WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures jumped to their highest since November 2014, picking up 2.4% for the week.
June WTI oil settled at $69.72/bbl, up $1.29, or 1.9%.
Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by 9 to 834 this week, the fourth consecutive weekly increase.
Despite the U.S. shale boom, oil prices are rising amid speculation that Venezuela's oil industry is collapsing.
Yesterday, the IMF threatened to expel Venezuela over lack of transparancy with its financials.
'The [Executive] Board noted that adequate data provision was an essential first step to understanding Venezuela's economic crisis and identifying possible solutions,' an IMF statement said.
Meanwhile, Canada's Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said the government will intervene to end the Trans Mountain pipeline squabble between British Columbia and its neighbors.
'We are confident in Parliament's jurisdiction and will intervene on the question in order to defend our clear jurisdiction over interprovincial pipelines,' she said in a statement.
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