Oil prices notched up their best quarterly performance in almost a decade in the three months to March 31 with US crude topping $US60 a barrel for the first time in nearly five months on Friday.
By the close on Saturday morning, Sydney time, oil traders had ignored another whining tweet from President Donald Trump about ‘high’ prices and made strong gains.
In New York, West Texas Intermediate crude for May rose 84 cents, or 1.4%, to end at $US60.14 a barrel — the highest close since November 9.
Crude prices held up after weekly data from oil-field services firm Baker Hughes showed the number of US oil rigs fell by 8 last week.
West Texas futures rose 32.4% in the three months to the end of March, its strongest quarterly advance since the second quarter of 2009 (both oil benchmarks jumped 40% in that quarter of 2009).
In Europe, Brent crude futures, the global benchmark also rose on the day, ending up 48 US cents at $US67.58 a barrel.
That left Brent with a gain of 25.9% for the quarterly, also its strongest since 2009. The May contract which expired at Friday’s close, rose 57 cents, or 0.8%, to end at $US68.39 a barrel.
The Baker Hughes total rig count declined by 10 to 1,016, 21 rigs above the previous year but down 5.78% from the 1,078 last December.
Rigs drilling for oil in the US fell by 8 to 816, still 19 rigs more than the prior year’s level. US rigs classified as drilling for gas fell by 2 to 190, 4 less than last year.
The US Energy Information Administration reported on Friday that domestic output in the world’s top crude producer edged lower in January to 11.9 million barrels per day (bpd).
The EIA also said on Wednesday that daily output was currently running at 12.1 million bpd.
