NEW YORK: Oil prices diverged, with Brent hitting 4-1/2 month highs on continued fighting in Yemen while US crude fell on concerns of another upcoming stock build, though both benchmarks headed toward weekly gains.

A softer dollar also lent support to Brent and formed a floor beneath falling US crude prices.

Worries that crude stockpiles in the US could hit a new record next week weighed on US crude, even as overall demand for oil and fuel products, especially gasoline, picked up ahead of the peak summer driving season.

“It’s a push and pull situation with the Yemen tensions giving Brent support while US prices get pulled down as people steel themselves for another inventory rise next week,” said John Kilduff, partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital.

Brent was up 27 cents at $65.12 a barrel by 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT), after hitting a Dec. 10 high of $65.80.

Brent was headed for a third straight week of gains, adding nearly 3 percent this week. US crude fell 42 cents to $57.32 a barrel, retreating from Thursday’s 2015 high of $58.41. It was on track for a sixth straight weekly gain, its longest such stretch since the first quarter of 2014.

Like Brent, US crude was up 3 percent for the week.

After a selloff between June and January driven by oversupply, oil prices seem to have found their footing in the last three months, gaining about 20 percent in April.

Even so, oil producers and Wall Street are at odds on whether the slump is over, with the financial community betting the recovery will be quickly than the industry expects.