Gulf crude recovers, products do not. Middle East crude exports, including pipeline shipments, have recovered to about 80 to 85 percent of pre war levels, while refined product shipments remain at around 35 to 40 percent, FGE NexantECA chairman emeritus Fereidun Fesharaki said last week, with Vortexa analyst Xavier Tang attributing the gap to refineries’ exposure to drone strikes and producers prioritising crude. Qatar’s LNG loadings have risen to 13 to 15 shipments per 10 day period this month from about 11 in October, roughly half of pre war levels, on Bloomberg, Kpler and Copernicus data.
Canada reimposes sanctions on Iranian oil and tanker companies. Canada announced on November 10 that it is reimposing sanctions on 11 Iranian entities delisted in 2016 under the nuclear deal, including the National Iranian Oil Company, the National Iranian Tanker Company, Naftiran Intertrade and Kala Naft, alongside nuclear fuel companies and banks. Foreign Minister Anita Anand announced the measures at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris, under the Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulations, following the reinstatement of UN sanctions in September 2025.
Benin ships its first crude cargo in decades. Benin’s revived offshore Seme field, operated by Akrake Petroleum Benin with a 76 percent stake alongside the state at 15 percent and Octogone at 9 percent, loaded about 330,000 barrels aboard the tanker Kriti Jade for delivery to the Netherlands under a three year transport arrangement with Shell Trading, with Bloomberg reporting the shipment on November 12. The field, which produced 22 million barrels between 1982 and 1998 before shutting, restarted this year at about 3,000 barrels a day against proven and probable reserves of 10.9 million barrels.
China books French wheat into the price slump. Chinese buyers booked at least 120,000 tons of French wheat last week as global prices fell, Bloomberg reported on November 11, citing people familiar with the matter. The booking is single sourced and is carried on that basis. Site tables put Chicago wheat at 596.0 cents a bushel, down 0.58 percent on the day, with soybeans at 1228.0 cents, up 3.98 percent on the week.
EIA weekly petroleum report lands today. The EIA weekly petroleum report covering the week ending November 6 was delayed by the Veterans Day holiday and is scheduled for Thursday, November 12 at noon Eastern. It is the official test of the API’s estimate of a 9.0 million barrel crude build, and it arrives with end October commercial stocks at 410 million barrels, the lowest end October level since 2014 in the EIA’s November outlook.
Freight steadies, crude drifts lower. Tanker freight rose 1.38 percent in the site tables to 543.33 dollars after the previous week’s collapse, though it remains down 21.44 percent on the week. Brent crude was 91.87 dollars a barrel, down 0.96 percent on the day and 6.53 percent on the week, and WTI was 85.70 dollars, down 0.96 percent, as the OPEC supply recovery and the delayed inventory data left the market without a fresh bullish input.