Oil: Peace talks put pressure energy markets – ING

The Oil market came under further pressure as hopes for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine continued to grow, ING's commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.

Oil slides on rising Russia–Ukraine peace hopes

"While there have been positive signals from both the US and Ukraine towards a deal, comments from Moscow suggest they will reject a deal if it deviates from what was discussed in Alaska between President Trump and President Putin. We are likely to get more colour on Russia’s stance in the coming days, with US special envoy Steve Witkoff set to visit Moscow."

"American Petroleum Institute numbers released overnight show that US crude Oil inventories fell by 1.9m barrels over the last week, less than the 2.4m barrels decline the market expected. Gasoline and distillate fuel Oil stocks increased by 500k barrels and 800k barrels, respectively. Overall, the numbers are largely neutral, with a smaller-than-expected decline in crude inventories and a less-than-expected increase in gasoline inventories."

"The ICE gasoil crack continued to weaken yesterday. It fell towards $28/bbl, down from more than $38/bbl last Tuesday. Time spreads in gasoil eased over the last week, falling from more than $43/t to a little over $27/t yesterday. A peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would possibly remove, or at least reduce, a key supply risk for the diesel market related to sanctions and Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refinery infrastructure."