By Timothy Puko And Georgi Kantchev 

Oil prices fell Friday, pressured by a stronger dollar and growing pessimism that the global oversupply of crude remains strong.

January crude closed down $1.33, or 3.1%, to $41.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, fell 60 cents, or 1.3%, to $44.86 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

The dollar strengthened Friday and pressured commodities such as oil, which are priced in the U.S. currency. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of other currencies, rose 0.3% Friday.

But brokers and analysts also see fading demand growth, a troubling sign for prices in a world where production and stockpiles are still high.

Gasoline merely matches demand at this time last year, and distillate demand is lower, said Donald Morton, senior vice president at Herbert J. Sims & Co., but stockpiles are still filling up with new production.

"This oil market is just not tightening," Wolfe Research analysts said in a note Friday. "Nothing really bullish is out there."

The Wolfe analysts said they are concerned their bearish forecast for U.S. oil at $58 a barrel in 2016 is too high. Bankruptcies and major cuts to supply are not happening fast enough to turn the oil markets around, they said.

News from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is not helping either. News agencies reported Friday that Russia will not send high-ranking officials to OPEC's coming meeting, adding to Friday's selloff, Mr. Morton said. Without cooperation from other major exporters, OPEC is unlikely to curtail its own strong production, which would be another factor perpetuating the oversupply.

"The market took it hard," he added.

Friday's losses took U.S. oil into negative territory for the week, down 19 cents, or 0.5%. It is its sixth losing week in the past seven. Brent, however, did gain, up 20 cents, or 0.4% for the week.

Those gains came largely from geopolitical tensions, after Turkey shot down a Russian jet along the Syrian border, causing a rally to start the week. But there is little indication so far the turmoil in the Middle East is affecting oil supply.

"The potential increase in geopolitical risk premium has faded a bit as the dispute between Russia and Turkey has not yet escalated or spread to the surrounding countries, affecting oil output," said Michael Poulsen, oil analyst at Global Risk Management.

Oil prices headed south last year after OPEC embarked on a strategy of protecting its market share by pumping more crude despite falling prices. While the booming U.S. output has tailed off this year, oil stockpiles remain near record highs.

"Inventory overhangs dominate the oil markets and will likely suppress oil prices in the near term, as we approach [the December] OPEC meeting in Vienna," said Jason Gammel, analyst at Jefferies.

"Crude and product inventories are building in the U.S. with the market expected to remain oversupplied through the first half of 2016," he said.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Energy Department said crude stockpiles ticked up by 1 million barrels last week, bringing the total tally to 488.2 million barrels, around a level not seen in the last eight decades. U.S. oil output has also held stable, around 9.2 million barrels a day, but down from a peak of 9.6 million barrels a day in April.

"Oil market oversupply will continue through next year, due to resilient U.S. production, even if it is declining, and high OPEC output led by Saudi Arabia and Iraq," said Michael Wittner, chief oil analyst at Société Générale.

Mr. Wittner said he doesn't believe there will be "any change in Saudi or OPEC policy," when the 12-nation oil cartel meets in December.

Gasoline futures settled down 0.23 cent, or 0.2%, at $1.3938 a gallon. They rose 10.35 cents, or 8%, for the week, its largest one-week gain since April and largest one-week percentage gain since September 2012.

Diesel futures lost 5.03 cents, or 3.6%, to $1.3524 a gallon, the lowest price since April 30, 2009. Diesel is down for four straight weeks, losing 1.89 cents, or 1.4% this week.

Jenny W. Hsu contributed to this article.

Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com and Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2015 14:48 ET (19:48 GMT)