NEW YORK, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices advanced on Friday, with both crude benchmarks finishing up more than 3 percent for the week.
The West Texas Intermediate for July delivery added 2 U.S. dollars, or 1.7 percent, to settle at 118.87 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for August delivery increased 2.11 dollars, or 1.8 percent, to close at 119.72 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
For the week, the U.S. crude standard rose 3.3 percent, while Brent climbed 3.6 percent, based on the front-month contracts.
The upswing came despite a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, to boost output by a larger amount in July.
The group on Thursday agreed to increase oil production by 648,000 barrels per day (b/d) in July, higher than its previous monthly increases of 432,000 b/d.
"OPEC+ merely packed the production hikes intended for the coming three months into the next two. In other words, more oil will be available to the market only in the short term, if at all," Carsten Fritsch, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said in a note on Friday.
Meanwhile, newly released U.S. fuel inventory data continued to point to a tight market.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday that the nation's crude inventories fell by 5.1 million barrels during the week ending May 27.
According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.5 million barrels.
