Oil prices fell about 2% in Friday trading due to expectations that disruptions in Gulf of Mexico supplies in the United States will be short-term, while recession fears cast a shadow on demand forecasts.

However, oil prices recorded weekly gains of around 3.5%.

Brent crude futures dropped $1.45, or 1.5%, to settle at $98.15 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $2.25, or 2.4%, to $92.09 a barrel at the close, according to Reuters.

Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn said, "We are pulling back a bit after yesterday’s big rally."

Brent crude rose 3.4% this week after falling 14% last week amid concerns that rising inflation and interest rates could affect economic growth and fuel demand. West Texas Intermediate rose 3.7%.

A Louisiana port official said work crews were expected to replace a damaged section of a pipeline by the end of Friday, allowing production to resume at seven US offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Thursday, Shell, the largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, said it had shut production at three deepwater platforms in the area.

The three platforms produce up to 410,000 barrels of oil per day in total.

The market also absorbed the divergence between OPEC and the International Energy Agency in their demand forecasts.

Saxo Bank’s head of commodity strategy Ole Hansen said, "We are witnessing an economic slowdown, but it is unclear whether it is a significant slowdown as some recent forecasts suggest."

He added, "Demand movement is like the tide, but supply remains the main concern."

European sanctions on Russian oil are scheduled to be tightened later this year, while a coordinated six-month plan between the United States and other advanced economies to draw from their energy reserves is expected to end by year’s end.

OPEC cut its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2022 by 260,000 barrels per day. It now expects demand to increase by 3.1 million barrels per day this year.

This contrasts with the International Energy Agency’s view, which raised its demand growth forecast to 2.1 million barrels per day due to the shift to oil from gas for electricity generation because of rising global gas prices.