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Benchmark Brent crude prices have kept within a
band of $45-$50 a barrel since hitting a six-year low on Jan.
13, but analysts have not ruled out further declines as global
inventories continue to rise.
Data this week showed U.S. crude oil inventories had reached
their highest levels since the 1930s.
Brent oil futures <LCOc1> were up 37 cents at $49.50 per barrel
at 1106 GMT (6:06 a.m. ET), while benchmark U.S. WTI futures
<CLc1> were up 42 cents at $44.95 a barrel.
Brent is on track to post a 14 percent fall for January, marking
a seventh month of decline and the longest-running monthly drop
since Reuters records started in 1988.
A Reuters survey of analysts showed on Friday that oil will
likely continue falling before posting only a mild recovery in
the second half of this year, with prices set to average even
less in 2015 than during the global financial crisis. <O/POLL>
The survey of 33 economists and analysts forecast North Sea
Brent crude would average $58.30 a barrel in 2015, down $15.70
from last month's poll, in the biggest month-on-month revision
since prices last collapsed in 2008-2009.
"The fundamentals remain weak, with seasonal refining
maintenance resulting in stock builds on what is an already high
base for stocks," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at
London-based Energy Aspects.
The International Energy Agency this month said a price rebound
could take some time despite increasing signs of the downturn
easing, with lower output from North America shale production
and higher demand due to the low prices.
The market found support in news of renewed violence in key oil
producer Iraq, where Islamic State militants struck at Kurdish
forces southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; editing
by Jason Neely and John Stonestreet)
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