Investing.com – Crude prices continued a year-long rally on Friday thanks to a surprise drop in U.S. output ahead of weekly oil rig data and as gains for 2017 were on track to comfortably top a 10% rise.
The February contract advanced 24 cents, or 0.40%, to $60.08 a barrel by 10:24AM ET (15:24GMT) Thursday.
Elsewhere, for March delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London traded up 28 cents, or 0.42%, to $66.44 a barrel.
Oil prices continued to march higher on Friday as the U.S. benchmark rose eight out of the last nine sessions.
U.S. oil production surprisingly dropped to 9.754 million barrels per day (bpd), down from 9.789 million bpd the previous week, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released late on Thursday.
U.S. crude output has risen by around 16% since mid-2016, but analysts had forecast it to surpass 10 million bpd by the end of 2017.
Adding to bullish sentiment earlier on Thursday, oil stockpiles stateside fell by a more-than-expected 4.6 million barrels, helping to support bullish sentiment in black gold.
In a , the was last on track for annual gains of nearly 12% while the was up close to 17% in 2017.
U.S. shale production will be a focus as market participants evaluate whether increased production in the U.S. will derail OPEC attempts to curb output and rebalance global markets.
In that light, investors will also get their latest glimpse of U.S. output when Baker releases its most recent .
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Source: Investing.com
