DTN Oil

WASHINGTON (DTN) -- New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange settled Friday's session mixed, fading from two week highs with the Brent contract pressured following a pledge from General Khalifa Haftar to allow for a 1-month resumption of oil exports from Libya, while West Texas Intermediate was boosted by another storm in the Gulf of Mexico that could again prompt production shut-ins.

Libya's oil production plummeted amid the civil war in the north African nation, with crude output at 106,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August, according to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. This compares with crude production for 2019 at 1.097 million bpd.

DTN WeatherOps forecasts Tropical Depression 22 to track north by northeast in the western Gulf of Mexico and expects the tropical depression to intensify into a tropical storm that could again reduce offshore oil and gas production. The weather forecasters note a low level of confidence in both the strengthening and path of Tropical Depression 22.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on Friday afternoon reported 567,770 bpd of current oil production still shut-in in the Gulf of Mexico because of Hurricane Sally, accounting for 31% of total output in the Gulf waters.

Oil futures rallied to 2-week highs overnight before fading the advance, having found support from tough language by Saudi Arabia's Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Thursday during a compliance meeting among OPEC+ producers. The prince said OPEC+ could hold an extraordinary meeting ahead of its planned December gathering in October should the oil market sour amid weak demand.

OPEC+ was 102% compliant with production cuts of 7.7 million bpd in August, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee reported Thursday.

NYMEX October West Texas Intermediate edged up 11 cents on the session while rallying $3.78 or 10.1% at $41.11 barrel (bbl), while ICE November Brent futures eased 15 cents to a $43.15 bbl settlement, while up $3.32 or 8.3% from prior Friday. NYMEX October ULSD futures settled little changed at $1.1590 gallon on the session, but advanced 6.94 cents or 6.4% on the week. October RBOB futures rallied 14.17 cents or 12.9% on the week to a $1.2366 gallon settlement, gaining 1.22 cents Friday.

Liubov Georges can be reached at liubov.georges@dtn.com

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