Crude oil futures ended lower Friday, as investors booked a profit after a day after a surprise reading on U.S. stockpiles helped lift the domestic crude benchmark to its highest close in more than a year and a half.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April fell 46 cents, or 0.8%, to close at $53.99 a barrel.
April Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped 59 cents, or 1%, to settle at $55.99 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.
On Thursday, oil prices got a boost from U.S. Energy Information Administration data that showed crude stockpiles grew less than expected last week. The 564,00-barrel increase reported by the EIA fell short of the 3.4-million-barrel addition anticipated by analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
A group of 20 oil producers, including OPEC members, have reduced their production in the past month due to a production curb aimed at reducing the current inventory glut. Prices have moved upward, but growing domestic supplies are hindering them from breaking the $60 a barrel mark.
The EIA data confirmed that U.S. crude production reached 9 million barrels a day last week, the highest level since early April 2016.
Meanwhile, March natural gas futures rose 1 cent, or 0.4%, to close at $2.627 per million British thermal units on the New York, Mercantile Exchange.
