RIYADH: Oil prices were little changed on Friday as the market balanced a weaker US dollar and mixed US jobs reports, but both crude benchmarks ended the first week of the year lower due to global recession concerns. Brent futures fell 12 cents, or 0.2 percent, to settle at $78.57 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 10 cents, or 0.1 percent, to settle at $73.77. For the week, both Brent and WTI were down over 8 percent, their biggest weekly dives to start the year since 2016. Both benchmarks had gained about 13 percent during the prior three weeks. US drillers cut most rigs in a week since September 2021: Baker Hughes US energy firms this week cut seven oil and natural gas rigs in their biggest weekly decline since September 2021, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co. said in its closely followed report on Friday. The US oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by seven to 772 in the week to Jan. 6, the lowest since November. US oil rigs fell three to 618 this week, their lowest since November, while gas rigs dropped by four to 152, their lowest since June. US oil production last year was forecast to have risen by an average of 620,000 barrels per day, according to the latest government estimates, a third less than the roughly 1 million bpd some forecasts called for at the start of the year. That shortfall has undercut shale’s influence on global markets and helped lift prices for the second year in a row. Venezuela owes over $20mn to law firms on guarding overseas assets Venezuela owes $20.7 million to US law firms handling litigation against creditors seeking to collect unpaid debts from bond defaults and nationalizations carried out more than 15 years ago, according to a document seen by Reuters. The South American nation owes bondholders and companies more than $60 billion over companies nationalized under then-President Hugo Chavez as well as over defaulted bonds from the country and state oil firm PDVSA. Some US courts have granted creditors rights to negotiate the sale of Venezuelan assets abroad in order to collect debts, such as the Citgo refinery, the crown jewel of Venezuela’s overseas assets, and a subsidiary of PDVSA. However, some assets are protected by the US Treasury Department. The interim government of former opposition leader Juan Guaido, who was removed at the end of last year by assembly vote, had hired some eight law firms to handle litigation with companies and bondholders, including one seeking to nullify PVDSA’s 2020 bonds, which had offered Citgo as collateral. Between October 2020 and October 2022, Venezuela’s opposition parliament authorized nearly $30 million payments to the lawyers, but according to the document, they have yet to be paid $20.7 million. In the document, a report from the interim government’s prosecution team, the lawyers say failure to pursue the lawsuits would risk losing the overseas assets. Opposition groups maintain that control of overseas assets is not at risk, despite last month’s removal of the interim government, though they have not given details of what will happen with ongoing litigation. (With input from Reuters)