(PetroTimes) – PetroTimes would like to send readers the latest news on the international energy market.

1. As of early this morning, October 24 (Vietnam time), the price of US WTI crude oil was trading at 61.71 USD/barrel, while the Brent benchmark price stopped at 65.99 USD/barrel.

World oil prices continued to increase sharply by more than 5% in the trading session on October 23, reaching a two-week high, after the US imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil and gas giants, Rosneft and Lukoil.

2. Russia’s Arctic LNG export facility continues to ship cargoes to China as the project is not subject to additional sanctions under the latest US sanctions package.

After more than a year of sales efforts, Arctic LNG has found a familiar customer – an LNG import terminal in China.

3. Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said Algeria’s state-owned energy company Sonatrach resumed oil and gas exploration activities in Libya in mid-October.

According to an NOC statement published in the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Sonatrach is drilling an exploratory well in the Ghadames basin, near the Libya-Algeria border.

4. US sanctions are hitting Russia’s key crude oil import markets hard, with India’s Reliance Industries set to stop crude imports under a long-term deal with Rosneft.

Reliance, India’s top private refiner, operates the world’s largest refining complex at Jamnagar with a processing capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day, and has a long-term deal with Rosneft for nearly 500,000 barrels per day.

5. Crude tankers are once again running at full capacity, with freight rates soaring across all segments as oil volumes hit their highest in more than five years.

Total crude and condensate shipments rose to 1.31 million barrels per day in mid-October, the highest since May 2020, according to data from Vortexa.