Oil prices eased on Friday as markets evaluated the impact of U.S. interest rates staying higher for longer than anticipated, but crude benchmarks headed for their best week in more than two months after solid projections for crude and fuel demand.
Brent crude futures were down 42 cents, or 0.5%, at $82.33 a barrel by 0646 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude futures lost 51 cents, or 0.7%, to trade at $78.11 a barrel.
However, Brent and the U.S. benchmark gained over 3% for the week - the best week since April 5.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) stuck to a forecast for relatively strong growth in global oil demand for 2024 and Goldman Sachs projected solid U.S. fuel demand this summer.
This helped reverse losses in the previous week which were driven by an agreement by OPEC and its allies, together called OPEC+, to start unwinding output cuts after September.
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