Lockdowns in Europe dropped the oil prices
Following the new lockdowns in Europe, concerns about a decrease in demand for fuel products increased, and oil prices fell around 1%.
Brent crude was down 60 cents, or 0.9%, at $63.93 a barrel by 0136 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil was off by 68 cents, or 1.1%, at $60.74 a barrel.
Both contracts fell by more than 6% last week.
Germany plans to extend the lockdown to the fifth month to contain COVID-19 infections, stating that the new levels of cases will cause hospitals to overstrain.
The reality is that a full recovery in demand is still far away, and the production capacity that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have withdrawn at record levels is the main support for the oil market.
US drillers are encouraged by taking the optimism about the return of demand from rising prices. The year 2021 has increased enthusiasm and the largest number of oil drilling rigs have been added from January to Friday.
The number of oil and gas drilling rigs, an early indicator of future production, is said to have increased by 9 to 411 last week. The number of gear has been increasing in the last seven months and has grown nearly 70% from a record low of 244 in August.
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