Oil is heading for the longest run of weekly gains since October 2016 as global supplies tighten and on signs the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will extend output curbs past the end of March. Saudi Arabia on Thursday advised its nationals to leave Lebanon, fueling fears of a confrontation with Iran in a country long known for being a battleground for proxy wars in the Middle East. “Geopolitical risks have taken center stage in the oil market again,” said Jens Naervig Pedersen, senior analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “The rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have raised concerns in the oil market of an imminent supply disruption.” Saudi Arabia said it plans to cut crude exports to all the regions it ships to next month. Shipments will fall by 120,000 barrels a day in December from November, a spokesman for the Energy Ministry said, without specifying what those levels would be. Bloomberg calculations from vessel-tracking data estimated flows in October at 6.989 million a day. Click Read More below for additional information.

Three years into a dramatic slump in oil prices, big oil companies seem to have adapted their businesses to a point where they can still generate cash and reduce debt levels even at current oil prices. European oil giants Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Total SA and Statoil ASA kicked off the sector's second quarter earnings Thursday season with a flurry of reports that highlighted growing cash flow and sustained profits. Though notably better than at the start of 2016 when the price of crude plummeted to $27 a barrel, oil is still more than 50% weaker than in 2014 when prices started to fall. The supply glut that sparked the crash has proved stubbornly persistent despite efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producers to limit output, prompting several large banks to cut their oil price forecasts in recent months. Click Read More below for more of the story.

Georgia-Pacific has agreed to partner with self-driving vehicle startup Gatik and KBX Logistics, the transportation arm for Koch Industries, to deliver its consumer products to more than 30 Sam’s Club locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The collaboration involves moving Georgia-Pacific shipments from point to point on predefined short-haul routes using an autonomous vehicle fleet with 26-foot boxes. The trucks will deliver goods 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and are expected to travel up to three hundred miles daily. “We are looking forward to testing this transformational technology to deliver Georgia-Pacific brands like Quilted Northern® bath tissue and Dixie® products to Sam’s Clubs,” said Hayes Shimp, vice president of sales for Georgia-Pacific. “Once proven, we believe autonomous deliveries will enable us to remove cost and complexity from the supply chain to better serve our partner, Sam’s Club, and their members.” The operation involves Class 6 vehicles, which are significantly smaller than the Class 8 trucks that currently manage the deliveries. “Our partnership with Georgia-Pacific and KBX Logistics is poised to transform regional distribution architecture that has traditionally relied on class 8 platforms,” said Gautam Narang, CEO, and co-founder, of Gatik.