Brent crude prices rose to a near three-month peak on Friday in heavy volume trading after a report showed the US economy in January created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months, fuelling hopes of stronger demand in the top petroleum-consuming nation.

Calgary-based Cougar Oil & Gas has obtained protection from creditors after it was unable to pay a regulatory fee when a potential buyer of some of its assets defaulted on its agreement.

The Obama administration scaled back plans Friday to allow companies to search for hard-to-extract oil deposits on federal land.

Petrobras has made a new high-quality oil and gas discovery in the Solimoes basin in Brazil's Amazonas state, the company said Friday afternoon.