The price of oil futures fell slightly, on Friday, after two days of strong growth that led the prices over $40 per barrel. Reference contracts in the US market were near noon at $ 41.33 a barrel, down 10 cents from Thursday end of the day. European oil contracts were at $ 44.15 a barrel, down 14 cents from the day before, but still about 3.5% up from the level of the previous week.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 fetched $41.83 per barrel at 1211 GMT (0811 ET), down 10 cents from their last close, after trading as low as $41.44. They were on track roughly to break even on the week. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $44.15 per barrel, down 14 cents but set for a weekly gain of more than 3.5 percent.

Downward pressure returned as overproduction in crude and refined products has left onshore storage tanks brimming and triggered the chartering of tankers to store unsold fuel. There are also growing worries that China’s imports are weakening from records set in 2015 and this year.

In less than two months, the price of crude oil has lost more than 20%, given that the refineries have an overproduction of gasoline, but cannot eliminate the crude excess in the market, according to a Bloomberg analysis. Experts anticipate, however, that oil prices will recover in 2017. According to a study conducted on a sample of 20 analysts, global oil price will average at 57 dollars per barrel in 2017. The price of Brent crude rose from 27 dollars a barrel in January (the minimum of the last 12 years), to a maximum fro 2016 at almost 53 dollars a barrel in June, supported by an initiative for freezing output initiated by OPEC and producers outside the cartel. The plan, however, failed, which resulted in new oil price decline.