Investing.com - Oil prices were slightly higher in early morning European trade on Friday as investors continued to weigh record levels of production from the U.S.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 18 cents, or about 0.3%, to $67.22 a barrel by 4:09AM ET (8:09GMT).
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., was last up 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $77.88.
U.S. crude sank around 1.7% a day earlier, although Brent managed to eke out limited gains of 0.2% after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that U.S. crude production jumped 215,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 10.47 million bpd in March, a new monthly record.
Later on Friday, investors will watch the latest Baker Hughes’ data on U.S. drilling activity. U.S. drillers added 15 oil rigs last week, bringing the total count to 859, the highest number since March 2015.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other non-OPEC members including Russia may start to increase their supply as well. Saudi Arabia and Russia have discussed raising oil production in the second half of the year by some 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to make up for potential supply shortfalls from Venezuela and Iran. The former is going through an economic crisis and the later has been hit by sanctions from the U.S.
U.S. sanctions against Iran, which produces 4% of global oil supplies are expected to cause shortages later this year. Production in Venezuela has also plunged to its lowest level in decades.
OPEC and some non-OPEC producers will meet on June 22 to review their commitment to curb output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until the end of this year. Any signs that the group may be end the agreement early would would weigh on prices.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures were flat at $2.1659 a gallon by 4:11AM ET (8:11GMT), while heating oil inched up 0.1% to $2.2062 a gallon.
Lastly, natural gas futures fell 0.2% to $2.946 per million British thermal units.