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Brent crude futures edged up 10 cents to $66.27 a barrel by 0957
GMT, heading for a sixth straight day of gains if prices on
Thursday end in positive territory.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 6 cents to
$60.99 a barrel.
Trading volume was thin before the Christmas holiday with news
of President Donald Trump's impeachment by the U.S. House of
Representatives failing to stir the oil market.
"A resilient performance in the coming two weeks will flip the
monthly technical picture unreservedly positive for next year,"
PVM oil market analysts said, although they added prices were
still likely to be volatile.
Oil prices are on track for a third consecutive weekly rise,
surfing momentum from this month's announcements about deeper
output cuts by major crude producers and the "Phase One" deal
between Washington and China that has eased trade tensions.
The deal between the world's two largest economies has improved
the global economic outlook, lifting prospects for higher energy
demand next year and underpinning oil prices.
In a further sign of thawing relations, China's finance ministry
on Thursday published a new list of six U.S. products that will
be exempt from tariffs starting Dec. 26.
A week earlier, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries and non-OPEC producers such as Russia agreed to deepen
production cuts by a further 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) from
Jan. 1 on top of previous reductions of 1.2 million bpd.
Offering a further lift to oil prices, weekly data from the
Energy Information Administration showed U.S. crude inventories
dropped 1.1 million barrels in the week to Dec. 13, while
gasoline and distillates stockpiles rose.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in SINGAPORE; Editing by
Edmund Blair)
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