May 13, 2022 05:15AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
Oil prices rose Friday but headed for their first weekly loss in three weeks as inflation fears and China's COVID freeze slowed global growth and offset concerns about dwindling supplies from Russia.
At 05:00 AM ET, Brent crude futures were 85 cents, or 0.8%, higher at $108.30 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 64 cents, or 0.6%, at $106.77 per barrel.
However, both benchmark contracts were on track to post weekly declines, with Brent expected to fall nearly 4% and WTI nearly 3%.
The market continues to be pulled back and forth by the prospect of a ban on Russian oil supplies by the European Union and concerns about slowing global demand.
Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a note that oil traders were "looking for a glimmer of light at the end of the gloomy tunnel of China's lockdown."
Inflation and interest rate hikes have pushed the U.S. dollar to a 20-year high, slowing the rise in oil prices as a stronger dollar makes it more expensive to buy oil in other currencies.
Analysts, however, remain focused on the prospect of a European Union ban on Russian oil after Moscow this week imposed sanctions on European subsidiaries of state-owned Gazprom and Ukraine closed a key gas transit route.
A report Thursday from the International Energy Agency said rising oil production in the Middle East and the United States, as well as a slowdown in demand growth, "are expected to stave off an acute supply shortfall amid a worsening Russian supply disruption."
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