In a stark assessment of the oil market, the International Energy Agency warned of an oil overhang of at least 1m barrels a day for a third consecutive year in 2016.

The impact is not confined to the United States. Oil and gas projects around the world worth $380 billion have been postponed or canceled since 2014.

Demand for OPEC's oil will rise to an average 31.65 million b/d in 2016, from 29.90 million b/d in 2015, the producer group said in its latest monthly report.

“I am optimistic about the future, the return of stability to the global oil markets, the improvement of prices and the cooperation among the major producing countries,” al-Naimi said. “Market forces as well as the cooperation among producing nations always lead to the restoration of stability. This, however, takes some time.”

US light, sweet crude oil prices for February delivery gained modestly on the New York market Jan. 14, closing at above $31/bbl while Brent prices on the London market closed just above $31/bbl within days of both benchmarks briefly dipping under $30/bbl.

Iraq's exports from its southern region have been running at an average daily rate of 3.297 million barrels per day (bpd) so far this month, higher than December's average and unaffected by tribal clashes, an oil company executive said on Saturday.

The country's energy minister, who said in December that the global oil market could return to a balance by the end of 2016, as long as producers do not raise output from current levels, said on Thursday this may not now happen until early 2017.

"We're playing close attention to the price of oil, and of course that has an important impact on the Canadian dollar, which we're also paying close attention to. In that context, we know that it's doubly important that we think about how we can make investments that have an impact on the economy ... and also think about how we can improve our long-term effectiveness as a country and to increase our long-term rate of growth."

U.S. Rig Count is down 14 rigs from last week to 650, with oil rigs down 1 to 515, and gas rigs down 13 to 135.

Brent crude futures plunged more than 4 percent to near 12-year lows on Friday as the market braced for increased Iranian oil exports, with the lifting of international sanctions possible within days.