WTI & Brent added a few cents overnight as......>

OIL: WTI & Brent added a few cents overnight as participants continued to assess

the impact of the ongoing political spat between the U.S. & Saudi, centring on

the Saudi journalist situation in the Kingdom's Turkish consulate (reports point

to a botched interrogation leading to his death).

- On Monday, newswire reports pointed to lower Iranian crude exports in the

early part of October, ahead of the impending U.S. sanctions, due to go into

place in early November.

- Monday also saw Saudi Energy Min Al-Falih take to wires, as he noted that the

oil market is currently balanced, although he highlighted that this a fluid

situation, and that Saudi's excess capacity will act as a buffer if required.

- Elsewhere Russia confirmed that its oil output has reached 11.4mn b/d.

- The weekly API oil inventory estimate provides the highlight on Tuesday, with

analysts looking for a headline drawdown of 165K in Wednesday's official DoE

inventory release.