Heilongjiang
\nOil prices were little changed on Thursday as the United States eased sanctions on Venezuela to allow more oil to flow globally, but traders remained nervous that Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza could escalate to a regional conflict.
\nBrent futures for December were down 20, or 0.2%, to $91.30 a barrel at 11:27 a.m. EDT (1627 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for November, which expire on Friday, stood unchanged at $88.32 per barrel. At their session lows, both benchmarks were down more than $1 a barrel.
\nThe more active December WTI contract rose 0.2%, or 18 cents, to $87.45 a barrel.
\nEgyptian aid trucks moved closer to the only crossing into Gaza not controlled by Israel, but despite a request from U.S. President Joe Biden to allow the aid, it still had not passed through by Thursday.
\n\u201cWe are still very much in flux and the potential to escalate, particularly from the Arab world, is an issue,\u201d said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
\nThe United States issued a six-month licence authorising transactions in Venezuela\u2019s energy sector, an OPEC member, after a deal was reached between Venezuela\u2019s government and the political opposition there to ensure fair 2024 elections.
\nThe deal is not expected to quickly expand Venezuela\u2019s oil output but could boost profits by returning some foreign companies to its oilfields and providing its crude to a wider set of cash-paying customers, experts said.
\nThe easing of U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela is unlikely to require any policy changes by the OPEC+ producer group for the time being as a recovery in production is likely to be gradual, OPEC+ sources told Reuters.
\nOil prices climbed about 2% in the previous session on concerns about disruptions to global supplies after Iran called for an oil embargo on Israel over the conflict in Gaza and after the U.S., the world\u2019s biggest oil consumer, reported a larger-than-expected inventory draw, adding to already tight supplies.
\nThe Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is not planning to take any immediate action on OPEC member Iran\u2019s call, sources told Reuters, easing concerns over potential disruptions.
\n\u201cAlthough OPEC shows no indication of taking up Iran\u2019s call to impose an oil boycott on Israel, oil will almost certainly become a feature of the conflict in several ways,\u201d RBC Capital Markets analyst Helima Croft said.
\n\u201cAt a minimum, the prospect of Saudi Arabia phasing out its 1 million barrel per day (bpd) unilateral production cut as part of a grand bargain that would include Israel normalization is off the table for now,\u201d Croft said, referring to recent talks over Saudi Arabia potentially normalising relations with Israel.
\nSaudi Arabia had said it would keep its voluntary cut until the end of the year.
\nJapan, the world\u2019s fourth-largest crude buyer, on Thursday urged Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations to increase supplies to stabilise the global oil market, as rising fuel prices amid the conflict could impact the global economy.
\nU.S. crude oil and fuel inventories dropped last week on rising demand for diesel and heating oil, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Distillate fuel stockpiles fell by 3.2 million barrels in the week to Oct. 13 to 113.8 million barrels, EIA data showed.
\nCrude inventories fell by 4.5 million barrels to 419.7 million barrels, while gasoline fell by 2.4 million barrels to 223.3 million barrels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heilongjiang Oil prices were little changed on Thursday as the United States eased sanctions on Venezuela to allow more oil to flow globally, but traders remained nervous that Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza could escalate to a regional conflict. Brent futures for December were down 20, or 0.2%, to $91.30 a barrel at 11:27 a.m. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[707],"class_list":{"0":"post-362671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-oil"},"yoast_head":"\n