A decline in U.S. inventories of distillate, which includes heating oil, also played a part in the rally of more than $1 a barrel, and traders continued to watch OPEC for any sign that the cartel will cut output.
Saudi Arabia _ the largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries _ has yet to publicly confirm repeated statements from OPEC's president that members are "nearing consensus" on how to divvy up a 1 million-barrel-a-day reduction.
Light sweet crude for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $1.42 to $59.28 a barrel. In London, November Brent crude on the ICE Futures exchange rose 99 cents to $59.73 a barrel.
Since July, the cost of crude oil has dropped by more than 25 percent amid rising global inventories, concerns about slowing economic growth and a milder-than-anticipated hurricane season. Prices have stabilized around the $60-a-barrel level amid expectations that OPEC will try to prevent further sharp declines by trimming its output.
The group is scheduled to meet in December in Nigeria, though some members are calling for an emergency meeting before then.
Norwegian safety officials on Friday upheld an order to shut down two offshore oil platforms because of defects in their lifeboat systems. The order will delay production of about 280,000 barrels per day of oil from Norway's average daily production of about 2.7 million barrels of crude oil, light oil and natural gas liquids.
The state Petroleum Safety Authority on Thursday rejected applications for dispensations from lifeboat rules for Statoil ASA's Snorre A platform and Norske Shell ASA's Draugen platform, and said that amounted to an order to shut down.
On Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said domestic inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, fell by 1.6 million barrels to 149.9 million barrels for the week ending Oct. 6, due primarily to a decline in refinery operation.
The drop in distillates was comprised almost entirely of falling heating oil inventories, which saw their largest decline since the week ending March 24.
Despite this drop, PVM Oil Associates said that "the forward cover for heating oil was still high ahead of winter season, at 72.5 days."
Heating oil futures gained more than 2 cents to $1.7118 a gallon while gasoline prices rose nearly 2 cents to $1.4680 a gallon. Natural gas prices fell nearly 7 cents to $5.715 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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