US imports of unfinished oils from Russia averaged 472,000 b/d in November, the most since May 2013, when the same amount of unfinished oils was imported from Russia.

Brent rose 24 cents, or 0.4%, to $55.17 a barrel, WTI were up 15 cents, or 0.3%, at $51.10 a barrel,

Russian energy minister Alexander Novak discussed bilateral energy cooperation with the US ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, on Thursday, according to an energy ministry statement.

The Russian delay is sure to frustrate OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, which had called for the collective to immediately implement deeper cuts of 500,000 b/d or more amid the sell-off in crude prices.

The US was prepared to sanction Rosneft if it continued to trade crude oil and fuel with PDVSA, but analysts said those sanctions have yet to be imposed because of the expected impact they may have on the global oil market.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz "thoroughly discussed" the current oil market conditions as prices have fallen by more than 20% in the past three weeks amid global oil demand concerns, a Kremlin statement said late Monday.

Gas demand across Europe has been unseasonably weak in January due to warm weather, with the month also seeing a re-routing of Russian gas exports to Europe with the start-up of the TurkStream gas pipeline to Turkey replacing some flows via Ukraine.

Brent were 68 cents higher at $58.97 a barrel, WTI were up by 70 cents to $52.84 a barrel

Gazprom supplied its first billion cubic meters of gas via the TurkStream gas pipeline.

В ходе встречи стороны обсудили широкий спектр вопросов взаимодействия России с Израилем, в том числе в энергетике. Было отмечено, что по итогам 2019 года товарооборот между странами превысил 5 млрд долларов, из которых половина пришлась на энергетический сектор.