Ice Brent crude futures were largely stable in early Asian trading hours, after losses of more than $2/bl from the previous session.
At 04:00 GMT, the Ice front-month January Brent contract was at $62.75/bl, up by 4¢/bl from its settlement on 12 November when the contract ended $2.45/bl lower.
The Nymex front-month December crude contract was at $58.48/bl, lower by 1¢/bl from its settlement on 12 November when the contract ended $2.55/bl lower.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) said it awarded contracts on 12 November to the commodity firms Trafigura and Energy Transfer for the purchase of 900,000 bl of sour crude. The agency paid nearly $55.8mn for the crude, which will be delivered to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve's (SPR) Bryan Mound facility in Texas over 1 December-31 January.
US president Donald Trump set a goal at the start of his second term to refill the SPR "right to the top". DOE paid for the crude by drawing down $171mn in funding that Republicans set aside for the SPR as part of the tax and energy law that Trump enacted this summer. But there is only enough funding in the law for about 3mn bl of crude, or about 1pc of the roughly 290mn bl that would be needed to refill the SPR to its authorised storage capacity of 714mn bl.
US crude production is projected to average 13.58mn b/d in 2026, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), up from 13.51mn b/d in its October forecast. This is the third-straight increase and brings production next year largely in line with expected output in 2025, which EIA revised higher to 13.59mn b/d from 13.53mn b/d previously.
Global production was also raised to 105.98mn b/d in 2025 and 107.37mn b/d in 2026, representing increases of 110,000 b/d and 200,000 b/d respectively, from EIA's prior forecast.
Opec forecasts oil consumption to rise by 1.3mn b/d to 105.14mn b/d in 2025 and by 1.38mn b/d to 106.52mn b/d in 2026, according to its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) released 12 November.
Opec upgraded its non-Opec+ supply growth forecast for this year by 110,000 b/d to 920,000 b/d, based on higher historical data. It kept its non-Opec+ supply growth forecast for 2026 unchanged at 630,000 b/d.
Opec said global oil inventories increased by 304mn bl over January-September. Around half of this — 156mn bl — was oil at sea, which Opec attributes to "higher output from few key producing countries that increased their crude exports."
Elsewhere, Russian crude producer Lukoil has halted sales of Caspian light crude to Azeri state-owned Socar this month, traders said. Lukoil is redirecting this crude to Russia's Caspian port of Makhachkala.
US blocking sanctions on Lukoil have forced the suspension of sales, market participants said. Supplies to Socar were steady on the year at around 30,000 b/d (1.13mn t) in January-September. Socar has run crude from Lukoil at its 140,000 b/d Baku refiner since early 2023, which allowed it to export Azeri crude.
Ice Brent crude futures were largely stable in early Asian trading hours, after losses of more than $2/bl from the previous session.
At 04:00 GMT, the Ice front-month January Brent contract was at $62.75/bl, up by 4¢/bl from its settlement on 12 November when the contract ended $2.45/bl lower.
The Nymex front-month December crude contract was at $58.48/bl, lower by 1¢/bl from its settlement on 12 November when the contract ended $2.55/bl lower.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) said it awarded contracts on 12 November to the commodity firms Trafigura and Energy Transfer for the purchase of 900,000 bl of sour crude. The agency paid nearly $55.8mn for the crude, which will be delivered to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve's (SPR) Bryan Mound facility in Texas over 1 December-31 January.
US president Donald Trump set a goal at the start of his second term to refill the SPR "right to the top". DOE paid for the crude by drawing down $171mn in funding that Republicans set aside for the SPR as part of the tax and energy law that Trump enacted this summer. But there is only enough funding in the law for about 3mn bl of crude, or about 1pc of the roughly 290mn bl that would be needed to refill the SPR to its authorised storage capacity of 714mn bl.
US crude production is projected to average 13.58mn b/d in 2026, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), up from 13.51mn b/d in its October forecast. This is the third-straight increase and brings production next year largely in line with expected output in 2025, which EIA revised higher to 13.59mn b/d from 13.53mn b/d previously.
Global production was also raised to 105.98mn b/d in 2025 and 107.37mn b/d in 2026, representing increases of 110,000 b/d and 200,000 b/d respectively, from EIA's prior forecast.
Opec forecasts oil consumption to rise by 1.3mn b/d to 105.14mn b/d in 2025 and by 1.38mn b/d to 106.52mn b/d in 2026, according to its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) released 12 November.
Opec upgraded its non-Opec+ supply growth forecast for this year by 110,000 b/d to 920,000 b/d, based on higher historical data. It kept its non-Opec+ supply growth forecast for 2026 unchanged at 630,000 b/d.
Opec said global oil inventories increased by 304mn bl over January-September. Around half of this — 156mn bl — was oil at sea, which Opec attributes to "higher output from few key producing countries that increased their crude exports."
Elsewhere, Russian crude producer Lukoil has halted sales of Caspian light crude to Azeri state-owned Socar this month, traders said. Lukoil is redirecting this crude to Russia's Caspian port of Makhachkala.
US blocking sanctions on Lukoil have forced the suspension of sales, market participants said. Supplies to Socar were steady on the year at around 30,000 b/d (1.13mn t) in January-September. Socar has run crude from Lukoil at its 140,000 b/d Baku refiner since early 2023, which allowed it to export Azeri crude.
By YouLiang Chay