North Sea Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $58 per barrel (b) in October, an increase of $1/b from the average in September. EIA forecasts Brent spot prices to average $53/b in 2017 and $56/b in 2018.

President Donald Trump can return to the United States claiming to have snagged over $250 billion in deals from his maiden trip to Beijing. Whether those deals live up to the lofty price tag is another question altogether. Some huge deals were announced. Among them is a 20-year $83.7 billion investment by China Energy Investment Corp in shale gas developments and chemical manufacturing projects in West Virginia, a major energy producing state that voted heavily for Trump in the 2016 election.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 5 cents at $64.32 per barrel by 0750 GMT. On Monday, they closed 3.5 percent higher, also their biggest percentage gain in about six weeks. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was down just 3 cents at $57.32 a barrel. The contract surged 3 percent on Monday, the biggest percentage gain since late September. Both benchmarks hit their highest since mid-2015 during the session.

West Texas Intermediate for December delivery rose 23 cents to $55.87 a barrel at 10:04 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising to $56.28, the highest intraday price since July 2015. Brent for January settlement climbed 46 cents to $62.53 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, and traded at a $6.41 premium to WTI for the same month.

Barclays raised its Brent oil price forecast, saying Brent will average $60/bbl during the fourth quarter and will average $55/bbl in 2018. The average 2018 forecast was up $3 compared with Barclays earlier forecast.

Crude oil imports by China's independent refineries in eastern Shandong province, Xinhai Petrochemical in Hebei and Fengli Petrochemical in Henan rebounded 11% month on month to around 7.435 million mt in October, or 1.76 million b/d.

The step to restructure debt comes as Venezuela stands to receive more revenue for its oil. The country’s crude oil basket price rose to CNY350.75 ($52.90) a barrel Friday, the highest since July 2015. And Venezuela did approve a $1.1 billion principal payment on a PDVSA bond on Thursday.

Energy majors BP, Shell and Statoil are to co-develop a blockchain-based digital platform for energy trading.

U.S. Rig Count is up 329 rigs from last year's count of 569, with oil rigs up 279, gas rigs up 52, and miscellaneous rigs down 2 to 2. Canada Rig Count is up 38 rigs from last year's count of 154, with oil rigs up 24 and gas rigs up 14.

Brent futures LCOc1 were at $60.75 per barrel at 0739 GMT, up 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their last close. Brent has risen by around 37 percent since its low in 2017 reached last June. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $54.70 a barrel, up 16 cents, or 0.3 percent, from the last close. WTI is around 30 percent above its 2017-low in June.