Oil slips but seen ending week little changed on supply tightness | Reuters

Oil slips but seen ending week little changed on supply tightness | Reuters

Oil prices eased on Friday but were poised to end the week largely steady after rebounding from a sharp drop earlier in the week, underpinned by expectations that supply will remain tight as demand recovers.

Brent crude futures fell 23 cents, or 0.3%, to $73.56 a barrel by 0542 GMT, after jumping 2.2% on Thursday. For the week, Brent was set to end the week flat.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 23 cents, or 0.3%, to $71.68 a barrel, following a 2.3% gain on Thursday. WTI was headed for a 0.2% weekly loss.

Prices of oil and other riskier assets tumbled earlier in the week on concerns about the economic impact of surging COVID-19 cases of the Delta variant in the United States, Britain, Japan and elsewhere.

Benchmark contracts fell as much as $6 on Monday but have recouped all of those losses as investors expect overall crude demand to stay strong, driven by a continued fall in oil stockpiles and rising rates of vaccinations.

However,"the threat of the Delta variant slowing down global economic recovery is far from gone," said Vandana Hari, energy analyst at Vanda Insights.