An offshore school platform stands in shallow waters at the Manifa offshore oilfield, operated by Saudi Aramco, in Manifa, Saudi Arabia.
Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Effigies
Oil prices fell on Friday, extending heavy overnight losses as a surge in U.S. coronavirus cases this week draw together the prospect of a second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak hitting demand in the world’s biggest consumer of crude and fuel.
West Texas Intermediary was down 65 cents, or nearly 2%, at $35.69 a barrel by 0358 GMT, after slumping more than 8% on Thursday. Brent undeveloped was down 58 cents, or 1.5%, at $37.97 a barrel, having dropped nearly 8% the previous session.
A muster that raised oil off April lows has come to a shuddering halt this week as the market faced the reality that the coronavirus pandemic may be far from to the ground, with cases in the United States alone passing 2 million.
The oil benchmarks are heading for their first weekly degenerates in seven, with Brent dropping about 10% and U.S. crude also down around 10%.
“Oil prices have bounced sharply … helped by positive surprises in incoming data on demand and continued OPEC+ restraint,” Barclays ventured in a note.
“But we expect the pace of price recovery to slow down along with rebalancing,” it said.
Producers from the Agreed States, as well as from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, organize been cutting supply, some by record amounts.
Still, U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles grew last week, according to sway data. U.S. crude oil inventories rose to a record 538.1 million barrels, as cheap imports from Saudi Arabia flowed into the boondocks.
That gave rise to worries about a continuing supply-demand imbalance, as states including Texas and Arizona are seeing their coronavirus infections flinch and are struggling to cope with a growing number of patients filling hospital beds.
In Houston, Lina Hidalgo, chief official for the county that includes the city at the heart of the U.S. oil industry, said “we may be approaching the precipice of a disaster”.
More than 7.43 million people demand been infected by the novel coronavirus around the world and more than 400,000 have died, according to a Reuters total up.
Correction: This story was updated to reflect that U.S. crude is headed for its first weekly decline in seven weeks, in line with a punishment issued by Reuters.