Oil slips as COVID dampens outlook, again

New restrictions in China, the world’s second-largest consumer of oil, have dampened the outlook for demand.

Oil prices dropped 2 percent on Monday, extending last week’s steep losses on the back of a rising US dollar and concerns that new pandemic curbs in Asia, especially China, may set back the global recovery in fuel demand. Brent crude futures slid $1.41, or 2 percent, to $69.29 a barrel by 01:25 GMT, after having slumped 6 percent last week, their biggest weekly loss in four months. United States’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $1.32, or 1.9 percent, to $66.96 a barrel, after having slumped nearly 7 percent last week in their steepest weekly decline in nine months.