Oil Futures Settle Lower by 0.5%

Oil prices declined on Friday, but settled nearly unchanged for the week, in the absence of major economic data and the continuing uncertainty regarding the recovery of both the demand for crude oil and the global economy at large.

Earlier today, data by Baker Hughes showed that the number of active oil rigs in the United States declined by one to a total of 180 this week.

This market the 18th consecutive weekly decline in US oil drilling rigs.

However, US benchmark crude, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for August delivery settled lower by 0.4% at $40.59 per barrel, rising by 0.1% for the week, while the global benchmark Brent crude futures for September delivery decreased by 0.5% at $43.14 a barrel, falling 0.2% for the week.

The most significant event for oil this week was the OPEC+ meeting which decided, in an expected move, to raise output by reducing the previous production cuts by 2 million barrels per day (bpd).