Oil prices posted a slight increase on Friday (October 17th), but were close to a weekly loss of nearly 3% after the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast a widening oversupply, and U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to meet again to discuss Ukraine.

Brent crude futures closed at $61.29 per barrel, up 23 cents, or 0.38%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures closed at $57.54 per barrel, up 8 cents, or 0.14%. Trump and Putin agreed on Thursday to hold another summit on the war in Ukraine, to be held in Hungary within the next two weeks.

This meeting follows a ceasefire agreement that ended, at least temporarily, the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

was at the White House on Friday to press for more military support, including U.S.-made Tomahawk long-range missiles, as Washington pressures India and China to stop buying Russian oil.

"We've reached a rare peace deal in the Middle East, Iran has been neutralized, and now Ukraine; unprecedented risk has been removed from the market," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group. This week's decline is also partly due to escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China, which have added to concerns about an economic slowdown and declining energy demand.

"It's absolutely destroying confidence," said Jorge Montepeque, managing director at Onyx Capital Group, who expects the U.S. economy to be impacted soon. On Friday, an overnight fire at the BP Plc in Whiting, Indiana, is expected to affect only the Midwest market, Flynn said.

Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said markets around the Great Lakes are expected to surge. "Spot gasoline prices in the Great Lakes region surged due to the BP refinery fire overnight, which could lead to an immediate price cycle," DeHaan wrote in X. "For now, wholesale prices are showing an increase of about 20 cents per gallon."

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts a widening supply glut in 2026, curbing crude oil prices. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday that US crude oil inventories rose by 3.5 million barrels last week, to 423.8 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 288,000-barrel increase.

The larger-than-expected increase in crude oil inventories was largely due to a decline in refinery utilization as refineries enter their autumn recovery period. The data also showed US production rising to 13.636 million barrels per day, the highest ever recorded. (alg)

Source: Reuters