Brent settled at USD 111.56 per barrel, up 1.96 on the day, while WTI reached 102.20, gaining 2.30. Both benchmarks are back above the 110 and 102 handles, but the move looks different from the early-month leg: the yuan strengthened to 6.6661 in the same session, offsetting a large part of the dollar-denominated landed cost.

Run the math. Landed duty-paid cost is roughly benchmark price times exchange rate times (1 + 13% VAT + ancillary fees). Brent's 1.96 gain adds about RMB 13 per barrel; but the currency move from the 6.68 area to 6.6661 pulls cost back by roughly RMB 12 per barrel on that leg alone. Net, the yuan-priced landed cost is only about 2.5% above the prior day, so the import window stays open.

For SNSUC's seven transfer-grade barrels the real shift is in feedstock ranking. Short-haul light-sweet grades — ESPO, Dubai, Oman — already carry USD 1.5 to 2.00 per barrel lower freight to the Far East than US Gulf cargoes, and their discount structures now tip the landed comparison back in their favor versus long-haul USGC barrels. Cargoes routed through Sohar or Fujairah for STS transshipment have shown clear renewed pricing interest over the past two sessions.

The variable to watch is not the oil price itself but the counter-swing between the currency and freight. If the yuan retraces or VLCC rates jump another notch on Red Sea diversions, the light-sweet landed edge can vanish within a session. How long this window holds depends on those two lines, not on whether Brent keeps climbing.