Oil Drops More Than 2% on Increased Coronavirus Cases

Oil fell more than 2% on Monday, extending last week’s losses in light of the growing cases of Covid-19 disease in the United States and Europe, which raises concerns about the demand for crude, especially in light of the chances of increases in supply.

Brent crude was down $ 1.25, or 3%, to $ 40.52 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell $ 1.28, or 3.2 %, to $ 38.57 a barrel.

Brent fell 2.7% last week and West Texas 2.5%.

The United States recorded its largest number of new cases so far with the Coronavirus on Friday and Saturday, while new cases in France reached a record peak over fifty thousand cases yesterday, Sunday, which highlights the severity of the outbreak.

On the supply side, the National Oil Corporation in Libya today raised the status of force majeure in the Elephant field, thus ending all closures of fields and ports that were imposed by an eight-month siege by forces from eastern Libya.