Brent Crude Settles at $109.86 as WTI Closes Above $100

Brent crude futures settled at $109.86 a barrel Friday, while U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate closed above $100, extending weekly gains in both contracts after recovering from early losses.

Brent rose $3.94, or 3.7%, for the day. WTI settled at $101.41 per barrel, up $3.44, or 3.5%. Brent’s settlement was its highest since May 19, while WTI’s was its highest since Sept. 17. Over the week, Brent gained 4.9% and WTI rose 10.4%. These are daily futures settlements, not continuously updated prices.

At 2:23 a.m. ET (06:23 UTC), Brent was down 0.47% at $105.42 per barrel, and WTI was down 0.50% at $97.48. By 12:41 p.m. ET (16:41 UTC), Brent had reached $109.34 and WTI $100.67.

U.S. commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 8.6 million barrels to 415.6 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 9. Stocks were 3% below the five-year average. Traders also weighed Middle East supply risks and uncertainty about Russian diesel availability.

“Those two factors are just continuing to have traders be buyers,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial.