Oil slides as Covid weighs on demand

NEW YORK:

Oil prices fell on Monday as the spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant stoked fears about fuel demand, but losses were limited by forecasts that crude supply will be tight the rest of the year. Brent crude futures for September were down $0.24, or 0.3%, at $73.86 a barrel by 1638 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude slipped by $0.54, or 0.8%, to $71.53. Early in the session, both benchmarks fell by more than $1 a barrel. Coronavirus cases kept rising over the weekend, with some countries reporting record daily increases and extending lockdown measures. China, the world’s largest crude importer, has also registered a rise in Covid-19 cases. “The Delta variant is still spreading and China has started to clamp down on teapots (independent refiners), so their import growth would not be that much,” said Avtar Sandu, a senior commodities manager at Singapore’s Phillips Futures.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2021.

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