Stock in oil and gas companies showed signs of rallying ahead of the weekend, in contrast to the week-end jitters that were commonplace just a few months ago.

Norway’s energy-heavy burse was up over a percentage point in early Friday trading after energy shares in North American lifted the oil-savvy TSX in Toronto and the Dow Jones, a market watching energy policy even out in Washington.

In Oslo, deepwater oil company StatoilHydro was up two percent, while Aker Solutions shareholder Aker ASA was up over three percent as the threat of a legal battle with the Norwegian government subsided.

Technology-savvy oil company Rocksource dids its share to drive Norwegian shares and was up five percent by mid-morning. Surve outfit Seabird Exploration was up nearly nine percent, leading a comprising drilling contractors Seadrill (up 2.45 percent), Scorpion Offshore (up 3.1 percent) and Sevan Marine (up 1.5 percent).

In Toronto, too, energy companies were up over an average two percent, as the Nymex showed a rise in crude prices despite depressing U.S. jobs and housing-starts figures.

Despit posting a first-quarter loss of $189 million, Suncor Energy Inc. was up three percent on the momentum of its merger with Petro-Canada. Offshore player Husky Energy was up over 1.5 percent, while only UTS Energy Corp. was down (by 6.1 percent) as it resisted a takeover attempt by Paris-based oil company Total.

In Moscow, the RTS Oil & Gas index was up 1.3 percent by midday Friday, led by Gazprom (up 2.3 percent) and calls from Prime Minister Putin to lower taxes on oil companies.

Tags: SeaBird Exploration Limited, StatoilHydro, UTS Energy Corp.