Oil prices touched more than three-month highs on Friday, supported by rising hopes that the United States and China would soon reach a deal to end their trade war, but new record U.S. oil production limited gains.
Brent crude futures briefly reached $67.73 a barrel, their strongest since mid-November, Reuters said.
The global benchmark traded 10 cents higher at $67.17 a barrel by 11:47 a.m. EST (1647 GMT). Brent was on track for a weekly gain of about 1.4 percent.
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U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 41 cents to $57.37 per barrel, after hitting $57.81 earlier on Friday, also their highest since mid-November. WTI was heading for a more than 3-percent weekly rise.
U.S. crude oil production hit a record 12 million barrels per day (bpd) and inventories jumped last week to their highest since October 2017, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data released on Thursday.
The broad outline of a possible U.S.-China trade deal was beginning to emerge from talks between the two countries, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Both sides are pushing for an agreement by March 1, the end of a 90-day truce agreed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping late last year.
