BASF investors said that oil and gas business Wintershall Dea's exit from Russia, though painful, clears the way for plans to take it public and for BASF to focus on its chemicals operations.
The chief executive of oil major TotalEnergies said this week that strikes against France's planned pension reform on Thursday should not disrupt operations at refineries, adding that petrol stations were also prepared for the strike action.
Russia remained China's second-largest source of crude oil in 2022, following repeat top supplier Saudi Arabia, as Chinese refiners snapped up low-cost Russian barrels while Western countries shunned them after the Ukraine crisis.
U.S. crude oil stockpiles last week posted a large build that took analysts by surprise, as inventories in the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub gained while the market continued to recover from a winter storm last month.
Germany has received confirmation that commercial crude oil deliveries for the PCK Schwedt refinery are expected in the Polish port of Gdansk in January, the economy ministry told Reuters.
European traders are rushing to fill tanks with Russian diesel as the clock runs down on a Feb. 5 European ban expected to tighten supplies, re-draw global shipping routes and increase price volatility.
Exxon Mobil Corp in coming days will sharply boost gasoline and diesel production at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery, people familiar with the matter said, completing a $1.2 B expansion first considered nine years ago.
Oil prices rose on Friday and were on track to gain over 7% on the week due to solid signs of demand growth in top oil importer China and expectations of less aggressive interest rate rises in the United States.
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has assigned a third crude cargo to Chevron Corp under a U.S. authorization that restarted exports to the United States after a nearly four-year pause.
France's CGT trade union called for strikes in the refinery sector against plans to make people work longer before they can retire and Paris metro unions said they would do "everything they can" to stop the pension reform.