Crude oil traded little changed in the Asian session as the market headed into week-end trading.
Brent crude oil futures hovered around $81 a barrel, while US WTI traded at $76 a barrel.
Both benchmarks are on track to end the week with gains 7% higher.
The International Energy Agency's forecast that China's demand may recover next year has given support to the market.
The agency raised its oil demand growth estimate for 2023 to 1.7 million barrels per day from 400,000 barrels per day this year.
Meanwhile, OPEC maintained its forecast for global oil demand growth of 2.55 million barrels per day this year and 2.25 million barrels per day in 2023 after several downgrades.
Even so, the strengthening of oil has stalled due to the stance of the Federal Reserve (Fed) to continue raising interest rates next year even though the economy is likely to go into recession.
