The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude February contract was down 43 cents or about 0.65% at $61.58 a barrel by 04:00 a.m. ET (08:00 GMT), just off a a fresh two-and-a-half year high of $62.21 hit on Thursday.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for March delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London declined 29 cents or about 0.43% to $67.80 a barrel, still close to the previous session’s nearly three-year peak of $68.27.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that crude oil inventories declined by 7.4 million last week, beating expectations for a 5.1 million drop.
Oil prices were already supported in recent session by political tensions in Iran, where protests are marking the biggest challenge to the country’s clerical leadership since 2009. Iran is the world’s third biggest oil producer.
The commodity is also underpinned by production cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. The producers agreed in December to extend current oil output cuts until the end of 2018.
The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by <a href=’https://staging.theenergyyear.com/companies-institutions/opec/’>OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.
Elsewhere, gasoline futures fell 0.29% at $1.803 a gallon, while natural gas futures lost 3.16% to $2.789 per million British thermal units.
Spain's Iberdrola plans to triple its offshore wind assets in the coming years, bringing their value to USD 18 billion,… Read More
Saipem has been awarded a USD 850-million contract for subsea works in Angola by local BP-Eni joint venture Azule Energy,… Read More
Arrow Exploration has spud a new production well on the Tapir block in Colombia’s Llanos Basin, the company announced on… Read More
Petronas has made a third oil and gas discovery in Suriname's offshore Block 52, the Malaysian company announced on Wednesday Read More
Japanese power generation player JERA on Thursday announced plans to invest USD 32 billion in LNG, renewables and new fuels… Read More
Chevron is planning to exit its North Sea operations after 55 years of activity in the oil hotspot, Reuters reported… Read More
This website uses cookies.