NEW YORK- Oil prices jumped 2 percent after three days of losses, driven higher as a storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico, but were on track for a weekly fall as investors braced for the return of Iranian crude supplies after officials said Iran and world powers made progress a nuclear deal.
Brent crude futures settled up $1.33, or 2 percent, to $66.44 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate was at $63.54 a barrel, up $1.64, or 2.65 percent.
A weather system forming over the western Gulf of Mexico has a 40 percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday.
“This early storm prompted traders to buy crude ahead of the weekend in anticipation of potential production shut-ins,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
The gains were limited by the expectation that Iran could add a million or more barrels per day of oil production later this summer.
The two contracts fell almost 3 percent on the week, after Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said the United States was ready to lift sanctions on his country’s oil, banking and shipping sectors. – Reuters
