Oil rose above $30 a barrel for the first time in two months as producers in the U.S. and elsewhere continued to cut activity, helping to rebalance a market that was thrown into disarray by coronavirus lockdowns.
Futures in New York climbed around 4% after almost doubling in a run of three weekly advances. The number of drilling rigs in the U.S. fell for a ninth week to levels not seen in more than a decade, while stockpiles at the key storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, shrank for the first time since late February. Iraq said it planned to halt output from one of its oil fields due to protests.
The American cuts come on top of almost 10 million barrels a day of curbs from the OPEC+ alliance, which kicked in at the beginning of May. Mohammad Barkindo, secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said in a Bloomberg Television interview that the outlook for the second half was looking more encouraging as the global economy recovers.
