Oil bounces, still tentative after 3-day slump

Oil prices rose $2 to stand above $131 a barrel on Friday, after a 10% decline in the past three trading sessions lured buyers.
Easing tensions between Iran and the West and worries that high prices and a weaker U.S. economy will undermine demand have sent U.S. crude down $15 in just three days, putting it on track for its biggest weekly fall since the contract started trading in New York in 1983.
U.S. light crude rose $2.12 to $131.41 a barrel by 0845 GMT, still way off its June 11 record high of $147.27, as Wednesday's report of an unexpected build in U.S. crude oil stocks continuing to weigh on the price.
London Brent crude gained $2.18 to $133.25 a barrel.
"We have seen a significant move lower this week and after last night's push lower, beware some short covering today," said Robert Laughlin of MF Global.
Gerard Burg of Australia National Bank in Melbourne added: "The pullback is perceived as an opportunity to buy."
After mostly bearish headlines through the week, there has been some news helping oil's recovery.
In Brazil, oil workers said they would expand a strike, which has so far been limited to the Campos Basin, to all production and refining units of state-run Petrobras. So far the strike has had no affect on output.
Nigerian community members on Thursday blew up a crude oil pipeline operated by Italian energy group Eni in the Niger Delta. ENI said it had shut 47,000 barrels per day of output from the world's eighth largest exporter.
But this was offset by news from Chevron, which said on Thursday it had lifted a force majeure on Escravos crude following repair work to a pipeline damaged by sabotage in June in Nigeria.
Receding worries of yet another conflict in the Middle East between Iran and the U.S. have provided a bearish backdrop for oil. Oil markets had feared any military action against Iran could lead to the closing of the Straits of Hormuz, a key transport route for around 40% of the world's traded oil.
Iran's foreign minister said U.S. participation in talks aimed at easing tensions over the country's nuclear programme was "positive".
The U.S. said this week it was sending an envoy to Geneva to join nuclear talks with Iran for the first time, to underline to the Islamic Republic and others that Washington wanted a diplomatic solution to the impasse.