Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $49.39 per barrel at 1028 GMT, down $1.49 from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude Clc1 was down $1.27 at $47.25 a barrel.

This summer the U.S. oil price has whipsawed from more than $50 a barrel in June to below $40 earlier this month. In the past two weeks it has risen more than 20%, to a recent $48.22 a barrel.

Customs data showed on Monday that diesel exports rose 181.8 percent to a record 1.53 million tonnes, almost tripling China's average monthly export volume in 2015.

During the period we continued to focus on improving our efficiency and pro-actively restructured some of our central functions and have reduced costs in those areas where business activity reduced. As a result margins were higher than both Q1, 2016 and Q2, 2015.

U.S. Rig Count is up 10 rigs from last week to 491, with oil rigs up 10 to 406, gas rigs unchanged at 83, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 2. Canadian Rig Count is down 5 rigs from last week to 121, with oil rigs unchanged at 65, gas rigs down 4 to 56, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 0.

Brent ended the session up 2.09 percent at $50.89. The session high of $51.05 was its highest since June 23. U.S. crude settled at $48.22, up 3.06 percent after touching a session high of $48.38, the highest since July 5.

Prices have struggled to go much higher than $50 a barrel. After the longest run of gains since March, Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded 0.9 percent higher at $51.17 at 7:13 a.m. in London on Friday.

Five Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, China, India, and Taiwan) accounted for 68% of global LNG imports in 2015. In the first six months of 2016, in total, these five countries only increased their LNG import volumes by 1% (0.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d)), compared to the same period last year. However, higher imports in China and India more than offset declines in LNG consumption in the established markets of Japan and South Korea.

The slumping oil price has carved a chunk out of Australian oil and gas majors, with Woodside Petroleum reporting that profits halved in the first six months of the year while Santos swung to a loss of more than $1bn.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that crude stockpiles fell by 2.5 million barrels in the week ended Friday. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 500,000-barrel addition. Gasoline stockpiles fell by 2.7 million barrels. That helped the oil markets recover from losses tied to estimates from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, showing gasoline stockpiles rose by 2.2 million barrels.

OPEC revenue has fallen in step with the steep decline in crude oil prices. The monthly average Brent spot price dropped from $112 per barrel in June 2014 to $38/b in December 2015. OPEC revenue is expected to fall further in 2016 to $341 billion before rising to $427 billion in 2017.

Oil Production was 1 728 000 barrels, and is the largest monthly oil production volume in five years (March 2011). Total gas sales were 9.1 billion Sm3 (GSm3), which is an increase of 0.9 GSM3 from the previous month.

The world's fifth-largest crude importer has continued to buy more crude oil from Iran since sanctions were lifted in January. Shipments of Iranian crude more than doubled to 7.22 million tonnes, or 248,616 bpd, in the January-July period of 2016 from a year earlier, according to its customs office data.

In our view, crude prices in the next few months are likely to exhibit a sideways-to-bearish trend, mostly trading in the $35-$45 per barrel range. As North American supply remains strong and demand looks underwhelming, we are likely to experience pressure to the price of a barrel of oil.

Brent crude futures were trading at $48.35 per barrel at 0737 GMT (3:37 a.m. ET), flat from their last close, but over 15 percent higher than the $41.51 low for the month on Aug. 2. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was trading at $45.76 a barrel, up 2 cents from its previous close, and still over 16 percent above its $39.19 monthly low from Aug. 3.