Oil falls, records weekly gain

Oil drilling rigs

Oil prices settled lower on Friday as North Dakota cut oil production by nearly 650,000 barrels per day due to extreme cold weather and operational challenges.

Brent crude for March delivery declined 0.7%, or $0.54, to settle at $78.56 a barrel, shrinking weekly gain to 0.35%.

WTI contracts for February delivery also fell 0.95%, or $0.70, to $73.25 a barrel, with a weekly gain of 1%.

The US drilling rig count dropped two units to 497 in the week ended Jan. 19, General Electric Co.’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday.

This is the lowest number of US rigs since Nov. 10 when it reached 494.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said oil producers informed about plans to scale up gasoline and diesel fuel production this year with optimization of the turnaround time for refineries.