Crude oil prices reversed course and settled higher on Thursday, buoyed by renewed confidence surrounding the recent OPEC deal to cut production, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, January West Texas Intermediate crude rose 34 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $51.38 a barrel. Thursday marks the expiration of January crude oil options.
On the London ICE Futures Exchange, February Brent crude, the global benchmark, tacked on 49 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $54.39 a barrel.
Natural gas futures also reversed its earlier course on Thursday, settling lower as traders weighed support from a higher-than-expected weekly drop in domestic inventories against pressure from recent forecasts for warmer weather.
The Energy Information Administration data confirmed supplies of natural gas dropped by 147 billion cubic feet for the week ending December 9. Analysts at Citi Futures had forecast a fall of 124 billion cubic feet.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, January natural gas was down 9 cents, or 2.5%, to settle at $3.45 per million British thermal units.