Oil jumps above two-year high as market rebalances
Oil futures were hovering above a two-year high on Friday, boosted by indications that the global market is rebalancing after years of price pressure from a supply glut.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil settled above $55 per barrel on Friday after advancing 2% during the session. Recent movements suggest that the oil market is recovering, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) trims output in an attempt to remove some of the oversupply.
OPEC will hold its next meeting on Nov. 30 at its headquarters in Vienna, where analysts widely expect producers will extend their output cut agreement beyond March 2018.
Meanwhile, this week the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a weekly draw in U.S. crude oil inventories. On Friday, Baker Hughes released its weekly rig count, which showed the number of active rigs in the U.S. declined by 8 to 729 in the prior week. A consistent stream of positive U.S. economic data is also supporting oil demand expectations.