Actionable insights to help you trade with conviction

Read the latest trading news, views and insights from Sparta’s team of experts.

25 November 2024

Signs of life emerge in physical crude; we doubt it’s sustainable in key areas

21 November 2024

All eyes on China

18 November 2024

Paper crude weakens; physical signals remain lacklustre

4 November 2024

US election & Middle East likely to whipsaw crude markets this week

28 October 2024

Flat-price tumbles as Israel’s response did not include oil infrastructure and focus returns to lacklustre physical market

21 October 2024

Weak European market is now pricing crude to leave the region

14 October 2024

Physical North Sea lacks outlets

7 October 2024

Spectre of escalation roils paper markets and arb econs

30 September 2024

North Sea competitiveness improves abroad and into refineries, but Libya return spells trouble

23 September 2024

Crude markets still creaking under the weight of margin pressure

16 September 2024

Physical crude looks set to soften further

9 September 2024

Physical crude holds up against flat price freefall, for now

2 September 2024

Refinery margins & OPEC+ cancel out Libyan bull signal

26 August 2024

Risks to the upside grow despite weak product markets

19 August 2024

North Sea to remain strong for a few more weeks and Q4 headwinds weakening slightly

12 August 2024

Market rebound belies mixed signals in physical crude

5 August 2024

Deferred WTI/Brent spreads need to narrow in the short-term

29 July 2024

Dated-related crudes remain strong despite small week-on-week softening, while WTI the most attractive WoS grade in the East as wide EFS makes moving grades East tricky

22 July 2024

Crude draws in the US boost WTI vs Brent, but prompt waterborne fob keeping WTI attractive into NWE and Far East against North Sea crudes in particular

15 July 2024

Cushing rally sees WTI export arbs weaken, with US domestic issues at play

8 July 2024

Physical Brent still primed to the downside, with time running out also for a bump in Q3 seasonal buying

1 July 2024

Brent strength retained for now while other global indicators of physical crude lag behind

24 June 2024

June’s Brent rally has seen the complex price out of Asia, WTI price firmly into Europe

17 June 2024

Physical crude continues to slowly recover, but already putting the brakes on Eastern arb econs

10 June 2024

Physical market remains bogged down, but green shoots of margin optimism emerge

3 June 2024

OPEC+ to bring back volumes (on paper) in Q4, but actual supply to market will be dictated by demand, which for now remains weak

27 May 2024

All signs point to weakness in the oil market

21 May 2024

North Sea weakens further, arbs East opening further, but poor demand prevails

13 May 2024

Arbs East verging on open; but anaemic demand still weighing on crude for now

7 May 2024

Flat price tumble sees North Sea-East arbs beginning to open, WTI beginning to lose competitiveness abroad

29 April 2024

TI/Brent still primed to narrow; European crude demand yet to fire higher

22 April 2024

WTI strengthens position as marginal sweet barrel to Asia

15 April 2024

Window for North Sea bearishness is closing, while heavy crude pool rallies further

8 April 2024

Medium-sour vs light-sweet divergence to continue, for now

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