Oil sinks almost 4% and is on track to lose up to 12% in the week

The Petroleum accelerated its fall this Friday after a week of dizzying losses caused by investor concern about a rise in prices. Covid-19 cases in Chinacoupled with a depressed global economic outlook.

Around 15:10 GMT, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) American, for its delivery in December, lost 3.91%, up to 78.45 dollars.

Its European equivalent, the Brent from the North Sea -for delivery in January 2023- fell 3.85%, to settle at 86.32 dollars per barrel.

Oil prices continue to decline against a backdrop of increasingly gloomy economic prospects and a resurgence of coronavirus cases in China,” said Craig Erlam, an analyst at Oanda.

“Oil is heading for a sizeable weekly loss” of 12% for WTI and 10% for Brent, “due to intensifying fears related to the gloomy demand outlook,” said Lukman Otunuga, an analyst at FXTM. .

China, “the world’s largest oil importer, is facing its worst Covid-19 outbreak in months,” Otunuga stressed. China’s National Health Commission (NHC) on Thursday reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases in China since April.

This rebound in contamination may “cause new restrictions and lockdowns, threatening demand in the world’s second largest economy,” Erlam continued.

The two world crude oil references are close to their September prices, when they were at their lowest level since January.

This contraction in prices had led last month to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) to drastically reduce the production target by 2 million barrels per day in November.