OPEC

Abdullah al-Attiyah, who spearheaded the Gulf state's crude output expansion in the 1990s and, more significantly led the country's emergence as the LNG capital of the region, has stepped down as the energy minister following his appointment as the Chairman of the Emir's court.

German precious metals refinery group Heraeus reports massive demand for bars and coins, even as ETF trust funds and Comex futures contracts saw considerable profit-taking driven liquidations by institutional traders.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has pledged to make as much as 6 million barrels per day of surplus crude production capacity available in the event of a strong rise in demand or sudden disruption in supply, a Platts release said on Tuesday.

Oil prices at $100 a barrel would not harm the world economy and there is no need for OPEC to hold an emergency meeting or add supplies, Libya's top oil official said on Thursday.

Clashes between political gangs rather than attacks on oil facilities are the greatest threat to Nigeria's Niger Delta ahead of April elections and the long-term security of its oil output depends on much more than who wins.

For the U.S., however, the Iraqi plan to buy billions of dollars of weapons will only be small consolation for the dismal turn of events in the last week. Muqtada al-Sadr, one of the fiercest anti-US warlords in Iraq whom the U.S. failed to annihilate, returned to Iraq after years and called for intensification of the war against Washington. That despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost defending an intangible moral high ground as if it were!

Kuwait Oil Council on Monday predicted that oil barrel price to reach $110 in the next few weeks as the global economy recovers fast.

Kuwait and Iran, two of the world's largest crude exporters and prominent members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), have reiterated that they don't see the need to raise output to keep rising crude prices under check.

Iran's OPEC governor said that that the oil market is balanced and is likely touch $100 per barrel , the Oil Ministry's website SHANA said in a statement

Though a change of guard at the Saudi oil ministry looks more certain than otherwise, the fact that Iran will assume the revolving chairmanship of the OPEC next month can potentially impact the timing of Saudi Arabia's long-serving oil minister Ali al-Naimi's retirement.

US trade deficit declined sharply in October to reach a nine-month low as exports rose, the US commerce department said on Friday.

Oil rallied to its highest in more than two years on Thursday on reports that major oil consumers may use more of it next year. Oil rose despite a strong dollar on the day, which analysts largely attributed to the latest demand-supply equations of the commodity.

Goods and services trade deficit in the U.S. narrowed in the month of September from the previous month, but still remained high with China, according to a report released by the U.S. Commerce Department.