Around 4:30 p.m., Brent fell back below $ 44 with a decline of 0.86% and WTI fell 0.55% to $ 41.67.
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Oil prices lost ground on Thursday, after a rising start to the day, disturbed by concerns that still hover over the recovery in demand and the resurgence of tensions between the United States and China.
At around 2:30 p.m. GMT (4:30 p.m. CET), a barrel of Brent North Sea for September delivery was worth $ 43.91 in London, down 0.86% from Wednesday’s close.
In New York, the US barrel of WTI for the same month lost 0.55% to 41.67 dollars.
The main uncertainty “comes from the global demand” for black gold, summed up Tamas Varga, PVM analyst.
The latter “should register a massive jump during the second half of the year, but the big question is whether or not the latest growth estimates will be reduced by new outbreaks of contamination” to Covid-19, he added.
On Wednesday alone, 10,053 new deaths and 266,133 new cases were identified worldwide, according to a report established by AFP from official sources Thursday at 11:00 GMT.
Analysts also point to a “context of growing tensions between the United States and China”, as mentioned earlier today Eugen Weinberg, of Commerzbank.
Sino-US tensions reached a new level on Wednesday, when Washington ordered Beijing to close its consulate in Houston. The Chinese authorities immediately threatened “reprisals”.
Investors were also digesting the report on the state of crude stocks in the United States published the day before by the United States Energy Information Agency (EIA), with mixed results.
According to him, US crude reserves rose 4.5 million barrels (MB) last week to stand at 536.6 MB, where analysts had expected a decline of 2.2 MB.
Gasoline stocks, on the other hand, fell by 1.8 MB, a figure close to market expectations and a little more reassuring for investors on the state of dynamism of demand.
Brent and WTI have traded for several sessions at levels close to those of early March, just before the drop triggered by a short but intense price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, and the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe.
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