Oil prices fell nearly 2% ahead of weekend trading as new shutdowns in Europe continued to add gloom to the crude oil prospects, while market attention remained focused on the unfinished U.S. election vote counting process.
In the Asian session, the US WTI crude benchmark traded down 2% at $ 38.00 a barrel, while Brent crude fell 1.8% at $ 40.19 a barrel.
Earlier, the two benchmarks traded higher after supported by US crude oil supply data which showed a significant drop last week of 8 million barrels supported by production closures due to the threat of hurricane Zeta in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, with the growing risk of the Covid-19 epidemic and the implementation of new sanctions in Europe, markets continue to worry about the prospects of global demand.
Covid-19 infection cases in Europe continue to rise, with Italy reporting 34,505 new cases and recording the highest daily death toll since April at 445 deaths on Thursday. While at least 120,276 cases have been reported in the United States.
The market is now expecting OPEC and its allies, including Russia, OPEC + to postpone their plans to increase crude oil production by January, until the first quarter of 2021.
