(Bloomberg) -- Oil headed for its third week of gains as the market stabilizes on signs that top producers are scaling back crude shipments at a time when consumption is recovering.
Futures in New York were little changed, after jumping 9% on Thursday. The U.S. benchmark is up almost 12% over the week. OPEC+ reduced exports by 5.96 million barrels a day for the first 14 days of May, according to Petro-Logistics, while Saudi Aramco (SE:2222) cut oil sales to the U.S. and Europe by about half.
The International Energy Agency said that the outlook for global markets is improving with demand a little stronger than expected, while oil major BP (NYSE:BP) Plc said consumption has surged this week as cars return to the roads. A raft of economic data in China later on Friday will offer traders insight into how activity is tracking in Asia’s biggest economy.
Investors are still focused on the demand trajectory amid concern that a resurgence of coronavirus cases could derail an economic rebound. While the IEA joined Saudi Arabia and Russia in seeing signs of consumption improving, the market is still recovering from an unprecedented rout that pushed West Texas Intermediate crude futures into negative territory last month.
Read: Oil Likely to Avoid Repeat of April’s Negative Price Shock
Over 30 tankers laden with Saudi Arabian oil are set to arrive in the U.S. Gulf Coast and West Coast during May and June, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, raising concern over storage space just as a U.S. glut shows signs of easing.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.