HOUSTON — The global benchmark price for oil rallied above $60 a barrel on Friday for the first time in 2015, but analysts warned that growing stockpiles were hanging over the market and could easily force prices back down.
Traders bid up both the global Brent and American benchmarks about 3 percent after reports of moderately improving economic growth in Europe. An increase in oil demand in Europe, where the economy has languished, is considered essential for bolstering oil prices, which remain at their lowest levels since the economic downturn in 2009.
On the supply side, traders have gained confidence by the announcements virtually every day of oil companies reducing their investments in exploration and production as much as 40 percent.
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The Energy Department noted this week that American crude oil production was 9.2 million barrels a day in January and estimated that it would average 9.3 million barrels a day for the year. That is a steep decline in growth from the last three years, when average daily production rose at least a million barrels each year.
Brent crude settled on Friday at $61.52 a barrel, up $2.24, in London, and the American benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, at $52.78, up $1.37, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
