By Scott DiSavino

(Reuters) – Oil prices were not affected by worries over weaker economic growth. However, there was some optimism that oil demand will rebound in China after Shanghai releases coronavirus locks.

The July futures fell by 36 cents (or 0.3%) to $111.68/barrel at 0015 GMT. Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate(WTI), crude dropped 36c (or 0.3%) to $111.85 its last day as front-month.

WTI futures on July were about 0.6% lower at $109.20/barrel.

WTI is now on pace to increase for the fourth week straight, for first time since mid February. After falling by 1% last week, Brent rose less than 1 percent.

This week’s crude gains were limited. The Brent and U.S. benchmarks traded in a range because of the uncertainty about demand. Investors are reducing their exposure to higher-risk assets because of rising inflation fears and aggressive actions by central banks.

For example, WTI futures open interest fell to 1.72 million contracts in May 18th, the lowest level since July 2016.

Stephen Innes, SPI Asset Management’s managing director, stated in a client letter that “if U.S. GDP data continues to soured,” oil prices might get caught up with the negative stock-market feedback loop,” SPI Asset Management managing Director Stephen Innes.

Wall Street finished lower following a volatile session Thursday. Investors worried about inflation and rising rates of interest.

China could see an increase in oil demand as Shanghai officials lifted coronavirus restrictions and citizens were allowed to go grocery shopping for the first-time in almost two months. China is the largest crude oil importer in the world.

The Federal Highway Administration reported that Americans in America were returning to driving despite the rising cost of fuel.

AAA, Automobile Club said that diesel and gasoline prices hit new records on Thursday.

A bill was passed by the U.S. House that permits President Obama to declare an Energy Emergency. This makes it illegal for businesses to increase fuel prices or gasoline excessively.

Prices have risen due to the possibility that Russia will be banned from importing oil by the European Union. Moscow called this a “specially military operation,” and the EU offered a fresh set of sanctions on Russia.

The sanctions could include a complete ban on oil imports within six months, although the plans have yet to be adopted. Hungary has been one of the strongest critics.

Iran is finding it harder to sell its crude oil now that there are more Russian barrels available.

As Beijing favoured Russian barrels at a heavily discounted price, Iran’s crude oil exports have dropped sharply to China since the Ukraine conflict. There are now almost 40,000,000 barrels of Iranian oil in Asia on tanks that travel through Asia looking for buyers.