Oil futures finished lower Thursday after a report showed that the number of rigs actively drilling for crude in the U.S. fell over the past week, suggesting that production might soon decline.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, May West Texas Intermediate crude lost 33 cents, or 0.8%, to $39.46 a barrel, off the session’s low of $38.33, trading about 4% lower for the week.
Markets will be closed on Good Friday.
May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures Exchange shed 3 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $40.44 a barrel, also cutting much of its earlier losses. Brent prices have lost roughly 1.5% this week.
The number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude fell by 15 to 372 as of Thursday, according to Baker Hughes, which released its rig count report a day earlier than usual because of Friday’s market holiday. The report follows an increase of one rig the week before, which marked the first oil rig count rise of the year.
The total U.S. rig count fell 12 to 464, which is another record low.
Oil prices had been under pressure since Wednesday when the Energy Information Administration confirmed a 9.4 million barrel jump in crude supplies for the week ended March 18.
April natural gas added 2 cents, or 1.1%, to $1.81 per million British thermal units. Prices, which traded a bit lower before the supply data, closed about 5% lower on the week.
