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Brent crude futures were at $76.20 a barrel, up 5 cent, at 1216
GMT. Brent hit a 2022 low this week.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 42 cents at $71.88 a
barrel.
The contracts are set for weekly losses of around 10% each,
their worst weekly drops in percentage terms since August and
April, respectively.
"The EU's oil embargo against Russia and the G7 price cap on
Russian oil that came into force at the start of this week have
been just as powerless to prevent this as the easing of
coronavirus restrictions in China and robust Chinese crude oil
imports have," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said.
The market structure for Brent contracts has switched to
contango, meaning contracts for near-term delivery are cheaper
than for delivery in six months, indicating that traders see
weaker demand.
News of a leak closing Canadian firm TC Energy's Keystone
pipeline in the United States prompted a brief rally on
Thursday. However, prices finally eased as the market took a
view that the closure would be brief.
The market similarly shrugged off a queue of oil tankers being
held up by Turkish authorities on their way to the Mediterranean
from the Black Sea.
In China, surging infections will likely depress economic growth
in the next few months despite some restrictions being eased,
bringing a rebound only later in 2023, economists said.
Also on the downside, the U.S. economy is heading into a short
and shallow recession over the coming year, according to
economists polled by Reuters who unanimously expected the U.S.
Federal Reserve to go for a smaller 50 basis point (bps)
interest rate hike on Dec. 14.
The European Central Bank will also likely lift its deposit rate
by 50 bps next week to 2.00%, another Reuters poll found,
despite the euro zone economy almost certainly being in
recession, as it battles inflation running at five times its
target.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore and Mohi
Narayan in New Delhi; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sherry
Jacob-Phillips)
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