Saudi Arabia extended its voluntary production cut of 1 million b/d to the end of this year, with Russia chipping with its 300,000 b/d reduction to its exports, maintaining the existing voluntary restrictions in place, OilPrice said.  

The brief price rally triggered by OPEC+’s extension of production cuts until end-2023 has swiftly evaporated as a string of bad news from China turned overall sentiment back to bearish. Even though Chinese oil imports remain robust and October demonstrated another month-on-month increase to 11.53 million b/d, the prospects of quotas running out and weaker refinery margins have been the main driver of ICE Brent declining to $84 per barrel. 

Iran exports drop lower amidst conflict. Iranian oil exports have declined for the second consecutive month to 1.4 million b/d, just as the US House of Representatives passed a bill (abbreviated as SHIP) that would sanction all foreign ports and refineries processing Iranian crude.  

OPEC mulls Brazil membership plan. OPEC Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais hinted at OPEC making progress in talks on expanding its membership, saying Brazil could be interested in joining the organization of oil producers, similarly to Azerbaijan, Malaysia or Brunei.

/OiIPrice/