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Brent crude futures rose 37 cents, or 0.51%, to $73.06 a barrel
by 0958 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up
33 cents, or 0.48%, at $69.48.
For the week, Brent was poised to register a more than 7%
decline while WTI was heading for a drop of almost 6%.
U.S. non-farm payrolls data is due at 1230 GMT. After a week of
mixed signals on the U.S. economy, the jobs data is expected to
be key to the size of any U.S. interest rate cut at the Federal
Reserve's next policy meeting over Sept. 17-18.
U.S. service sector activity was steady in August, but private
jobs growth slowed, remaining consistent with an easing labour
market.
Memories of the early-August sell-off across global markets kept
investors wary of the risk that U.S. labour conditions could
present a surprise downside, said IG market strategist Yeap Jun
Rong.
On Thursday, Brent settled at its lowest since June 2023 as
worries about U.S. and Chinese demand offset support from a big
withdrawal from U.S. oil inventories and Thursday's decision by
OPEC+ to delay planned oil output increases.
Crude stockpiles fell by 6.9 million barrels to 418.3 million
barrels, compared with a projected decline of 993,000 barrels in
a Reuters poll of analysts.
"Chinese and US economic concerns, the diminishing ability of
the (OPEC+) producer group to influence the oil market, and its
ample spare capacity ... imply that further weakness is very
much possible and upside potential is more limited than a month
ago," said PVM analyst Tamas Varga.
Signals that Libya's rival factions could be closer to an
agreement to end the dispute that has halted the country's oil
exports also pressured oil prices this week.
Exports remain mostly shut in but some loadings have been
permitted from storage.
Bank of America lowered its Brent price forecast for the second
half of 2024 to $75 a barrel from almost $90 previously, it said
in a note on Friday, citing building global inventories, weaker
demand growth and OPEC+ spare production capacity.
(Reporting by Robert Harvey in London, Nicole Jao in New York
and Colleen Howe in Beijing; Editing by David Goodman)
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