Brent crude continued to drop as the US market opened on Monday, deepening its losses for the third straight day, weighed down by renewed fears over the global demand as the coronavirus infections continued to rise in most parts of the world, especially in the US.
Brent fell 1.2% to $42.58 a barrel, after opening at $43.08, and hit an high of $43.14.
Brent futures lost 0.7% on Friday, posting the second daily loss, and pulled back from 3-week highs on profit-taking
Oil prices closed the past week flat, after two consecutive weekly gains, as traders were parsing the OPEC-Plus decision to the global output cut agreement starting from August.
Coronavirus infections are still rising worldwide, especially in the US, which began to tighten the public lockdown measures in some cities and states.
New cases jumped in Spain and Australia at the largest rate in more than 2 months, which raised fears over a second wave of, while India and Brazil are still suffering from the rising numbers.
The global oil demand had crashed 30 million bpd or 30% of the pre-pandemic levels, according to most international energy agencies, due to the "Great Lockdown" of the global economy.
However, it has started to recover recently, after relaxing the general lockdown measures linked to the coronavirus in several Asian and European countries.