EricYep

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures climbed on Friday to score a 7.2% gain for the week, finding support from an upbeat U.S. jobs report and a drop in the number of active drilling rigs.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March US:CLH5  settled at $51.69 a barrel, up $1.21, or 2.4%, for the session.

Brent crude for March delivery UK:LCOH5  on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $1.23, or 2.2%, to $57.80 a barrel — 9.4% higher for the week.

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The jobs number gave oil a “little bit of a boost, but it was a double-edged sword,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group.

U.S. added 257,000 new jobs in January to start off 2015 on a strong note, with the pace of hiring accelerating sharply during the winter. Upbeat economic data tend to boost the likelihood of an increase in energy demand.

But the U.S. dollar DXY, +0.91%  rallied on the back of the data, helping to dull those demand expectations, said Flynn. A stronger dollar makes dollar-denominated oil more expensive to holders of other currencies.

Also key to oil’s price climb Friday was a strike by U.S. refinery workers. The United Steelworkers union rejected the latest offer from U.S. refiners Thursday evening. “Even though at this point, it has not impacted output at refineries in a major way, it has caused some refineries to go into early maintenance. If it goes on, it can affect other refineries,” said Flynn.

Adding further support to the crude market, Baker Hughes on Friday BHI, -1.44%  reported that the U.S. drilling rig count totaled 1,456 as of Feb. 6 — that’s down 87 from last week. The U.S. rig count has dropped by 24% since early December and they stand at their lowest level since March of 2010, according to Baker Hughes.

The rig count drop is “a sign we’ve seen some substantial cutbacks in rigs and cutbacks in capital spending and that at some point, it’s going to have an impact on U.S. imports,” said Flynn.

For now, the nation’s crude supplies stand at their highest on record, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data going back to the 1980s.

On Nymex, reformulated gasoline blendstock for March US:RBH5 — the benchmark gasoline contract — rose 2.3% to $1.559 a gallon, ending 5.4% higher for the week. March heating oil US:HOH5  settled at $1.84, up 1.8% for the session to score a weekly gain of 8.1%.

March natural gas US:NGH15  fell by 0.8% to $2.58 per million British thermal units, set to log a loss of 4.2% for the week.