West Texas Intermediate crude were up $1.15, or 2.7 percent, at $44.31 a barrel, on track for a 7 percent weekly loss.
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“Crude is down now because they think there’s going to be a hike in (U.S.) interest rates”, Tony Nunan, oil risk manager at Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo said. On the same day, Brent North Sea crude touched a similar trough at $45.32 a barrel.
The market had dived Thursday after Russian Federation suggested it may not be necessary to limit output, denting hopes for its gathering with OPEC producers in Algeria later this month. Brent for November added a hefty $1.40 to $46.85 compared with the close on Thursday.
“We consider that it is the right decision for world markets, that’s the first thing”, Putin told Bloomberg News in an interview released Friday.
The U.S. oil rig count rose by just one this week, after being unchanged last week, data from oil services company Baker Hughes showed, as crude prices hold below the key $50-a-barrel mark that analysts and drillers say makes drilling more viable.
Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The global prices for oil continued the correction, have slightly reduced the U.S. export potential.
That initially led to doubts that the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates at its September 20-21 meeting.
Expectations for a hike in borrowing costs have meanwhile swirled since last Friday when Federal Reserve boss Janet Yellen had indicated the United States economy was strong enough for such a move.
The dollar index weakened after the jobs report, making oil and other greenback-denominated commodities more affordable for holders of the euro and other currencies.
However, the greenback retreated Thursday after a surprise plunge in a gauge of USA factory activity raised questions about the economy.
“Oil recovered momentum to find itself back above $44 on Friday with this being linked to dollar weakness. following a disappointing headline non-farm payrolls reading”, said FXTM analyst Jameel Ahmad.
“The medium-term outlook remains dim for crude oil”.
Despite Putin’s comments on Friday, there is increasing scepticism among traders that oil producers will agree on an output freeze at this month’s meeting.
But doubts have crept in this week after OPEC members Iran and Iraq said they wanted to increase output, followed by Moscow’s comments on Thursday.
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The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia and other big Middle East crude exporters, will meet non-OPEC producers led by Russian Federation at informal talks in Algeria between September 26 and 28 to discuss a freeze output. Nevertheless, the U.S. oil industry firmly strengthened in the export zone, and the American price advantage is still high.
