Oil prices rise on supply cuts and political tensions in Saudi Arabia

Oil prices rose nearly 1 percent, supported by supply cuts by major exporters as well as continuing concern about political developments in Saudi Arabia.

Brent crude oil settled up 44 cents or 0.7 percent at $63.93 a barrel, which was the highest since June 2015. US light crude was up 46 cents or 0.8 percent at $57.27.

Saudi Arabia plans to cut crude exports by 120,000 barrels per day in December from November, slashing allocations to all regions, a spokesman for the energy ministry said.

Several traders said prices got a boost from unconfirmed rumors that Saudi King Salman would relinquish the throne to his son Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Similar rumors were spread in September and October.

Prices got a boost this week from a crackdown on corruption by the Saudi crown prince. Still, traders expressed caution that the oil price rally may have run its course after pushing up Brent more than 40 percent since July.

The rally has largely been driven by crude output cuts from producing nations led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. OPEC will discuss output at a meeting on November 30, and is expected to extend the limits beyond their expiry in March 2018. If that happens, some said prices could rally more.

US crude production rose 67,000 barrels per day to 9.62 million bpd, the highest for decades, and looked set to rise further. Global oil inventories accelerated draws in October on OPEC-led output cut efforts, and total crude inventories dropped around 93 million barrels between July and November.