Crude oil futures closed considerably lower on Friday, as the dollar gained strength and jitters ahead of next week’s meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies prompting the US crude benchmark to pull back from a 22-month high. OPEC+ ministers are scheduled to meet on March 3 and March 4 to discuss production curbs. According to a report from Baker Hughes, oil and natural gas rigs count in the US surged for a seventh month, rising by 5 to 402 this week. However, the addition of 18 rigs in February, is much less compared to the addition of 33 rigs and 31 rigs in January and December, respectively.
Crude oil futures for April declined $2.03 or 3.2 percent to settle at $61.50 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, April Brent crude fell 75 cents or 1.1 percent to settle at $66.13 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.