Oil prices end the week down on global demand worries

Oil prices ended Friday 2 per cent down, finishing the week around 3 per cent lower on concerns over global demand following weak US manufacturing data that overshadowed supply cuts and sanctions on Venezuela and Iran.

After a promising start to the session to over a three-month high, crude fell sharply on demand worries, while the ISM manufacturing activity index sank to its lowest since November 2016. 

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WTI crude oil fell 2.5 per cent to settle at $55.80 per barrel while Brent crude was down 1.9 per cent or $1.24 to settle at $64.07 per barrel

Despite hitting three month highs earlier in the week, Brent ended it down 3.3 per cent while WTI was 2.7 per cent lower than last week. 

The activity in China for February fell for a third consecutive month as the country's economy continued to struggle with weak export orders, while South Korea's exports also slowed. 

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The 14-member Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped 30.68m barrels per day in February, according to Reuters. 

This was down from 300,000 in January and the lowest OPEC total since 2015.