Investing.com - Crude oil futures rallied to one-week highs on Friday after data showing that the number of working U.S. oil rigs fell to a five-year low last week, alleviating concerns about oversupply.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for delivery in November ended at $45.64 up 2.01% for the day, after falling to $43.97 earlier.
For the week, New York-traded oil futures were off 0.35%.
On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, the November Brent contract was up 1.04% to $48.19 a barrel in late trade.
Oil-field-services provider Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) said the number of working rigs fell by 26 to 614 for the week ending on Sept. 25, the lowest total since August 2010. Nearly a year ago at this time, the U.S. oil rig count peaked at 1,609.
The data added to the view that the shale oil production boom in the U.S. is slowing as a result of a historic rout in oil prices.
Earlier in the week the U.S. Energy Information Administration said U.S. production was down 0.4% from the previous week at 9.1 million barrels a day.
The rig count report helped oil recover from earlier losses after a disappointing U.S. jobs report weighed on the demand outlook.
The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added just 142,000 jobs last month, well below expectations of the 201,000 expected by economists.
August’s reading was revised down to 135,000, from the initial reported figure of 173,000.
The report underlined fears that a slowdown in global economic growth has spread to the U.S. economy and prompted investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike by the Federal Reserve to early 2016.
Elsewhere in commodities trading, gasoline futures fell 1.91% to $1.3431 a gallon.