As of 12:00 Beijing time, the price of Brent crude oil futures for October contracts was $80.81 per barrel, down 23 cents from the settlement price on August 15th, while the closing price for the contract on that day was up $1.28 from the previous trading day.

The WTI crude oil futures contract for September was priced at $77.89 per barrel, down 27 cents from the settlement price on August 15. The contract closed up $1.18 from the previous trading day.

According to a report from the US Census Bureau, retail sales in the United States increased by 1% in July, the largest increase since January 2023, far exceeding the expected increase of 0.3%. Sales at auto and parts dealers increased by 3.6%, indicating that even with lower-than-expected job growth in July, consumer spending remained strong.

The United States has signed contracts to deliver 1.5 million barrels of sulfur-containing crude oil to the Bayou Choctaw storage facility in Louisiana in January to supplement its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR). The US Department of Energy (DOE) paid an average price of $74.31 per barrel for this crude oil, the lowest price paid for SPR replenishment since December 2023. ExxonMobil received a contract for 1 million barrels of crude oil and Shell received a contract for 0.5 million barrels. The latest purchases mean that the Biden administration will sign contracts to purchase 44.75 million barrels of crude oil at an average price of about $77 per barrel, and will also pay for the cost of canceling the sale of 0.14 billion barrels of SPR authorized by future congresses.

The United States has imposed new sanctions on a network of seven ships and a company accused of assisting in the sale of Iranian crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to China, allegedly providing financial support to the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Since 2019, 289 tankers and other ships have been on the US sanctions list for allegedly assisting Iran's oil and other commodity exports, including 55 new tankers added by the US Treasury this year. Iranian crude oil supplied to China usually first arrives in the vicinity of the Port of Port Klang in Malaysia or Tanjung Pelapas in the Johor Strait outside Singapore, and then is transferred to other ships before being sold to independent refineries in Shandong province.

The Norwegian government has raised its forecast for investment in the domestic oil and gas industry in 2024 and 2025. High oil prices have encouraged operators to increase investment in existing oil fields, while inflation has pushed up the cost of developing new ones. According to customs data, Norway's crude oil exports in July were 1.66 million barrels per day, up 2% from the four-month low in June, but down 9.5% from July 2023.

(The above content is from Argus, an independent international energy and commodity price assessment agency)