New York : Brent crude prices edged up on Friday and gained more than 5 per cent for the week as anxiety over Iran and potential supply disruptions countered the dollar's strength on better-than-expected US jobs growth and concerns about Europe's economy.
Choppy trajectories characterised trading and US crude closed slightly lower, a day after government data showed oil inventories rose last week.
But US crude also posted a gain for the first week of 2012 after Iran's threat to shut the key oil-shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for tighter sanctions from the United States and a possible ban on its crude exports to Europe.
‘Tug-of-war'
"It was a the tug-of-war between concerns about Iran, Nigeria and signs of an improving US economy supporting oil, and the stronger dollar and worry about the Eurozone economy on the other side," said Richard Ilczyszyn, chief market strategist and founder of iitrader.com in Chicago.
Ilczyszyn also noted support for Brent as yearly reweighting of commodity indexes this week neared, a reweighting that will favour Brent at the expense of US crude.
"It was a combination of the index thing and the Middle East situation, the Middle East is playing the spread," he said.
Brent February crude rose 32 cents to settle at $113.06 a barrel, having tested support below Brent's 200-day moving average of $112.73 after retreating from its $113.68 intraday peak.
Brent gained 5.28 per cent for the week, after slipping slightly last week at in low-volume, end-of-year trading.
US February crude fell 25 cents to settle at $101.56 a barrel, but posted a 2.76 per cent weekly gain.
Brent's premium to US crude rose above $11 a barrel.
Total crude oil trading volumes continued their post-holiday rebound, with Brent 26 per cent and US turnover 19 per cent above their 30-day averages in post-settlement trading.
