Investing.com - Oil prices extended gains into a seventh session on Friday to log their biggest weekly gain since mid-May, as investors were encouraged by fresh signals of a decline in U.S. crude production.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude August contract rallied $1.11, or around 2.5%, to end at $46.04 a barrel by close of trade Friday. It touched its highest since June 14 at $46.35 earlier.
For the week, WTI gained $3.03, or about 7%. However, prices still ended the first quarter with a loss of around 9% and tallied a decline of about 14.3% for the first half of the year.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for September delivery advanced $1.14, or 2.4%, to settle at $48.77 a barrel by close of trade, after touching a high of $49.00 earlier in the session, a level not seen since June 14.
London-traded Brent rose $3.23, or roughly 6.8%, on the week. Year to date, Brent is still down roughly 14.2%.
Energy services company Baker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil declined by two to 756 rigs at the end of last week.
That marked only the second time the weekly oil-rig count fell this year. Oil-rig numbers had climbed for 23 weeks in a row.
The report came after U.S. government data revealed that total domestic crude production fell by 100,000 barrels a day to 9.25 million barrels for the week ended June 23. That was the biggest decline in weekly output since July 2016.
Crude reached bear-market territory late last month amid concern that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production is derailing efforts by other major producers to rebalance the market.
In May, OPEC and some non-OPEC producers extended a deal to cut 1.8 million barrels per day in supply until March 2018.
So far, the production-cut agreement has had little impact on global inventory levels due to rising supply from producers not participating in the accord, such as Libya and Nigeria, and a relentless increase in U.S. shale oil output.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for August rose 3.6 cents, or about 2.5%, to end at $1.513 on Friday, for a weekly gain of around 5.7%.
August heating oil finished up 3.2 cents, or 2.3%, at $1.483 a gallon, with an increase of almost 7.6% on the week.
Natural gas futures for August delivery dipped 0.7 cents to settle at $3.035 per million British thermal units. It saw a weekly rise of roughly 3.6%.
In the week ahead, market participants will eye fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products on Wednesday and Thursday to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest oil consumer.
The reports come out one day later than usual due to the U.S. Independence Day holiday on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, traders will also continue to pay close attention to comments from global oil producers for evidence that they are complying with their agreement to reduce output this year.
Ahead of the coming week, Investing.com has compiled a list of these and other significant events likely to affect the markets.
Tuesday, July 4
Markets in the U.S. will remain closed for Independence Day.
Wednesday, July 5
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, is to publish its weekly report on U.S. oil supplies.
Thursday, July 6
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is to release weekly data on oil and gasoline stockpiles.
The U.S. government is also set to produce a weekly report on natural gas supplies in storage.
Friday, July 7
Baker Hughes will release weekly data on the U.S. oil rig count.