U.S. Rig Count is up 479 rigs from last year's count of 406, with oil rigs up 394, gas rigs up 85, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canadian Rig Count is up 37 rigs from last year's count of 43, with oil rigs up 13, gas rigs up 25, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 0.

International Brent crude futures were at $50.96 per barrel at 0646 GMT on Friday, up 19 cents, or 0.37 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $48.01 per barrel, up 18 cents, or 0.38 percent.

OPEC will decide formally whether to extend the cuts when its ministers meet in Vienna on May 25. The producer group and other major suppliers including Russia agreed last year to cut their collective production by about 1.8 million barrels a day for the first half of 2017 in an effort to reduce bloated global stockpiles and re-balance the market.

Brent LCOc1 was 60 cents higher at $50.82 a barrel by 1255 GMT (8.55 a.m. ET) after hitting an early high of $51.09. U.S. light crude oil CLc1 was last up 60 cents at $47.93.

Средняя цена нефти марки Urals по итогам января – апреля 2017 года составила $ 51,84 за баррель. В 2016 году средняя цена на Urals в январе – апреля составила $ 33,93 за баррель. Средняя цена на нефть марки Urals в апреле 2017 года сложилась в размере $ 51,11 за баррель, что в 1,28 раза выше, чем в марте 2016 года ($39,63 за баррель).

Global benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 was up 68 cents at $49.41 a barrel by 1327 GMT (9.27 a.m. ET). U.S. light crude CLc1 oil was 69 cents higher at $46.57 a barrel.

North Sea Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $52 per barrel (b) in April, $1/b higher than the March average and the fifth consecutive month that Brent crude oil spot prices averaged between $50/b and $55/b. EIA forecasts Brent prices to average $53/b in 2017 and $57/b in 2018. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are forecast to average $2/b less than Brent prices in both 2017 and 2018.

Investors cut their bullish bets on the oil price to the lowest level since OPEC reached a deal to cut output last year, amid continued doubts about the effectiveness of that agreement.

Saudi Arabia’s conventional approach to market management is no longer working: crude has fallen back below $50 a barrel, US shale oil output is again on the rise and Saudi-led Opec, if anything, is worse off than when it agreed the supply deal back in November, having cut volumes for little upside on price.

The resurgence of the US shale industry after the oil slump of 2014 was a key factor in how crude prices fell sharply last week, to back below $50 per barrel. The market is concerned about whether efforts by Opec, the producers’ cartel, to tackle a supply glut by curbing output will be undermined by reinvigorated US shale companies.

U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 2.09 percent to $46.47 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $49.45, up 2.21 percent on the day.

"The good news is that the market is moving towards rebalancing," Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said at the International Oil Summit in Paris last week. "There has also been a rapid drawdown of floating storage in the first quarter of this year. This is being driven by improving fundamentals and the OPEC deal."

OPEC's largest producer Saudi Arabia averaged 9.97 million b/d in April, according to the survey, below its quota under the deal of 10.058 million b/d.

One of the highest priorities in Russia's gas export and marketing strategy is establishing its own southern corridor for gas exports to Europe, in competition with the EU-backed project.

Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) announced today that the international rig count for April 2017 was 956, up 13 from the 943 counted in March 2017, and up 10 from the 946 counted in April 2016. The international offshore rig count for April 2017 was 201, up 4 from the 197 counted in March 2017, and down 19 from the 220 counted in April 2016.