Oil prices remained stable on Friday, July 7, 2023 in the face of fears of a rise in American interest rates that could dampen energy demand being offset by signs of tightening supply after a sharper than expected fall in American oil inventories.

Brent oil futures were down 1 cent to $76.51 per barrel at 0006 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate oil gained 2 cents to $71.82 per barrel. Both benchmarks are expected to gain around 2% for the second week in a row.

These figures come as Saudi Arabia and Russia, the main oil exporters, have announced a new round of production cuts for the month of August, bringing the total cuts to more than five million barrels per day (bpd), equivalent to 5% of the world's production of corn Trolish

However, oil prices have been limited by stronger forecasts that the US central bank is likely to raise interest rates at its meeting on July 25 and 26, after keeping them at a level of 5% to 5.25% in June.