Crude Oil Prices – Weekly Outlook: February 25

Investing.com – Oil traders will continue to focus on global crude supply prospects over the coming week, as OPEC's production cuts have helped tighten an oversupplied market .

Market players will also be alert to any significant change in the US-China trade front this week, as both sides strive to reach an agreement before the March 1 deadline for the new tariffs.

The United States and China are the two largest oil consuming countries in the world. The hope that both sides reach an agreement resolving their long trade war has helped alleviate concerns about energy demand.

New data on inventories and US commercial crude production activity will also attract market attention this week.

Oil prices rose on Friday to reach their best levels of the year.

The United States bet on 30 cents, or about 0.5%, to settle at $ 57.26 a barrel at the close of markets. WTI had reached its highest level since Nov. 16 at $ 57.81.

For the week, the US benchmark rose about 3%.

Meanwhile, international futures ended Friday's session up 5 cents to $ 67.12 a barrel. It hit a high of more than three months of $ 67.73 earlier in the day.

Brent prices were up about 1.3% over the week.

After the end of 2018 in free fall, oil prices recovered around 25% at the beginning of the year, stimulated by the efforts of global producers to reduce supply.

In December, OPEC and a group of 10 producers outside the cartel, led by Russia, agreed to collectively reduce their production by a total of 1.2 million barrels per day ( bpj) in the first half of 2019.

As the leading exporter and de facto leader of OPEC, Saudi Arabia has recently pledged to further reduce its production than anticipated by the agreement.

The cuts are in addition to unintentional production restrictions resulting from US sanctions on Venezuelan and Iranian crude, as well as a reduction in Libyan production due to civil unrest.

In the meantime, crude oil production in the United States will hit a record 12.0 million bpd.

Investing.com has listed some of the main events that could affect the oil market.

Tuesday, February 26

The company will release its weekly update on US oil supplies.

Wednesday, February 27

The will publish its weekly report on oil stocks.

Friday, March 1st

{{0}} will publish weekly data on the number of US oil rigs.

– Reuters contributed to this report