NEW YORK - Oil futures rose on Friday after OPEC signaled it may deepen its record output cuts, countering a U.S. report showing energy demand shrinking more quickly than previously thought.
U.S. crude rose 24 cents to settle at $41.68 a barrel after climbing as high as $43.44. London Brent crude settled up 48 cents at $45.88 a barrel.
The gains came after OPEC's secretary general told Reuters the producer group was willing to cut output further at its meeting in March, adding to agreed cuts of 4.2 million barrels per day since September.
"If the market is unbalanced, yes, we will take measures to balance the market," Abdullah al-Badri said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The comments were a strong indication the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, source of a third of the world's oil, was willing to go further to stem oil's $100-a-barrel collapse since July.
Adding some support, dealers were eyeing oil worker labor disputes on both sides of the Atlantic that could pose a threat to fuel production. Some 30,000 U.S. refinery workers could go on strike over the weekend, if negotiations over a new labor contract fail.
In Britain, energy workers staged unofficial walkouts on Friday when anger over the use of foreign workers at an oil refinery spread to other sites across the country.
Oil's gains were tempered, however, by a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing U.S. oil demand in November was 305,000 barrels per day less than previously estimated and was down 1.577 million bpd from a year earlier.
"The EIA demand revision pulled crude off the high," said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Commodity Futures in New York.
Data on Friday showed U.S. gross domestic product fell 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the biggest drop since the first three months of 1982.
Asia's economy was equally bleak. Data showed Japan's unemployment at a near three-year high and industrial output in the world's third-biggest oil consumer plunging a record 10 percent last month.
U.S. crude rose 24 cents to settle at $41.68 a barrel after climbing as high as $43.44. London Brent crude settled up 48 cents at $45.88 a barrel.
The gains came after OPEC's secretary general told Reuters the producer group was willing to cut output further at its meeting in March, adding to agreed cuts of 4.2 million barrels per day since September.
"If the market is unbalanced, yes, we will take measures to balance the market," Abdullah al-Badri said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The comments were a strong indication the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, source of a third of the world's oil, was willing to go further to stem oil's $100-a-barrel collapse since July.
Adding some support, dealers were eyeing oil worker labor disputes on both sides of the Atlantic that could pose a threat to fuel production. Some 30,000 U.S. refinery workers could go on strike over the weekend, if negotiations over a new labor contract fail.
In Britain, energy workers staged unofficial walkouts on Friday when anger over the use of foreign workers at an oil refinery spread to other sites across the country.
Oil's gains were tempered, however, by a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing U.S. oil demand in November was 305,000 barrels per day less than previously estimated and was down 1.577 million bpd from a year earlier.
"The EIA demand revision pulled crude off the high," said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Commodity Futures in New York.
Data on Friday showed U.S. gross domestic product fell 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the biggest drop since the first three months of 1982.
Asia's economy was equally bleak. Data showed Japan's unemployment at a near three-year high and industrial output in the world's third-biggest oil consumer plunging a record 10 percent last month.
