Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Oil Prices Decline Due to Isolation Restrictions in Europe, China


Tue 12 Jan 2021 | 12:55 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

Brent crude oil prices recorded a decrease on Monday by a dollar per barrel, affected by renewed concerns about global demand for fuel, in light of isolation restrictions to combat the spread of the Coronavirus in China and Europe, according to Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

[caption id="attachment_200220" align="alignnone" width="863"]Oil prices decline Oil prices decline[/caption]

Brent crude oil futures fell 42 cents, or 0.8%, to $55.57 a barrel by 0146 GMT after earlier climbing to $56.39, its highest since Feb. 25, 2020. Brent rose in the previous four sessions.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slipped 22 cents, or 0.4%, to $52.02 a barrel. WTI rose to its highest in nearly a year on Friday.

“Covid hot spots flaring again in Asia, with 11 million people (in) lockdowns in China Hebei province... along with a touch of FED policy uncertainty has triggered some profit taking out of the gates this morning,” Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axi, said in a note on Monday.

Mainland China saw its biggest daily increase in COVID-19 cases in more than five months, the country’s national health authority said on Monday, as new infections in Hebei province, which surrounds the capital Beijing, continued to rise.

Shijiazhuang, Hebei’s capital and the epicenter of the new outbreak in the province, is in lockdown with people and vehicles barred from leaving the city as authorities move to curb the spread of the disease.

Most of Europe is now under the strictest restrictions, according to the Oxford stringency index, which assesses indicators such as travel bans and the closure of schools and workplaces.