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

Oil prices rose on Friday, bringing an end to another week of losses that saw the US contract plunging to minus $40 a barrel, as global production cuts failed to 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 per cent due to the pandemic, news agency Reuters reported.

While certain fundamental factors, such as a sharp fall in active drilling rigs in the US, were nominally bullish for oil prices, the positive effects of those moves are months down the road.