[ferro-alloys.com]Crude oil futures were mixed during mid-morning trade in Asia Thursday as latest US inventory data and supply concerns elsewhere kept prices volatile.

At 9:35 am Singapore time (0235 GMT), ICE November Brent crude futures were up 22 cents/b (0.29%) from Thursday's settle at $77.12/b, while the NYMEX October light sweet crude contract was down 10 cents/b (0.15%) at $68.62/b.

US crude inventories fell 1.2 million barrels in the week ended August 31, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose 1 million barrels and 1.8 million barrels respectively, according to analysts quoting American Petroleum Institute data released Wednesday.

Analysts surveyed Tuesday by S&P Global Platts had been expecting US crude inventories to fall 2.5 million barrels in the week amid strong US refinery activity and a pick-up in exports, and for gasoline stocks to fall 1.5 million barrels and distillate stocks to rise 600,000 barrels.

The PRICE Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn described the API report Thursday as: "Not too bearish, not too bullish."

More definitive US inventory data for the week is due for release by the US Energy Information Administration later Thursday.

Easing concerns over the impact of Tropical Storm Gordon also helped to lower NYMEX WTI prices, analysts said.

"Prices retreated after a storm that threatened to close down output in the Gulf of Mexico petered out. Gordon, which has been downgraded to a tropical depression, is now expected to miss most key oil infrastructure," ANZ analysts said in a note Thursday.

Meanwhile, ahead of the second round of US sanctions targeting Iran's oil sector kicking in on November 5, exports of Iranian oil in August sank to a seven-month low, data from S&P Global Platts' trade flow software cFlow Wednesday showed.

Total estimated export volumes on Aframaxes, Suezmaxes and VLCCs from Iranian ports fell 17% to 1.92 million b/d in August from 2.32 million b/d in July, according to cFlow data.

On the other hand, OPEC is hoping to finalize a long-term cooperation pact to help manage the global oil market with Russia and other key oil producer allies at their next meeting in December, the producer group's secretary general, Mohammed Barkindo, said Wednesday.

"Every country is submitting their input because it's a multilateral process until we get all their input, then we'll sit down and synthetize," Barkindo told Platts on the sidelines of an oil conference in Cape Town.

OPEC produced 32.68 million b/d in July, up 360,000 b/d from June, according to the latest Platts OPEC survey of industry officials, analysts and tanker tracking data.

"In June, all the [OPEC] conference did was to urge the countries to strive to return to 100%, [which] would require additional supplies to the market," Barkindo said. "There is no disagreement either within OPEC, or between OPEC and non-OPEC, on that decision."

• [Editor:王可]