Nonetheless, the IEA said global oil markets will likely remain in surplus in the first half of the year amid surprisingly robust output from Russia.

We can replace all crude oil with cellulosic biomass (corn stover, forest debris, etc.) liquid drop-in hydrocarbons if the conversion process uses massive external sources of heat and hydrogen.

Brent fell 86 cents, or 1%, to $85.53 a barrel, WTI was at $78.83 a barrel, down 89 cents, or 1.1%.

China has imported about 2.3 million mt HSFO over December-January, about 235% higher compared to 687,000 mt during November-December, according to Kpler shipping data.

Brent rose $2.17, or 2.57%, to $86.67 a barrel, WTI were up $2.01, or 2.57%, at $80.07.

Moscow’s move deepens the 2 million barrel-a-day production cut announced late last year by OPEC+, which Russia leads along with Saudi Arabia.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels to 455.1 million barrels.

Brent rose 99 cents, or 1.2%, to $84.68 a barrel, WTI climbed 93 cents, or 1.2%, to $78.07.

India's oil imports from Russia are likely to continue to rise this year mainly because of the steeply discounted prices it is selling at, he said, and assuming there are "no further stringent actions by the Western countries targeting Russian oil."

spot price of Brent crude oil falls to an average of $82/b in 2H23 and $78/b in 2024.

Brent rose 32 cents, or 0.4%, to $80.26 a barrel, WTI climbed 22 cents, or 0.3% higher, to $73.61.

OPEC+ is a 23-country bloc of oil producing countries co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and Russia. It agreed in October to slash quotas by 2 million b/d from November until the end of 2023.

Russia’s natural gas production fell by more than 13% in 2022, according to preliminary data published by the Russian state statistics service Rosstat.

The Worldwide Rig Count for January was 1,899, up 65 from the 1,834 counted in December 2022,and up 267, from the 1,632 counted in January 2022.

Brent fell 34 cents, or 0.4%, to $81.83 a barrel, WTI slid 37 cents, or 0.5%, to $75.51.