Crude prices for the U.S. crude-oil benchmark settled lower on Friday, 15 May 2015 but still tallied a gain for a ninth week in a row—said to be the longest weekly streak of gains in at least 30 years. Concerns over a supply glut in the market pressured prices, but weakness in the U.S. dollar and a 23rd straight weekly decline in the number of active U.S. oil rigs helped cut losses.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, June West Texas Intermediate crude lost 19 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $59.69 a barrel.
Brent crude for July delivery ended at $66.81 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange, up 11 cents, or 0.2%. Based on the most-active contracts, prices for the global crude benchmark were up about 2.2% for the week.
Oil fell more sharply earlier in the session but pared losses as the dollar turned lower. Oil is priced dollars, so changes in the value of the greenback can make oil cheaper or more expensive to holders of other currencies. Oil continued to see pressure from ongoing concerns about the global oversupply.
Earlier this week, the International Energy Agency said that while it expects U.S. shale-oil output growth to show signs of slowing, other producers such as Russia and Saudi Arabia continue to ramp up production.
Among other energy products, June gasoline was nearly flat at $2.057 a gallon—up 3.3% for the week. June heating oil also ended little changed at $2.005 a gallon, up 2.6% for the week.
June natural gas settled at $3.016 per million British thermal units, up less than a cent, with prices gaining 4.7% for the week.
