Crude oil futures were little changed in European morning trading Friday after falling by more than $2/b Thursday.
December ICE Brent was 33 cents higher at $80.59/b and November WTI was up by 64 cents at $71.43/b at 1017 GMT.
Compared with last Friday's settle, Brent was trading $3.56 and WTI $2.91 lower.
"Oil prices are recovering slightly this morning after nose-diving yesterday for the second day in a row," Commerzbank said in a commodity note.
Recent falls in the US dollar index stemming from a weaker global equities market helped crude prices stabilize, sources said.
By 1051 GMT, the index was at 95.07, up 0.05% from the previous close.
However, there were some bearish headlines. The International Energy Agency on Friday cut its estimates of global oil demand this year and next by 100,000 b/d each, while raising its estimate of this year's growth in non-OPEC supply to 2.2 million b/d following what it called "relentless" growth in global production.
In its latest monthly oil market report, the IEA cuts its estimates of global demand to 1.3 million b/d for this year and 1.4 million b/d next year, citing currency depreciations, trade disputes and a revision to its data on China.
China's crude oil imports edged up by a modest 0.5% year on year in September to 9.09 million b/d, but the rate of growth could rise in October as both state-run and independent refiners have lifted throughput to meet robust demand.
China's crude oil imports were also marginally higher than 9.08 million b/d in August, preliminary data from the General Administration of Customs showed Friday.
