When oil futures markets crash – as they have this summer – physical markets often move the other way as refiners jump on the opportunity offered by cheap oil to stockpile. With futures prices now hovering around six and a half year lows, the physical market would typically begin to strengthen and signal a potential rebound in futures – in a repeat of patterns seen during the previous crisis of 2008/09. But traders in barrels from Nigeria to Russia say the physical market remains stubbornly weak in further evidence a global crude oil glut is proving much more difficult to clear. “I can’t remember when during such a correction (in futures), differentials and values in the physical market stayed so weak. It tells me only one thing […]