Oil increased 4% in the week ending Dec. 23 owing to improved demand sentiment and contracting global supply.
International benchmark Brent crude traded at $82.94 per barrel at 2.04 p.m. local time (1104 GMT) on Friday, a 4.70% rise from the opening price on Monday of $79.21 a barrel.
The American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI), trading at $78.89 per barrel at the same time, saw a 4.43% increase compared to Monday's opening of $75.54 a barrel.
Oil prices started the week on an incline after China eased COVID-19 curbs and the US’ plan to buy back oil for its Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) boosted demand sentiment.
China relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions and stopped mass testing. Current pause in the country's strict measures is raising hopes for strengthening demand.
Meanwhile, strong demand hopes further increased after the US announced that it will begin repurchasing crude oil for its emergency reserves in February.
On Tuesday, prices continued to climb over bullish demand outlook after US decision to kick off emergency stockpiles replenishment plan, and over declining value of US dollar which makes dollar-indexed oil cheaper for its buyers.
The US dollar's decline in value encouraged importers to purchase dollar-indexed crude oil at lower prices, helping upward price movements.
On Wednesday, prices increased due to an uptick in demand after statistics revealed that US crude stockpiles decreased more than anticipated. The American Petroleum Institute announced its estimate of 3.06 million barrels decrease in US crude oil inventories.
According to Energy Information Administration, US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.4% during the week ending Dec. 16.
Inventories fell by around 5.9 million barrels to 418.2 million barrels, against the market expectation of a decrease of around 167,000 million barrels.
On Friday, prices reached their highest weekly level with supply woes as Russia warns against a possible supply cut in the face of price cap move of Western countries.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak warned that Russia would ban the supply of oil and petroleum products to countries that adhere to the price ceiling imposed by the Western countries.
By Zeynep Beyza Kilic
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr