Oil Prices Firm on Optimism Over China’s Reopening

An oil field worker works at a pump jack in PetroChina's Daqing oil field in China's northeastern Heilongjiang Province on Nov. 5, 2007. (Stringer (China)/Reuters)

LONDON—Oil prices edged higher on Friday on hopes of a Chinese demand boost, but the broader global economic outlook kept crude benchmarks on course for a weekly decline.

Brent crude futures rose 56 cents, or 0.71 percent, to $79.25 a barrel by 1009 GMT.