Investing.com – Crude settled higher on Friday, but ended the quarter in negative, as investors questioned the effectiveness of the OPEC-led production cut agreement to tackle a glut in supply while the number of active U.S. drilling rigs rose for an eleventh straight week.
Oilfield services firm Barker Hughes reported its weekly U.S. rig count rose by 10 to 662, it was the eleventh straight weekly increase.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for May delivery gained 25 cents to settle at $50.60 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent added 50 cents to trade at $53.62 a barrel.
Despite, a high level of compliance from OPEC members with a deal to cut production, crude futures ended the quarter down 5.8%, as investors focused on the lower level of compliance from eleven non-OPEC oil producers that joined the deal while a sharp increase in U.S. shale and crude production weighed on sentiment.
Eleven non-OPEC oil producers that joined a global deal to reduce output to boost prices delivered only 64% of promised cuts in February, an industry source said March 20, which was far below the roughly 90% level of compliance from OPEC members.
Meanwhile, investors worried that the faster pace of output from U.S. shale and crude producers could dampened OPEC’s efforts to reduce the supply and demand imbalance in the industry.
Despite, a dip in crude inventories on Wednesday, crude stockpiles remained at record highs – at over 520 million barrels, current crude supplies are up 6% over the past year.