Oil & Gas Corner

Friday, 2026-11-06 · covering the last 24h

Market signal

Crude ends a brutal week almost flat, as fresh Hormuz mine claims offset the midterm de-escalation bet. Brent settled at $98.32 a barrel, up 3 cents, and WTI at $90.83, up 31 cents — a quiet finish to a week that still posted one of the sharpest percentage drops since the pandemic, with Brent down roughly 15–17% since Monday on Reuters/LSEG figures. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said two more tankers and a tugboat caught fire after striking mines on routes it said were unauthorized through the Strait of Hormuz, and UKMTO logged a separate report of an explosion at the waterline of a vessel leaving the strait; none of it has been independently confirmed, and President Trump has accused Tehran of fabricating incidents to prop up prices. CNBC · RTE (Reuters) · Eurasia Review

Baker Hughes: US rig count edges up for the week ending November 6. The US total rose 1 to 604 rigs (oil +1 to 463, gas +1 to 131), with the Permian up 1 to 273 and the Williston down 1 to 35; Canada's count fell 3 to 223. Baker Hughes · Today in Oil and Gas

Upstream — exploration & production

Nothing new from the majors, the NOCs or the shale patch within the window, and OPEC+'s next move isn't due until the November 29 full-group meeting — the tape stayed fixed on price and the Strait.

Midstream — pipelines, LNG & shipping

Beyond the fresh mine-strike claims already covered in Market signal, no new pipeline, LNG or freight-market developments crossed the wire today.

Downstream — refining, fuels & chemicals

A fourth straight quiet session for refiners and petrochemicals — nothing structural on margins, capacity or fuel specs crossed the wire today.

The Chatter

ING commodities team (via OilPrice.com): argues this week's slide is a risk-premium unwind rather than a supply story, writing that "in the absence of escalation, the oil market is likely to continue to slowly give back the risk premium" built up since the war began. OilPrice.com

Matt Stanley, Kpler (via Reuters): pushes back on reading the price drop as an all-clear, noting UKMTO-tracked attacks on shipping are still running near record pace — the physical disruption hasn't gone away just because the price has stopped pricing it in. Baird Maritime (Reuters)