Oil prices were nearly unchanged in early Asian trading on Thursday after rising the previous day and recording steep monthly gains. Brent crude futures rose 12 cents, or 0.1%, to $98.15 a barrel by 0045 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $90.35. Brent gained around 14% in September, its strongest monthly increase since July, while WTI advanced about 5%. Supply concerns linked to stalled US-Iran peace talks supported buying, but signs of recovering Middle Eastern exports limited gains. Saudi Arabia resumed tanker loadings from its Red Sea port of Yanbu after restarting its East-West Pipeline. Goldman Sachs said Gulf oil exports, including shipments from vessels with location transponders switched off, had recovered to 23.3 million barrels per day, in line with their 2025 average. OPEC+ producers are likely to keep November output targets unchanged, while US crude inventories increased unexpectedly by 922,000 barrels.