Brent was worth $ 40.58 around 11:35 a.m. in London, down 1.07% from Friday. In New York, the WTI lost 0.86% to 38.16 dollars.
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Oil prices were losing ground on Monday, betraying investors’ concerns about a renewed pandemic of Covid-19 and the return of containment measures, which would adversely affect demand, which it could cause.
At around 09.35 GMT (11.35CET), a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for August delivery was worth 40.58 dollars in London, down 1.07% from Friday’s close.
In New York, the American barrel of WTI for the same month lost 0.86%, to 38.16 dollars.
The previous week, Brent fell 2.8% and WTI 3.2%.
“Oil prices go down as the Covid-19 cases go up,” said Louise Dickson, analyst at Rystad Energy.
The symbolic bar of 40 dollars, around which the two indices have been moving in recent days, “is not viable in the prospect of a return to containment and certain mobility restrictions in important markets like the United States or the Brazil, ”she added.
The world, confronted since last December with the Covid-19 pandemic, crossed Sunday two symbolic thresholds: more than half a million dead and ten million cases.
In China, cradle of the epidemic and first importer of hydrocarbons, local authorities announced Sunday the confinement of the canton of Anxin, located 60 kilometers south of Beijing, after the discovery of a dozen cases related to the rebound epidemic in the capital.
In the United States, contagion is increasing in 30 of the 50 American states, especially in the largest and most populated in the south and west of the country: California, Texas and Florida. And some had to take a break from the deconfinement process.
Also in the United States, the oil and gas group Chesapeake Energy asked to be placed on Sunday under the regime of “Chapter 11”, the bankruptcy law which allows a company unable to repay its debt to restructure at safe from creditors.
Containment “has been fatal for the company, which has been struggling for years with a huge burden: its debt,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote Bank.
But on the other hand, “the bankruptcy of Chesapeake is good news for the reduction of the world crude surplus, since the shale oil giant is partly responsible for the rapid accumulation of world stocks for years and has had a negative impact on oil prices, ”she added.
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