Crude oil futures ended considerably lower on Friday on expectations that crude output shut down by winter storms in Texas will soon be restored. Oil companies in Texas had shut down production earlier this week due to extreme cold conditions. Expectations that major oil producers making up the OPEC+ group will decide as early as next month to loosen production curbs, as well as early signs of a thaw in US-Iran relations were also a weighted down on oil prices. Meanwhile, Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active US rigs drilling for oil edged down by 1 to 305 this week, implying a slight slowdown in output to come. That was the first weekly decline since November.
Crude oil futures for March fell $1.28 or 2.1 percent to settle at $59.24 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude declined $59.24 or 1.6 percent to settle at $62.91 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.