08:38 AM EDT, 07/05/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices were mostly steady early on Friday, sticking near a seven-week high on robust summer demand.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for August delivery was last seen down US$0.01 to US$83.87, while September Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down US$0.14 to US$87.29.

Oil has climbed 13% over the past month on rising demand during the summer driving season, falling U.S. oil inventories and restricted supply as OPEC+ continues 2.2-million barrels per day of voluntary supply cuts through the end of September.

Hurricane Beryl is approaching Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as a category 2 storm with 100 mile per hour winds, down from category 5 strength earlier this week. Beryl is the most powerful storm to ever form in June, raising worries of an active and destructive hurricane season in coming months that could disrupt Gulf of Mexico production.

"Hurricane Beryl raises concerns of a supercharged storm season disrupting production and flow of crude and fuel products to and from the Gulf of Mexico, and together with heightened geopolitical risks, these developments have offset signs of demand weakness in Asia," Saxo Bank noted.

The latest inventory report from the Energy Information Administration is also supporting prices, after the agency on Wednesday said U.S. oil inventories fell by 12.2-million barrels. the largest draw on stocks in a year, with gasoline and distillate inventories also falling.