REUTERS - Indian refiners’ interest in U.S. crude will be welcome news to shale producers looking for buyers outside of China, which is likely to scale back imports as the trade dispute between the administration of President Donald Trump and Beijing escalates.

REUTERS - Brent crude oil futures were up 31 cents on the day at $73.52 a barrel by 0903 GMT, while U.S. futures rose 35 cents to $68.84 barrel.

API - “China’s retaliation will hit America’s energy industry particularly hard,” said API Vice President for Regulatory and Economic Policy Kyle Isakower. “American natural gas and oil companies already hit by U.S. tariffs on industrial products and specialty steel essential to our industry will now be faced with Chinese tariffs on critical U.S. exports, impacting American jobs that rely directly and indirectly on the energy industry.

PLATTS - China rattled investors in the US LNG export sector when it said Friday it may impose 25% tariffs on American cargoes if President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to escalate the trade dispute with Beijing that he initiated.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is down 4 rigs from last week to 1,044, with oil rigs down 2 to 859, gas rigs down 3 to 183, and miscellaneous rigs up 1 to 2. Canada Rig Count is unchanged from last week at 223 rigs, with oil rigs down 2 to 152 and gas rigs up 2 to 71.

REUTERS - U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $68.87 per barrel at 0647 GMT, down 9 cents from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $73.40 per barrel, down 5 cents from their last close.

PLATTS - Russia's July crude oil and condensate output rose 1.4% month on month to 11.215 million b/d, in line with Russia's pledge in late June to boost output under the deal with OPEC and other non-OPEC producers, preliminary data by the Central Dispatching Unit, the statistical arm of the energy ministry, showed Thursday.

BLOOMBERG - Saudi Aramco, as the state-owned company is known, cut pricing for September shipments of all grades to Asia, its largest market. Aramco set the premium for Arab Light crude to Asia at $1.20 a barrel above the Middle East benchmark, it said Thursday in an emailed price list. The reduction of 70 cents for Arab Light was the second consecutive monthly cut for the grade and was 10 cents deeper than the median estimate of five traders in a Bloomberg survey.

PLATTS - Iraqi southern crude oil exports in July surged to a record high of 3.543 million b/d, data from the oil ministry showed Wednesday, despite OPEC's second largest oil producer facing major protests near its key oil assets.

PLATTS - Kuwait's crude oil production currently stands at 2.8 million b/d, the country's oil minister Bakheet al-Rashidi said Wednesday, up about 90,000 b/d from June levels.