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Brent crude futures were down $1.63, or 2.24%, to $71.06 a
barrel, their lowest level since Dec. 2021. U.S. West Texas
Intermediate crude futures fell $1.48, or 2.14%, to$67.67, their
lowest since June 2023.
For the week, Brent declined 10%, while WTI dropped around 8%.
U.S. government data showed employment increased less than
expected in August, but a drop in the jobless rate to 4.2%
suggested an orderly labor market slowdown that may not warrant
a big interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve this month.
"The jobs report was a little soft and implied that the economy
in the U.S. is on the slide," Bob Yawger, executive director of
energy futures at Mizuho.
Concerns around Chinese demand also kept pressuring oil prices,
Yawger said.
On Thursday, Brent settled at its lowest since June 2023 despite
a withdrawal from U.S. oil inventories and a decision by OPEC+
to delay planned oil output increases.
U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 6.9 million barrels to 418.3
million barrels last week, compared with a projected decline of
993,000 barrels in a Reuters poll of analysts.
Signals that Libya's rival factions could be closer to an
agreement to end the dispute that has halted the country's crude
exports also pressured oil prices this week. Exports remained
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.
The U.S. active oil rig count, an early indicator of future
output, remained unchanged at 483 this week, energy services
firm Baker Hughes reported on Friday.
Money managers cut their net long U.S. crude futures and options
positions in the week to Sept. 3, the U.S. Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.
(Reporting by Nicole Jao in New York, Robert Harvey in London
and Colleen Howe in Beijing; editing by David Goodman, Jason
Neely, Sharon Singleton, Paul Simao, Alexander Smith and David
Gregorio)
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