Oil prices held steady in Asian trading on Thursday after rising the previous session, as traders weighed recovering Middle East crude flows against uncertainty over whether the improvement can last. December Brent oil futures rose 0.2% to $98.23 a barrel by 20:35 ET (00:35 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were little changed at $90.49. The front-month Brent contract expired Wednesday after settling at $103.50, while Brent gained about 14% in September and WTI rose about 5%. Middle East crude exports reached 16.328 million barrels per day in September, their highest level since the conflict began in February, according to Kpler data. Saudi Arabia also resumed tanker loadings from Yanbu after restarting its East-West pipeline. However, exports remained about 3.2 million barrels per day below February levels, leaving markets exposed to renewed disruptions. Iran said it had received a U.S. response to its latest ceasefire proposal after President Donald Trump rejected an earlier plan involving the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. Crude prices also found support from tight refined-product markets. The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. energy statistics agency, reported that crude inventories rose by 922,000 barrels last week, against analysts' expectations for a 700,000-barrel draw. Gasoline stocks fell by 1.7 million barrels and distillate stocks, including diesel and heating oil, declined by 2.3 million barrels. Trump said he was still discussing a possible ban on U.S. diesel exports, despite the White House previously denying a report about a 90-day blanket ban. U.S. diesel prices reached a record $6.53 a gallon last week, while inventories remained at historically low levels.