US oil prices have ended the holiday shortened with losses as US producers added to the number of rigs looking for oil and gas – the first increase in rig use in 30 weeks.
Coming on top of a surprise rise in US oil stocks last week, oil futures ended the short week down 4.5%.
The moderate US jobs report (223,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate dipping to 5.3% in June) had no impact.
US style West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery eased 3 cent to $US56.93 a barrel in New York For the week, oil saw loss of around 4.5%.
In London Brent crude crude added 6 cents, 0.1% to $US62.07 a barrel, down close to 2% for the week.
The number of rigs drilling for oil in the US rose by 12 to 640 in the week to July 2, according to the latest weekly rig use report from oilfield services company Baker Hughes.
This is the first increase since December 5th last year and tells us the steadying in oil prices in recent weeks is encouraging drillers to resume their fracking activities.
Since hitting a low of $US43.46 in March, US crude prices have stabilised to trade at around the $US56 to $US60 a barrel range since May.
The latest weekly report from the Energy Information Administration showed that US oil stocks rose by 2.4 million barrels to 465.4 million in the week to June 26, the highest level for this time of the year in at least 80 years. That knocked US crude prices down 4.2% on Wednesday alone.
Comex gold for August delivery fell $US5.80, or 0.5%, to settle at $US1,163.50 an ounce, after trading as low as $US1,155.80, according to Marketwatch.
For the holiday-shortened week, prices saw a loss of around 0.8%. and the US close was the lowest since March 18.
