Oil prices were set on Friday to post their first weekly decline in three weeks following a sell-off in global stock markets after news of planned U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium raised fears of a trade war. U.S. crude is on track for a 4.5 percent drop this week, its first weekly decline in three, having given up much of the gains in recent weeks when sentiment was boosted by a fall in inventories at the Cushing delivery point for WTI. Click Read More below for additional information.

Futures were little changed in New York after falling 0.6 percent on Wednesday. Prince Mohammed said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Riyadh that "of course" he wanted to extend OPEC’s production cuts in 2018, making it all but certain the group and its allies will roll over the curbs at a meeting next month. Oil is holding gains above $50 a barrel as speculation mounts that supply curbs by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia will be prolonged when they meet in Vienna on Nov. 30. In Iraq, the state oil company is working with a Kurdish firm to resume pumping at two disputed fields after government troops recaptured them from Kurdish forces. Click Read More below for additional information.

For a generation, the huge, whitewashed storage tanks at America’s largest oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, have stored almost nothing but Saudi crude. The plant is owned by Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company, Aramco, and since it first bought a stake in 1988, the Motiva refinery guaranteed the kingdom a strategic foothold in the world’s largest energy market. The tankers carrying millions of barrels a month of Arab Light crude from Saudi export terminals to Port Arthur were testament to the strength of the energy and political ties binding Riyadh and Washington. All of a sudden, there are very few Saudi ships arriving in Texas. Since July, Aramco has constricted supply, attempting to drain the crude storage tanks at Motiva -- and many others across America -- part of a plan to lift oil prices, even at the cost of sacrificing its once prized U.S. market. Click Read More below for additional information.