oil futures rose early friday on track for weekly gains as market bulls looked for signs china may soon move to ease covid restrictions and allow economic growth to revive   west texas intermediate crude for december delivery cl1 cl00 clz22 rose 293 or 33 to 9110 a barrel on track for a weekly gain of 36   january brent crude brn00 brnf23 the global benchmark gained 269 or 28 to 9736 a barrel on ice futures europe headed for a weekly rise of 39   back on nymex december gasoline rbz22 rose 29 to 2773 a gallon up more than 8 for the week december heating oil gained 18 to 3938 a gallon headed for a 52 weekly advance   december natural gas ngz22 was up 37 at 6198 per million british thermal units on pace to book a weekly gain of more than 9 ongoing speculation around an easing of covid19 curbs in china provided support for crude the wall street journal reported friday that zeng guang who was formerly the chief scientist at the chinese center for disease control and prevention said at a conference that there were expected to be “significant” changes to the company’s zerocovid approach in 2023 according to multiple unnamed sources china’s covidzero policies of stringent lockdowns and other curbs have been seen as keeping a lid on crude prices in 2022 “oil prices are getting a bounce on the news as traders ultimately think of china more as a driver of upside to demand at some point next year when the reopening of the economy accelerates rather than as a current incremental driver of demand weakness in other words the light at the end of the covidzero tunnel is more attractive than today’s gloomy outlook” said stephen innes managing partner at spi asset management in a note meanwhile the journal reported that the us and its allies had reached an agreement on which types of oil sales will be subject to a cap on russian prices when new sanctions take effect on dec 5 seaborne russian oil will only be subject to the cap when its first sold to buyers on land the report said meaning resales won’t fall under the same cap intermediary trades of russian oil that occur at sea would remain subject to the cap while refined products such as gasoline would not