Crude oil prices were steady at Friday's trading start after posting losses during the previous session with the ongoing U.S.-China trade war still unresolved and with still no sign off on an interim deal.
International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $59.64 per barrel at 0650 GMT for a 0.3% increase after closing Thursday at $59.47 a barrel.
American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $54.33 a barrel at the same time for a 0.5% gain after ending the previous session at $54.08 per barrel.
Both benchmarks lost more than 1.8% on Thursday as the world's two largest economies, the U.S. and China, have yet to sign an interim 'phase one' deal that would pause their trade war.
'China and the U.S.A. are working on selecting a new site for signing of Phase One of Trade Agreement, about 60% of total deal, after APEC [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation] in Chile was canceled do to unrelated circumstances,' U.S. President Donald Trump said via Twitter on Thursday.
'The new location will be announced soon. President Xi and President Trump will do signing!' he added.
U.S. and China were set to sign the phase one deal in late November in Chile, but President Sebastian Pinera had to cancel the APEC trade summit and COP25 UN climate conference in December due to ongoing violent protests in his country.
As the U.S.-China trade war prolongs, the global economic growth forecast and overall oil demand expectation worldwide remain weak, putting a downward pressure on oil prices.
On the supply side, OPEC and Russia are expected to deepen their oil production cuts in early December to lower some of the oversupply in the global oil market and push prices higher.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr