Oil hits multi-year highs in third weekly gain on demand recovery | Reuters

Oil hits multi-year highs in third weekly gain on demand recovery | Reuters

Oil prices reached fresh multi-year highs on Friday, closing out a third straight week of gains on an improved outlook for worldwide demand as rising COVID-19 vaccination rates help lift pandemic curbs.

Brent crude futures settled at $72.69 a barrel, rising 17 cents after reaching their highest since May 2019. For the week, Brent was up 1%.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at$70.91 a barrel,up 62 cents, settling at their highest since October 2018. WTI was up 1.9% on the week.

"Demand is coming back faster than supply and we're going to need more supply to meet that demand," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly report that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, would need to boost output to meet demand set to recover to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022.