*
Fed's preferred inflation gauge rose less-than-expected in
Feb.
*
Producers curtailing output in Kurdistan after pipeline
halt
*
OPEC+ seen sticking to existing production targets
*
Brent records third straight quarterly decline
(Adds settlement prices)
By Shariq Khan
BENGALURU, March 31 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose by more
than a dollar a barrel on Friday to record their second-straight
week of gains, as supplies tightened in some parts of the world
and U.S. inflation data indicated price rises were slowing.
The most actively traded Brent futures, for June delivery, settled up $1.29, or 1.6%, at $79.89 a barrel. Brent
futures for May delivery, which expired upon settlement,
gained 50 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $79.77 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) for May delivery
settled higher by $1.30, or 1.8%, at $75.67 a barrel, gaining
about 9% for the week.
Data on Friday showed the U.S. Personal Consumption
Expenditure (PCE) index, the Federal Reserve's preferred
inflation gauge, rose 0.3% in February on a monthly basis,
compared with a 0.6% rise in January and an expectation of a
0.4% rise in a Reuters poll.
Signs that inflation is slowing tend to support oil prices
as this could point to less aggressive interest rate hikes from
the Fed, lifting investor demand for risk assets like
commodities and equities.
Oil prices were also buoyed after producers shut in or
reduced output at several oilfields in the semi-autonomous
Kurdistan region of northern Iraq following a halt to the
northern export pipeline.
With prices recovering from recent lows, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia are likely to stick to their existing output deal at a meeting on Monday, sources said. OPEC pumped 28.90 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, a Reuters survey found, down 70,000 bpd from February. Output is down more than 700,000 bpd from September. Despite Friday's gains, Brent and WTI recorded monthly declines of 5% and 2% respectively, their steepest since November. Brent settled lower for the third quarter in a row, the first time that has happened since 2015. The benchmarks hit their lowest since 2021 on March 20 in the wake of large bank failures, and while they have recouped some of the losses since then, they remain well below the levels at which they were trading at the start of March. "The prolonged economic scarring of the last month will likely slow the economy, if not cause a recession, and lower interest rate expectations are not enough to support oil prices in the short term," said Craig Erlam, senior markets analyst at OANDA. (Reporting by Shariq Khan; Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Sudarshan Varadhan and Andrew Hayley; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Will Dunham and Jan Harvey)
