The push into Asia comes at a pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia. With oil revenue falling, the kingdom is tightening its belt just as a new king ventures away from the kingdom’s traditionally conservative diplomacy. The International Monetary Fund predicts a budget deficit exceeding 20 percent of economic output this year.

"First of all, our policy calls for maintaining production at 525-530 million tonnes (a year), according to our energy strategy"

Saudi Aramco, the kingdom's state oil giant, is seeking to borrow $4.7 billion from banks to refinance capital used to build a refinery in collaboration with China's Sinopec, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

Any change in U.S. oil policy will have “zero” impact on the market because the country remains an importer, OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said Tuesday.

Flexibility and the ability to survive through the price cycle are more important to oil producers and consumers than flaky forecasts about where prices are going over the next 3, 5 or 10 years.

The United States has estimated Islamic State was selling as much as $40 million a month of oil, which was then spirited on trucks across the battle lines of the Syrian civil war and sometimes farther.

Indonesia wouldn’t try to block an OPEC decision to throttle back output “as long as we wouldn’t get cut,” the country’s OPEC Governor Widhyawan Prawiraatmadja said in an interview in Jakarta on Tuesday. “We are new, we like to listen, to observe,” he said, adding he didn’t know what price level would trigger an extraordinary OPEC meet.

Suncor Energy today announced that it is sending a letter to shareholders of Canadian Oil Sands Limited ("COS"). The letter outlines the value of Suncor's offer to purchase all of the shares of COS against the poor performance and track record of COS and what Suncor believes are the severe risks facing COS as an independent company both now and in the future. Suncor strongly encourages COS shareholders to tender to its offer.

Brent LCOc1, the global benchmark, was at $37.74 at 0440 GMT, down 18 cents from its last settlement after rising slightly earlier on Tuesday.

Международное рейтинговое агентство Moody's ухудшило свой прогноз по цене нефти марки Brent в 2016 году до 43 долларов за баррель с ожидавшихся ранее 53 долларов за баррель в связи с тем, что высокий уровень добычи нефти значительно превысил рост ее потребления.