API welcomed legislation that would allow for safe and responsible natural gas and oil development in a small non-wilderness portion of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The legislation was released by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to be included as part of the budget reconciliation bill.

EIA - Crude oil production from the major US onshore regions is forecast to increase 80,000 b/d month-over-month in December to 6.174 million b/d, gas production to increase 779 million cubic feet/day.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $63.55 per barrel at 0614 GMT, up 3 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $56.79 per barrel, up 5 cents.

The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $61.72 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $61.61 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The world’s biggest oil explorer by market value recently finished four wells in North Dakota’s Bakken region that extend sideways for 3 miles (4.8 kilometers), Barclays Plc analyst Paul Cheng said in a research note after meeting Exxon executives, and it’s closing in on the 4-mile mark.

U.S. Rig Count is up 339 rigs from last year's count of 568, with oil rigs up 286, gas rigs up 54, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 1. Canada Rig Count is up 27 rigs from last year's count of 176, with oil rigs up 19 and gas rigs up 8.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was unchanged at $63.49 a barrel by 0840 GMT. On Tuesday, Brent reached an intra-day high of $64.65, its highest since June 2015. U.S. light crude CLc1 was steady at $56.81, not too far off this week’s more than two-year high of $57.69 a barrel.

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.