Oil prices changed little on Friday, heading for their biggest weekly drop since March after supply concerns spooked investors, with OPEC likely to add more barrels amid expectations that demand is returning as more countries recover from the pandemic.
Brent crude for September was down 2 cents at $73.45 a barrel by 0338 GMT and is heading for a 3% fall this week after two days of heavy declines, Reuters reported.
US crude for August fell 1 cent to $71.64 a barrel, and is on track for a decline of about 4% this week, it said.
Discussions on supply policy within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers, a group called OPEC+, ended without agreement this month after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) objected to extending the output policy beyond April 2022.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE reached a compromise this week, paving the way for OPEC+ to finalize an agreement that would allow more supply into the market.
OPEC said on Thursday it expects world oil demand to increase next year to around levels seen before the pandemic, about 100 million barrels per day (bpd), led by demand growth in the US, China and India.
OPEC output in June increased by 590,000 bpd to 26.03 million bpd, the report showed.
A large decline in crude stockpiles in the United States has done little to support prices as a rise in gasoline inventories in a week that included the Fourth of July holiday, when driving usually surges, raised fresh demand concerns.
