Investing.com - Oil prices headed for a second consecutive day of recovery on Friday, but remained on track for a weekly decline, with U.S. crude heading for its seventh straight weekly drop, as investors continued to observe world trade developments.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 11 cents, or 0.17% to $65.57 a barrel by 3:54 AM ET (7:54 GMT).
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., rose 13 cents, or 0.18%, to $71.56.
Oil’s advance came after White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow confirmed Thursday that Chinese and U.S. officials will meet later in August to resume trade talks.
Markets were worried a potential full-blown trade war between the U.S. and China would slow global economic growth and curb energy consumption, while a standoff between the U.S. and Turkey subsequently sparked fears of contagion among emerging markets.
Both concerns have sparked a selloff in oil, with U.S. crude down slightly more than 3% this week and Brent on track for weekly losses of 1.7%
Crude prices were particularly hard hit on Wednesday as data from the Energy Informational Administration (EIA) showed that the U.S. crude inventory level unexpectedly grew by 6.8 million barrels.
Later on Friday, Baker Hughes will release its most recent data on U.S. crude production.
The U.S. rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose by 10 to 869 last week, the highest level since March 2015, according to the oilfield services firm.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures slipped 0.03% to $1.9855 a gallon by 3:56 AM ET (7:56 GMT), while heating oil advanced 0.15% to $2.0996 a gallon.
Lastly, natural gas futures traded up 0.45% to $2.921 per million British thermal units.