NEW YORK, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices posted mixed results on Thursday, as OPEC oil supply fell in January and U.S. crude output recorded monthly increase in November last year.
Although U.S. crude extended a daily loss of 44 cents on Thursday, January ended with a monthly increase of 18.5 percent, which marked the best January gain on record.
U.S. crude was weighed down as U.S. oil production rose to an all-time high of 11.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in November 2018, up from 11.5 million bpd in the previous month, according to the latest monthly petroleum supply report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday.
While international benchmark Brent crude continued to rally, ending January with a monthly increase of nearly 15 percent, also the best monthly gain since April 2016.
OPEC oil supply has fallen in January by the largest amount in two years, according to a new survey by Reuters.
The 14-member group has pumped 30.98 million bpd in January, down 890,000 bpd from December, marking the largest month-on-month drop since January 2017.
The Saudi-led OPEC and its 10 oil-producing allies, including Russia, reached an agreement to slash oil production by a total of 1.2 million bpd on Dec. 7, 2018 in a bid to shore up falling prices due to fears of oversupply.
The deal came into force since Jan. 1 and will last for the first six months of 2019.
Eleven OPEC members will slash 800,000 bpd, excluding Iran, Libya and Venezuela from the group.
The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery fell 0.44 U.S. dollar to settle at 53.79 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February March rose 0.25 dollar to close at 61.90 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
