Crude oil futures settled slightly lower on Friday and for the week as traders seemed content with OPEC’s production cut, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
March West Texas Intermediate crude slid 61 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $53.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, the March contract was down less than 0.1% from the $53.22 it settled at a week ago, but it was about 1.4% higher than the settlement for last Friday’s front-month February contract.
On the London ICE Futures Exchange, March Brent crude lost 72 cents, or 1.3% to end trading at $55.52 a barrel. The contract settled slightly lower at $55.49 a week ago.
Weekly data released Friday showed a second-straight weekly rise in the number of U.S. rigs actively drilling for oil, contributing to concerns that increases in U.S. crude production will hurt efforts by other producers to curb output.
Crude oil prices have fluctuated between gains and losses in recent weeks, but pushed higher on Thursday. Crude oil futures activity has been driven in large part by OPEC and its production curb aimed at reducing the massive inventories. Traders have been encouraged by promising signs of compliance with the November pact that went into effect in January.
Meanwhile, February natural gas, which expired at the day’s settlement, climbed by just under a cent, or 0.3%, to settle at $3.391 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract ended about 5.8% higher for the week.
March natural gas settled at $3.358 per million British thermal units, down 3.9 cents, or 1.2%.