Oil futures settled lower on Friday but still finished the week with a gain, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
Prices briefly pared some of their earlier losses after Baker Hughes, Inc. reported that the number of active U.S. oil rigs fell by 3 to 351 as of Friday. That was the fourth weekly decline in a row.
May West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.14, or 2.8%, to settle at $40.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices tallied a third straight session decline, but still tacked on about 1.6% for the week.
June Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 74 cents, or 1.7%, to $43.10 a barrel, on London’s ICE Futures Exchange, with prices roughly 2.7% higher on the week.
Meanwhile, May natural gas ended at $1.902 per million British thermal units, down 6.8 cents, or 3.5%. It was about 4.4% lower on the week.
