand in December came in at a little more than 13.9m b/d, down from 14m b/d the previous month, but up 0.6% YoY."