MELBOURNE: Oil prices climbed in the initial trade on Friday. With this, it makes the continuous gains for the third straight week. This surge is due to the crude producers holding back the output amid tensions about the economic recovery from COVID 19 pandemic.
The United States West Texas Intermediate oil (WTI) further raised 0.2% or 8 cents, to reach at $42.90 per barrel at 0158 GMT. The recorded overall surge for the week is 2%.
Brent crude inched up 0.4% or 16 cents to reach $44.07 per barrel, advancing for a weekly surge around 0.5%.
The benchmark contracts (both) dropped around 1% on Thursday due to economic distress after the weekly jobless calls of the United States moved larger than expected.
The internal report of OPEC+ directs towards the demand risks, indicating that expected fall in oil demand in 2020 will be 9.1 million barrels per day. The data is 100,000 barrels per day more than the previously forecasted report by OPEC+.
As per the report by Reuters, OPEC+ discovered that some members need to cut down their crude output by 2.31 million barrels per day to make it up for the oversupply of stockpiles in the market.