<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/energy/2024/12/16/syria-oil-assad/" target="_blank">Oil prices</a> settled higher on Friday but still recorded a <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/energy/2024/12/13/oil-prices-set-for-weekly-gain-amid-concerns-over-sanctions-curtailing-oil-supply/" target="_blank">weekly loss</a> due to concerns over crude demand growth next year, particularly in China. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/energy/2024/12/11/opec-cuts-2024-oil-demand-forecast-amid-weaker-quarterly-data/" target="_blank">Brent</a>, the benchmark for two thirds of the world’s oil, closed 0.08 per cent higher at $72.94. West Texas Intermediate, the gauge that tracks US crude, added 0.12 per cent to $69.46 a barrel. For the week, Brent and WTI slid 2 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively. On Thursday, China’s top refiner Sinopec said it expects the country’s crude demand to peak by 2027, as a rapid shift to electric vehicles slows fuel demand. China's peak oil consumption is projected to reach 800 million tonnes, or 16 million barrels per day, in 2027, according to the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute's annual report. Last year, Sinopec forecast that the country’s peak consumption, also at 800 million tonnes, would occur sometime between 2026 and 2030. China, the world’s second-largest economy and leading crude importer, has been the engine of global oil demand growth for the past two decades. However, this year, consumption has declined sharply due to an economic slowdown and as the transition to EVs gathers pace. In September, EVs and other hybrid vehicles made up more than 45 per cent of the vehicle sales in the country, as per industry data. Opec recently reduced its global oil demand growth forecast for 2024 for the fifth consecutive month, citing weaker-than-expected demand in the third quarter across many regions. Oil prices have faced pressure in the second half of this year due to expectations of a well-supplied market in 2025, as well as the potential impact of a second Donald Trump administration on US economic growth. Brent has fallen by more than 20 per cent since reaching a high of $91 a barrel in April. An “unresolved” crude surplus of more than 900,000 bpd and a high spare capacity of about 6 million bpd in 2025 is “bearish” for oil markets, MUFG said in a research note on Wednesday. Risks such as trade tariffs introduced by a Trump-led administration or geopolitical events could cause significant price fluctuations beyond the anticipated range of $65–$80 per barrel, the Japanese lender said. “With such an oversupplied outlook, oil prices should fall to drive a rebalancing. However, as long as supply disruption risks keep prices supported in 2025, the surplus will remain unresolved,” it added. A stronger dollar also weighed on oil prices on Friday. The US Dollar Index – a measure of its value against a weighted basket of major currencies – rose to a two-year high of 108.26 on Thursday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. It was last down 0.16 per cent at 108.23. The Fed lowered its benchmark target range to between 4.25 per cent and 4.50 per cent, a full percentage point lower than when it began cutting rates in September. The central bank also said that it expects to issue fewer cuts next year due to stubbornly high inflation in the world’s largest economy.