By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil rose for the fourth consecutive day this week on Friday and recorded what is the biggest weekly gain in more than a month due to support caused by falling U.S. crude inventories.
The weekly performance rise was influenced by the surprise drop in the United States inventories, with crude stocks dropping by about 1.7 million barrels last week.
On Friday, the Brent crude was set for a weekly gain of almost 4 percent or 34 cents to settle at $61.73 per barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by 46 cents to settle at $56.69 per barrel.
The good news surrounding the gains in crude prices also got renewed support from optimism over a US and China trade deal which has affected price in past months as Reuters confirmed that Washington officials on Friday said the both countries were close to finalizing the first part of a trade deal after months of a tariff war.
However, despite this semblance of optimism, prices still suffered based on concerns over weakening economic growth.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also helped drive prices up as officials at the organisation said that extended supply cuts were a likely option to shake off the weaker demand outlook that plagued the commodity in 2020.
Already, some major producers are not obeying the production agreements set on them by OPEC and this weighed on sentiments affecting oil prices despite agreement to cut supply by 1.2 million barrels per day from the start of this year until March 2020.
This has spurred Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader to focus on getting its allies to obey the arrangement in its production-reduction pact with Russia and other non-members, an alliance known as OPEC+.
The OPEC Basket futures was also trading up at $61.63 per barrel at this time.
Reuters also confirmed that a shutdown of Britain’s 150,000 barrel per day capacity Buzzard oilfield since October 16 and a brief shutdown in the North Sea’s Forties Pipeline System also aided the steady gains in prices of the black gold.
