Oil prices edged up yesterday, after a two percent slide on Friday, on expectations that Saudi Arabia would continue to restrain its output to support prices, and as the amount of rigs drilling for new oil in the United States dipped.
Oil ports, producers and refiners in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, which shut facilities ahead of Hurricane Nate, were planning to reopen yesterday as the storm moved inland, away from most energy infrastructure on the US Gulf Coast.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) front month crude futures were trading at $49.48 per barrel yesterday, up 19 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were up 16 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $55.78 a barrel.
Oil tumbled by around two percent on Friday.