As of 04:00 GMT, the January 2024 Brent crude oil futures contract price on the Intercontinental Exchange (Ice) was $74.73 per barrel, down 80 cents from the settlement price on November 5, while the settlement price of the contract on the previous trading day was 45 cents higher than the previous day.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) 2024 crude oil futures contract price for December 2024 was $71.31 per barrel, down 68 cents from the settlement price on November 5, while the settlement price of the contract on the previous trading day was 52 cents higher than the previous day.

The market focus is on the US presidential election. The rivalry between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris has a major impact on energy policy, trade, and climate change. Election officials said the counting process will take time, including mail-in ballots that will be received one after another in the next few days.

The Federal Reserve plans to hold a monthly meeting from November 6 to 7. The US employment report released on November 1 shows that the possibility that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 25 basis points this month is increasing.

Traders are still awaiting weekly inventory data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to the EIA's last report, inventory was reduced by 0.515 million barrels to 0.4255 billion barrels in the week ending October 25.

According to data from petroleum analysis company AlphaBBL, crude oil inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose for the second week in a row, increasing by 0.6 million barrels to 25.3 million barrels in the week ending November 1, while inventories at key terminals in Texas also increased by 1.7 million barrels to 50.1 million barrels.

Some oil producers, including Shell and BP, have evacuated some offshore workers from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to deal with the threat of hurricanes later this week. As Tropical Storm Rafael intensifies, it is moving towards the Cayman Islands and will enter the southeastern Gulf of Mexico late November 6.

The South African government plans to rehabilitate and expand the closed 180,000 b/d Sapref refinery in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, to create a facility with at least 600,000 b/d production capacity, according to the state-owned Central Energy Fund (CEF).

CEF reached an agreement in May to acquire SapRef from BP and Shell. Sapref was once the largest refinery in South Africa, accounting for about 35% of the country's refining capacity, but it closed in 2022. Previously, Engen's 105,000 b/d Durban refinery closed in 2020.

(The above content comes from the latest opinion of Argus, an independent international energy and commodity price assessment agency)