Benchmark crude oil prices are rising on Monday morning after a jump last Friday.
The price of January futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 7:11 a.m. was $81.16 per barrel, which is $0.55 (0.68%) higher than at the close of the previous session. Last Friday, these contracts jumped in price by $3.19 (4.1%) to $80.61 per barrel.
Quotes for January futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) at the specified time increased by $0.53 (0.7%) to $76.57 per barrel. At the end of the previous session, they rose by $2.99 (4.1%) to $75.89 per barrel.
Due to the active rise on Friday, both brands minimized the weekly decline. Over the past week, Brent prices fell by 1%, WTI – by 1.7%.
The sharp rise in quotations on Friday was caused by rumors that OPEC+ could extend oil production cuts for several months or increase the volume of fuel production cuts.
“Anyone who has been trading oil for at least 10 years will remember the Thanksgiving Day shock of 2014 when OPEC abandoned production quotas and plunged prices from $80 to around $45 per barrel in a matter of weeks,” Sevens Report Research editor Tyler Ritchie told MarketWatch.
“The risks are now tilted in favor of the bulls, as tighter production restrictions will push futures back to $100 per barrel,” he added.
At the same time, data from the oilfield services company Baker Hughes showed that the number of oil rigs operating in the United States increased by six last week, the highest rate since February, and amounted to 500 units. The number of gas rigs, meanwhile, fell by four to 114, the lowest level since early September.
