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By Sara Israfilbayova

Crude prices are moderately rising on Monday, despite the fact that the number of drilling rigs in the U.S. increased last week.

International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading 0.03 percent higher at $69.89, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $64.48, up 0,28 percent, RIA Novosti reported.

The American oil and gas service company Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE) reported that following the week ended on January 12 business week, the number of drilling rigs in the country increased by 15, or 1.6 percent, to 939 units. This is the strongest growth since June last year. At the same time, the number of oil drilling rigs increased by 10 pieces, to 752 units.

“Many believe that oil prices above $60 per barrel will be self-corrected, since such a cost will contribute to a much higher level of production in the U.S., which will lead to an increase in supply,” said analyst of Rivkin Securities William O'Loughlin.

Other factors, including political risk, have also supported crude.

“Tighter fundamentals are (the) main driver to the rally in prices, but geopolitical risk and currency moves along with speculative money in tandem have exacerbated the move,” U.S. bank JPMorgan said in a note.

In November 2016, the OPEC summit was held in Vienna, where OPEC members reached an agreement on reducing oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day. In December 2016 was a meeting of oil producers outside the OPEC. The meeting ended with signing an agreement to reduce oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 2017.

OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.

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