SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Oil prices edged lower on Thursday after official figures showed a surprise jump in U.S. inventories of crude, and rising cases of coronavirus in Europe and Russia.
Brent crude dropped 63 cents to $83.95 a barrel by 0502 GMT, fallen by 2.1% in the previous session.
U.S. oil fell 62 cents to $82.04 per barrel, also a one-week low, after dropping 2.4% on Wednesday.
Outbreaks of COVID-19 infections in China and record deaths and the threat of lockdowns in Russia, along with rising cases in western Europe were putting the breaks on a multi-week rally in oil prices.
“A surge in new cases of COVID-19 threatens to disrupt the recovery in oil demand,” Reuters quoted ANZ Research commodities strategists Daniel Hynes and Soni Kumari as saying.
In the U.S., the economy likely grew at the slowest rate in more than twelve months in the June-September quarter amid a resurgence of coronavirus infections, amid strained global supply chains and global shortages of goods like autos.
Crude stocks rose by 4.3 million barrels last week, the U.S. Energy Department said, more than double the 1.9 million-barrel gain forecast by analysts, Reuters reported.
The “hefty” stock build came “on the back of a large jump in net imports of crude oil and still sluggish refinery processing,” Citi Research commodities analysts said.
