State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Aramco, increased its official selling price for Arab Light crude to Asia by 90 cents a barrel, to 20 cents below the regional benchmark, it said Sunday in an e-mailed statement. The company had been expected to raise Arab Light prices by 50 cents a barrel, to 60 cents less than the benchmark for Asian buyers, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of seven refiners and traders in the region.

Fitch Ratings has announced it affirmed Qatar's Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'AA'. The issue ratings on Qatar's senior unsecured foreign-currency bonds are also affirmed at 'AA'; the Country Ceiling at 'AA+', and the Short-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency IDRs at 'F1+'.

“From the viewpoint of economic sense and logic, then it would be correct to find some sort of compromise,” Putin said in an interview in Vladivostok. “I am confident that everyone understands that. We believe that this is the right decision for world energy.”

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in October traded at $43.35 a barrel at 0358 GMT, up $0.19 in the Globex electronic session. November Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.22 to $45.67 a barrel. Week-to-date, both benchmarks were last down by around 9%, the biggest slump since the week of January 10 when prices dropped 11%.

The country is able to pump as much as 12.5 million barrels a day of oil, he said in comments broadcast during an official visit to buyers in Asia, its biggest market, including China.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in October traded at $46.20 a barrel at 0122 GMT, down $0.15 in the Globex electronic session, the lowest intraday level since Aug 12. October Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.02 to $48.35 a barrel.

“We support freezing oil production by OPEC due to the sharp decline of oil prices,” Mr. Abadi said at a news conference, saying it would help government-salaried oil-industry workers.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $49.38 per barrel at 0505 GMT, up 12 cents from their previous close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 17 cents at $47.15 a barrel.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery settled up 56 cents, or 1.2%, to $47.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its ninth winning session in the past 11. Brent, the global benchmark, gained 62 cents, or 1.3%, to $49.67 a barrel.

International benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were trading down 10 cents at $48.85 per barrel at 0709 GMT, having closed down 1.8 percent the previous day. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $46.73 a barrel, down 4 cents, after dropping 2.8 percent on Wednesday.

It suggests that crude oil could be entering a more stable trading range of $50-$70/barrel rather than falling back below $50 again for a significant period.

Iraq, which depends on oil sales for 95 percent of its public spending, appears set to continue boosting production, which currently stands at around 4.6 million barrels per day.

International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $48.86 per barrel at 0644 GMT (0244 ET), down 30 cents, or 0.61 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 40 cents, or 0.84 percent, at $47.01 per barrel.

Amid all the gloom inflicted by adverse market conditions, intense focus on efficiency improvement emerges as a bright underlying theme. With oil prices now $50./b after hitting a low of $27 a barrel in January, the expectation is that some stability may finally be returning to the market. Higher oil price is certainly a positive for producers.

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.