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UPDATE 10-Oil rises, but ends wild week lower as coronavirus slashes fuel demand

Published 04/24/2020, 12:42 PM
Updated 04/25/2020, 05:10 AM
© Reuters.
LCO
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CL
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* In third week of losses, Brent falls 24% and WTI off
around 7%
* U.S. oil rig count falls by most in a month since 2015
* Canada oil/natural gas rig count falls to record low
* Angola minister says more cuts may be needed - state media

(Adds quotes, background)
By Scott DiSavino
NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday,
bringing an end to another week of losses that featured the U.S.
contract plunging to minus $40 a barrel, as global production
cuts could not keep pace with the collapse in demand caused by
the coronavirus pandemic.
Oil trading was extremely volatile all week, in an extension
of the selling that has dominated trading since early March as
demand collapsed 30% due to the pandemic.
While certain fundamental factors, such as a sharp fall in
active drilling rigs in the United States, were nominally
bullish for oil prices, the positive effects of those moves are
months down the road.
"It was a totally brutal week," said Todd Staples, president
of the Texas Oil & Gas Association trade group. "The volatility
we saw with negative pricing was to the extremes."
Brent futures LCOc1 rose 11 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at
$21.44 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1
rose 44 cents, or 2.7%, to close at $16.94.
Oil futures marked their third straight week of losses, with
Brent ending down 24% and WTI off around 7%.
Traders expect demand to fall short of supply for months due
to the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. Producers may
not be slashing output quickly or deeply enough to buoy prices,
especially when global economic output is expected to contract
by 2% this year, worse than the financial crisis. "The efforts to curtail supply just struggle to even come
close to matching coronavirus demand destruction," John Kilduff,
partner at hedge fund Again Capital LLC in New York, said.
After trading near unchanged for most of the day, the
benchmarks rebounded in the afternoon after energy services firm
Baker Hughes Co BKR.N said producers in April cut the number
of active U.S. oil rigs by the most in a month since 2015. In
Canada, drillers slashed the number of oil and natural gas rigs
to a record low. "The rig count was another stunner. These are meaningful
cuts and they have come at a rapid pace," Kilduff said.
Storage is quickly filling worldwide, which could
necessitate more production cuts, even after the Organization of
the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia
agreed this month to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day.
"Despite the measures taken by OPEC, oil producers in
various countries should be aware that they may be called to
take more drastic measures," Diamantino Azevedo, Angola's
resources and petroleum minister, told state news agency ANGOP
on Friday. Angola is a member of OPEC. Russia plans to halve oil exports from its Baltic and Black
Sea ports in May, according to the first loading schedule for
crude shipments since it agreed to cut output. Still, onshore oil storage is currently filled to nearly 85%
capacity, according to energy research firm Kpler.

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CHART; U.S. oil may inch up to $19.03 before falling
Brent oil may test support at $20 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

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