Oil jumps more than 10% for the week following OPEC meeting, decline in U.S. inventory
Oil prices were mixed on Friday after a Libyan commander said a blockade on the country’s oil exports would be lifted for a month, while a declining U.S. equities market also weighed on futures.
Still, both the U.S. and Brent crude benchmarks were set for weekly gains after Saudi Arabia pressed allies to stick to production quotas, Hurricane Sally cut U.S. production, and banks including Goldman Sachs predicted a supply deficit.
Brent fell 55 cents to $42.75 a barrel, but was set to rise 7.4% for the week, while West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, settled 14 cents, or 0.3%, higher at $41.11 per barrel.
Prices fell on Friday after eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar announced he would lift his blockade of oil output for one month. The blockade slashed Libyan production to just over 100,000 barrels per day now from around 1.2 million bpd previously.
It was unclear how quickly Libya could ramp up production.
Goldman Sachs predicted a market deficit of 3 million bpd by the fourth quarter and reiterated its target for Brent to reach $49 by year end and $65 by the third quarter of 2021.
Swiss bank UBS also pointed to the possibility of undersupply, forecasting Brent would rise to $45 a barrel in the fourth quarter and to $55 by mid-2021.
Reference: CNBC
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