Oil Prices Gain After Suffering Worst Weekly Performance in Three Years

Investing.com – Oil prices rebounded on Friday in Asia after suffering their worst weekly performance in nearly three years last week.

U.S. crude oil futures lost about 11% last week, its steepest weekly drop since January 2016 while Brent oil futures tumbled about 10.7% for the week amid A surprise climb in the U.S. rig count on Friday and a slump on Wall Street.

On Monday, for February delivery gained 0.4% to $45.76 a barrel at 12:20 AM ET (05:20 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while for February delivery edged up 0.3% to $53.24 per barrel on London’s Intercontinental Exchange.

Trading volumes are expected to remain light for the rest of the week due to the Christmas holiday.

Despite today’s gain, Crude oil has now lost over a third of its value since October, with rising oil supplies and a slowing global economy being cited as the major headwinds for oil prices.

Oil production has been at or near record highs in major producers the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia; various reports showed in recent months.

To ease supply worries, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia agreed earlier this month to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd).

With just about one week to the end of 2018, WTI remains down about 25% this year, while Brent is down about 20% on the year.

In other news, the Energy Information Administration reported last week that domestic crude supplies declined by a less-than-expected 0.5 million barrels.

Meanwhile, Baker Hughes on Friday reported that U.S. energy firms added oil rigs for the first time in the past three weeks. Drillers added 10 oil rigs in the week to Dec. 21, bringing the total count to 883.

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