Oil still hovers above $70 with US shut-in output

RIYADH: Oil prices are still trading at above $70 even as Opec+ is increasing production and data showed that Saudi oil exports are on the rise, due to the impact of hurricanes Nicholas and Ida on the US offshore production, Arab News reported.

Brent crude was down 54 cents, or 0.7 per cent, at $74.92 per barrel, while WTI slipped by 67 cents, or 0.9 per cent, to $71.94 after climbing to the highest since Aug. 2 on Wednesday.

US Gulf energy companies have been able to restore pipeline service and electricity quickly after Hurricane Nicholas passed through Texas early this week, allowing them to focus on efforts to repair the damage caused weeks earlier by Hurricane Ida.

Qatar Petroleum set official prices for the sale of Al-Shaheen crude, during November, at the lowest price premium in 5 months.

Sale prices for Qatari crude shipments came next November with an average premium of $1.53 a barrel to Dubai prices.

Libya

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said Thursday that exports had resumed from several oil terminals in the country’s east after young protesters demanding jobs ended blockades there.

“Announcing the resumption of crude oil export operations at the ports of Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf after a group of young people ended their sit-in inside the ports, which lasted for days,” Libya’s National Oil Corporation NOC said in a statement.

Russian ESPO oil prices at 21-month high

A rebound in China’s crude demand has pushed up prices of a Russian grade popular with Chinese independent refiners to the highest in 21 months, several trade sources said on Thursday.

Russia’s Surgutneftegaz sold three cargoes of ESPO crude loading in November at premiums of $4.10-$4.20 a barrel to Dubai quotes, the sources said, the highest since January 2020.

Malaysia

Exports of Malaysia’s flagship crude oil Kimanis will fall in October and November following a production issue at an offshore oilfield operated by Royal Dutch Shell, three sources with knowledge of the matter said to Reuters.

Petroleum Brunei, one of the stakeholders, cancelled a tender to sell a Kimanis crude cargo that was supposed to load in early November because of the problem, one of the sources told the agency.