Price action
Brent crude jumped 49 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $91.14 a barrel by 0108 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude also rose 37 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $86.96 a barrel.
The two benchmarks reached their highest levels since October at settlement yesterday, Thursday.
The two crude oil prices are heading to record gains exceeding four percent this week, continuing to rise for the second week in a row after Iran, the third largest producer in OPEC, vowed to take revenge on Israel for an attack that resulted in the killing of a number of senior Iranian military personnel.
Israel did not claim responsibility for the attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria on Monday.
A NATO official said on Thursday that the ongoing Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries in Russia may have disrupted more than 15 percent of Russia's production capacity, harming fuel production in the country.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, led by Russia, within the framework of what is known as the OPEC+ alliance, this week kept the oil supply policy unchanged and pressured some countries to increase commitment to production cuts.
This comes amid strong growth in global oil demand, which reached 1.4 million barrels per day in the first quarter, JP Morgan analysts said in a note.
They explained that their estimates “indicate that total oil consumption in March averaged 101.2 million barrels per day, which is 100,000 barrels per day more” than the estimates they had previously published.
Investors are awaiting the US jobs report for March, scheduled to be released later on Friday, to obtain further indications about the strength of the US economy and the direction of the country's monetary policy.
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