Oil is having its best week in months with Brent, the internationally traded crude settling above $54.54 as global supply glut eases.
The US light crude is steady at $49.27 as refineries in the Texas area which were shut by Hurricane Harvey restart operation. The Hurricane knocked down almost a quarter of the total refining capacity of the United States and changed the flow of other processed products across the globe according to Bloomberg survey.
In the meantime, Saudi Arabia has raised oil pricing for October sales to Asia, increasing its lighter grades for a second consecutive month, in an indication the world’s largest crude exporter sees strengthening demand in its biggest market.
State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco, increased its official pricing for Arab Light crude to Asia by 55 cents to 30 cents a barrel more than the regional benchmark, it said in an emailed statement. The company had been expected to raise pricing by less than that, according to a Bloomberg survey.
Reports say Nigeria’s observed crude exports fell for 2nd month to 1.67m bbl/day in August vs 1.72m bbl/day in July, even as Shell lifted force majeure on Bonny Light exports, ship-tracking data show.
