Oil

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More on oil prices.

Commenting on output, Saudi Arabia energy minister Khalid al-Falih, said: "If all things remain equal, and they almost certainly will not as things will change - it is a dynamic market - then the technical analysis we saw yesterday .... tells us that there will need to be a reduction of supply from October levels approaching a million barrels."

"The consensus is that we need to do whatever it takes to balance the market. If that means trimming supplies by a million [barrels per day], we will."

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Brent crude is now up 1.5% at $71.27 a barrel after Saudi Arabia, the leading member of the OPEC oil producing cartel, said it will cut output.

West Texas Intermediate is up 0.91% at $60.74 a barrel.

However, the boost to falling prices may be short-lived as the European Union's two largest members - Germany and France - are set to report slower economic growth for the third quarter in the coming days.

Analysts at ANZ, said: "Supply-side surprises appear to be the main culprit, but concern that global demand is slowing may also be creeping into markets and weighing on risk appetite."

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It is just breaking that Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih has said that he sees the need to cut oil output by one million barrels per day from its October production levels.

Saudi Arabia is the largest member of the Opec cartel of Middle East and African oil producers.

Brent crude is up 0.75% at $71.51 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate is ahead 0.31% at $60.95.

For more on oil price volatility, click here.

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Brent Crude prices climbed 1.7% to $71.37 a barrel in early Monday trade, while West Texas Intermediate climbed 1.4% to $60 a barrel after Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, said it would cut exports by 500,000 barrels a day in December.

The kingdom’s energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, said the move to cut exports from a month earlier was due to lower demand.

“December nominations are 500,000 barrels less than November," Mr Falih said ahead of meeting between Opec and countries outside the cartel.

"So we are seeing a tapering off - part of it is year end.”

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Brent crude is now down 1.51% at $69.58 a barrel while WTI is off 1.65% at $59.67.

"There is no slowing down the bear train," says Stephen Brennock, an analyst at PVM Oil.

"Instead, the energy complex has extended a rout driven by swelling global supplies and a softening demand outlook."

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A judge in the US has halted the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline which will link Canada's oil sands to US refineries.

In a win for environmentalists but a blow for the Trump administration, Judge Brian Morris of the US District Court for the District of Montana found that the government had failed to adequately explain why it had lifted a ban on the project.

President Donald Trump granted a permit for the pipeline - planned to run between Canada to Texas - shortly after taking office. It overturned a ruling by the Obama administration in 2015.

Judge Morris's ruling is temporary and requires the government to do a more thorough review of how the project might affect the climate, cultural resources and wildlife.

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Brent crude is down a further 0.32% this morning at $70.71 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate is trading 0.16% lower at $60.60.

Both Brent and WTI have dropped by around 20% - the technical definition of a bear market - from the four-year highs they reached in early October.

Analysts at Bernstein Energy say: "As OPEC exports continue to rise, inventories continue to build which is putting downward pressure on oil prices. A slowdown in the global economy remains the key downside risk to oil."

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Oil producer Rosneft said third-quarter net profits bubbled up 13.5% to 2,286bn roubles (£26.51bn) compared to the previous quarter.

The company, which is owned by the Russian government, said the profit growth was down to higher oil prices, a weaker rouble and operational gains from increased crude production and sales.

But chief executive Igor Sechin said: "Currently the company faces serious market challenges including extremely volatile crude price environment and uncertain outlook for the world economic growth in 2019."

AFP

Despite the US imposing a second round of sanctions against Iran, oil prices have remained relatively stable.

This is possibly because the US granted waivers to allow China Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey to continue buying oil from Iran.

Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank, says: "The eight countries that can carry on and import from Iran is part of the economic equation. Donald Trump doesn't want to see oil prices particularly high, it is bad for business as far as he's concerned."

BBC

But she says: "There is a little bit more to that. If we go back, for instance, to early October we had the IMF coming out with their forecasts for growth and they were looking ahead to slower world growth partly of course because China is slowing because there are these impacts of trade wars.

"And the market started to shift its focus from concerns that there would be a lack of supply of oil because of Iran sanctions to actually we could see a slowing of demand as world growth slow down."