Natural-gas prices found support at $2.50 per million British thermal units after a 7.6% drop in New York on concerns about an oversupplied market.
Crude for October delivery added 32 cents to stand at $68.28 a barrel on Globex by late afternoon in Tokyo. It traded as low as $68.01.
Oil prices dropped below $40 a barrel earlier this year, "which really shut down new drilling," said Charles Perry, president of energy-consulting firm Perry Management.
"Now depletion is lowering production pretty fast and supply is dropping pretty fast to equal current reduced demand," he said. "If demand picks up with a recovery of the economy, then there will be a shortage, and we will see another peak in oil prices."
Elsewhere on Globex, October natural gas was little changed, trading at $2.504 per million BTU.
The contract had fallen 20.7 cents Thursday in New York to end at $2.508, after the Energy Information Administration reported that natural-gas inventories rose 65 billion cubic feet in the week ended Aug. 28.
The supply data "set the traders running," said Perry.
For now, the $2.50 level "seems to be a support level, but speculation is if it drops below $2.50 very fast, the next stop is $2."
