Oil prices rise on strong demand

Oil drilling rigs

Oil prices rose on Friday after the release of official data in the US, China, and India showing the continued demand strength.

Futures for Brent crude, scheduled for May delivery, rose by 0.52% to $83.39 at 9:21 AM Makkah time.

Similarly, futures prices for US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 0.68% to $79.47 per barrel, but a weekly fall of 0.5% so far.

US gasoline stocks decreased by 4.5 million barrels, while distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, were down by about 4.1 million barrels, data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on March 3.