Crude recovers late in session on hopes over US-Hungary meeting

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) -Crude prices recovered from a midday dip on Friday on hopes Hungary can use Russian crude oil as U.S. President Donald Trump met Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the White House.

Brent crude futures settled at $63.63 a barrel, up 25 cents or 0.39%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude finished at $59.75 a barrel, up 32 cents, or 0.54%.

Both benchmarks are poised to register weekly declines of around 2% as leading global producers raise output.

"We're sort of watching that Trump meeting with Orban to see if some deal comes out that eases sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft," said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital.

Hungary has maintained its reliance on Russian energy since the start of the 2022 conflict in Ukraine, prompting criticism from several European Union and NATO allies.

Prices had fallen earlier in the day with Brent registering a loss on the impact of flight cuts due to a shortage of air traffic controllers, who are not being paid because the U.S. government shutdown.

"The fact that we're shutting down flights is taking out a lot of diesel demand," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst for Price Futures Group.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to cut thousands of flights because of the shortage of air traffic controllers.

Lower demand for jet fuel came as "the market continues to weigh a rising oil surplus against mixed macro," said SEB analyst Ole Hvalbye.

An unexpected U.S. inventory build of 5.2 million barrels reignited oversupply fears this week, said IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore. 

U.S. crude stocks rose more than expected on higher imports and reduced refining activity while gasoline and distillate inventories declined, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Private reports also pointed to a weakening U.S. labor market. U.S. Labor Department employment reports are not being issued because of the shutdown.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known collectively as OPEC+, decided on Sunday to increase output slightly in December. However, the group also paused further increases for the first quarter of next year, wary of a supply glut.

The well-supplied market prompted Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, to announce a sharp reduction to prices for its crude for Asian buyers in December.

European and U.S. sanctions on Russia and Iran, meanwhile, are disrupting supplies to the world's largest importers, China and India, providing some support for global markets.

China's crude imports in October rose 2.3% from September and were up 8.2% from a year earlier at 48.36 million tons, customs data showed, against a backdrop of high utilisation rates at refineries in the world's largest oil importer.

"China kept importing elevated amounts of crude in October," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said. "That move keeps those barrels away from the OECD, where inventories remain low."

Swiss commodities trader Gunvor said on Thursday that it had withdrawn its proposal to buy the foreign assets of Russian energy company Lukoil after the U.S. Treasury called it Russia's "puppet" and signalled that Washington opposed the deal.

"Gunvor scrapping its Lukoil assets purchase suggests the U.S. is maintaining its maximum pressure campaign against Russia, and potential strict enforcement of sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil," said Vandana Hari at oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, Robert Harvey and Stephanie Kelly in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Florence Tan in SingaporeEditing by David Goodman, David Gregorio and Deepa Babington)