An ongoing disruption to Iraqi exports tightened the market ahead of the US inflation data, which resulted in a weekly surge of more than 7%, according to Bloomberg oil.
West Texas Intermediate futures were steady above $74 a barrel on Friday after closing almost 2% higher in the previous session. Iraq's oil exports from Turkey are unlikely to resume this week because of a dispute between Baghdad and Kurdistan that stopped around 400,000 barrels a day.
Oil still has a fifth monthly loss due to a banking crisis that has rippled through markets earlier in the month, though the worst of the turmoil appears to be over. Resilient Russian supply and strikes in France that have curbed crude demand added to the bearishness.
As Federal Reserve officials stressed the need to lower prices, investors will be watching the US inflation later Friday for clues on the path forward for monetary tightening. Changes to production quotas aren't expected to be made by the OPEC next week.