Very tight ranges for crude overnight, with.....>

OIL: Very tight ranges for crude overnight, with both major benchmarks trading

within a few cents of their settlement levels at writing.

- WTI & Brent settled $0.80 & $0.70 lower on Wednesday, recovering from worst

levels that were seen on the back of a mostly bearish DoE inventory report.

- Optimism re: Saudi crude production levels also weighed on oil yesterday, with

BBG sources suggesting that the Kingdom is beating its own target for restoring

capacity by about a week. Elsewhere, FT sources noted that Saudi Arabia's oil

production has rebounded to more than 8mn bpd, which approximates to a

restoration/substitution of more than three-quarters of production lost on the

back of the recent, well-documented attacks. However, they cautioned that there

remains some scepticism over whether this includes the ability to process the

crude to a level that makes it viable for export.