Oil rises

TOKYO: Oil prices were set to fall this week, despite a slight gain in both benchmarks on Friday, on concerns among investors about rising supply from the U.S. and elsewhere threatening to undermine efforts by OPEC and other producers to tighten the market.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures for April delivery had risen 5 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $61.24 a barrel, after settling up 23 cents on Thursday. WTI was set to fall 1.3 percent this week, reversing the previous week´s 1.3 percent gain.

Brent crude futures trading in London climbed 6 cents to $65.18 a barrel, after settling up 23 cents. Brent was down 0.5 percent for the week. Several reports this week renewed investor focus on the potential for rising supply to overwhelm the expected gains in crude demand for 2018.

On Thursday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said global oil supply increased in February by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) from a year ago to 97.9 million bpd.