By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices were on track to their largest weekly advance in more than month on Friday, supported by planned OPEC output cuts, but profit-taking after a two-day rally kept benchmark crude contracts below the key $50 per barrel mark.
Both Brent and U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures showed gains of 7 percent or more on the week after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries surprised oil traders and investors on Wednesday with a preliminary agreement to remove some 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the market.
On Friday, the two benchmarks diverged.
Brent's front-month contract for November
WTI's front-month (CLc1) rose 24 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $48.07 per barrel. It gained 8 percent on the week, also the most in six weeks.
For the quarter, Brent was down about 1 percent and WTI about 0.5 percent lower.
While profit-taking weighed on Brent and WTI for the day, the market's downside was also limited by a rise in Wall Street shares and drop in the dollar after weak U.S. consumer spending data suggested the Federal Reserve might be cautious in raising interest rates in the near term.
OPEC said it has achieved agreement in principle to cut output to 32.5-33.0 million barrels per day (bpd) from about 33.5 million bpd, estimated by Reuters to be August's production level.
Production quotas for each member and other details will be finalised at the group's policy meeting in November, OPEC officials said.
A persistent oil supply glut has brought crude prices from mid-2014 highs above $100 to below $50, forcing OPEC into the cuts.
Russia, not an OPEC member but a large producer pumping crude at record highs, said it would find a way to freeze production if it manages to reach a deal with OPEC.
The United States, also a non-OPEC member and now the world's biggest oil producer, said it had little faith the plan would work. Amos Hochstein, the U.S. energy envoy, said in a Reuters interview that price gains from the cuts would trigger higher U.S. production that ultimately defeats the deal.
Oil traders were on the lookout for a weekly reading on the U.S. oil rig count at 1:00 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) to see if rigs had continued to rise after gains in 12 of the past 13 weeks.
