Oil prices surged higher on Friday as the number of active domestic oil rigs fell for the week, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, September West Texas Intermediate crude jumped $1.42, or 3%, to settle at $48.51 a barrel. The current contract expires at Tuesday’s settlement. For the week, WTI lost 0.6%.
October Brent crude, the global benchmark, rallied $1.69, or 3.3%, to end trading at $52.72 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. It gained 1.2% for the week.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, September natural gas declined 3.6 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $2.893 per million British thermal units. It was down about 3% for the week.