Drop in rig counts helps oil stage last minute rally

Oil futures settled higher Friday, with gains for the U.S. benchmark intensifying in the last few minutes of trading after a report showing a 26th straight weekly decline in the number of U.S. rigs actively drilling for oil.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, July crude CLN5, -1.00% tacked on $1.13, or 2%, to settle at $59.13 a barrel. It had traded below $57 in the wake of the OPEC decision early Friday. Prices moved decidedly higher after rig-count data came out at around 1 p.m. Eastern.

Prices still lost 1.9% for the week, the first weekly loss for a most-active contract since the week ended March 13.

July Brent crude LCON5, -0.90% the global benchmark trading on London’s ICE Futures exchange, climbed $1.28, or 2.1%, to $63.31, headed for a weekly loss of about 3.4%.

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