17/04/2018
Oil prices rose about 1 percent on Friday, driven by plans to extend OPEC-Russia production restrictions that were implemented in 2017 to 2019 in order to narrow the gap between the supply and the demand.
Rising oil prices are a challenge to the global stock markets, which have fallen on concern over a US-China trade confrontation. But gold, seen as a safe haven in times of economic turmoil, rose to its highest level in two weeks today.
The US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday that could impose tariffs on China's imports of up to $ 60 billion, while Beijing unveiled plans today to impose customs duties on US imports worth up to $ 3 billion.
By 0549 GMT, the US WTI crude futures rose 67 cents, 1 percent, to $ 64.97 a barrel from the previous close.
Future Brent crude was up 61 cents, 0.9 percent, to $ 69.52 a barrel. In this week, Brent is up about 5 percent in the strongest performance since July last year, while the WTI will rise 4.2 percent.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih's comments on Thursday led to raising the prices of the both futures crudes. Al-Faleh said OPEC member states should continue to coordinate with Russia and other non-OPEC oil producers in terms of supply restrictions in 2019 to reduce global oil stocks.
The organization and a group of non-member countries, led by Russia, concluded an agreement in January 2017 to cut production by 1.8 million bpd to eliminate excess supply.
