Oil rises near 3-month high on US-China trade deal hopes

Oil prices rose on Friday, to extend gains for the second straight day near the 3-month high that was hit last week, after President Trump's upbeat remarks renewed hopes about the US-China trade deal.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose to $59.58, after opening at $59.29, with a session-low of $59.29, and Brent rose to $64.74 a barrel, after opening at $64.34, and hit a low of $64.34.

WTI closed higher by 0.5% on Thursday, and Brent crude futures rose by 0.8%, their second daily gain in 3 days, after OPEC's forecast for supply shortages in 2020 and an unexpected drop in US crude production.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Wednesday that it expects a slight deficit in the global supply next year, which means that supply is lower than expected, even before the output cut agreement taking effect in the first quarter of 2020.

This revised OPEC's forecast shows a different approach, after the organization previously estimated an oversupply in 2020, and OPEC attributed that to the US shale oil production starting to slow down.

Similarly, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed yesterday that oil production fell by about 100,000 barrels last week, to a total of 12.8 million barrels per day, which is the first weekly drop since the week ending Sept.27.

President Donald Trump tweeted yesterday the US is very close to reaching a big trade deal with China. 

Which comes amid reports that the US is considering delaying its tariffs hike on Chinese imports worth $160 billion ahead of the deadline in Dec.15.