Investing.com - Crude prices started the week on an upbeat note on Monday, boosted by expectations that oil producing countries will agree to extend an output cut at their meeting at the end of this month.
Under the original terms of the deal, OPEC and 10 other non-OPEC countries led by Russia agreed to cut production by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) for six months. The agreement was extended in May of this year for a period of nine more months until March 2018 in a bid to reduce global oil inventories and support oil prices.
Discussions are continuing in the run-up to the Nov. 30 meeting, which oil ministers from OPEC and the participating non-OPEC countries will attend.
Prices received another boost as a sizable weekly drop in active U.S. oil rigs to the lowest level since May fed expectations for a slowdown in domestic crude output growth.
Oilfield services firm Baker Hughes reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil fell by eight to 729 last week. That was the fourth weekly decline in five.
The weekly rig count is an important barometer for the drilling industry and serves as a proxy for domestic oil production.
Meanwhile, market players kept a watchful eye on developments in Saudi Arabia, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman cemented his power over the weekend through an anti-corruption crackdown that included high-profile arrests.
Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., rose to an intraday peak of $62.90 a barrel, its best level since July 2015, before pulling back to $62.51 by 3:25AM ET (0825GMT), up 45 cents, or around 0.7%.
The global benchmark ended the week with an increase of approximately 2.7%, the fourth-straight weekly gain.
Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures tacked on 38 cents, or about 0.7%, to $56.02 a barrel, its highest in more than two years.
WTI prices rose a fourth-straight week last week, gaining around 3.2%.
Oil's rally, which began in early October, has been largely driven by growing indications that the crude market was finally starting to rebalance. Brent is over 40% above June's 2017 lows, while WTI is one-third higher than its 2017 lows.
In other energy trading Monday, gasoline futures held steady at $1.791 a gallon, while heating oil added 0.9 cents to $1.897 a gallon.
Natural gas futures spiked 8.8 cents, or almost 3%, to $3.072 per million British thermal units.