Oil loss prolonged, U.S. pipeline operation restarted
In India, the third largest oil consumer in the world, the coronavirus continues with a heavy impact and the Colonial Pipeline, which was closed due to the cyber attack in the United States, began to continue its operations, while oil prices continued to fall on Friday after falling by about 3% the day before.
Brent crude oil futures fell 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $ 66.82 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 14 cents, or 0.2%, to $ 63.68.
Both prices are heading towards their first weekly losses in three weeks.
India reported 343,144 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours on Friday, with the overall case load exceeding 24 million, deaths from COVID-19 increased by 4,000.
In the United States, the President assured drivers this weekend that fuel supply should start to return to normal.
Colonial Pipeline said it had rebooted its entire pipeline system late Thursday and started deliveries in all its markets.
The commodity super cycle rally has stalled hard and the energy market does not know what to do with Wall Street fixing on inflation and flattening the curve in India.
Expectations for crude oil demand are still optimistic for the second half of the year, indicating that there will be no significant drop in oil prices.
Prices have come under pressure this week as a wider rise in commodity prices, labor shortages and much stronger-than-expected US consumer price data raised inflation concerns that could force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.
Rising rates typically raise the US dollar, which puts pressure on oil prices because it makes crude oil more expensive than other currencies.
Traders are watching the situation in the Middle East carefully after Israel increased its air strikes against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
