Investing.com – Crude prices started the week in positive territory on Monday, as market players returned to the market to seek cheap bargains in wake of last week’s steep declines.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rallied $1.36, or 2.3%, to $60.59 a barrel by 4:10AM ET (0910GMT).
Meanwhile, futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., jumped $1.40, or roughly 2.2%, to $64.21 a barrel.
Oil prices finished lower for a sixth straight session on Friday to tally their worst weekly loss in two years.
WTI crude lost roughly 9.6% last week, which was the biggest such decline since January 2016, while Brent gave up about 8.5%, as investors continued to fret over soaring U.S. output levels.
The number of oil drilling rigs jumped by 26 to last week, General Electric (NYSE:)’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday.
That marked a third straight week of increases and the largest weekly rise in more than a year, implying that further gains in domestic production are ahead.
That came after data on Wednesday showed U.S. oil production, driven by shale extraction, rose to an all-time high of 10.25 million barrels per day (bpd). That figure is above that of top exporter Saudi Arabia and within reach of Russia’s output levels.
That added to fears that rising U.S. output would dampen OPEC’s efforts to rid the market of excess supplies.
The producer group, along with some non-OPEC members led by Russia, agreed in December to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018.
The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.
, market participants will eye fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products on Tuesday and Wednesday to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest oil consumer and how fast output levels will continue to rise.
Oil traders will also focus on monthly reports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties and the International Energy Agency to assess global oil supply and demand levels.
In other energy trading, tacked on 2.1% to $1.736 a gallon, while gained 1.9% to $1.890 a gallon.
ticked down 1.4 cents, or 0.5%, to $2.571 per million British thermal units.
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Source: Investing.com
