Rebounding from a two-week low, oil prices surged on Friday, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
December West Texas Intermediate crude jumped by $1.41, or 2.6%, to settle at $56.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, ahead of the contract’s expiration at Monday’s settlement.
January Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained $1.36, or 2.2%, to end trading at $62.72 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange.
For the week, WTI still suffered a 0.3% slump, while Brent lost about 1.3% since last Friday, following gains in each of the previous five weeks. The losses were driven by concerns over a surprise climb in domestic stockpiles, a lower global demand forecast and an increase in U.S. production to a record weekly level.
OPEC will hold its next official meeting on November 30 where It’s widely expected to extend the production curb agreement past March of 2018.
After the New York Mercantile Exchange settlements posted on Friday, the American Petroleum Institute reported that U.S. crude production marked its highest October level since 1972.
Meanwhile, December natural gas tacked on 1.4% to settle at $3.097 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A day earlier, the Energy Information Administration reported the first weekly decline of the winter heating fuel season for U.S. natural gas supplies. For the week, natural gas lost roughly 3.6%.
