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Oil claws back losses as US rig count falls

Oil prices recovered a bit from a rough week Friday as data showed a fresh decline in US oil exploration, suggesting lower output that could ease the global oversupply.

oil-pricesOil prices recovered a bit from a rough week Friday as data showed a fresh decline in US oil exploration, suggesting lower output that could ease the global oversupply.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in November rose 88 cents to $47.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent North Sea crude for December delivery, the global benchmark, closed at $50.46 a barrel in London, a gain of 73 cents from Thursday’s close.

Both contracts had fallen for the first four days of the week, and, for the full week, WTI lost 4.8 percent and Brent was down 4.2 percent.

“The global petroleum markets are holding at least moderate gains on end-of-week book squaring that has helped reverse at least some of the prior losses,” said Tim Evans of Citi Futures.

“Sentiment has proven to be resilient, with at least some portion of the market arguing that a bottom has been established, with the ongoing physical surplus already discounted into the price.”

In a bullish sign for the market, the Baker Hughes weekly US oil rig count reported Friday fell by 10, or 1.7 percent, this week, marking the seventh consecutive week of declines.

That reinforced the outlook for lower US crude-oil production. On Thursday the Department of Energy reported US output fell by 76,000 barrels to 9.17 million barrels per day.

There was continuing market chatter about Russia eying production cuts.

Bloomberg News reported Thursday that Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Russia was prepared to discuss price ranges and output cuts when it meets with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna next Wednesday.

But Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said there was only a “very slight” chance that the meeting would yield any concrete results.

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