WTI (Sep) $81.37 -43c, Brent (Oct) $84.91 -65c, Diff -$3.54 -22c
USNG (Sep) $2.56 -7c, UKNG (Sep) 68.5p -5.35p, TTF (Sep) €27.5 -€2.46

Oil price

After a long run oil took a breather yesterday, it was up c.13% in July. But markets took fright across the board last night after credit agency Fitch reduced the rating for the US economy from AAA to AA+ saying that there has been ‘ a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years on fiscal and debt matters’. Given that most investors have a significant disrespect for the credit agencies and they are almost always wrong this should be taken with a bucket load of salt. Not surprising that the US Treasury called it ‘arbitrary’.

Opec is creeping up on us, they meet on Friday, expect no change in production and that the Saudis will keep their cut in place. Bloomberg report that the cartel was down some 900/- b/d in July which is mainly the KSA and Nigeria. After hours the API stats showed a huge crude draw of some 15.4m b/d which if repeated by the EIA would prove the above. 

Access Malcolm Graham Wood's full update here.   l   KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Malcy's Blog