Brent crude fell on Monday as the US market opened, below $62 per barrel, on the verge of the first loss in the last three days, as global demand worries continued with dim forecasts for this year, in addition to Saudi Arabia's energy minister comments on the upcoming OPEC meeting.
By 13:00 GMT, Brent crude fell to $61.65 per barrel from the opening price of $62.01, with a high of $62.34 and a low of $61.12.
Brent futures rose 1.1% on Friday, the second daily gain in a row, on fears of supplies disruption in the Gulf region after the attack on two tankers in the Sea of Oman.
Global oil prices lost an average of 2.5% over the past week, the third weekly loss in a month, under pressure from global trade wars and its negative impact on the global economy.
On Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) trimmed its forecasts for demand growth this year due to global economic concerns. the agency expects demand to grow by 1.2 million bpd in 2019, down by 100,000 bpd from its previous forecast in May.
OPEC also lowered its forecast on Thursday for growth in world oil demand and pointed to the risk of further reduction, OPEC expects demand to rise by 1.14 million barrels per day this year, which is lower by 70 thousand barrels per day than the forecast in the previous month's report.
The direct cause behind these gloomy expectations of global demand is the global trade wars escalation between the United States and several countries. The last of these countries in the American trade wars is India, after the Indian government applied a reprisal tariff on a number of American goods from Sunday June 16th.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that his country did not want to go to war with Iran but would take all necessary measures, including diplomacy, to ensure safe navigation in the Middle East.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid AL-Faleh said at the weekend that OPEC would likely meet in the first week of July and hoped to reach an agreement on the extension of the global supply cut to the end of this year.