Investing.com - U.S. oil moved higher on Friday, but gains were expected to remain limited as ongoing concerns over the level of global supplies continued to weigh on the commodity.
U.S. crude futures for July delivery were up 0.54% at $44.70 a barrel, just off Thursday’s six-week lows of $44.22.
On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, the August Brent advanced 0.90% to $47.34 a barrel, not far from the previous session’s siz-week trough of $46.70 a barrel.
Oil prices tumbled after the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said that crude oil inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels in the week ended June 9, disappointing expectations for a decline of around 2.8 million barrels.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories increased by 2.1 million barrels, compared to forecasts for a drop of 457,000 barrels. For distillate inventories including diesel, the EIA reported a rise of 328,000 barrels.
Oil prices have been under pressure in recent weeks as concern over rising U.S. shale output offset production cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC members.
Last month, OPEC and some non-OPEC producers extended a deal to cut 1.8 million barrels per day in supply until March 2018.
However, Russia, which is not an OPEC member but is participating in the deal, is expected to export 61.2 million tonnes of oil via pipelines in the third quarter, against 60.5 million tonnes in the second quarter.