By Yuka Obayashi, Siyi Liu and Enes Tunagur
LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices edged up on Friday, heading for a fourth consecutive week of gains, as the latest U.S. sanctions on Russian energy trade heightened expectations for oil supply disruptions.
Brent crude futures were trading up 30 cents or 0.4% higher at $81.59 per barrel by 0923 GMT, having gained 2.3% so far this week.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 41 cents or 0.5% at $79.09 a barrel, having climbed 3.3% for the week.
Last Friday, the Biden administration unveiled broader sanctions targeting Russian oil producers and tankers.
“Supply concerns from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil producers and tankers, combined with expectations of a demand recovery driven by potential U.S. interest rate cuts, are bolstering the crude market,” said Toshitaka Tazawa, an analyst at Fujitomi Securities.
“The anticipated increase in kerosene demand due to cold weather in the United States is another supportive factor.”
Investors are also anxiously waiting to see if more supply disruptions will emerge after Donald Trump returns to the White House next Monday.
“Mounting supply risks continue to provide broad support to oil prices,” ING analysts wrote in a research note, adding that the new Trump administration is expected to take a tough stance on Iran and Venezuela, the two main suppliers of crude oil.
Expectations for better demand lent some support to the oil market. Data showed inflation easing in the United States, the world’s biggest economy, bolstering hopes of interest rate cuts.
Traders are also assessing fresh data from China, the world’s top oil importer. Its economy fulfilled the government’s ambitions for 5% growth last year.
But China’s oil refinery throughput in 2024 fell for the first time in more than two decades, except for the pandemic-hit year of 2022, government data also showed on Friday.
Weighing on oil prices were expectations of a halt in attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia on ships in the Red Sea in the wake of a Gaza ceasefire deal.
The Houthis’ attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing ships to make longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa for more than a year.
The Israeli cabinet is set to approve a deal with militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo and Siyi Liu in Singapore, Enes Tunagur in London; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Clarence Fernandez)
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