REUTERS - International benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose 60 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $54.42 a barrel at 0408 GMT. Prices climbed to as high as $54.66. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 37 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $45.96 a barrel after earlier climbing to as high as $46.24.

PLATTS - Three aggressive independent Permian Basin upstream operators released capital budgets for 2019 in the last few days that are lower than either prior expectations or actual 2018 spending by at least 12% to 15%, as corporate executives attributed reduced activity to the recent plunge in oil prices.

BHGE - U.S. Rig Count is up 9 rigs from last week to 1,080, with oil rigs up 10 to 883 and gas rigs down 1 to 197. Canada Rig Count is down 43 rigs from last week to 131, with oil rigs down 37 to 58 and gas rigs down 6 to 73.

REUTERS - Brent crude LCOc1 fell 77 cents to a low of $53.58 a barrel, its weakest since September 2017, before rallying to trade around $53.75, down 10.8 percent on the week, by 1055 GMT. U.S. light crude oil CLc1 was down 20 cents at $45.68, also on course for a decline of 10.8 percent for the week.

PLATTS - Saudi Arabia will require oil prices higher than $84/b to avoid running another deficit, analysts warned after the kingdom announced on Tuesday record government spending in its state budget for 2019.

API - The U.S. produced a record 11.6 million barrels of oil per day (mb/d) and a record 4.8 mb/d of NGLs in November. Crude exports also hit a record high at 2.4 million barrels per day last month, and U.S. petroleum net imports fell at their lowest monthly level in more than 50 years at 2.2 million barrels per day.

U.S. EIA - Crude oil production from the major US onshore regions is forecast to increase 134,000 b/d month-over-month in January from 8,032 to 8,166 thousand barrels/day , gas production to increase 1,127 million cubic feet/day from 75,789 to 76,916 million cubic feet/day .

PLATTS - India imported 17 million mt (4.2 million b/d) of crude oil in November, down 11.4% year on year, the latest provisional data from the country's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell showed.

NPD - Preliminary production figures for November 2018 show an average daily production of 1 880 000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which is an increase of 22 000 barrels per day compared to October.

PLATTS - At 10:30 am Singapore time (0250 GMT), February ICE Brent crude futures inched down 4 cents/b (0.07%) from Friday's settle to $60.24/b, while the NYMEX January light sweet crude contract rose 5 cents/b (0.1%) to $51.25/b