Both crude benchmarks closed in the green overnight, though neither move was large. Brent settled at $97.762/bbl, up $0.33, while WTI finished at $92.878/bbl, up $0.51. The Brent–WTI spread compressed from roughly $5.10 to $4.88 — WTI's sharper rebound points to a front-loaded re-rating of the U.S. Gulf Coast delivered market.

For SNSUC's transshipment book, a tighter spread compresses the delivered-discount gap between medium-sour grades (Dubai, Oman, Basrah Light) and the light ESPO. Among the seven transshipment grades, ESPO still wins on short-haul freight, but a firmer WTI lifts the delivered price into the Long Beach window, pushing bids back toward Middle East spot barrels.

The bigger swing came from FX. USD/CNY printed 6.7118, with the yuan gaining 0.0283. Landed duty-paid cost runs as (FOB + freight) × FX × 1.13 VAT. Every 0.03 the rate gives back shaves roughly ¥2.0 million off the delivered cost of a 1-million-barrel cargo. Today's yuan strength rebuilt the margin cushion on the transshipment bid.