NEW YORK Oil prices fell more than 3 per cent on Friday and posted their biggest weekly decline since June as fears of a slow economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic compounded worries about weak oil demand.
Brent crude fell $1.41, or 3.2 per cent, to settle at $42.66 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell $1.6, or 3.9 per cent, to settle at $39.77 a barrel. Brent fell 5.3 per cent from last week, while WTI lost 7.4 per cent.
Prices were pressured by extended declines in the US equities market and by a report showing US job growth slowed further in August as financial assistance from the government ran out.
A US government report this week showed domestic gasoline demand has fallen again, while middle distillate inventories at Asia’s Singapore oil hub have surpassed a nine-year high, official data showed.
Demand fall
Global oil demand could fall by 9-10 million barrels per day (bpd) this year due to the pandemic, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said.
A record supply cut since May by OPEC and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, has supported prices. OPEC began in August to ease the scale of the cuts, raising output by almost 1 million bpd, according to a Reuters survey. [
In the US, the oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future production, rose two to 256 in the week to 4 September, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday. It was the second time in the past three weeks that energy firms added rigs.