West Texas Intermediate CLc1 was down 65 cents, or nearly 2%, at $35.69 a barrel by 0358 GMT, after slumping more than 8% on Thursday. Brent crude LCOc1 was down 58 cents, or 1.5%, at $37.97 a barrel, having dropped nearly 8% the previous session.
A rally that raised oil off April lows has come to a shuddering halt this week as the market faced the reality that the coronavirus pandemic may be far from over, with cases in the United States alone passing 2 million.
The oil benchmarks are heading for their first weekly declines in seven, with Brent dropping about 10% and U.S. crude also down around 10%.
“Oil prices have rebounded sharply ... helped by positive surprises in incoming data on demand and continued OPEC+ restraint,” Barclays said in a note.
“But we expect the pace of price recovery to slow down along with rebalancing,” it said.
Producers from the United States, as well as from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, have been cutting supply, some by record amounts.
Still, U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles grew last week, according to government data. U.S. crude oil inventories rose to a record 538.1 million barrels, as cheap imports from Saudi Arabia flowed into the country.
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