oil futures bounced higher early friday but remained on track for hefty weekly losses as investors awaited a meeting of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries and its allies early next week   west texas intermediate crude for october delivery cl1 cl00 clv22 rose 170 or 2 to 8831 a barrel on the new york mercantile exchange leaving the us benchmark on track for a 51 weekly loss   november brent crude brn00 brnx22 the global benchmark was up 171 or 19 to 9407 a barrel headed for a 5 weekly decline wti and brent ended at roughly twoweek lows on thursday   back on nymex october gasoline rbv22 jumped 31 to 2459 a gallon but remained set for an 82 weekly fall october heating oil hov22 edged down 01 on track for a 96 weekly fall   october natural gas ngv22 was down 24 at 9043 per million british thermal units leaving it on track for a 28 weekly fall based on most actively traded contracts crude fell this week as traders reacted to another covid lockdown in china with authorities putting restrictions on chengdu a city of 21 million worries about the global economic outlook as the federal reserve and other major central banks tighten policy aggressively in an effort to wring out inflation has also been a weight on futures attention is focused on monday’s meeting of opec and its allies a group known as opec when us markets will be closed for the labor day holiday the expanded cartel has unwound production cuts that were introduced after the onset of the covid19 pandemic in early 2020 and last month agreed to a modest output increase of 100000 barrels a day for september though surveys indicate that production remains below target saudi arabia’s energy minister last month floated the prospect of a production cut amid what he described as a disconnect between the physical and futures markets though analysts largely expect opec to hold off on monday opec the international energy agency and the us energy information administration have all forecast nearterm oil surpluses which likely explain saudi talk of a cut and which also comes as talks continue toward restoring an iranian nuclear accord that could see tehran resume crude exports said carsten brzeski commodity analyst at commerzbank in a note read why talk of an opec output cut has failed to revive oil prices “that said this is unlikely to happen for the foreseeable future all the same the producer countries will no doubt signal their willingness to adjust output at short notice if required and will consequently stick with their monthly meetings” he wrote hear from top wall street energy analysts at the best new ideas in money festival on sept 21 and sept 22 in new york rbc’s helima croft will be there