Mubasher: Oil prices on early Friday saw little changes, as markets received major swings earlier in the week that led to a second weekly losses for both contracts despite warnings of tight spare capacity.

US Nymex futures rose $0.5 to $70.38 per barrel (pb), seeing a slightly lower level in Asia and heading for a weekly fall of over 4%, while global benchmark Brent crude futures shed $0.20 to $74.25 pb, after adding on Thursday $1.05, heading for a weekly loss of almost 4%.

The mixed prices come ahead of the Baker Hughes data pertaining oil rig count due later in the day.

It has been a bearish week with the heavy losses seen on Wednesday as the focus was directed to the return of crude supplies from Libya, while worries about the escalation in trade dispute between Washington and Beijing cast turmoil over the markets.

Nevertheless, the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s warning of consuming the global spare capacity buttressed Brent crude on Thursday.

As the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied producers including Russia agreed to relax supply curbs in response to unplanned disruptions worldwide and looming shortage from Iran, “rising production […] welcome though it is, comes at the expense of the world’s spare capacity cushion, which might be stretched to the limit,” the IEA stated in its monthly report.

This vulnerability is supporting and would continue to push oil prices higher, the energy watchdog added.

Moreover, China’s oil imports dropped for the second consecutive month in June, as lower margins and volatile prices prompted some independent refiners to scale back purchases, official data on Friday said.

By 7:12 am GMT, US Nymex futures fell 0.27% to $70.14 pb, while Brent futures dropped 0.74% to $73.90 pb.