A slow down of oil drilling by American shale oil producers helped to move oil prices to $49 a barrel in Monday trading, a good news for oil exporters such as Nigeria.
Brent crude , the global benchmark, was up 8 cents at $48.99 a barrel by 1341 GMT while U.S. crude traded at $46.57, up 3 cents.
According to Reuters, fewer drilling rigs were added in the United States last week, helping ease concerns that surging shale supplies will undermine OPEC-led production cuts.
U.S. drillers added two oil rigs in the week to July 14, bringing the total to 765, US oil field services company Baker Hughes said on Friday. Rig additions over the past four weeks averaged five, the slowest pace of growth since November.
