Oil Set for 16% Weekly Gain on Middle East Disruption

Crude oil prices were on course to end the week with gains of over 16% despite a Thursday dip following a signal from the U.S. about intervention in the futures market to calm prices down. Brent crude was trading at $84.66 per barrel at the time of writing and West Texas Intermediate was changing hands for $79.94 per barrel, after on Thursday the U.S. Treasury Department said it would issue sanction waivers for commodity trading companies to start selling Russian oil sitting on tankers as Middle Eastern oil supply dries up because of the severe…