* Attacks have cut Saudi oil output by 600,000 bpd, state

news agency says

* Shipping at near-standstill in Strait of Hormuz

* Brent and WTI benchmarks down 12% this week

* Russia's crude exports from western ports has increased

(Updates dateline, byline, prices, adds details on Russia

waiver, Middle East outages and loadings)

By Siddharth Cavale

NEW YORK, April 10 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose towards

$100 a barrel on concerns over Saudi Arabia supply disruptions

and limited flows through the Strait of Hormuz, but were still

on track for their biggest weekly fall since last June as a

fragile ceasefire held.

Brent crude futures were up 40 cents, or 0.4%, at

$96.32 a barrel at 11:18 a.m. ET or 1520 GMT. West Texas

Intermediate futures were up 84 cents, or around 0.9%, at

$98.71.

Both contracts have lost about 12% this week after Iran and

the U.S. agreed on Tuesday to a two-week ceasefire brokered by

Pakistan.

However, fighting has continued and the flow of oil through

the Strait of Hormuz remains heavily restricted, keeping futures

near $100 a barrel and pushing prices in the physical market to

record highs.

"The key issue for the oil market is whether ship traffic

through the Strait of Hormuz will resume. So far, there are no

signs of this happening. If oil supplies from the Persian Gulf

remain blocked, oil prices are likely to rise again,"

Commerzbank analysts said in a note on Friday.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained less than 10%

of normal volumes as Tehran asserted its control by warning

ships to keep to its territorial waters. The majority of ships

that have sailed through the Strait in the past day were linked

to Iran, ship-tracking data showed on Friday.

Iran wants to charge fees for ships to pass through the

strait under a peace deal, a Tehran official told Reuters on

April 7. Western leaders and the United Nations' shipping agency

have pushed back on the idea.

The crucial artery for oil and gas flows has been

effectively shut down by the conflict that began when the U.S.

and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on February 28.

More than 60 energy infrastructure assets across the Gulf

have been hit by drone and missile strikes, with around 50

sustaining varying degrees of damage. While most attacks are not

expected to cause prolonged disruptions, at least eight

facilities face lengthy repair timelines, according to a

Thursday note from Natasha Kaneva, head of global commodities

research at J.P. Morgan.

Middle East producers shut in about 7.5 million

barrels-per-day (bpd) of crude oil production in March as

storage capacity tightened, with outages projected to rise to

9.1 million bpd in April, the Energy Information Administration

said in a report earlier this week.

"The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively constrained and

operation of the global oil system is far from normal," said

Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen, adding that futures markets have

priced in a partial normalisation but the physical market is

reflecting acute scarcity.

Still, producers in the Middle East have asked Asian

refiners to submit crude oil loading programmes for April and

May in preparation for the eventual resumption of shipping

through the Strait of Hormuz, three sources with knowledge of

the matter said.

SAUDI DISRUPTION, RUSSIA WAIVER

Prices steadied on Friday as investors balanced lower Saudi

output with diplomatic progress. Saudi state news agency SPA

reported on Thursday that attacks on Saudi energy facilities

have cut the kingdom's oil production capacity by about 600,000

barrels per day and reduced its East-West Pipeline throughput by

about 700,000 bpd.

Meanwhile, Lebanon said it intends to take part in a meeting

with U.S. and Israeli representatives in Washington next week to

discuss and announce a ceasefire.

The U.S. administration is likely to extend a waiver

allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum

products, part of efforts to control global energy prices since

the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, two sources familiar with the

matter told Reuters.

Russia's crude oil exports from its main western ports

increased in early April compared with March, according to

trading sources and Reuters calculations, despite disruptions to

loadings caused by drone attacks on energy infrastructure.