Oil prices pause in week-long surge Norwegian strike drives strong gains
TOKYO: Oil prices eased a few cents early in trading on Friday in a breather at the end of a week of big gains propelled by a strike in Norway that raised the prospect of supply from the major producer being slashed by up to 25%.
Brent was down by 9 cents at $43.25 a barrel by 0152 GMT, having gained more than 3% on Thursday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 5 cents at $41.14 after also falling more than 3% on Thursday.
Both contracts are on track for gains of around 10% this week – the first rise in three weeks – yanked higher by the prospect of tighter supply on production outages in the North Sea because of the action by Norwegian oil workers.
