Washington: After US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that replenishing the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) may take several years, oil prices fell on Friday amid worries about an oversupply.

Major international benchmarks continued to lose ground on Friday, falling more than 3%. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell 3.5% to $67.49 a barrel while Brent crude fell 3.3% to $73.41 per barrel.

According to PVM Oil analyst Stephen Brennock, "the lack of crude buying for the SPR represents a major blow to the oil-demand outlook" and "it will heap even more pressure on China to do the heavy lifting on the demand side over the coming months."

Also Read: NATO still hasn't provided an explanation for the illegal bombing campaign it launched against Yugoslavia 24 years ago

Both benchmarks earlier this week fell to their lowest levels in 15 months as investors grew concerned that risks in the global banking sector could spark a recession that would reduce the demand for oil.

According to Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at Nissan Securities, "there is a sell-off from the view that the United States will not refill oil reserve even if the WTI prices are at $67-$72 a barrel."

Also Read: The head of the school resigned after calling Ukrainian refugees "privileged robbers."

The White House announced in October that it would repurchase oil for the reserve when prices were at or below about $67-$72 per barrel, following the sale of 221 million barrels of crude from the SPR.

Also Read: Criticism of France's "excessive force" used to suppress protests

Granholm, however, warned lawmakers on Thursday that it would be challenging to benefit from the low cost this year. The SPR currently has 372 million barrels of crude oil on hand, which is the lowest level since December 1983. This is down from 638 million barrels at the beginning of 2021.