Oil prices climb back over $48
Reuters, New York
Oil prices rose Friday bolstered by expectations of possible OPEC production cuts and reversing a slide in the previous session that was triggered by hefty stock builds in the United States.But volumes were thin in a shortened trading session ahead of the US Presidents' Day holiday on Monday. US light crude futures CLc1 settled up 81 cents to $48.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. London Brent crude LCOc1 gained 52 cents to $46.34 a barrel. US crude this week touched a three-week high of $48.65, but fell back on Thursday after news of a smaller decline in natural gas storage than expected added to the impact of big increases in US crude and gasoline inventories. Crude stocks in the world's largest energy consumer are around 8.5 percent higher than last year, while gasoline stocks, up 7.4 percent, are at the highest level since 1999.
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