---

By Michael Poulson, A/S Global Risk Management

Brent oil price remains in the upper fifties on increased geopolitical risk premium and OPEC members seemingly walking the talk and cutting oil production. Also, most likely, non-OPEC producer Russia has cut around 100,000 barrels per day in January. Russia's energy minister states that the total OPEC and non-OPEC cut had reached 1.4M barrels per day in January. Russia is to cut 200,000 barrels per day by the end of Q1-17 and 300,000 bpd in Q2-17.

Adding to the bullish sentiment are comments of potential sanctions being imposed on Iran by the U.S. after Iran carried out ballistic missile tests. New U.S. president put Iran "on notice" earlier this week. So yesterday, the Iranian answered by putting President Trump "on notice".

Chinese crude imports for December rose to 8.57M barrels per day which is 9.6% higher than a year ago.

Overnight, Chinese Caixin Manufacturing PMI came out lower than expected, 51.0 versus 51.8 previous. Today, the main potential market mover will be U.S. employment data; nonfarm payrolls and unemployment rate. Strong data could increase expectations to interest rate hikes and strengthen the USD. Expect volatility around the publishing.

Another important release is tonight's oil rig count from Baker Hughes. The past months have seen steady increase in the number of active drilling rigs in the U.S.

---

A/S Global Risk Management is a provider of customised hedging solutions for the management of price risk on fuel expenses. The company has offices in Denmark and Singapore. For further details about its risk management products and services, please call +45 88 38 00 00 or email hedging@global-riskmanagement.com.