Crude oil prices on Friday were heading for their biggest weekly gain of 2019 before the much-anticipated meeting between OPEC and its allies next week.
International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $65.80 per barrel at 1205 GMT for a 1.13% daily loss. Nonetheless, this figure represents almost a 6.75% monthly gain after prices in early June registered at $61.64 a barrel.
American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $59.56 a barrel at the same time, remaining little unchanged for the day, but edged towards an 11.5% monthly rise after opening in June at $53.42 per barrel.
Oil prices increased more than 2% on Wednesday after commercial crude oil inventories in the U.S. showed a massive decline of 12.8 million barrels for the week ending June 21, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
However, the market expectation for U.S.' weekly commercial crude inventories was a decline of 2.5 million barrels.
The month of June was dominated by rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with attacks on oil tankers in the Middle East, and with falling crude inventories in the U.S.
The attack on six oil tankers around the Strait of Hormuz intensified concerns of secure oil supply from the world's biggest oil chokepoint and pushed oil prices higher.
This was coupled with Iran shooting down an American drone last week and Washington imposing additional sanctions on Tehran.
On the demand side, U.S. and China are expected to find a solution to their trade impasse during the G20 summit that kicked off in Osaka, Japan on Friday. A successful deal would help global oil demand and boost prices.
OPEC and its allies, including Russia, will meet on July 1-2 in Vienna, Austria to discuss the pact to cut daily production by 1.2 million barrels that was inked on Dec. 7.
While the oil market highly anticipates OPEC+ extending the deal into the second part of the year, some members of the group could also decide to increase their compliance levels to the deal to raise oil prices.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr