By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Oil inched down on Monday morning in Asia, giving up earlier gains over ongoing concerns over fuel demand recovery as the number of global COVID-19 cases continues to show no signs of decreasing.
The black liquid’s losses were capped, however, after OPEC+ vowed on Friday to keep oil production levels at the determined level of 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd).
Brent oil futures inched down 0.09% to $44.89 by 11:24 PM ET (4:24 AM GMT) and WTI futures inched down 0.07% to $42.31, with both indices staying above the $40-mark. Brent oil futures rolled over to the November contract on August 23.
Meanwhile, U.S. oil production saw a shutdown as the double-trouble pair of hurricane Marco and tropical storm Laura wreaked havoc in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, with 58% of offshore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico shut down as the storms passed through the region.
“Crude prices rose higher as double trouble in the Atlantic could lead to huge disruptions with oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, told Reuters.
But Moya warned, “Oil’s gains, however, are likely to be muted as virus uncertainty continues to weigh on the crude demand outlook.”
There are over 23.3 million COVID-19 cases and 800,000 deaths globally as of August 24, according to Johns Hopkins University data.