Crude oil prices dipped slightly in Asia

Crude oil prices dipped slightly in Asia on Friday as investors looked ahead to the last suite of weekly data on U.S. supplies and output.

Energy traders await Friday's U.S. weekly rig count from oil services firm Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) for further indications on U.S. supply levels. Last week, the U.S. oil rig count fell by seven to 635, its lowest level since August, 2010. U.S. rig counts have declined in each of the last 27 weeks.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude for August delivery eased 0.04% to 60.80 a barrel.

Overnight, crude futures rose mildly on Thursday as traders digested bullish supply data, one day after reports confirmed the continuing decline of stockpiles throughout the U.S.

On the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Brent crude for August delivery gained 0.38 or 0.59% to 64.25 a barrel, trading between 63.46 and 64.96 on Thursday's session. The spread between the international and U.S. domestic benchmarks of crude stood at $3.44, slightly below Wednesday's level of $3.59.

In its Weekly Petroleum Status Report released on Wednesday morning, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said U.S. crude inventories last week fell by 2.7 million barrels to 467.9 million, the highest level at this time of year in at least 80 years. Analysts expected crude stockpiles to decline by 1.7 million barrels for the week ending on June 12.

U.S. crude stockpiles have fallen steadily over the last two months ahead of the start of the summer driving season. Last week, though, U.S. refineries operated at 93.1% of their operable capacity, down slightly from the previous week. As a result, crude stocks at the Cushing Oil Hub in Oklahoma, the main delivery point for NYMEX crude, rose by 112,000 barrels last week, experiencing its first increase since mid-April.

The report came one day after the CEO of Russia's biggest oil producer indicated that the ability of U.S. shale producers to increase their market share in global crude markets with a glut of U.S. crude has curbed the influence of Opec.

“The only market that has a full set of financial, technical and resource instruments is the U.S.," OAO Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin told Bloomberg.

Earlier this week, Opec said in its annual report that its yearly revenue fell to $993.3 billion, marking the first time it dipped below $1 trillion since 2010. The decline represents an 11% decline from its annual revenue a year earlier. Average monthly crude prices are back around $60 a barrel after falling to near $45 this winter. Last summer, crude prices peaked above $110.

Elsewhere, Venezuelan oil minister Asdrubal Chavez indicated this week that he anticipates that the oil market will stabilize at some point this year. Venezuela has reversed its output strategy to align itself with Saudi Arabia after previously supporting a cut in production.