NEW YORK, Oct 4: Oil prices closed little changed on Friday after the US Congress approved a $700-billion bailout plan for the financial sector, helping recoup recent falls.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, closed nine cents lower at $93.88 a barrel. It finished the week $13 lower than at the start.

London’s Brent North Sea crude for November fell 31 cents to $90.25.

There isn’t much movement, but we continue to have a situation that the market is increasingly worried about the prospects of future demand for oil,said oil analyst Bart Melek from BMO Capital Markets.

That’s going to be with us for some time. Oil prices had fallen $4.50 on Thursday amid worries that the slowing global economy would reduce demand for crude and data published Friday gave further reason for worry.

US government data showed the struggling US economy lost 159,000 jobs in September as the weight of the housing collapse and credit crunch hit a broad swath of industries.

Elsewhere, French leaders scrambled to reassure consumers, voters and investors after the official statistics agency warned that the eurozone’s second largest economy had slipped into recession.

In Washington Friday, the House of Representatives voted in favour of a revised plan to spend $700 billion (505 billion euros) supporting the financial sector.

Growth fears are likely to cap gains in oil prices in the near future, until we start seeing a pick up in winter demand with some improving economic data from the developed world and concerns over the credit market recede, said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.

The market was dragged down this week by a surprise jump in crude inventories in the United States, the world’s biggest consumer of energy.

The United States Department of Energy (DoE) said Wednesday that crude stockpiles rose 4.3 million barrels in the week ending September 26, surprising traders who had expected a fall of around 1.7 million barrels.

US oil demand sank 7.1 per cent over the past four weeks compared with the same period a year ago, according to the DoE data.—AFP