On September 4, 2026, the global crude market exhibited a dual structure: easing geopolitical risk pricing alongside resilient regional demand. The Brent–WTI spread narrowed to $4.37/bbl—its tightest since August 15—compressing by $0.38/bbl day-on-day. This reflects a temporary recalibration of Middle East conflict premium expectations, not a fundamental supply shift: Reuters’ Geopolitical Risk Index (GRI) shows an 18.6% pullback in risk premiums since early September, with Red Sea war-risk insurance surcharges falling to $1.82/TEU (down 31% from August’s peak). Concurrently, WTI edged up 0.15% to $91.14/bbl, supported by EIA data revealing an unexpected 2.1-million-barrel draw in U.S. crude inventories (vs. +0.5M expected) and a second-week hold in active U.S. rotary rigs at 521 units—signaling muted near-term shale supply growth. Currency dynamics added another layer: USD/JPY plunged 2.03% to 155.45—the largest single-day drop in 2026—driven by intensified BOJ intervention signals and peaking U.S. Treasury yield expectations. EUR/USD rose 0.25% to 1.1617, underscoring persistent eurozone inflation resilience. Notably, USD/CNY rose 0.18% to 6.7219 despite broad dollar weakness—a result of tightening offshore RMB liquidity and high fuel oil tankage utilization in East China (89.2%, per SNSUC real-time monitoring), which lifted spot FX premia for physical procurement. Amid this backdrop, fuel oil front-month rose 0.93% to ¥3,900/t, highlighting strong Asian bunker demand during the seasonal transition period: Singapore MOPS LSFO spot premium climbed to $12.3/ton—$2.4 above its August average—reflecting ongoing structural tightness under IMO 2025 sulfur transition. Asphalt rose 0.53% to ¥4,779/t, narrowing the asphalt–fuel oil spread to ¥879/t—below the historical median of ¥1,076/t—indicating improved refinery margins and accelerated middle-distillate throughput. In sum, macro conditions have shifted from ‘single-risk dominance’ to ‘multi-factor equilibrium’: geopolitical premiums receding but not extinguished; dollar weakening yet RMB under pressure; freight rates easing while bunker demand remains inflexible. For SNSUC’s transshipment operations, we recommend prioritizing forward premium locks on ESPO and Dubai crude loadings for September (currently +0.85% and +1.Remove the banned words using from this English text: 12%, respectively) and using smart-contract-enabled digital warehouse receipts to compress offshore fuel oil settlement cycles—hedging against both FX volatility and tankage premium risks.