U.S. stocks are rising Friday as energy prices continue to climb and give a boost to energy companies. A global rally lifted stocks in Asia and Europe. After two days of gains, major indexes in the U.S. are set to rise for the first week in the last four.

The February crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $1.81 to settle at $29.53/bbl on Jan. 21. The March contract was up $1.14 to settle at $30.83/bbl. The NYMEX natural gas contract for February gained 2¢ to a rounded $2.14/MMbtu. The Henry Hub gas price was $2.20/MMbtu on Jan. 21, up 6¢.

Therefore, oil prices will rise once more people study the long-term dynamics of oil markets instead of trading on and exploiting the short term news. On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, WTI for delivery in February 2017 closed at US$37.08 a barrel on January 19, 23% higher than the market closing price for the day.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $30.64 a barrel at 0634 GMT, up $1.11 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $1.36 to $30.61 a barrel. At one point, Brent prices reached $31.10 a barrel and Nymex rose as high as to $31.04 a barrel.

Iran is in a good position to deliver on its target to raise oil output by 500,000 b/d within six weeks and by a further 500,000 b/d six months after that.

Flint Hills Resources LLC, the refining arm of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch’s industrial empire, said it offered to pay $1.50 a barrel Friday for North Dakota Sour, a high-sulfur grade of crude, according to a corrected list of prices posted on its website Monday. It had previously posted a price of -$0.50. The crude is down from $13.50 a barrel a year ago and $47.60 in January 2014.

In a stark assessment of the oil market, the International Energy Agency warned of an oil overhang of at least 1m barrels a day for a third consecutive year in 2016.

The impact is not confined to the United States. Oil and gas projects around the world worth $380 billion have been postponed or canceled since 2014.

“I am optimistic about the future, the return of stability to the global oil markets, the improvement of prices and the cooperation among the major producing countries,” al-Naimi said. “Market forces as well as the cooperation among producing nations always lead to the restoration of stability. This, however, takes some time.”

Although analysts are making cautious predictions in the short term, the EIA also indicates that prices in 2017 may be as high as $3.22/MMBtu, representing a major leap in prices for next year.

US light, sweet crude oil prices for February delivery gained modestly on the New York market Jan. 14, closing at above $31/bbl while Brent prices on the London market closed just above $31/bbl within days of both benchmarks briefly dipping under $30/bbl.

The country's energy minister, who said in December that the global oil market could return to a balance by the end of 2016, as long as producers do not raise output from current levels, said on Thursday this may not now happen until early 2017.

"We're playing close attention to the price of oil, and of course that has an important impact on the Canadian dollar, which we're also paying close attention to. In that context, we know that it's doubly important that we think about how we can make investments that have an impact on the economy ... and also think about how we can improve our long-term effectiveness as a country and to increase our long-term rate of growth."

Brent crude futures plunged more than 4 percent to near 12-year lows on Friday as the market braced for increased Iranian oil exports, with the lifting of international sanctions possible within days.

Forecast Brent crude oil prices average $40/b in 2016 and $50/b in 2017. Forecast West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices average $2/b lower than Brent in 2016 and $3/b lower in 2017. However, the current values of futures and options contracts continue to suggest high uncertainty in the price outlook.