Oil Futures Settle Higher For 3rd Straight Day

Crude oil prices moved higher on Friday despite persisting worries about the outlook for near to medium term energy demand amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Reports about OPEC and its allies beginning to cut outputs supported oil prices. OPEC and its allies led by Russia had last month agreed to reduce output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended up $0.94, or about 5%, at $19.78 a barrel, after moving between $18.07 and $20.48 a barrel.

June WTI crude oil futures gained about 21% in the week.

Brent crude futures for July settled lower by about 0.6% at $26.31 a barrel. Brent crude futures have shed around 60% so far this year.

Oil was also supported by a report from Baker Hughes that said the number of active rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. dropped by 52 to 325 this week, declining for a seventh successive week. The total active rig count fell by 57 to 408 in the week, the report added.

Data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday said crude stockpiles rose by about 9 million barrels in the U.S. in the week ended April 24, lower than an expected rise of about 11.7 million barrels.

According to the data, crude production in the U.S. fell by 100,000 barrels per day last week.

The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com