Oil falls to 1-week low on demand worries in Asia

Oil prices fell on Thursday, to head for the third straight daily loss, and hit a 1-week low on demand concerns in India and Japan, in addition to unexpected build in the US crude inventories.

US crude fell 0.8% to a 1-week low of $60.64 a barrel, after opening at $61.11, and hit a high at $61.24, and Brent crude fell 0.75% to the lowest since April 18 at $64.60 a barrel, after opening at $65.09, and hit a high of $65.22.

US crude lost 2.2% yesterday, and Brent crude futures fell 1.8% and posted the second consecutive daily loss, due to concerns over the Asian demand.

The Indian health authorities announced on Wednesday the highest daily death toll from Covid-19, amid a huge crisis of oxygen shortage.

To mitigate these developments, the Indian authorities may resort to tightening the lockdown, which would weigh down on fuel consumption in the third largest oil consumer in Asia, which forced refiners to reduce operations.

While the Japanese Radio and Television Corporation said that the government is considering imposing a state of emergency in Tokyo and Osaka due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

The Energy Information Administration reported yesterday that the US crude inventories rose 600K barrels to 493 million barrels during the week ending April 16, while analysts forecasts a drop by 3.7 million barrels.

The US production remained unchanged last week, with a total of 11 million barrels per day.