Oil prices are declining Monday morning after a strong rise last week.
The price of Brent futures for May on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $85.07 per barrel by 7:11 a.m., $0.76 (0.89%) lower than at the close of the previous session. Those contracts rose $1.08 (1.3%) to $85.83 a barrel at the close of trading last Friday.
The price of WTI futures for April at the electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is $78.96 per barrel by that time, which is $0.72 (0.9%) lower than the final value of the previous session. The contract rose by $1.52 (1.9%) to $79.68 per barrel on Friday.
Brent gained 3.6% and WTI gained 4.4%.
Oil prices last week were supported by optimism about the economic recovery in China and some weakening of US dollar.
Meanwhile, the number of active oil rigs in the U.S. fell by 8 units to 592 last week, oil services company Baker Hughes said. The number of rigs fell to its lowest since last September.
