Investing.com - Crude prices jumped on Friday with investors noting an OPEC meeting next week could confirm solid compliance in a coordinated effort with non-OPEC nations to trim almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) from global production.
Crude oil for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped 2.04% to settle at $52.42 a barrel. On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for March delivery rose 2.46% to settle at $55.49 a barrel.
However, price gains were tempered as U.S. oil drillers added 29 rigs by the end of last week taking the total to 551, compared to 510 a year ago, as drilling activity in shale formations continues to grow again with higher oil prices.
Since crude prices first topped $50 a barrel in May drillers have added a total of 235 oil rigs, with almost two-thirds in the Permian basin, the nation's biggest shale oil formation located in west Texas and eastern New Mexico. Other supply responses are coming from OPEC members Libya, Iran and Nigeria which are exempt from the cvuts.
Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said its output now stands at 722,000 bpd, resuming its rise from levels below 400,000 barrels a day late in December after warring factions allowed oil fields to resume output and ports to load supplies.