Oil Prices Are Rising on Renewed Optimism Over Chinese Demand

Oil prices are on the rise again, this time driven by renewed optimism over Chinese crude demand.- Europe is considering its options to tighten sanctions vis-à-vis Russian LNG imports into Europe, having banned LNG transshipment operations from 2025 onwards, whilst gas importers keep on buying more.- Thanks to higher utilization rates and the recent (surreptitious) launch of Arctic LNG 2, Russia increased its total LNG exports by 5% year-over-year in January-September 2024, to 24.4 million tonnes.- The share of Russian LNG in the European…