Investing.com – Crude futures settled above breakeven on Friday, as investors appeared to take profit from the two-day rally in oil prices while the number of active U.S. drilling rigs rose for a seventeenth straight week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for June delivery gained 1 cent to settle at $47.84 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent added 8 cents to trade at $50.85 a barrel.
Investors turned attention to U.S. oil output, after oilfield services firm, Baker Hughes, reported its weekly U.S. rig count rose by 9 to 712.
Concerns over U.S. crude output eased earlier this week, after the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, that crude oil inventories fell by 5.25 million barrels, well above expectations of a draw of 1.79 million barrels.
Despite the drop in U.S. crude inventories, overall sentiment remained bearish, as OPEC’s monthly report released Thursday, showed U.S. production accounted for around 93%, roughly 540,000 barrels of total non-OPEC growth in April.
Oil prices settled positive for the week, after dropping more than 5% on Monday, as a strong rally ensued later during the week, following bullish comments from oil ministers on a possible extension of the supply-cut agreement.
Algeria and Iran said on Thursday, that they would support a deal extension.
In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia, agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd). The deal to cut production began in January this year for a period of six-months until June.
OPEC is expected to decide at talks on May 25 whether to extend the current deal to cut production for an additional six-months to the end of the year.