Brent clawed 0.07% to $ 43.34 at the close and WTI gained 0.5% to $ 41.29.
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Oil prices edged up on Friday, despite renewed tensions between the United States and China and as the risk of a second wave of COVID-19, especially in the United States, weighs on demand for black gold .
In London, a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in September gleaned 0.07% or 3 cents, to 43.34 dollars.
In New York, WTI’s US barrel for the same month gained 0.5% or 22 cents to $ 41.29.
The prices of the two reference barrels had cashed Thursday a drop of about 2%.
The weak dollar in the forex market on Friday benefited black gold prices, denominated in the US dollar. A decline in the greenback usually makes oil cheaper for buyers with other currencies.
Investors also did not seem to panic about the new diplomatic escalation between Washington and Beijing.
China on Friday ordered the closure of a US consulate in Chengdu, responding to the United States three days after Washington’s decision to close the Chinese consulate in Houston, the two powers exchanging accusations of espionage.
“Harmonious international trade relations are necessary to keep demand for oil uninterrupted in the long term,” said Bjornar Tonhaugen, analyst at Rystad Energy.
Sino-U.S. Tensions, already fueled by trade disputes and mutual accusations over the origin of COVID-19, have escalated in recent weeks with Beijing imposing a national security law on Hong Kong.
Market players are also focusing their attention on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in crude oil consuming areas such as the United States, where the situation remains of concern.
“If a second wave does materialize in the United States, we estimate that it will endanger a total of around 5 million barrels per day at its peak at the end of August 2020,” Tonhaugen said. .
Kpler analysts wanted to be more reassuring and insisted on the efforts of producer countries members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to limit the supply of black gold.
“The problem of oversupply in the global oil market continues to improve in July,” they said in a note Friday.
But the balance between supply and demand remains “fragile” according to them.
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