Investing.com – Crude settled more than 1% lower on Friday, as growing U.S. crude inventories to record levels continued to weigh on oil prices while the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose for an eighth straight week.
Crude prices slipped for a third straight day of losses, as investors continued to fret about oversupply in the industry.
Oilfield services firm Baker Hughes reported its weekly U.S. rig count rose by 8 to 617, it was the eighth straight weekly increase.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for May delivery lost $0.79 to settle at $48.49 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent shed $0.91 to $51.28 a barrel.
The slide in crude prices began on Wednesday, after the Energy Information Agency (EIA) reported that U.S. crude inventories rose to an all-time high of 528.4 million barrels for the week ended March 1.
Record U.S. crude inventories has cast a doubt on the efficacy of OPEC’s efforts to rebalance supply and demand, after the oil cartel group agreed a deal to cut production last November.
OPEC began implementing cuts of 1.16 million barrels per day at the start of this year for a period of six months, after its members and other exporters agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in an effort to combat the oversupply issue that has pressured prices over the last two years.
Oil prices have slipped away from a narrow $3 trading range and suffered their biggest weekly drop in five months on Friday.