Crude oil futures had another strong end of week rally on Friday, with U.S. and global benchmark prices reaching their highest settlements in more than two years, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
December West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed $1.10, or 2%, to settle at $55.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, marking its highest settlement price since July of 2015. For the week, WTI rose 3.2% higher, edging up for a fourth-straight week.
January Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped $1.45, or 2.4%, to finish at $62.07 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. For the week, Brent crude posted an increase of 3.2%, also ending on a more than two-year high.
“OPEC rhetoric gets a lot of the attention, [but] increasing global demand expectations and the pause in U.S. output growth beginning back in August are two other key pillars to the bullish fundamental argument for oil right now,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor of the Sevens Report.
The OPEC production curb agreement is “a very important development as the market is finally starting to have faith in the efficacy of the cartel again,” said Richey.
OPEC will meet in Vienna on November 30. Meanwhile, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday the output deal between OPEC and a group of non-cartel countries led by Russia could be extended beyond March of 2018 if needed.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas rose 1.7% to $2.984 per million British thermal units, trading around 0.7% higher for the week.