Oil prices decline Tuesday morning as a result of rising Covid-19 infection numbers in China triggering concerns about less fuel demand from the world’s bigger oil importer as well as new figures from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which has downgraded its demand outlook for 2022, reports Reuters.

A barrel of European reference oil Brent trades for USD 92.87 Tuesday morning against USD 95.60 Monday afternoon. US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate sells concurrently for USD 85.34 against USD 88.28.

Analysts say rising infection numbers in China and associated restrictions are still the main cause behind sliding oil prices. Meanwhile, new national data on factory production, retail and real estate sales are also seen as signs that the world’s second-largest economy is losing momentum.

”Rolling lockdowns across heavily populated areas in China penalize mobility and oil demand even more than economic activity,” Reuters cites Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noting.

Moreover, for the fifth time since April, OPEC has lowered its growth forecast for oil demand referencing the International Monetary Fund, saying on Sunday that the global economic outlook has become grimmer than projected last month.

US crude inventories have depleted by around 300,000 barrels during the week up to Nov. 11, according to poll taken by the news agency on Monday.

At the same time, new figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Monday show weaker per-well output, thus resulting in total US oil extraction in shale regions climbing by merely 91,000 barrels per day to 9.191 million bpd in December, notwithstanding price increases.

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