For a second session, oil prices extended their gains on Friday. In the United States, the prospect of a fall in Russian exports offsetting higher inventories.

At 02:15 GMT, Brent crude oil futures rose 61 cents, or 0.7%, to $82.82 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures rose 63 cents, or 0.8%, to $76.02 per barrel. Indeed, following Russia's plans to reduce oil exports from its western ports by up to 25% in March, the two benchmark indices ended Thursday up by around 2%. This exceeds the announced production cuts of 500,000 barrels per day.

L ANZ analysts said these reports strengthened supply-side sentiment. Oil prices were slightly lower for the week, following declines of around 4% in the previous week. These declines were driven by concerns about rising interest rates that could strengthen the dollar as well as a ninth consecutive week of rising crude oil inventories in the United States.

Oil has been put under pressure by an increase in US crude inventories, which have reached their highest level since May 2021.