WTI, Brent Crude Post Slight Gains on Friday

Crude oil futures settled higher on Friday as traders mulled OPEC efforts to reach a more balanced market and worried about the potential for more domestic shale production, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

November West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 18 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $51.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December WTI, the new front-month contract, added 33 cents, or 0.6%, to end trading at $51.84 a barrel.

December Brent crude rose 52 cents higher, or 0.9%, to reach $57.75 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange. For the week, Brent crude ended about 1% higher.

At the Oil & Money conference in London this week, a number of industry experts said U.S. output is likely to keep a ceiling on prices as a fresh wave of shale is expected to hit the market in coming years.

Overall, rising domestic production has hurt efforts by OPEC to cut output until the end of March 2018 with the goal of reaching a balance between global supply and demand.

Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, November natural gas added 1.5% to $2.915 per million British thermal units. For the week, the contract lost 2.8%.