Market News
Airlines and Other Oil Buyers Jump on Chance to Lock In Prices - BLOOMBERG
(Bloomberg) -- Airlines and other oil consumers are taking advantage of crude’s slump to the lowest level in a year to buy some protection against a rebound in prices.
They are piling in to options that will gain if prices recover, helping to lock in their energy costs with West Texas Intermediate below $70 a barrel and Brent just above that mark.
More than 10,000 lots — the equivalent of 10 million barrels — worth of Brent crude options for June and December 2025 traded on Thursday in so-called three-way collar structures. The collar — a common strategy for both producer and consumer hedgers — involves buying a call spread to cover the oil buyer in case prices rise, while selling a bearish put option to finance the trade.
The move comes as oil prices have plummeted to the lowest in about a year as worries about demand in top consumers China and the US overshadow a deal from OPEC+ producers to curb supply for longer than they had planned. Brent was trading 0.2% lower at $72.56 a barrel as of 2:20 p.m. New York time Thursday, even after news of OPEC+ deal.
Airlines are some of the biggest consumers to hedge their oil consumption, and sovereign players such as Egypt have also rushed to protect against volatile prices recently.
Sentiment has turned markedly bearish in the crude market, with Brent’s put skew — the premium for options betting on a decline over those protecting against an increase — widening to the largest since December. That’s made the collars even more attractive, as the call spreads have gotten cheaper while the put being sold fetches a higher premium.
