Brent crude fell 1.7% or $1.10 to $63.31 a barrel at 0923 GMT as new round of coronavirus restrictions in Europe revived worries about demand for oil products. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 2.1% or $1.27 to $59.91 a barrel.
The oil fall follows a jump of about 6% for Brent crude and WTI on Wednesday following the blockage of the Suez Canal by a container ship.
Analysts say the Suez Canal incident mostly creates noise in the market and has no lasting fundamental impact.
Apart from coronavirus restrictions in Europe, other countries such as India have reported a rise in new infections, posing a challenge to oil demand growth.
With persistent oil demand worries and falling prices, there are speculations that OPEC+ would roll over their current supply curbs into May at a meeting scheduled for April 1.
Strong dollar also weighed on oil prices as the U.S currency hit a four-month high following America’s better response to the pandemic than Europe.
Oil futures are currently declining. CL! is down 1.62%
