Middle East crude benchmarks fell on Thursday as the market was still waiting for top oil exporter Saudi Arabia to release its November oil prices, while the ministers from the OPEC+ countries decided to maintain current oil production plans.

Saudi Arabia typically reveals its official selling prices (OSPs) around the fifth of the month.

State-owned Saudi Aramco may hike the OSPs for its medium sour crude Arab Light by about 45 cents a barrel for November, according to five respondents surveyed by Reuters.

An OPEC+ ministerial panel that met on Wednesday made no changes to the group’s oil output policy, after Saudi Arabia and Russia said they would keep voluntary supply cuts in place to support the market.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 13 cents to $3.24 a barrel.

NEWS

A crude oil pipeline from Iraq through Turkey, which has been suspended for about six months, is ready for operations as of Wednesday and Ankara is prepared to begin shipments, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles last week fell to their lowest this year on strong export demand, while gasoline inventories rose much more than expected on weak demand, according to the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

Suncor Energy said on Wednesday it would acquire the Canadian operations of French energy firm TotalEnergies’ TTEF.PA for C$1.47 billion ($1.07 billion) to bolster its bitumen production capacity.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)