Struggling European Refinery Economics Continue to Impact Trade Flows

Economic growth prospects in Europe continue to be uneven – and generally tenuous at best – across the continent as it grapples with issues of insolvency, austerity, and demographics. Signalling weakness in oil demand, the short-dated part of the North Sea Brent benchmark forward curve briefly reverted into a contango forward pricing structure earlier this week for the first time in the better part of a year. Download here