Oil Prices on Track for 12 Percent Weekly Gain With Brent at 85 Dollars as US Iran Strikes and Hormuz Traffic Collapse Drive Supply Fears

Brent crude traded near $85 a barrel on Friday, up about 12 percent for the week and its biggest weekly gain since April, while WTI rose a similar amount to roughly $80 123. US Central Command reported a sixth consecutive night of strikes on Iranian targets Thursday into Friday, including coastal surveillance, air defense and logistics sites, after earlier in the week disabling a sanctioned tanker near Iran's Kharg Island export terminal and reimposing a naval blockade outside the Strait of Hormuz 12. Iran struck two UAE-managed oil tankers transiting Hormuz's southern lane near Oman, and Bloomberg and Invezz reported Iran has asked Yemen's Houthi movement to prepare to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if the US targets Iranian energy infrastructure 234. Traffic through Hormuz, which carries about 20 million barrels a day, has dropped sharply since the escalation began 14.