MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were lower during mid-morning trade in Asia Nov. 22 as a risk-off sentiment continued to drive a sell-off in oil markets with Europe battling its fourth wave of COVID-19 infections and the possibility of a release of state oil reserves still present, reported S&P Global.
At 10:04 am Singapore time (0204 GMT), the ICE January Brent futures contract was down 59 cents/b (0.75%) from the previous close at USD78.30/b, while the NYMEX January light sweet crude contract fell 46 cents/b (0.61%) to US75.48/b.
"The headlines surrounding COVID-19 resurgences in Europe (is) likely to lead market sentiments into the new week," said IG market strategist Yeap Jun Rong.
"While the longer-term trend is still leaning towards more economic reopening, fresh restrictions drive concerns of a delayed process and that more countries may potentially follow suit in rolling back reopening plans to curb virus spreads," Yeap added.
Austria is set to go into full lockdown starting Nov. 22 as daily cases in the country crossed 15,000 last week, following the Netherlands which went into partial lockdown from Nov. 13. Germany, Europe's largest economy, has not ruled out following suit as the country's recent caseload hit record highs.
The bearish headlines, coupled with reports of the US and other major oil consuming countries possibly tapping into their oil reserves, have worked against the narrative of a tightly-supplied market and the consequent bull run in oil prices.
Since hitting multi-year highs in late October, crude prices have struggled to break further ground. Surging energy costs have drawn the attention of governments worldwide as they grapple with the accompanying rise in inflation.
We remind that, as MRC informed before, earlier this month, TotalEnergies and Daimler Truck AG signed an agreement on their joint commitment to the decarbonization of the road freight in the European Union. The partners will collaborate in the development of ecosystems for heavy-duty trucks running on hydrogen, with the intent to demonstrate the attractiveness and effectiveness of trucking powered by clean hydrogen and the ambition to play a lead role in kickstarting the rollout of hydrogen infrastructure for transportation.
We also remind that TotalEnergies has recently inaugurated the extension of Synova in Normandy, the French leader in recycled polypropylene production. TotalEnergies is therefore doubling its mechanical recycling production capacity for recycled polymers, to meet growing demand for sustainable polymers from customers, such as Automotive Manufacturer (Auto OEM) and the construction industry.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
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