Traders said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia will continue supply cuts to European lifters by 20 per cent to 25 per cent for September, the same as for August, while oil majors' initial September allocations were cut from their final August volumes. Saudi Arabia's supplies have been keenly watched as the market sought evidence that the world's largest producer was increasing supplies after it said it would boost output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) to cool oil prices. Traders said any leakage from the kingdom after it had failed to win support from other Opec members for a collective output hike were directed to Asia and the United States.

For August, a limited number of Asian lifters had received extra volumes after the initially allocated full contractual volumes, traders said. And some oil majors were also granted incremental barrels for August in the middle of last month. A source at an Asian lifter said on Friday his company had received about 10,000 bpd more after the initial full allocation but he had not yet received an initial notice for September by Friday morning. Following a June 21 Opec accord to raise output, some Asian term lifters had received some additional volumes in July on top of earlier allocated levels of about 11 percent below the standard contractual volumes, before the kingdom reinstated full volumes from August cargoes.