Investing.com – Crude oil prices settled higher on Friday, as investors weighed the possibility of supply disruptions in Northern Iraq against expectations that U.S. producers are poised to ramp up shale output.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for November delivery rose 11 cents to settle at $51.67 a barrel, while on London\'s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent lost 39 cents to trade at $56.77 a barrel.
Crude prices were restricted to a narrow trading range amid ongoing political uncertainty in Iraq that threatens the operation of a key pipeline linking northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
A victory for Iraqi Kurdish voters on independence from Iraq earlier this week has fuelled fears of a possible supply disruption in the region as the vote has angered Iraq’s central government and neighboring countries including Turkey.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday warned his country could “close the valves” on the pipeline that carries 500,000-600,000 barrels of crude per day from northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Investors weighed the possibility of a supply disruption in the oil-rich region against expectations that rising crude prices will attract a boom in US shale oil output.
“A tug-of-war is developing again, this time between the threat to supply in northern Iraq and growing output from U.S. shale,” said Enrico Chiorando, an analyst at energy consultancy Love Energy. “Shale production has been increasing and will continue to weigh on prices, following Brent’s longest weekly bull run since June 2016 and its fifth-consecutive weekly gain.”
Oilfield services firm Baker Hughes said Friday its weekly count of oil rigs operating in the United States rose by 6 to 750.
The weekly rig count is an important barometer for the drilling industry and serves as a proxy for oil production and oil services demand.