Oil scores biggest weekly gain since early April

By William Watts

Crude rebounds from slide following OPEC+ announcement

Oil futures fell slightly on Friday but maintained solid weekly gains that more than erased the tumble seen after OPEC+ on June 2 announced a plan to begin phasing in the return of around 2.2 million barrels a day of crude later this year.

Price moves

West Texas Intermediate crude CL00 for July delivery CL.1 CLN24 fell 17 cents, or 0.2%, to end at $78.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.August Brent crude BRN00 BRNQ24, the global benchmark, settled at $82.62 a barrel, down 13 cents, or 0.2%, on ICE Futures Europe.Back on Nymex, July gasoline RBN24 fell 0.7% to $2.3996 a gallon, while July heating oil HON24 shed 0.7% to finish at $2.4706 a gallon.July natural gas NGN24 dropped 2.6% to close at $2.881 per million British thermal units.

Market drivers

WTI logged a weekly gain of 3.9% and Brent rose 3.8%, the biggest weekly gains for both since the week that ended April 5, more than erasing losses last week that saw crude trade at its lowest since February. Updated forecasts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the International Energy Agency and the U.S. Energy Information Administration helped spark the rebound, with all three pointing to a supply deficit at least until the beginning of winter, said Barbara Lambrecht, commodity strategist at Commerzbank, in a note.

Further gains, however, may be elusive, she said.

"[I]n view of the still uncertain economic outlook for the major economic regions, a further price increase is not to be expected for the time being," she said. "Next week, the figures for crude oil processing in China, which were already slightly below the previous year's level in the first four months, are likely to put a damper on sentiment."

-William Watts

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06-14-24 1622ET

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