WTI $45.92 +$1.77, Brent $48 89 +$1.31, Diff $2.97 -46c, NG $2.68 +3c

Oil price

Barring any significant moves later today crude oil will likely be roughly unchanged on the week with fundamentals still weighing strongly on the downside. These include final confirmation that Barry will get his Iran deal through the Senate and Russia continuing to pour cold water on speculation of any production cuts.

Looking for a few straws to clutch at? I suppose that the fact that Opec is ‘considering’ a call by Venezuela for an emergency meeting might sound good but gossip from the Gulf oil producers meeting in Doha was that the Saudis were reluctant to agree. The EIA in its latest report also marked US crude production down by another 83/- b/d to 9.1m at the same time it said that gasoline demand in the States was strong in the last month of the driving season, up 4% y/y. While on the subject of the EIA, the inventory stats last night were mixed, bears will say that the stock build was higher than expected at 2.6m barrels but the bulls will like the fall at Cushing of 897/-  was very helpful. Meanwhile the IEA add a bit of fuel for the bulls by forecasting non-Opec supply to fall the most since 1992…

My tame chartist is still pretty positive and says that unless WTI breaks down below $38 the charts show a base being set for a $55-60 target, just to give the bulls a slightly better weekend…..Oh and G Sachs have just cut their forecasts again…..

The UK sees the announcement of the new leader of the Labour party tomorrow, widely expected to be #JezWeCan. Marcus Ashworth in his blog today is marvellous in pointing out Philip Stephens’  article in the FT today where he blames the bankers for Corbyn’s success…it will he says, be the badgers next…

Faroe Petroleum

Faroe has announced that the Shell operated Portrush exploration well is dry and will be p&a. As always there is plenty of positive spin being generated saying that there may be more upside in the rest of the licence and that finding the reservoir is a great help but the main positive is that it cost Faroe less than £1m net of tax. Much more importantly is the follow up programme on Pil/Bue which means that Boomerang and Blink wells are going to be key.

Sefton Resources …

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