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Brent crude futures fell 32 cents to $43.05 a barrel by 1122
GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude <CLc1> dropped 25
cents to $40.50. Both contracts were on track to remain broadly
flat over the week.
The United States reported at least 75,000 new COVID-19 cases on
Thursday, a daily record. Spain and Australia reported their
steepest daily jumps in more than two months, while cases
continued to soar in India and Brazil.
Surges in coronavirus infections are slowing a recovery in fuel
use and raising concern that it could be years before
consumption rebounds from the impact of the pandemic.
The benchmark crudes had fallen 1% on Thursday after the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its
allies, a group known as OPEC+, agreed to trim record supply
cuts of 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2 million bpd,
starting in August.
The actual rise would be closer to 1 million bpd because Iraq
and other countries, which produced more than their quota from
May to July, would make extra cuts in August and September, said
Vivek Dhar, commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of
Australia.
"With more production coming online from August, a dip in demand
can really play a pivotal role in pushing recovering prices back
to lower levels," said Rystad oil markets analyst Louise
Dickson.
"At this stage it looks like a quick demand recovery this year
is not really on the table any more, and with it a quick price
recovery," she said.
(Additional reporting by Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore and
Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Edmund Blair)
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