SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Oil prices edged lower on Monday, falling around 1% as worries about a drop in demand for fuel products in the wake of yet more European lockdowns dominated trading.
Brent crude was down 35 cents at $64.18 a barrel at 0625 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude features was off by 21 cents at $61.21.
Both contracts fell by more than 6% last week.
Germany plans to extend a lockdown to curtail coronavirus infections into a fifth month, a draft proposal shows, according to Reuters.
“The reality is that we’re still a long way from a full demand recovery, and it’s the record levels of withdrawn production capacity that’s the main prop for the oil market,” Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axi, told Reuters.
Reuters reported that U.S. drillers were starting to take advantage of an earlier spile in prices on optimism about returning demand, adding the most rigs for extracting oil since January in the weak through Friday.
The oil and gas drilling rig tally, an early indicator of future production, rose nine to 411 last week, the highest since April, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said in its closely followed report on Friday.
The rig count has been rising over the past seven months and is up nearly 70% from a record low of 244 in August.
