Oil traders have seen a drastic fall in trading of the black commodity this week following continued concerns over a global economic slowdown and slowing Chinese demand.
Towards the opening of the European session, Brent crude oil futures traded hovering around $73 a barrel, while US WTI was slightly higher at $69 a barrel.
Brent was on track to close the week down 8.5% after plunging to its lowest since December 2021, while US WTI lost 9.5% to its weakest since November 2021.
The ongoing banking crisis has fueled widespread fears of a potential recession, coupled with the implementation of the latest interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve (Fed).
Not only that, China's remaining sluggish economic activity has dashed investor confidence to see a stronger recovery in demand by the world's largest oil consumer.
This caused the crude oil market to 'bleed' non-stop this week, before prices returned to stability following expectations of a possible supply cut at the next OPEC+ meeting in June.
