The July light, sweet crude contract on NYMEX climbed 34¢ on May 23 to close at $51.47/bbl. The August contract rose 32¢ to settle at $51.72/bbl. The natural gas price for June fell 11¢ to a rounded $3.22/MMbtu. The Henry Hub cash gas price was $3.20/MMbtu, down 1¢. The Brent crude contract for July on London’s ICE gained 28¢ to $54.15/bbl. The August contract was up 30¢ to $54.41/bbl. The June gas oil contract held unchanged at $479/tonne. OPEC’s basket of crudes on May 23 settled at $51.34/bbl, down 20¢.

Russia itself is now slightly overcomplying with its commitment to cut 300,000 b/d of oil production from October levels, having achieved a 310,000 b/d cut since the beginning of the month.

As a major buyer of OPEC crude, India is hoping to leverage its ties with the oil producer bloc to gain "preferential treatment," the country's petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan told.

Brent crude LCOc1 ended a run of four days of consecutive gains to trade 36 cents lower at $53.51 per barrel at 0831 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was down 33 cents at $50.80.

“India is very price sensitive. I need to ask how do I serve my citizens best. We are free to import oil from any part of the world . . . from the US and Canada, as well as more supplies from Russia.”

Saudi Aramco today signed agreements with major U.S. companies which will pave way for the company to enhance its business synergy with the U.S. as well as attracting investments from its U.S. counterparts to the Kingdom.

Brent crude gained 48 cents o $54.09 a barrel by 1043 GMT (6:43 a.m. ET), with U.S. light crude up 47 cents at $50.80.

Saudi Arabia will go into the meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Vienna on May 25 determined to maximize its oil revenue through high prices, even if it must make large production cuts in return.

U.S. Rig Count is up 497 rigs from last year's count of 404, with oil rigs up 402, gas rigs up 95, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canadian Rig Count is up 41 rigs from last year's count of 44, with oil rigs up 20, gas rigs up 22, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 0.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up 28 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $52.79 at 0630 GMT. The contract earlier rose to the highest since April 21 and is on track for a nearly 4 percent climb this week, its second week of gains. U.S. crude oil CLc1 was up 29 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $49.64 a barrel, highest since April 26. The contract is also heading for a weekly increase of almost 4 percent.