By Sarah McFarlane, Alison Sider and Jenny W. Hsu 

Global crude futures edged higher Friday as traders turned their attention to a meeting of a committee monitoring OPEC's production cuts, amid growing concerns that the group's efforts haven't been enough to drain a world-wide glut.

U.S. crude futures settled up 27 cents, or 0.57%, at $47.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, rose 24 cents, or 0.47%, to $50.80 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

Market participants have become increasingly anxious that an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of non-OPEC heavyweights to cut output by 1.8 million barrels a day isn't having an effect on the overhang of oil that has weighed on prices since 2014.

Crude prices have tumbled around 11% this month, as rising U.S. production has undercut OPEC's efforts and swelling inventories in the U.S. have raised doubts about whether the cutbacks are working. Despite the uptick Friday, crude ended the week down 2.72%.

"There's a lot of uncertainty about whether the cut is going to be in place long enough to alter the fundamental picture," said Gene McGillian, research manager for Tradition Energy.

Investors are now focusing on a meeting this weekend of a committee tasked with overseeing compliance with the production cut agreement, watching for signals that the deal will be extended when OPEC meets in May. The prospect of bullish commentary from oil ministers in the coming days likely helped pause crude's fall after four straight days of losses, analysts and traders said.

"You've got an OPEC meeting -- there's always a surprise potential out of it," said Donald Morton, senior vice president senior vice president at Herbert J. Sims & Co., who runs an energy trading desk. "It could go either way very quickly from here."

The market shook off data showing that the number of rigs working in the U.S. rose for a 10th straight week, with 21 additional oil rigs, according to oilfield services firm Baker Hughes Inc. But persistently high levels of crude inventories in the U.S. coupled with relentlessly growing output have shaken the market in recent weeks.

"[The] U.S. is acting as a bellwether for the global stock overhang. With little sign of an imminent rebalancing in U.S. crude inventories, the near-term risks for oil prices remain skewed to the downside," said brokerage PVM.

That will put more pressure on the monitoring committee overseeing compliance with the production-cut agreement as it meets in Kuwait this weekend.

"I think that they know they are going to be under pressure, prices aren't much higher than when the first deal was struck, and stocks are not much lower, so for every reason that you had to do the original deal, all those reasons are still valid," said Tom Pugh, a commodities analyst at Capital Economics.

"The sticking point is going to be Iran, Saudi will want them to join in any cuts, I think that will probably result in a compromise where Iran agrees to freeze its production at current levels," he added.

The original deal among OPEC members agreed on Nov. 30 allowed Iran a limited output increase.

Saudi Arabia, which is shouldering the bulk of the cuts, will likely lobby to extend the plan, especially after ratings company Fitch cut the kingdom's credit rating to A+ from AA- and lowered the outlook to negative from stable, citing a worsening government deficit caused by declining oil prices, said Stuart Ive, a client manager at OM Financial.

Gasoline futures rose 1.5 cents, or 0.82%, to $3.0760 a gallon Friday. Diesel futures rose 0.75 cent, or 0.5%, to $1.4976 a gallon.

Write to Sarah McFarlane at sarah.mcfarlane@wsj.com, Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com and Jenny W. Hsu at jenny.hsu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 24, 2017 16:48 ET (20:48 GMT)

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