Brent for March settlement rose 27 cents to $55.72 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract fell 56 cents, or 1 percent, to $55.45 a barrel on Friday. Prices slid 2.9 percent last week, the biggest drop since November. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.32 to March WTI.

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo forecast on Monday that stability would return to oil markets this year while price hawk Venezuela said it hoped its crude basket would rise to $70 in coming months.

China’s oil production is forecast to fall by as much as 7 percent this year, extending a record decline in 2016.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was down 10 cents a barrel at $55.35 by 0915 GMT (04:15 a.m. ET) and U.S. light crude CLc1 fell 10 cents to $52.27.

Средняя цена на нефть Urals за период мониторинга с 15 декабря 2016 года по 14 января 2017 года составила $52,53 за баррель, или $383,5 за тонну.

Global oil prices will witness "much more volatility" in 2017 even though markets may rebalance in the first half of the year if output cuts pledged by producers are implemented.

Consumption is expected to rise 7-8% this year, outpacing China's demand growth for the third consecutive year.

For the year, the world's third biggest oil consumer bought about 473,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran to feed expanding refining capacity, up from 208,300 bpd in 2015, the data showed.

The world could run short of oil by 2020 due to the recent sharp global downturn in upstream investment, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said Thursday.

Suhail Al Mazrouei said on Wednesday that Opec and non-Opec producers who have agreed to restrict their output over the next six months need to demonstrate that they are being implemented in order for their initiative to stabilise oil prices.

For every one dollar reduction in the price of oil, Russia suffers a staggering two billion dollar loss in its revenue. On top of the economic sanctions slapped on Russia following the annexation of Crimea, one may consider the record Russian oil production of 11.247 mbpd nothing short of a miracle.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up 50 cents at $55.60 a barrel by 1050 GMT (5:50 a.m. ET). U.S. crude CLc1 was up 35 cents at $52.60.

Prices for Brent futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $53.73 per barrel at 0508 GMT, up 9 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $50.97 a barrel, up 15 cents.

Brent crude oil prices are forecast to average $53/b in 2017 and $56/b in 2018. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are forecast to average $1/b less than Brent in both 2017 and 2018.

Средняя цена нефти марки Urals в 2016 году составила $41,9 за баррель.