Oil futures pushed higher Friday after the International Energy Agency underscored a tight market, but crude remained on track to end a string of seven straight weekly gains.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery
CL.1,
+1.26% CLH22,
+1.26%
rose $1.29, or 1.4%, to $91.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, leaving the U.S. benchmark headed for a 1.2% weekly decline. -
April Brent crude
BRN00,
+0.98% BRNJ22,
+0.98% ,
the global benchmark, was up $1.03, or 1.1%, at $92.44 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, leaving it down 0.9% so far this week. Both WTI and Brent last week finished at seven-year highs. -
March natural gas
NGH22,
-1.72%
fell 0.8% to $3.929 per million British thermal units. -
March gasoline
RBH22,
+0.86%
rose 0.8% to $2.6877 a gallon, while March heating oil
HOH22,
+1.15%
gained 1.3% to $2.863 a gallon.
Market drivers
Failures by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies to hit raised targets for crude production have helped push oil prices to their highest level since 2014, the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly market report. The agency said there were signs that the shortfall was worsening, likely contributing to further tightness in an already stretched market, the IEA said.
In One Chart: Why OPEC+ can’t hit its oil production targets — and what it could do about it
Hot U.S. inflation data on Thursday showing the January consumer-price index rose 7.5% year-over-year, remaining near a 40-year high, could keep a lid on crude as pressure grows for the Federal Reserve to move aggressively to tighten monetary policy, said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, in a note.
“In addition, continued progress in Iranian nuclear talks is likely to be holding the market back to a certain degree,” Patterson wrote. The U.S. is indirectly participating in talks between Iran and other countries aimed at returning Iran to the nuclear accord and lifting renewed U.S. sanctions on the country’s crude exports.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
