Oil prices head for 11% weekly jump on North America, Norway outages | Reuters

Oil prices head for 11% weekly jump on North America, Norway outages | Reuters:

Oil prices inched up on Friday, setting both benchmark contracts on track for their biggest weekly gains since early June, on the back of supply outages caused by a storm in the Gulf of Mexico and a strike of offshore workers in Norway.

Brent was up 16 cents at $43.50 a barrel by 0748 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 14 cents to $41.33.

Both contracts are on track for gains of around 11% this week, the first weekly rise in three weeks.

Brent’s six-month contango, a market structure where the front-month Brent futures are trading at a discount to later contracts implying current oversupply, has shrunk to around $1.90 a barrel from $3.24 less than a month ago.